This Issue:

Speaking for Women:

Vol. 19, No.2

EDITORIAL
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

February 1977

2
3

ON THE COVER
The fol/owing information is
quoted directly from Who's Who
in America, 39th Edition, dated

NEWS
More, Rev. Moon
Priest Porno Charges
Nazi Bishop
Exorcism Murder
Italy Vatican Accord
Religion And The Menses
Atheists Take Action On Prayer

4
5
5
6
7
8
15

AMERICAN ATHEIST RADIO SERIES

MosesHarman, American Atheist

16

BOOK REVIEW
What On Earth Is An Atheist

19

SPEAKING FOR WOMEN

Let's DispenseWith Christian Funerals

20

THE VATICAN CONSIDERS MASTURBATION

22

INDIAN RATIONALIST CODE

24

RELIGION AS OPPOSEDTO PUBLIC WELFARE

26

KNOWINGVERSUS BELIEVING

30

BILL MURRAY ON ATHEISM

32

Editor in Chief/ Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Editor/Jon G. Murray,

Managing Editor/William
J. Murray,
Art
Director/Jo
Kotula,
Design/Marilyn Hauk, Circulation/John I. Mays, Non-resident Staff/
Anne Gaylor, Warren Shibles, John Sontarck, Production Coordinators/
DoloresRiordan and Ralph Shirley.

The American Atheist Magazine is published monthly by American Atheists, 4408 Medical
Parkway, Austin, Texas, 78756, a non-profit, non-political, tax-exempt, educational
organization. Mailing address: P. O. Box 2117, Austin, Texas, 78768; Subscription rates:
515.00 per year; $25.00 for two years. Manuscripts: the editors assume no responsibility for
unsolicitedmanuscripts. All manuscripts must be typed, double-spaced and accompanied by a
stamped,self-addressedenvelope.

1976-1977.
"O'HAIR,
MADALYN
MAYS (MRS.
RICHARD
FRANKLIN
O'HAIR),
lawyer; b. Pitts., Apr. 13, 1919; d.
John Irvin and Lena (Scholle) Mays;
student U. Toledo, 1936-37, U. Pitts.,
1938-49, Ohio No. Ashland Coil.,
1948; postgrad. Western Res. U.,
1948-49, Ohio No. U., 1949-51;
LL.B., South Tex. Coli. Law, 1953,
J.D., 1975; postgrad. Howard U.,
1952-54;
Ph.D.,
Minn.
Inst.
Philosophy,
1971;
m.
Richard
Franklin
O'Hair,
Oct.
18, 1965;
children-William
J. Murray III, Jon
Garth Murray, Robin Eileen Murray
O'Hair. Psychiat. social worker, supr.
family and children's agys., probation
dept., psychiat. insts., welfare depts.,
1948-56,
59-64;
atty.
HEW,
Washington, 1956-59; founder Soc.
Separationists,
Inc.,
Am.
AtheistLibrary and Archives, Inc., Austin,
Tex., 1970; dir. Am. Atheist Center,
1965-73; dir.
Am. Atheist
Radio
Series,
1968-73;
originated
Am.
Atheist mag., 1965. Served to 2d
It. WAAC,
WAC, World War II.
Author:
Why I Am An Atheist,
1965; What on Earth Is an Atheist,
1966; The American Atheist, 1967;
An Atheist Epic, 1968; The Atheist
World,
1969; An Atheist
Speaks,
1970; Atheist Heroes, 1971; Let Us
Prey, an Atheist Looks at Church
Wealth, 1970; Freedom from Religion;
the Atheist Plea, 1973; An Atheist
Believes,
1973;
Atheism,
its
Viewpoint,
1973; Freedom Under
Siege, 1974. Adv. editor The Atheist
Viewpoint, 25 vols., 1972. Prin. U.S.
Supreme Ct. case which removed Bible
reading and prayer recitation in pub.
schs., 1963 ... "
.

Vol. 19, No.2

EDITORIAL
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

February

2
3

1977

ON THE COVER

The fol/owing information is

quoted directly from Who's Who
in America, 39th Edition, dated

NEWS
More, Rev. Moon
Priest Porno Charges
Nazi Bishop
Exorcism Murder
Italy Vatican Accord
Religion And The Menses
Atheists Take Action On Prayer

.4
5
5
6
7
8
15

AMERICAN ATHEIST RADIO SERIES

Moses Harman, American Atheist

16

BOOK REVIEW
What On Earth Is An Atheist

19

SPEAKING FOR WOMEN

Let's Dispense With Christian
THE VATICAN

CONSIDERS

INDIAN RATIONALIST

Funerals

MASTURBATION

CODE

RELIGION AS OPPOSED TO PUBLIC

20
22
24

WELFARE

26

KNOWING VERSUS BELIEVING

30

BILL MURRAY ON ATHEISM

32

Editor in Chief/ Madalyn Murray

O'Hair,
Editor/Jon
G. Murray,
Managing Editor/William
J.
Murray,
Art
Director/Jo
Kotula,
Design/Marilyn Hauk, Circulation/John
I. Mays, Non-resident
Staff/
Anne Gaylor, Warren Shibles, John Sontarck, Production Coordinators/
Dolores Riordan and Ralph Shirley.

The American Atheist Magazine is published monthly by American Atheists, 4408 Medical
Parkway, Austin, Texas, 78756, a non-profit, non-political, tax-exempt, educational
organization. Mailing address: P. O. Box 2117, Austin, Texas, 78768; Subscription rates:
SIS.00 per year; $25.00 for two years. Manuscripts: the editors assume no responsibility for
unsolicitedmanuscripts. All manuscripts must be typed, double-spaced and accompanied by a
stamped,self-addressedenvelope.

1976-1977.
"O'HAIR,
MADALYN
MAYS (MRS.
RICHARD
FRANKLIN
O'HAIR),
lawyer; b. Pitts., Apr. 13, 1919; d.
John Irvin and Lena (Scholle) Mays;
student U. Toledo, 1936-37, U. Pitts.,
1938-49, Ohio No. Ashland Coll.,
1948; postgrad. Western Res. U.,
1948-49, Ohio No. U., 1949-51;
LL.B., South Tex. Coil. Law, 1953,
J.D., 1975; postgrad. Howard U.,
1952-54;
Ph.D.,
Minn.
Inst.
Philosophy,
1971;
m.
Richard
Franklin
O'Hair,
Oct.
18, 1965;
children-William
J. Murray III, Jon
Garth Murray, Robin Eileen Murray
O'Hair. Psychiat. social worker, supr.
family and children's agys., probation
dept., psychiat. insts., welfare depts.,
1948-56,
59-64;
atty.
HEW,
Washington, 1956-59; founder Soc.
Separationists,
Inc.,
Am.
AtheistLibrary and Archives, Inc., Austin,
Tex., 1970; dir. Am. Atheist Center,
1965-73; dir. Am. Atheist
Radio
Series,
1968-73;
originated
Am.
Atheist mag., 1965. Served to 2d
It. WAAC,
WAC, World War II.
Author:
Why I Am An Atheist,
1965; What on Earth Is an Atheist,
1966; The American Atheist, 1967;
An Atheist Epic, 1968; The Atheist
World,
1969; An Atheist
Speaks,
1970; Atheist Heroes, 1971; Let Us
Prey, an Atheist Looks at Church
Wealth, 1970; Freedom from Religion;
the Atheist Plea, 1973; An Atheist
Believes,
1973;
Atheism,
its
Viewpoint,
1973; Freedom Under
Siege, 1974. Adv. editor The Atheist
Viewpoint, 25 vols., 1972. Prin. U.S.
Supreme Ct. case which removed Bible
reading and prayer recitation in pub.
schs., 1963 ... "

. Editorial
Perhaps you too went to see the
movie "Carrie" or shuddered over the
slick built up terror of "The Omen",
or hum-bugged some of the other demon possession pictures on television
or at your local cinema.
It began, of course, all of it, with
the Vatican financed "The Exorcist"
based on a book written by a Jesuit,
filmed on location at a Jesuit (Georgetown) university, peopled with a heavy
Roman Catholic cast, with the bulk of
the money earned from the film
flowing into Roman Catholic coffers
to financially strengthen that church.
But did you know that "The Exorcist" has been shown worldwide and
that more persons have now seen it
than any other film ever made? The
Roman Catholic Church has been
quite helpful in the exercise of distribution - particularly in heavily populated Roman Catholic countries South America for example.
Which brings us back to the sage
wisdom of the old Atheists who circulated in the United States a crude cartoon of a fat little priest shaking his
finger and vigorously declaring, "Religion without a hell isn't worth a
damn."
More people can be tied to the
church through fear of hell and a Devil
than for the love of any god. Anxiety,
the most eroding of all human emotional pitfalls, is a handmaiden of the
church. Sin, guilt, fear are the ties.
Strictured living, heavy respect for
authority, a nagging idea of low selfworth, these are the guides to religious
living.
The more one can be convinced of
irrational
thought,
the better for
religion. And, so, the birth of the
"slick" devil motion pictures, with respectable stars, big budgets, reputable
film makers, superb directors, outstanding cameramen, and the finest
technicians. The best that money can
buy is put at the service of the church.
It is sold as art, as thrills, as excitement, as entertainment, but the message is not lost. It is a reinforcement
of the idea of the Devil - that from
which religion saves.
It was not by accident that the
mother in "The Exorcist"
was an
Atheist. Think upon it and yourself

February 1977/ American Atheist - 2

evaluate if she could have been a Roman Catholic and what that would
have done to ruin the credibility of the
film. She must of necessity, for the attack on reason, be an A theist. The film
was a destructive
assault against
science, the medical profession, psychology, psychiatry, Atheism, women
- especially the nascent womanhood
of the adolescent - and so incredibly
slick that even the most sophisticated
could identify
with the developing
problem. Who was the Christ-like figure who sacrificed his life in the assault against the Devil? It was not a
Jew. It was not a Black man. It wasnot
a woman - it was a veritable saint, a
Driest of the Roman Catholic Church.
We are being set awash in the reaffirmation: if there is a Devil- and Oh!
- these pictures, films, T. V. dramas,
reaffirm and randomly reinforce the
idea - then we need a god. All people
need a god. We must be saved from the
evil one, from the evil idea, from that
foreign thing in our midst.
And, bizarre cases crop up in the
news, as evidenced by one story in our
own pages, this month. A child is
killed to beat the Devil from within his
body. A woman is mutilated and dies
as the husband tries to exorcise demons from her. The headlines come
from France, Spain, England, the
United States, Canada, hardly from
the jungles of Haiti. We, the civilized,
are being seized with the ideas.
The bug-a-boo of the Communist
foreigner, (the un-American) is no
longer sophisticated. Now, we are
frightened by a suave Gregory Peck
unwinding as rational the irrational,
leading us to accept it.
It is entertainment - it is education
- it is subtly persuasive and - it is at
our doorstep.
Lamar Junior High School is situated in suburban Austin. Its spacious
windows let the warm sun of Texas
pour in. The teachers are bright and
young and very educated and sophisticated. The youngsters swarm in from
upper middle class families, in blue
jeans and long hair. Expensive cars
drop them off at the door. The band,
the orchestra, the science clubs, the
football
team all bespeak of the
1970's.

And, at that school Robin Eileen

Murray-O 'Hair, age 11, is a student
She is tall, red-haired, blue-eyed,advanced intellectually
much beyond
her years, respected by the teachers,
an honor student. She is scholarly,
quiet, well-groomed, and charming.
She has a delightful sense of humor
and she is in a battle almost for her
life.
She happens to be your editor's
granddaughter, and any known Atheist
must be a Devil, possessed,a "Carrie".
So. theincidents increase in number,in
intensity, in fury, in emotion, until no
one dares to stand beside her asa
friend. Thus, first, she is isolated.
Then, she becomes a target. Thenshe
becomes an "object", no longer a human being.
And then we know that she is not
alone. How many persons are being
insulted? How many are being abused?
How many small pools of agony into
which they are dipped by relatives,or
friends or acquaintances? It need
not go so far as a ritual killing to
be reported in the news.
When are we going to stand on
our hind legs and fight? How longdo
we need to take this?
As long as we don't have a strong,
well supported organization whichcan
reach to the media of cinema and
television and tell them to "stop". We
are trying now. We fight where and
how we can. But we must enlargeour
efforts. We must give it more power.
We are trying to do that from our
national office. You can help. Don't
ask how: find a way. Get one more
person into our ranks; send one more
contribution;
speak out openly just
one more time; stand up for your
rights; fight irrationality whereveryou
find it; and do it now.

Letters to the editors concerning

editorial
positions
are greatly
appreciated.
If
you
have a
specific
opinion
regarding this
editorial
(or have knowledge of
similar
events)
please write

"Editorial Department,
Box
2117,
Austin,
78768."

P. O.
Texas

Letters to the Editor

Dear Mrs. O'Hair,
Even Robert Ingersoll made the
statement that he understood the position of some people regarding the
Atheistic movement,
and
would
champion their thoughts.
I don't
think you realize the position some
people are in where job and family
are concerned, you talk of bringing
them out of the closet, be content to
have them have Atheistic beliefs, and
a buck or two once in awhile.
Some of those Christian people
can be pretty vicious.
C. T. Williams
Avon Park, Fla.
Dear Dr. O'Hair:
I have just finished reading the editorial in the March 1976 American
Atheist Magazine, and it (along with
most of the other fine material in it)
prompted me to write this letter.
I have been a "card-carrying" Atheist for a few years now (and I suspect
a "closet case" for several years prior).
When I began being known as "the
Atheist" in my circle of friends, I
was met with raised eyebrows, turnedup noses, and "tsk-tsks", I was not
(and still am not) ashamed of my
Atheism, and I let it be known. Gradually, my friends started listening to
me, and now, about 85 to 90% of my
friends are Atheists.
Two of the people responsible for
my facing the truth of my Atheism
were my mother and my maternal
,..ndmother.
Two of the people
responsible for the affirmation of my
views were Dr. O'Hair and a friend,
Dr. Manny Orfas, who has quite an
extensive Atheist library. I also have
brother who is a ministry student
yesl So I have been exposed to both
sides of the coin.
Atheism is pure logic. Logic is what
_rates instinct from reason, and logis what separates us from the rest
oJ the animals. It is illogical not to
logic, and the use of it will lead
y thinking, aware person straight
Atheism. It did for me, when I
what kind of garbage filled the
t's brain. No thanks - they can
it.
Bill Tuck
Hialeah, Fla.

Dear Madalyn:
Have just read your article on W.
F. Jamison
and note your closing
bewilderment
as to why Jamieson's
efforts failed.
There was a growing element of
rebellion
within
the
orthodox
churches as evidenced
by .declining
church memberships immediately after
the Civil War with a booming economy
bolstered by our "infant industries"
under Republican high tariffs. And on
the crest of this came the greatest
conflict between Science and Religion
encompassing
the entire
Christian
world, but of particular significance
to us in the United States. This
reached
its peak with the Darwin
Bombshell of Evolution, which rocked
the old church doctrines
to their
foundations
and compelled modification or abandonment
of almost all
the pulpits were previously saying. The
result was the greatest boost to Huxley's "agnosticism"
worldwide
the
church has ever faced.
1873 was the founding of the Truth
Seeker with a countrywide
receptive
audience (my uncle in a small hamlet
southwest of Wichita, Kansas, was an
avid subscriber
for many years) in
the period of Ingersoll which followed.
There must have been much that went
before beneath the surface and not reported in the large city newspapers
to have made the Truth Seeker the
success it was.
Your W. F. Jamieson
movement
came right up to the volcano in church
circles of his time and some of his utterances verged on open agnosticism
Darwin, the discoverer, Huxley the
scientist with unchallenged prestige in
his field, and Ingersoll the popularizer
were
the
Three
Horsemen
who
brought down the previous orthodoxy
in shambles and it has never been the
same since.
It was an exciting time with many
great heroes whose names have become buried in the sands of time. The
organized
churches have used every
effort to see that none of this is truthfully reported
and available to the
public at large.
There was a large element of liberalism in Kansas where I was born.
Ingersoll was a public hero in most
rural areas and a Unitarian church to

which
my mother
belonged,
was
founded
in Wichita in the 1890's.
Birkhead was the local minister at
Wichita when he first broke away from
his Methodist seminary training, later
moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where
he furnished
technical
advice (acknowledged)
to Sinclair Lewis in his
story of Elmer Gantry. Birkhead was a
pronounced
Agnostic who visited our
home frequently
when he first came
to Wichita to see my father to, discuss the "Atheist science", i.e. philosophy, in which field Herbert Spencer
was then pre-eminent and father had
read deeply.
Darwin - Huxley - Ingersoll! How
much we owe to them today!
John H. Latta
Scottsdale, Ariz.
Dear Madalyn Murray O'Hair,
I am happy to receive the Newsletter and hope things continue to get
better. Here is a copy that was published in Newsweek Magazine the week
of December 22, 1975. I received a
nice letter from Newsweek thanking
me for the letter.
I am enclosing
a contribution.
Harold Addison
Hyde Park, Maine
TRUE DISBELIEVER
Bravo for Madalyn Murray O'Hair.
When all our religious leaders and their
childish beliefs have perished from the
minds of man, she will be rememberedfor her courage and intelligence in a
sea of ignorance.
Harold Addison

Dear Editor:
(August 29, 1976 - $20.00)
This
was when my check for a two year
subscription
was mailed to you. As
The American Atheist is only in its
19th, or 18th vol., which is it? On
the cover it is 19, inside it is 18. I
subscribed for the first issue, you owe
me six more before my sub runs out.
These constant mistakes on contributions and now subscriptions are a little
weary.
NO NAME
NO ADDRESS
February

1977/ American

Atheist - 3

News
The News presented in these
columns,
which fills approximately one-nett of the magazine, is chosen to demonstrate
to you, month after month,
that the dead reactionary hand
of religion is always on you. It
dictates how much tax you pay,
what food you eat and when,
with whom you have sexual relations, how often, where, when
and what kind, if you will have
children and how many, what
you read, what plays, cinema
and television you may see and
what you should or should not
believe about life.
Religion is politics and, always, the most authoritarian and
reactionary politics.
We editorialize our news to
emphasize this thesis. Unlike any
other magazine or newspaper in
the United States, we are honest
enough to admit it.
NOW "REV:' MOON PAYS
OFF ELECTED OFFICIALS
The South Korean effort to
seduce members of Congress has
been two-tiered. Rev. Sun Myung
Moon, the Korean holy man
took the high, ecclesiastical road,
and Tongsun Park, a Korean entrepreneur,
followed the low,
wayward road.
Both men have been tied to
the South Korean lobbying campaign by the Washington Post,
which
cited
"electronic
evidence." According to the Post,
a tape recording apparently exists of a discussion
between
South Korea's President Park
Chung Hee, Moon aide Park Bo
Hi and the shadowy Tongsun
Park.
At the meeting, the three men
worked out "a plan to influence
U. S. congressmen,"
the Washington Post reported.
The South Korean government
has denied any connection between President Park and entrepreneur Park. Moon's man has
February

1977/ American Atheist - 4

denied the meeting ever took

place and has challenged his accusers to produce the alleged recording. There have also been
over-the-shoulder
denials from
Tongsun Park at airports from
Tokyo to Paris.
Both the ecclesiastic and the
entrepreneur,
nevertheless, suddenly became active on Capitol
Hill in the early 1970's. By the
beginning of this year, we were
able to count 19 Moon missionaries operating on Capitol Hill.
Moon himself made two evangelical appearances
on Capitol
Hill before our calls made it
impossible
for him to find a
sponsor who would arrange a
room for him. At no time did
we question his right to deliver
a religious message; we were
troubled only by the political
overtones. Congressmen reported
to us, for example, that Moon
missionaries
had offered them
free trips to Korea.
Those who heard Moon preach
on Capitol Hill say he delivered
a strong anti-Communist
message, laced with Christian philosophy. They recall that he linked
the United States, Israel and
South Korea as the three great
bulwarks against communism. He
also defended
Richard Nixon
during the Watergate crisis.
He spoke in Korean, with Park
Bo Hi delivering the translations.
Koreans told us that Moon's
remarks
were often rambling
and ambiguous, but the translations invariably were precise and
pointed. Our sources have the
impression that Park, indeed, is
the Rasputin behind the benevolent, smiling Moon.
Each of the evangelist's appearances on Capitol Hill was attended by about 100 people. Perhaps 15 to 20 were members of
Congress, the remainder
aides
and secretaries. Rep. Chappel (0Fla.) introduced
Moon at the
rally; Rep. Ichord (D-Mo.) made
the second introduction.
While the Rev. Moon quoted
the Bible to religious congressmen, Tongsun
Park allegedly

passed out cash and gifts to the

irrelegious. The Washington Post,
quoting federal investigators, has
charged that he distributed between $ 500, 000 an d $1 million
each year to congressmen and
other Washington officials.
[Jack Anderson,

Chicago Daily News,

11/9m)

COLUMNIST ENDS TIES

WITH BAN K AND MOON
Columnist Jack Anderson said
Sunday he is divesting himself
of most of his financial holdings
because of questions about his
role in a bank owned in part by
backers
of Korean evangelist
Sun Myung Moon.
The Washington Post has reported
that
almost half the
stock in the Diplomat National
Bank of Washington, which Anderson helped organize several
years ago to cater to AsianAmericans, was quietly bought
by the Moon organization and
businessman Tongsun Park and
his associates.
Park is under investigation in
connection
with reports the
South Korean government tried
to influence
U. S. officials.
Anderson said:
"Some newspapers that I respect have raised questions about
my affiliation with the Diplomat National Bank. I joined the
board to help the Asian-Ameri
can community
establish their
first national bank. I have n
financial interest in the bank.
Perhaps I was misguided, but I
looked upon my affiliation as l
service to the Asian-Ameri
minority. "
Anderson said he has alwa
kept his business affairs ap
from his column. But "since m
association
with the Diplom
National
Bank has been m'
understood it is possible that m
other financial holdings rni
also be misinterpreted. Theref
I have instructed my attome
as quickly as practical to
all of my holdings and to .

solveall my business affiliations."

[ChicagoSun-times, 11/22/76)

SELF-STYLED PREACHER
CONVICTED OF MURDER
A self-styled preacher has been
convicted of murder, robbery,
assault and striking a police officer in connection with the fatal
shooting of a St. Louis tavern
operator.
A St. Louis Circuit Court jury
set punishment of Daniel Williams, 28, at three life terms for
the murder, assault and robbery
and an extra two year sentence
for kicking a police officer when
arrested.
Williams, from Jarianna, Ark.,
also faces charges of slaying his
father and two other persons.
The jury deliberated about
hours before returning the
i1ty verdicts against Williams
the shooting of the tavern optor.
Before testifying in his own
fense, Williams knelt on the
oor and prayed aloud, courtm observers said.
He claimed that a confession
e after his arrest was forced
m him by police after a beatThe Assistant Circuit Attorney
Id the jury in the court of
e Circuit Judge that the gun
in the Henderson slaying
found on Williams when he
arrested at the Greyhound
terminal downtown.
[ChicagoTribune, 11/9/76]

PRIEST INDICTED ON
XTEEN PORNO CHARGES
Episcopal priest was inon 16 charges of using
boys living on his reltative farm in the pro'on of homosexual pornoby.
e Rev. Claudius Ira "Bud"
i1yeJr., 47, was arrested for
ond time in two days and
on $10,000 bond.
Rev. Mr. Vermilye was inon three charges of com-

mitting crimes against nature and

eight charges or aiding and abetting crimes against nature by
filming them, all felonies; one
misdemeanor
count
of using
juveniles in the production of obscene films; and four misdemeanor counts of contributing to
the delinquency of minors.
Smiling for photographers
after his release, the Rev. Mr. Vermilye said,"I guess we've put
Alto on the map." His nonprofit
rehabilitative home, Boys Farm,
is near Alto, Tennessee.
He refused to answer reporters'
questions.
Prior to the arrest, the Franklin County Grand Jury heard
nearly four hours of testimony
from six witnesses,
including
four residents of Boys Farm,
which the Rev. Mr. Vermilye
chartered as a nonprofit Tennessee corporation in 1971.
The alleged offenses occurred
between December of 1973 and
December, 1976.
The 12-member grand jury,
which included three women, also saw evidence seized a week
ago in a raid at Boys Farm.
The Rev. Mr. Vermilye had
been arrested on charges of a
1974 crime against nature and
was released on $10,000 bond.
He surrendered
at the county
jail following
his indictment.
The District Attorney said the
priest was first arrested because
it was feared he might try to
leave the county
before the
grand jury could meet. The arrest
followed a raid at the farm in
which pornographic photographs
and movies were allegedly seized.
The district attorney said the
raid followed information
supplied by police departments
in
W~terbury, Conn., East Lansing,
Mich., and New Orleans. He did
not detail the information from
Connecticut.
He said East Lansing police
had arrested a man on charges of
engaging in homosexual relations
with teenage boys and found
photos
and letters that were
traced to Boys Farm.
New Orleans police, who ar-

rested a 51-year-old former scoutmaster and 12 other men on

charges of conspiring to commit
crimes against nature on teen-age
boys, said some evidence led to
Boys Farm.
[Chicago Tribune, 11/12/76)

HUNT FOR NAZI LEADS TO

CHARGE AGAINST BISHOP
The dining room table already
is strewn with hundreds of dogeared documents.
But 79-year-old Charlie Kremer - walking haltingly, slightly
bent - has gone for more. He
climbs the narrow, sagging staircase of the 150-year-old white
clapboard house where he lives
with his architect son, in upstate
New York.
In his second-floor study, the
shelves are jammed with books,
reports and pamphlets. Drawers
are crammed with tapes and cassettes. A filing cabinet is stuffed
with letters, court records, photos, scrawled notes and newspaper clippings.
"This is terrific stuff - this is
something
terrific,"
he says,
shuffling back to the dining table
minutes later, arms laden with
blue file folders, each slightly
askew from the others.
Here was Dr. Kremer - a
Romanian
who emigrated
to
America in 1919 and a recently
retired New York City dentist clutching parts of a puzzle he
has struggled to piece together
over three decades.
Here was a man obsessed with
one thing: proving that Bishop
Valerian 0_ Trifa, head of the
Romanian Orthodox Episcopate
of America, is really Viorel D.
Trifa, Nazi war criminal and
former head of the Iron Guard.
The Iron Guard, a Fascist group
in Romania,
is said to have
caused the execution of thousands of persons during World
War II.
Trifa has denied the allegations, insisting that he himself
had been a prisoner of the Nazis
February 1977/ American Atheist - 5

in the Dachau and Buchenwald

concentration camps.
"A man who creates terror
like Trifa did can't run away
from terror," Dremer .said in a
heavy East European
accent.
"Whenever I think of Trifa,
I think of one thing - a skull I
got in my place upstairs. It reminds me that he killed people
in cold blood. He killed people
and wrote 'kosher meat' on their
stomachs. "
But proving such charges has
not been easy for Charlie Kremer.
The task has left him bitter, even
though the United States government - almost at his singlehanded insistence
- now has
filed formal charges against Bishop Trifa to revoke his citizenship for having lied about his
Nazi past.
Trifa has denied the charges.
But Kremer will not let go.
"Only if I die will this work
stop," he said.
Kremer's interest in Trifa was
first stirred in 1941 when he attended a meeting in New York
and heard a report about the
Iron Guard slaughter of Jews in
Bucharest. Trifia was named as
being among those who instigated and led the massacre.
He has spent nearly $70,000
of his life savings tracking down
Trifa's past.
[Chicago Tribune,

11/9/76)

MINISTER JAILS MIGRANT

OVER BOLOGNA SANDWICH
A man caught making a bologna sandwich in a church was sent
to jail because the minister felt
it was his Christian duty "to apprehend those involved in criminal acts."
Virgil Hughes, 52, a migrant
farmworker employed on a local
farm, said he was outside the
Dundee Baptist Church on Sunday, penniless and unable to remember the last time he had
eaten. A passerby suggested he
try the church kitchen.

February 1977/ American Atheist - 6

Hughes
said
he
walked
through an open door and was
fixing a sandwich when the minister,
Rev. James Lockwood,
found him and called the police.
The police officer said he
found no evidence of forced entry and no burglary tools. "He
had nothing on him but a can of
pipe tobacco."
Hughes was taken to police
headquarters,
where he told authorities his story. The Assistant
County State Attorney then decided that he could be charged
only with trespassing, a misdemeanor. Hughes was set free.
But the Assistant County Attorney said the Rev. Mr. Lockwood called him later to complain abou t the release.
Said Hughes: "I will never go
into another church."
[St. Louis Globe-Democrat,
11/30/76)

FIVE GUlL TV IN
'DEVIL'S IMP' KILLING
A jury Friday convicted a Bible
cult leader and four women followers of manslaughter
in the
death of a 3-year-old boy authorities said was killed in a bizarre
attempt to exorcise him of "the
devil's imp."
One of the five was the dead
boy's mother, Debra Weilbacher,
20.
The prosecution
said David
Weilbacher died from the beatings at the hands of the cultists
who were "blinded by a bizarre,
unrealistic belief in the Bible."
The defendants
freely admitted
during
the trial that
they beat the boy with 18-inch
sticks almost daily in an effort
to drive "the devil's imp" from
him. When the beatings failed,
they also added "humblings" in
which the child was repeatedly
shoved to the floor to "make
him feel small."
Leon Cunninghasm, a 51-yearold leader of the cult, his
daughter, Carolyn, 27, and David's mother were convicted of

first-degree
manslaughter.
minister's wife, Velma, 45,
one other were convicted
second-degree manslaughter.
First-degree
manslaughter
punishable by up to 10 yearsiD
prison and a $10,000 fine.
ond-degree manslaughter
a maximum
sentence of fi
years and $5,000.
All the defendants also were
found guilty of second-degree
assault, which carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 yearsan
$10,000.
"That's
the way it goes,
said Miss Cunningham as she and
the other defendants were led
away.
Cunningham's
cult decid
early this year the boy was p
sessed by the devil.
Miss Weilbacher said that
July 22 she accidentally drop
the boy after a beating. She said
he shook his fist at her, growl
like an animal, shoved himse
across the floor and died. Poll
found his body Sept. 19 in
sealed bedroom swarming wi
flies and maggots. Members
the cult told authorities th
were waiting for god to res
rect the boy.
[Chicago Daily News, 11/2onB)
NOT SO STRANGE
BEDFELLOWS
In Poland,
officials win
when a visitor suggests that
ruling Communist Party has p
duced a "historic compromise
in reverse by making the Rom
Catholic Church a participant
sorts in the business of runni
the nation.
It is, of course, an exagge
tion to compare Poland in
manner with the example
Italy, where the ruling Christ'
Democrats
were forced ear'
this year to accept the Comm
ists as junior partners in legi
tive matters. But in whate
way the Polish situation is d
cribed, the truth is that these

ies - the Communists and

Catholics - know they must
together if the society is
ction rationally.
at the Polish church hiery fully understands this fact
e clear last summer in
'sis there. In Hungary, the
unist Party and the church
practice what may be
"peaceful coexistence" e same reason, common
al interest overriding ideoconsiderations - although
. s in Budapest shy away
this kind of terminology.
d and Hungary, the two
'pal Roman Catholic counin Eastern Europe (elsein the region religions are
diversified and less monohave thus from necessity
remarkable relationships
n the Roman Church and
mmunist states that would
been unthinkable 10 years
. is one of the most fasciaspects of the political
. n occurring in Eastern
, ant Roman Catholicism
d and Hungary has
for a long time. The
the churches at masses,
these 100% Communist
. Now though, a Pole
'an hoping for a solid
. the Communist Party
not make ostentatious
appearances (quite a few
mbers in both countries
'p quietly, and even
, children christened).
is new, and increasingly
political dimension of
urch relationship in
countries, where Come is undisputed but relior in the population is
werful. To put it simply,
oman Catholic Church
mmunists have come
. basic polical reali ties
, g accordingly. And
urse, had to make imxplicit concessions to
existing compromise.
, on the one hand,
has any illusions that

communism in Poland and Hungary will go away in the forseeable future. The regimes may be
more or less liberal in the Marxist context - they are much more
so, vis a vis religion, in these two
countries, and, particularly,
in
Poland, than in the rest of Eastern Europe - but the political
status quo is certain to remain
unshaken.
The Communists,
for their
part, have recognized in their
own pragmatic evolution
that

but is a requirement for survival.

Church leaders with whom
this question has been discussed
at considerable length make the
point that national welfare is the
foremost thought in their mind
and that everything should be
done to encourage a sense of
national identity in terms of societal development, thus strengthening and developing the Communist regime.
[Sunday Times, 10/10176]

ITALY, VATICAN NEAR

ACCORD ON CHURCH
PRIVILEGE

FIRSTMEETING: Pope Paul VI and the new Communist moyor

of Rome, Giulia Carlo Argan, met for the first time yesterday
when the Pope made his traditional visit to' the statue of the
Virgin Mary at the Spanish Steps in Rome during the feast of
the Immaculate Conception. (AP Wirephoto)

they cannot gain political stability and economic and social development needed to justify the
existence
of socialism if the
church and Catholics in general
are active opponen ts. These two
parallel realizations have led to
the emergence of a new nationalist phenomenon in Poland and
Hungary that may not be all that
Marxist purists would prefer,

Italian and Vatican negotiators

have agreed in principle on a
sweeping revision of their 1929
concordat to exchange outdated
church privileges for new ones,
the Italian prime minister told
parliament.
The
Christian
Democratic
prime minister, a devout Roman
Catholic who has close links with
the Vatican, gave the chamber of
Deputies an outline of a new draft
concordat to replace the one the
Vatican concluded 47 years ago
with
Fascist
dictator
Benito
Mussolini.
The draft, which would eliminate references to Roman Catholicism as Italy's "state religion"
[and hence make the fact of it
more palatable]
and to the
"sacred character" of the city of'
Rome,
was unanimously
approved by three Italian and three
Vatican negotiators. The church
in reality, loses nothing, Only the
words have been changed.
The prime minister said it is "a
proposal that can serve as a basis
for a revision agreement if the
competent authorities of the two
parties agree."
The 1929 concordat was part
of the Lateran Pacts that established the I 08.7 acre Vatican
City as an independent
state,
ending half a century of churchstate strife that began when
Italian
troops
stormed
into
Rome in 1870 to end the ternFebruary 1977/ American Atheist 7

poral rule of Popes over onethird of Italy.

Other provisions of the old
concordat that would be eliminated under the new draft include:
.A
ban on 'defrocked priests
holding public office and a clause
under which other priests could
be named to public office only
with their bishop's approval.
.Articles
requiring government
approval for appointments
of
bishops to take an oath of loyalty to the Italian state.
.Special
treatment
for priests
charged with penal offenses and
a provision that priests sentenced
to jail terms should "if possible"
be kept separate from other
prisoners.

United States, there is structuring which makes it possible to

pass resolutions such as this - in
the attempt to influence the U.S.
in its foreign policy - provided a
two thirds majority is reached
for approval.
It does not dawn on the good
Bishops that 2/3 vote, 3/4 vote,
or unanimous vote is not material. The group has no right to
interfere in the internal, much
less the external, affairs of the
nation which has given it such
comfortable position,
This criticism of our nation
should be rejected out of hand.
FREE JERUSALEM,
MOSLEMS URGED

[Chicago Sun-Times. 11/26/76]

ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS

ADVISE U.S. GOVERNMENT
ON FOREIGN POLICY
The Conference of U.S. Catholic Bishops recently voted by a
3 to 1 margin to call for negotiation of a new treaty that will give
Panama "greater sovereignty" in
the Canal Zone.
Being totally unaware, in their
religious zeal, that it is neither
the duty nor the right of any religious organization
to instruct
the United States government in
foreign policy, the Bishops' statement said that it was "a moral
imperative" to have a treaty that
respects the "territorial
integrity, sovereignty and economy of
Panama."
None
of the Bishops,
of
course, were from Panama. They
were Bishops of the United
States Conference of the same.
Several of the bishops objected that they did not know
enough about the situation in
Panama and said it would be
wiser to issue such a statement in
the name of a committee that
wrote it.
In the inner workings of this
Bishops'
Conference
of
the
Roman Catholic Church in the
February 1977/ American Atheist 8

King Khaled of Saudi Arabia

recently
exhorted
the Islamic
world to free Jerusalem from Israeli
hands,
as more
than
1,500,000 white-robed Moslems
converged on Mount Arafat to
end their Haj, Islam's annual
pilgrimage to the holy city of
Mecca.
The pilgrims who gathered to
"stone the Devil" at the end of
a weeklong ritual, sang hymns
and clamored, "Rescue Jerusalem, oh Khaled," as the King
delivered his address, which was
broadcast
from Saudi Arabia
throughout
the Arab world to
most
of Islam's 500,000,000
believers.
"From this holy spot, I urge
all Moslem brethren everywhere
in the world to unite and struggle
to regain Islam's third-holiest
shrine (after those in Mecca and
Medina) in blessed Jerusalem,"
Khaled told the followers of Mohammed who gathered 10 miles
north
of Mecca, where the
Prophet was born about 570
A. D.
Khaled's speech came at a
time when the Arab world is issuing calls for the convening of
peace talks in Geneva where the
future of Jerusalem would likely
be one of the thorniest issues.
Israel, which has held the new

city since 1948, seized old Je

alem from Jordan in the 196
war and has vowed not to gi
it up.
A four-day
Moslem feast
known as Id al-Adha, or festival
of the sacrifice, is held each year
in early December. Moslems are
required to kill animals and offer
mea t to the poor during thefeast
which commemorates the Koran's version of the story of Abraham, who was ordered by god
to sacrifice his son as a test of
obedience.
At the December 1976 event
millions of goats and sheep were
slaugh tered by the pilgrims, but
the carcasses were bulldozed into ditches and covered beca
there were not enough poor pi&.
grims to make use of the meat.
[St. Louis Globe-Democrat;

11/30n&

LEBANON CABINET
BEGINS WORK
Lebanon's new reconstructi
Cabinet has begun the task of
establishing security and rebuil
ing the country's war-shatte
economy.
The prime minister, recen
appointed, announced his mi .
terial selections.
Most of the Cabinet membe
in a break with tradition, W
economists,
administrators
technocrats, a Cabinet camp
tion to spare government the f
tional squabbles that paraly
previous governments.
But the tradition of religi
balance was observed, with f
seats going to Moslems and f
to Christians.
Under the unwritten natio
covenant, the President is alwa
a Maronite Christian, the
Minister is always a Sunni M
lem, and every major sect is
an teed at least one seat in
Cabinet.
All Cabinet members rem'
neutral during the 19-month .
war.
The Cabinet's first joint s

t said it discussed the "ursocial and economic quesof the country's reconstruc, including the creation of a
struction and development
cil to supervise aid to the
n's businesses.
was expected also to conconvening Parliament soon
eclare martial law and give
President sweeping powers of
by decree and press censorso that he can rebuild the
ented army and police
e Arab League peace keepforce's plan to confiscate
weapons from both Chrisand Moslem factions apto have stalled. MeanLeaguesources said "quiet
matic efforts" had perall sides to co-operate.
Atheists have openly partiin the civil war because
religiousovertones.
(Chicago Sun Times, 11 /23/76J

TTOSHOP'VIOLATED
TEXAS'BLUE LAW'
re is a "right to shop,"
exas' last remaining "blue
violates it, a lawyer for
's discount stores has told
xas supreme court.
Dallas he urged the court
ld unconstitutional
the
law that lists 46 categories
rchandise that cannot be
n both Saturdays and Suncase reached the high
on a direct appeal after a
court in Dallas gran ted
nction to stop Gibson's
lling its full range of meron both weekend days.
as district attorney's office
e issues were no different
what they were when the
upheld the act in 1969.
n's attorney, however,
the purpose of the law was
store employes Sundays
y of rest, "the purpose is
by giving a choice of
ys" on which to suspend

sales of the 46 articles.

"It is economic legislation, a
bit of special interest legislation. The people of the State of
Texas have a right to shop," he
said.
The district attorney said the
law was passed to restrict trade
on Sundays and said a drive
through any business section on
Sunday would show the result.
[Fort Worth Star-Telegram,

10/14/76J

TWO HARE KRISHNA

LEADERS FACING
BRAINWASH CHARGE
The arrest of two leaders of
a Hare Krishna temple recently
may provide the first major test
of charges by some parents that
their children have been ensnared and brainwashed by religious cults, a prosecutor says.
The president of the group
and
the
temple
supervisor,
pleaded innocent in the state Supreme Court of Manhattan to
charges of unlawfully imprisoning two members of the sect.
The New York County Assocation District Attorney
said a
psychiatrist
had examined the
two "disciples"
and concluded
they
were "definitely
brainwashed and under the mind
control
of the Hare Krishna
sect. "
The two followers, one the
son of a Boston physician, the
other the daughter of a Queen's
woman, were being held in lieu
of $50,000 bond each as material
witnesses in the case.
[Chicago

Tribune,

10/14/76J

WITH THIS RING

I THEE DIVORCE
The couple saying "I do" at
the altar may be ending a marriage instead of starting one. The
divorce service is part of a new
"alternate"
ritual of the United
Methodist Church.
The ritual calls for the estranged couple to stand before

the minister
with the congregation present. Late in the service, the wedding band is transferred from the left to right hand
as a symbol of the .divorce.
"I expect it to be used by
quite a few people. I hope the
ritual will help people realize
they are in no way cu t off from
the church when they get divorced," said the minister who
helped develop the divorce rite.
A recently published book detailing the divorce ceremony is
part of a United Methodist
Church's alternate rituals project.
Although it is not part of the
church's official Book of Worship, it may be used at United
Methodist churches throughout
the country.
[St. Louis Globe-Democrat,
11/29/76J

RELIGION AND THE MENSES

Menstruation,
commonly
regarded in Western civilization as
women's "unclean time" or at
least as an unmentionable subject
in polite circles, is being touted
by some feminists as a "positive
religious experience."
Rita Gross, an assistant professor of religious studies at the
University
of Wisconsin,
has
said that "anything that goes in
cycles is a rebirth, renewal experience,"
but
traditions
in
Judeo-Christian
history have given negative connotations
to the
monthly discharge of bloody fluid from the uterus.
Ellen
Umansky,
a Columbia University doctoral
candidate, said menstruation
can be
"an affirmation of life, the world
and sisterhood. Even when the
menstrual period is uncomfortable or painful, it can be seen as
a reminder of one's humanity,"
she said.
The women
recently
conducted a seminar on menstruation. Some sponsors were religious as organized religion tried
to reach out to claim women in
menses. Not being able to convince all, religion merely claims
February

1977/ American

Atheist

-9

all.
The seminar included a film,
"Period Piece," by Emily Culpepper of Harvard University,
in which new ways of "celebrating the menstrual experience"
and "understanding
ourselves as
menstruants" were explored.
Feminists who hold positive
views on this subject are still in
the minority,
Ms. Gross said.
"We still don't have in feminist
circles a general appreciation of
menstruation as anything but a
negative experience."
Ms. Umansky voiced criticism
of a recently published book,
The Curse: A Cultural History of Menstruation written by
three women who, among other
things, hailed a new medical
procedure called "menstrual extraction" which removes the fluids quickly and eliminates the
need to wait the usual five or
six days. (The fluids collect on
the uterus wall each month to
prepare for the possibility of
nourishing a fertilized egg.)
"They are saying the more
we can be like men the better.
That's wrong," Ms. Unmansky
said.
"We are saying we want to
discover the rhythm of our nature rather than capitulate
to
patriarchal
society,"
said Ms.
Gross.
Television commercials
that
advertise
deodorized
sanitary
pads and the "carefree protection" some other products provide are aiding a widespread urge
to deny a bodily inconvenience, the two women said. They
added that they believed this approach was influenced by what
they called the characteristically
Christian
down playing of the
fleshy facts of life.
Traditional
Judaism
decrees
that when a woman menstruates she is not to have sexual
intercourse
with her husband
then or for seven days afterward,
and then only after a ritual bath,
the "mikvah."
Ms. Gross said that Jewish
stricture should be seen as part
February 1977/ American Atheist - 10

of a whole set of religious purity laws rather than as a rule

aimed at women.
[Sunday Sun-Times, 11/7/76]

CHURCH HEAD'S BUSINESS

DEALS ARE QUESTIONED
The million members of the
Assembly of God believe in the
old-time religion, with stern emphasis on Biblical integrity. Most
are solid, middle class people
who, in a corrupt and changing
society, have held stubbornly to
their fundamentalist faith.
But a few weeks ago, a church
official sent us a signed statement supported by several prominent laymen. It urged us to investigate the financial dealings of
their shepherd, the charismatic
Thomas
Zimmerman.
He not
only is general superintendent of
the Assemblies of God but head
of the 50-million-member World
Pentecostal Conference.
We can now report that the
suspicions of his dissident followers have some basis. The Reverend Zimmerman,
a dynamic
man of 64, has kept hundreds of
thousands of dollars of church
funds in a bank that he heads.
At the same time, he has
joined other church leaders in
purchasing
100 acres of land
across from a proposed shopping
center, which his bank helped
to finance. Three church leaders
are acquiring the 100 acres for
about $155,000. When the center is completed, their land may
be worth
up to $800,000.
Zimmerman
told us at first
that he had no interest in the
shopping center. Yet the contract to buy the 100 acres
across from the mall is signed
by Zimmerman and two of his
church associates, Donald Shelton and Milton McCorcle.
The sauve Shelton, who heads
the church's stewardship department, has also purchased more
than $600,000 worth of acreage
for the shopping center on behalf of the developers. The land

records show that these

chases
were financed by
merman's bank, the Empire
of Springfield, Mo. Both
shopping mall and the ch
headquarters
are also located
Springfield.
Zimmerman has held a st
holder's interest in the bank
high as $160,000. He now 0
$110,000
worth
of Em
stock, according to the la
available records. He is ch .
of the board and draws $1
every time he attends a b
meeting.
Four other top church 0
als are listed as major stockh
ers in the bank, with hol .
that range from $80,000
$160,000.
For
example,
president of the church-o
Evangel College, Robert S
is a stockholder.
Shelton
owns $80,000 worth of st
although he was not a
holder at the time of his
acquisition.
The financial conflicts,
found, disturbed Andrew
the respected vice president
Carnation International, w
also a financial committee
for the Assemblies of God.
questioned the heavy church
posits in Zimmerman's
The Reverend quickly m
some of the funds to other
But
we have 'learned
$140,000 in church trust
were still deposited in the
pire Bank as of December
1976. The bank, of course,
money on its deposits.
Both Zimmerman and S
spoke with us at length.
stoutly defended themselves
one another. They insisted
not one penny of the ch
money had gone into the
deals and that audits had
no mismanagement of their
ardship of the church's mi
Shelton said he had
for the developers of the
ping center to buy the I
cause they had promised
to the church and beca
gave him an "inside track

land deal. Zimmerman

that he had nothing to
th the loans that financed
hases.
land records reveal two
ry
notes,
totaling
40, which were executed
cember 3I, 1973, by the
rs to the bank. The
are attached to documents
g that Shelton was instruin assembling the land
proposed shopping centhe deals were consumat a time that Shelton's
the Reverend Zimmerman,
e active chairman of the
familiar with the dent complained to us that
rch leaders misled them.
tate sources in Springfor example, said that
gave them the impreswas arranging the land
on behalf of the
fonner chief executive of
pire Bank, Estyl Sparkw of Fort Smith, Ark.,
us Zimmerman had
'assured him that he had
t whatsoever in the
center development.
ennan told us he has no
'on of the conversation.
e is in the hands of the
said.
ote: since its initial fiof the shopping center
Empire Bank has been
in the deal. Meanwhile,
learned that the Internue Service is quietly
into the finances of ZimIIld Shelton, who catedeny any wrongdoing.
Anderson, St. Louis GlobeDemocrat, 1/9/77]

S HYMNAL GLUT
TO SUIT
ral judge recently sugt the Roman Catholic
of Chicago is trying
" the parties to a lawthe archdiocese by

inundating
them in hymnals.
The U.S. DistrictCourt
Judge
was told by a lawyer for the
group pressing the copyright infringement suit that more than
two-thirds of the 220,000 items
delivered to him were not necessary.
The attorney
for John Cardinal Cody, said there was much
confusion over which materials
should be tendered
under an
agreement to withdraw the folk
.mass song-books
from use in
some 450 Chicago area Catholic
churches.
The judge responded that one
reason for what appeared to be
an overreaction
"is they are
being punished for bringing an
infringement
suit against the
Catholic Church."
The attorney for F.E.L. Inc.,
a California music publisher, said
he has received 858 boxes of
hymnals, songbooks, and other
materials on orders of Cardinal
Cody's office. He said 540 of the
boxes were unnecessary and are
running up big storage fees.
F.E.L. has charged that the
archdiocese infringed copyrights
on its folk and guitar masses by
allowing homemade copies of the
music to be distributed without
paying royalties. The suit seeks
$2 million in damages.
The judge said he will hear
more arguments before deciding
the issue.
At a press conference
at a
hotel, following the court heating, the F.E.L. owner said that
65 churches, including four of
the original defendants
in the
F.E.L. suit, still have not turned
in their unauthorized
copies of
F.E.L. hymnals.
He charged that the archdiocese, by ordering the return of
even legal F.E.L. hymnals, was
"placing their considerable financial muscle on us in an attempt
to ruin us financially."
[Chicago Sun-Times,

10/21/76]

The inspiration of the Bible depends on the ignorance of the gentleman who readsit Robert G. Ingersoll

PHILADELPHIA SCHOOLS
SNEAK IN SCHOOL PRAYER
The Philadelphia
Board of
Education has voted to require
the city's public schools to provide pupils an opportunity
to
start their day with the Pledge of
Allegiance and a minute of silent
meditation.
Pupils could abstain from participation, however, for religious
or other personal reasons.
The school board, in adopting
the plan on a 5-to-one vote alleged the silent minute is not an
attempt to circumvent the 1963
Supreme Court decision banning
school prayer.
"If a student wants to begin
his day by getting in touch with
god, or simply putting his day
in order in his own mind, that's
his personal choice," the board
member who introduced the plan
said.
Reciting the pledge had not
been a citywide
requirement
since the late 1960's. At that
time the board responded to protests from some parents by leaving a decision on the pledge up
to administrators
at each of the
2,080 schools.
"I was shocked to find that
this wasn't done," one board
member said about the lack of
a requirement
to recite the
pledge.
The only dissenter among the
board members, said the pledge
could make children uncomfortable and the meditation might
invite them to be disruptive.
The plan may run into difficulty the executive director of
the Philadelphia chapter of the
American Civil Liberties Union,
said. He said the "purpose of
the resolution is to institute a
religious ceremony in the public
schools."
"We might well go to court
in behalf of an aggrieved child
or parent, if asked," he said.
Before the Supreme
Court
ruling, Pennsylvania law required
schools to begin the day with
a reading of 10 verses from the
February

1977/ American

Atheist - 11

Bible.
[Chicago Tribune,

11/10176]

RELIGIOUS TEACHING
COMPLAINANT ASKED TO
'PUT IT IN WRITING'
A mother who has complained
her daughter was receiving religious instruction at Palm Springs
Elementary School has been told
to put her complaint in writing.
The Assistant South Central
area superintendent
said, however he has seen no written statement so far from Lorraine Aarnio, mother
of nine-year-old
Jeannette.
The fourth grader was transferred from one class to another
teacher's class as a result of the
mother's complaint.
The superintendent said he became aware of the situation three
weeks after Mrs. Aarnio had kept
Jeanette out of school for 17
days after hearing about the
alleged religious activity.
He justified his position by the
claim that he had heard no other
complaints about religious activity in the class during the two
years he had been superintendent.
The teacher has taught at the
school for 17 years.
The superintendent
said if a
teacher is in violation of state
or federal laws or school board
policy, she would be instructed
to stop whatever action is a
violation.
According
to school board
policy religious activities are prohibited if they "have as their
purpose the proselytising or indoctrinating of any students into
the tenets of any religion or
sect. "
But teachers are free to discuss different opinions or read a
story from a book.
Baptist Bible lessons, prayers,
and the use of religion to enforce
discipline
occurred
in
her
daughter's
class, according to
Mrs. Aarnio.
She said she believed her
February 1977/ American Atheist

12

daughter was being confused by

these alleged teachings because
they cause a conflict with the
Catholic religious principals she
received at home.
The superintendent
said he
does not feel the teacher has
done anything wrong, because he
has received no specific comments yet.
He did not comment on the
inherent pressure of a demand
upon a parent to "put it in writing. " The fearful mother will
probably remain cowed.
[Chicago Tribune,

11/10176]

CHURCHES MAY FIGHT IRS

RULING ON TAX RETURNS
National church organizations
are expected to seek administrative or legislative relief from a
recent ruling of the Internal Revenue Service requiring thousands
of church agencies to file tax
information returns.
The ruling, which drew objections from more than 80 denominations when it was proposed
last February,
affects churchowned
hospitals,
orphanages,
homes for the elderly and other
community
agencies that are
church-related.
The agencies will be required
to file the information returns
for the first time May 15. Their
tax-exempt status is not affected
by the ruling.
James W. Baker, of Washington, chairman of an interfaith
coalition
of church lobbyists,
said many church leaders consider the ruling an unconstitutional
intrusion of government into the
affairs of religious groups.
He said he will recommend
to the coalition that relief be
sought from the Carter administration and from Congress.
Baker said many institutions
will have to hire auditors to prepare the returns.
"I feel the best way to oppose
the measure now is to file the
returns under protest. The last
resort would be to take the mat-

ter to court," Baker told

porter.
He pointed out that
tion to the ruling has
pressed by Lutheran, Ca
Baptist,
Mormon and
denominations "across the
spectrum. "
The IRS ruling, publish
4 in the Federal Register
fines an "integrated a
of a church for the first r
It was defined as a c
affiliated
organization
principal activity is "excl
religious. "
Baker, director of resear
vices for the Baptist Joint
mittee on Public Affairs,
many church leaders believe
ernment
cannot make an
elusive definition of what'
church. He said these
feel churches have to defi
themselves.
Leon Levine, public
officer for the IRS, said
difficult to estimate how
agencies will have to start
the information returns,
there
is a large poten
The legal counsel for
Lutheran Church-Missouri
od, who's salary is suppo
your increased taxes,objec
a provision in the original
posal compelling some sch
file the final ruling.
"There has been some
provement, and we're hap
see that," he said.
The attorney
for tilt.
Louis Catholic Archdiocese
the ruling is under study
torneys
in St. Louis
Washington. He said there
indication
what policy
church will adopt conce .
ruling.
[St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 1/1

CARTER, CALIFANO
AND ABORTION
President Jimmy Carter
been having some hard
with cabinet appointments
is safe to say that the worst'

for his nominee to be

of Health, Education

are.

base their fanatical ideas in re~

ligion are funded, organized and
gaining ground.

IIA. Califano, his choice,

n outspoken enough
abortion to have every
angrywith him.
repeatedly stated his
objection to abortion
that, as H.E.W. secrewould work against fed, g of abortion.
o is dead set against use
funds for abortions unicaid or under any nath scheme. His opposiased on his own moral
s growing out of his
tholic faith.
tly the situation is such
'dent Carter has given
'tion to a constitutional
t prohibiting abortion,
ted that federal fund'on is wrong.
could have taken the
many other Roman
m public life take on
namely: I am opposed
I willfollow the law of
Or, he could have just
as H.E.W. secretary,
enforce the law. But,
yond that and declarposition in specific
e between 250,000
abortions are perually under the Medi, administered by
major effort to stop
succeeded last year,
yde amendment was
'biting all abortions

d.
era!judge ruled that
amendment was un, thus causing the
people in Congress
re to try to in,S, Supreme Court.
funded abortions
til the Hyde queswho would give
ically supervised
birth control has
nized, scattered
while those who

CHRISTIAN

CHARITY

During the many years that

the Salvation Army jingled bells
over big pots to beg for money
the organization pretended that
it was doing "good works" in
feeding the down-and-outs , the
derelicts. Now we find that state
funds go for these purposes. The
Michigan Department
of Social
Services
owes
the Salvation
Army about $ I50,000, says the
Captain who is in charge of the
agency's Harbor Light Center in
Detroit.
The Center provides "shelter
and other assistance" for indigent men suffering from alcoholism and drug abuse and the Salvation Army delights in crying
out loud about
its charity.
Now we find that the Michigan state Social Services pays
from $2 I3 to $274 per individual each month for this care.
The Center allegedly provides
for 150 men, receiving from
$32,000 to $41,000 a month for
these 150 men.
When the payment was not
promptly
made
the
Center
threatened
to close its doors.
The Captain in charge recently
took to whining in the Detroit
News newspaper that when the
reimbursement
first began it
took some months to get the
money. It never dawned on the
man that he should be doing
these kindly deeds with money
from religious folks since the
welfare was done in the name
of the lord.
When government
pays, it
should make secular provisions
for the recipients.
Christianity has the rancor of the
sick at its very core - the instinct
.against the healthy, against health.
Everything that is well-constituted,
proud, gallant and, above all, beautiful gives offence to its ears and eyes.
Nietzsche

VOTE CH RISTIAN
One of the indisputably good
results of the 1976 elections was
that Christianity did not make it
as a major force in the voting.
Only a handful of tire so called
'Christ-centered'
candidates who
were not incumbents won seats
in the Congress.
Not that there wasn't plenty
of Christians trying. There were
'Vote Christian' drives in no less
than 30 congressional districts.
Shortly before the election
one could count 21 names of
'born again' candidates
being
promoted
by evangelical and
fundamentalist groups. Only two
on the list won: Rudd [R] of
Arizona and Badham [R] of
California. Rudd's victory was a
squeaker (700 votes) but Badham had 14 years in the Assembly.
In California the CCAP, which
is Christians Active Politically,
backed ten 'qualified Christians'
running for State assembly and
senate posts. Four were elected.
CCAP noted, "We will not
back anyone who does not put
Christ first." A spokesman said
that the organization meant that
the man's
political
opinions
should be based on the Bible. He
should also have qualifications
for spiritual leadership as outlined in I Timothy 2: 1-7, which
reads in part:
'He must be a good man
whose life cannot be spoken
against ... must be hardworking,
and thoughtful, orderly and a
lover of good deeds .,. not a
drinker, quarrelsome, and not a
lover of money, .. must have a
well-behaved family, with children who obey quickly and quietly. '
Perhaps the CCAP shoud read
history rather than the Bible, and
note that the redoubtable Henry
Clay put it this way in 1818:
"All religions united with government are more or lessinimical to
liberty.
All
separated from
government are compatible with
liberty, "
February 1977/ American Atheist - 13

COLOR THE CATHOLICS

RED, WHITE AND BLUE
During the Vietnam war, Catholic Relief Services openly played its power role in Vietnam as
an adjunct of the American military effort while covertly playing
innocent here at home, a leading
Catholic. weekly now discloses.
The charges, which appeared
in the December 17, 1976 issue
of the National Cstholic Reporter, grew out of a yearlong investigation of the organization by
the weekly's Washington correspondent, Richard Rashke.
In his account, Rashke alleges:
.The
agency turned over relief
supplies - food, clothing and
medicines - to both U. S. and
South Vietnamese military units
to be used as pay for irregular
forces and "incentives" for intelligence gathering.
U.
S. military
personnel
worked in relief services offices,
where they had access to field reports
containing
information
valuable to military intelligence
but possibly disasterous to the
Vietnamese
civilians who the
agency was chartered to help .
As much as 90 percent of the
agency's budget came from the
U. S. Agency for International
Development
program in Vietnam on a quid pro quo basis
which presupposed
the agency
would reciprocate "by accepting
U. S. policy without criticism
and by sharing information with
AID personnel."
.The
agency supplied rations
for interrogation centers and political prisons.
The U. S. military
"built
the Catholic agency into its refugee program"
of forcing Vietnamese
civilians into refugee
camps, which were supplied by
the agency.
The agency "encouraged"
its
staff members to live in rentfree housing in AID compounds
and used the CIA's Air America
for staff travel and shipment of
relief goods.
All of this was taking place

February

1977/ American

Atheist

- 14

while opposition to the war was

mounting in this country and the
U.S. Catholic bishops were openly supporting an increased effort
in Vietnam. Fearful of the loss of
this 'heartland' of the East the
Church supported any measure
to keep the war going.
The general secretary of the
National Conference of Catholic
Bishops, to which the agency is
ultimately
responsible,
said he
had not seen the Reporter account and therefore could not
comment.
He said that if the
charges are substantiated,
the
bishops would "certainly want to
take action."
Information
in the Reporter
account was derived largely from
U. S. government reports and interviews with former Catholic
agency Vietnam
personnel
as
well as staff members of other
voluntary and U. S. government
agencies who served in Vietnam.
Catholic Relief Services, which
is headquartered
in New York,
refused to make any of its files
or reports available, Rashke said.
As the official humanitarian
arm of American Catholics, the
agency is supported in part by
collections in all churches on a
designated
Sunday, usually in
late March. Like other worldwide relief agencies, it also derives a large chunk of its budget
from the contribution
from the
government of surplus foodstuffs
under Public Law 480.
Catholic Relief Services was also used by the U. S. when, in a
black propoganda coup, the U.S.
engineered
for the 'flight' of
more than a million Roman
Catholics to South Vietnam to
support Diem, thus causing an increased civil problem there.
PRIVATE SCHOOL AID
LOSES ROUND IN COURT
The Missouri Supreme Court
has upheld a lower court decision
that federal aid granted the state
to provide special educational
services for disadvantaged
stu-

dents cannot be used

public-school teachers in
religious schools during
school hours.
The 5-2 decision on
31, 1976 ended six years
battling. The high court
the contention of the sta
of Education that the
grants under Title I of
entary and Secondary
Act of 1965 are state m
subject to the state cons
al prohibition against
of state money for
schools.
The board's position
challenged by parents ofn
lie (Le. religious) school
in Kansas City, be'
1970.
The case eventually
the U. S. Supreme Court,
ruled in 1974 that
provide comparable but
essarily identical servicesf
lic and nonpublic (re
school students. But the
returned the case to the
without defining the me
"comparable"
or dete
whether the federal gran
subject to state consti
spending limitations.
In ruling against the
lie school parents, the s
preme Court also reject
request that if the mon
found
subject to the
constitution, an injuncti
sued prohibiting implem
of the $35 million annual
education program in
The majority opinion,
by Judge Fred L. Hen!
the court could find no
tial evidence to support
quest for the injunction.
The court noted that
constitution
does pe
state to receive and .
federal grants under
gram, but pointed ou
those provisions do not
distribution of the money
lation of other sections
Missouri constitution.
In dissen ting from the
ty , one judge said he

al education aid did not

state money and conseis not subject to Misconstitution. He was
in his dissent by one

ge.
tate Department of Eleand Secondary Educaimplemented the special
education program for
, -school pupils by perthem to take the special
at public schools after
school hours, on weekduring the summer.
tate Board had argued
federal court ruling did
ire the special classes
rovided to all private
tudents but only that
afforded genuine op. s to participate."
the religious parents
'educationally deprived
in nonpublic schools
icipate under the law."
1St. Louis Globe-Democrat,
12/31/76)

AlION' PAUSE FOR

PUPILS OK'D
'chigan schools would
provide students and
with a few moments
meditation" time every
r one provision of a
school code revision
by the state House.
editation provision
House, 86-3, on Dee976, as an amendment
001 code revision. The
nate concurrence on
amendments.
e amendment, sponRepublican Congressitanon time would be
teachers and students
ey wanted it.
students have no de'tate, he said, teachers
alee them keep still,
a bad idea.
to have this sort
in our schools until
er) was ruled unconthe lame duck legis-

lator said. "I think it's too bad

that some kind of silence for
thought isn't provided for those
who want it."
Smith said he was "flabbergasted"
that
the amendment
passed so easily.
[Detroit

Free Press, 12/9/761

The Detroit Chapter of American Atheists immediately

contacted the appropriate committee as follows:

Earl E. Nelson
Appropriation Committee
Room No. 302 A Capital Bldg.
Lansing, MI 48902
Dear Sir:
Before your committee is Senate bill 1435 which proposes to
set aside time for meditation or
prayer at the beginning of the
day, in Michigan public schools.
We American Atheists regard
this amendment as a flagrant attempt to circumvent the constitution
of the United States,
which requires that the states or
the federal governmen t "shall
make no law respecting an establishmen t of religion."
In the case of Murray vs. Curlett in June 1963, the United
States Supreme Court held that
bible reading and prayer, being
a "religious ceremony",
could
not be legislated.
The court noted specifically:
"But the establishment clause is
not limited to precluding the
state itself from conducting religious exercises, it also forbids
the state to employ its facilities
or funds in a way that gives any
church, or all churches, greater
strength in our society than they
would have by relying on their
members alone."
This amendment is unconstitutional on its face and therefore
must be rejected.
American Atheists
Detroit Chapter
by Henry Schmuck
Chapter Secretary

INAUGURATION PRAYER
CHALLENGED
The following telegram was
sent on January 17, 1977 to:
Jimmy Carter
President- Elect
Plains, Georgia 31780
Hear this:
Now comes Madalyn Murray
O'Hair, in behalf of the American Atheists of the United States,
and endorses the petition
of
Anne Gaylor, Director, Freedom
from Religion Foundation, Madison, Wisconsin, that you, Jimmy
Carter, President-Elect,
be affirmed into the office of the
President of the United States,
with your hand on the Constitution and not on the Bible, your
duty being to preserve and protect that Constitution.
It is an anachronism that an
Atheist must point out to a
Sunday School teacher that Jesus
Christ, in his famous Sermon on
the Mount,
cautioned
against
three hypocritical acts:
1. Public charity (alms giving)
- Matthew 6: 1-4
2. Public prayer
Matthew
6: 5-13
3. Public fasting
Matthew
6: 16-18
as well as the practice of swearing "so help me god" - Matthew
5: 33-37. Your seeming devotion
to Jesus Christ and his doctrines
should be based on a clear understanding
of what they are.
Your duty is to maintain a
secular government and the hypocrisy of wrapping a Presidental
inauguration in the robe of religion should stop with you. Even
Christ would warn you "to render under Caesar that which is
Caesar's" (Matthew 22:21) and
to maintain the impregnable wall
of separation of state and church
which our founding fathers built
into our political structure.
We apprehend your devotion
to Christianity but religion ought
to be a private affair between a
man and his god; not a matter
of public demonstration.
-Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair
February

1977/ American

Atheist-

15

American Atheist Radio Series

Moses Harman, American Atheist
Program 159
KTBC Radio

6 September 1971
Austin, Texas

Hello there,
This
is Madalyn
Murray
O'Hair, American Atheist, back
to talk with you again.
One of the most controversial
men in America was named
Moses Harman, and he is as new
to me as he is to you. As I search
through Atheist history I am
constantly astonished by it and
by the personalities which proliferated through it, particularly
in America.
Moses Harman denounced all
forms of government
and all
forms of religion. He added a
new dimension in reform in his
age by advocating that women
be freed from 'sexual slavery'
by abolishing the institution of
marriage.
How does that grab you? Harman did not develop these views
until comparatively
late in his
life so let's see what it was that
turned him on.
Moses Harman was born in
Pendleton County, West Virginia
on October 12, 1830 and lived
briefly in Ohio and Indiana. But
his parents
finally settled in
Crawford County, Missouri, in
the fall of 1838. He received his
early education at home, worked
his way through the college at
Arcadia, Missouri, taught school,
and later was ordained as a
Methodist
Minister. He spent
some time as a circuit rider before the Civil War but severed his
connection with the church because he could not accept its
view on the slavery issue. By
1860 he had turned to farming
as an occupation. He was then
30 years old.
With the outbreak of the Civil
War, Harman helped organize the
32nd regiment of Missouri volunteers headquartered
at Rolla,
Missouri. He volunteered himself
February 1977 (American Atheist - 16

but was rejected because of a

knee disability. He then tried to
reach the front lines as a nurse
but was turned back.
After the war Harman returned
to teaching,
taking a
school in Crawford county where
he remained until 1879. He married when he was 36 years old.
A son, George, was born in 1867
and a daughter, Lillian, two years
later. His wife died in child birth.
He remained in teaching and
about 1880 when he was fifty
years old he began to discuss
religion from an agnostic viewpoint. He searched out a freethought organization in Kansas
and was soon elected secretary.
This freethought
organization
had a publication called the Liberal. Now, I am talking about an
agnostic newspaper
in Valley
Falls, Kansas, in l880! Some
people feel we are crazy for having an Atheist newspaper - magazine - in Austin, Texas in the
1970's. This man and his organization were only 90 years ahead
of us and in a smaller town.
The Liberal was a monthly
four-page paper designed to provoke con troversy and to bring
written comments from the subscribers. The paper was "free to
all who desire communication on
all subjects" and to others had a
yearly subscription
rate of 50
cents. The paper, with Harman
in charge, ridiculed the agents of
Christianity
through numerous
jokes and general verbal attacks
on the clergy.
In 1881, one year later, Harman renamed the paper The Kansas Liberal. The theme of the
publication
was "Total Separation of the State from Supernatural Theology."
Along with
the controversial
articles
included in the paper, Harman advertised books and pamphlets
that were anti-religious in nature.
Two years later, Harman had

another idea. He changed

tie of his paper again, t .
to Lucifer the Light Bea
title was selected, stated
because it expressed the
mission. Lucifer, the name
the morning star by the
of the ancient world,
the symbol of the pub
and represented the ush
of a new day. He dec1a
he sought to redeem and
the name of Lucifer which
logians cursed as the p .
the fallen angels. He deci
Lucifer would take on
of an educator. "The god
Bible doomed mankind
petual ignorance," wro
man, "and (people) would
have known good from
Lucifer had not told the
to become as wise as th
themselves. "
Shortly after renami
publication, Harman an
that Lucifer was no Ion
mouthpiece for the free
organization but represen
ly the editor and con
speaking for themselves.
further saying that he
use plain and scientific
they applied to the hum
When people wrote in sh
Harman told them they
better off if they cance
subscription to his pub
He did not accept t
dox calendar in dating
sues of Lucifer. Rat
use the method of de
a given year by dating
birth of Christ, he m
beginning of his dating
with the execution of
tronomer Giordano Brun
Roman Catholic Church
The year 1601, stated
marked the beginning 0
new era, the era of
He blandly stated that
prior to 160 I were do
Bible teachings con

'Of heaven and hell

period after 1601 was
by the advent of a
spearheaded by the
discoveries
of
Galileo, and Bruno.
correspondents often
open debates on the
f marriage and sex. In
ally moved the magpeka. Throughout his
sas,however, Harman
by financial diffihad about 1,500 subhe alternately threatwith cancellation of
riptions or bribed
y up with offers of
books and pamI that sounds just like
'can Atheist Center in
as, with its publicay, Harman found that
what he was doing he
e to the field with
d lectures. I sound
amtelling the story of
and times.
now 66 years old
, office to Chicago.
he decided to change
f his publication to
Journalof Eugenumal was the first
kind in the United
voted itself to (1)
tion through freeotherhood, (2) self
of women in the
and reproduction,
nt and responsible
with the woman bet in the home.
king greener pasoved the paper to
in June 1908. Lack
en threatened the
of the journal
e final issue there
impassioned plea
pport to keep the
ration.
to 1910 - he was
, , . about
thirty
alsoan Atheist and
toward the human
got him into as
as they had other
him in this and
I

in other countries. Let's follow

some of the fight.
Religion,
particularly
Christianity, came under heavy verbal
attack by Harman. He contended
that religion was based on ignorance of nature's methods and
fear of the unseen powers that
were supposedly warring over human destiny. Religion was dangerous,
he declared,
because
"fear begets hate, and hate results in oppression,
war and
bloodshed."
He boldly stated:
"Cling not to the cross of a
dead god for help in time of
trouble, but stand erect like a
man and resolutely meet the consequences of your acts, whatever they may be. Every man
(and woman) must be his own
physician, his own priest, his
own god and savior, if he is ever
healed, purified, and saved."
Harman claimed to have no
fear of death and pictured the
religious man as always worrying about his soul because he
had no confidence in good works
or natural morality.
He stated boldly that he dared
to investigate the problems of
life from the standpoint of nature rather than theology. Objecting to the church's
antinaturalistic prejudices he stated
that the confession of ignorance
was often the first step to the
gaining of knowledge. "Dogma,
assumption, creed, confessions of
faith, written constitutions ... ,
these are the greatest obstacles
in the way of improvement of
progress in knowledge."
And,
again" ... liberty, wedded to responsibility for one's acts, is the
true and only basis of good conduct, or of morality."
The most needed reform, according to Harman, was in the
area of sex. He constantly kept
his columns free for those who
would write on the subject. He
received and printed four letters
which were to bring him sentences in prison. Incidentally, he
was a strong advocate of sex education for children - an Issue
still being fought, incredibly, in

our day.
Now back to those four letters. He was arrested,
under
the old Comstock postal laws,
with his son, George, on the evening of February 23, 1887, on
the charge of depositing obscene
materials in the mails. He fought
the arrest on the grounds that
there had been no crime since he
had not injured others and that
the so-called crime was not a
question of fact, but simply a
question of opinion. He repeatedly claimed that the United
States government had not established any guide to determine
what was and what was not obscene. He won his point after a
two month fight in federal court.
Within a few days after this victory, the district attorney had a
new indictment,
designed
to
remedy the deficiency of the
first.
There
were
four
specific
counts of obscenity. The first
was a letter from a Dr. W. G.
Markland which had appeared in
Lucifer on June 18, 1886. Dr.
Markland was concerned
with
"legal rape". The physician related a case where a mother,
following the birth of a child,
was seriously injured by the sexual abuses of her husband. Dr.
Markland asked whether the law
protected the woman in marriage
and asked whether the action
constituted legal rape.
The second was an article
which had been copied from the
Kansas Democrat and told of a
36-year-old
woman
who had
been led to insanity by the sexual abuses of her husband.
The third was a letter written
by Celia Whitehead which appeared in the Lucifer edition of
June 3, 1886. Another woman
had written to the effect that
there was a universal need for
contraceptives,
and Ms. Whitehead commenting on this stated
that nature designed women as
free mothers
and they must
learn that they were made for
men.
The fourth
was an article
which appeared in Lucifer on
February 1977/ American Atheist 17

July 23, 1886. It told of a Millerite couple preparing for the

day of judgment. On the evening
prior to the supposed judgment
day, the couple proceeded to engage in a soul-searching dialogue
concerning their married life. In
revealing her domestic secrets,
the wife confessed that each of
their four children had a differen t father.
After
the initial
shock the husband cried out,
"Gabriel blow your horn! I want
to go now!"
Harman
immediately
attempted to clarify his position
by republishing the four articles.
He offered to send the article by
mail to any interested party. He
wanted to test, he said, "the citizen's right to speak, to utter, to
publish and to send by mail, all
of one's honest thoughts, whatever they may be ... "
He was tried in the United
States District Court in Topeka,
Kansas, on April 17, 1890. He
was found guilty on all four
counts. He was sentenced to five
years in the Kansas penitentiary
and to pay a fine of $300.
He spent only four months in
jail and was released on a writ
of error, only to have a new trial
start. This time he was tried for
printing a letter of Dr. Richard
V. O'Neil of New York City. Dr.
O'Neil dealt with cases he had
observed involving sexual abuse
and unnatural sexual behavior.
The Judge in the case observed
that O'Neil's letter was so filthy
in thought that it would be a
shock to common decency and
modesty to recite its contents.
He found Harman guilty and
gave him one year in the penitentiary. He went to jail on June
21, 1892. He was then 62 years
of age. He was released because
of a technicality in his sentence,
in February
1893 after serving
eight months. The incensed judge
who thought it was all so filthy
ordered
him returned
to his
court for re-sentencing. He was
transferred
from Lansing Penitentiary to the U. S. Penitentiary
at Leavenworth
in July 1895.

February

1977/ American

Atheist

18

He was released from Leavenworth on April 4, 1896.

He was in pretty good health
when he was released and all he
did was to start the fight all over
again. Nine years later he was
again arrested
for the same
charge and sentenced to one year
at hard labor in jail on January 9,
1906. He was then 76 years old
and again in Leavenworth penitentiary. He was finally released
from Leavenworth on December
26, 1906 and again, immediately,
went back to publishing.
Everything ended finally on
January 30, 1910 when he died
apparently of a heart attack, at
age 80.
The moral of this story is that
Atheists are stubborn and they

insist

that

they shall persevere.

This program
is brought to
you by American
Atheists, a
non-profit,
non-political, educational organization dedicated to
the complete separation of state
and church. This series of American Atheist
Radio programs is
continued through listener generosity. American
Atheists pred;'
cates its philosophy on AmeriCIII
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. If you want the
free copy of this script ask for
number 159. The address for you
is P. O. Box 2117, Austin, Tex.,
and that zip is 78768.

NOW IN PAPERBACK!

WHAT ON EARTH IS AN ATHEIST

By Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair
For over 7 years What On Earth Is An Atheist sold for
over $10.00 in the hardback edition.
Now available in
paperback for $4.95 these are the transcripts of Dr. O'Hair's
first 52 radio programs that were broadcast nationwide.
Subject matter varies from a definition of Atheism to Contradictions in the Bible.

$4.95

282 pages
Order Form
Nmne

Address~
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Please send me
Enclosed is $

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copies of What On Earth Is An Atheist

or charge to my:

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Book Review
What on Earth Is An Atheist is
an 8Yz" x 5Yz" paperback
of
285 pages issued by American
Atheist Press in 1977.
This very popular handbook
of Atheist basics sold out of the
hard cover issue but was picked
out by Arno Press for its reprint
edition in the American Atheist
Viewpoint Series which is comprised of twenty seven volumes
of classic Atheist writings in reprint issue.
Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair
fought the Federal Communications Commission
and scores
of radio stations in the United
States over a ten year period as
she attempted to obtain airtime
for the Atheist point of view. At
one point she sued 17 radio
stations, at another time she
sued the Federal Communications Commission itself and in a
third attempt
filed complaints
with the F.C.C. against 132 radio
stations in an indefatigable fight.
In Spring, 1968, KTBC radio
of Austin, Texas agreed to sell
time for a series of once-a-week
15 minute programs. The station
was owned by Lady Bird Johnson and her daughters and Lyndon Baines Johnson was the President of the United States.
The General Manager of the
station, 1. C. Kellam, dealt directly with Dr. O'Hair. The announcement of the program was
met with shocked incredulity.
Headlines screamed over the nation: Atheist Program A Shock;
Atheist, Mrs. O'Hair, on War
Path Again; O'Hair Fights God.
The
religious
community
quickly announced that a furniture dealer, Louis Shanks, had
purchased the 15 minutes immediately following the Atheist
program and had given this time
to the religious leaders so that
they could use it to refute anything said by Dr. O'Hair. President Johnson's
own minister,

who had given the blessing at the

time of the Democratic Convention which had nominated Johnson to run, was given the task
of the first reply.
The programs had to be submitted some time in advance in
both writing and in tape. They
were sent to Washington, D. C.
to be scanned by the Johnson
law firm there, the F.C.C. saw
them, then they were reviewed
by the Johnson law firm in Austin, Texas, and finally accepted
for broadcast by the station. The
religious programs were not "reviewed" or "scanned" in a similar manner.
A check for total cost of the
programs for one year in advance
was delivered to the station by
the sponsor, American Atheists
(Society of Separationists, Inc.).
However, it was quickly apparent that almost nothing could
be said. The general manager of
the station was inundated with
complaining telephone calls and
letters no matter what the subject. He held fast with his original decision that Atheists had a
right to air time if they could
pay for that time.
This book is a compilation of
the first fifty-two programs (one
year) which were accepted. Dr.
O'Hair moved cautiously, slowly,
trying to lay a foundation upon
which she could build. She also
made a first deliberate decision
to write the programs at the level
of comprehension
of a high
school graduate,
although
all
radio expertise advice was au
contraire. For your information,
everything on television and radio is deliberately pitched (for the
most part) at a seventh grade
comprehension level.
The program is now in its
ninth (9th year) and has a greater
level of sophistication
with a
broader
range as Dr. O'Hair
has slowly pushed back the con-

stricting borders in which it was

at first confined. But, you have a
chance here to acquaint yourself
with American Atheist history as
one of the battles was won.
Chapter titles include:
History of Atheists'
Radio Time.

Fight

for

Freethought in American Historical Documents.

Summary
of Freethought
tory in The United States.
Definition

His-

of Atheism.

Review of Materialist Philosophy

- Base of Atheism.
Arguments
for God, Historical
and Contemporary, with Refutations.
Stock Holdings of Churches - A
Sampling.
General Business Holdings
Churches, A Sampling.
Contradictions
Robert

of

in The Bible.

Ingersoll

- A Sampling.

A List of Practices of The RoMan Catholic Church, None of

Which Is Bible Supported.
The 'Stone
Theory'
Origin of Religion.
The Establishment
ity.

of

The

of Christian-

Religion and Retirement

Homes.

Religion and Taxes.

Religion and Morality.
Atheists and Death.
Atheist Jokes.
Who Is 1esus Christ?
Rewriting
tians.

of History

by Chris-

February 1977/ American Atheist - 19

Speaking for Women:

let's Dispense with Christian Funerals

Anne Gaylor
Something has got to be done
about funerals!
Most of my life I have been
quite
successful
at
finding
reasons not to go to funerals.
But as I grow older I find these
events more difficult to avoid.
Not only does it seem more people are dying, but my old excuses
of youth, pregnancy, baby-sitting
employment
or 'too poor to
travel' just don't hold up any
more. I find I simply will offend
if I do not put in an appearance.
It is not that I am not fond of
the friend or relative or their
survivors; it is just that funerals
are in such abominable
taste.
In the first place most of them
have a corpse and an open casket, so we of necessity remember
the dead, not the living, person.
I wonder how many young people's nightmares and older persons' unhappy recollections can
be directly attributed
to this
more-or-less coercive viewing of
the dead.
Few, if any, dead persons look
natural. Most have become emaciated by illness, and the undertaker's ministrations have merely
made them caricatures of themselves. Many are wearing their
spectacles, something I find especially pointless. Glasses are such
a nuisance in life - couldn't they
be dispensed with in death? Yes,
I know they are supposed to
"make him look more natural".
But he isn't natural, he is dead.
The real evil of funerals, however, is the clergyman's nonsense,
the absolute gibberish he spouts
for half an hour - an uncomforting, unconvincing string of platitudes and prayers that have nothing to do with the life of the person who has died. So often a
funeral service has been so utterFebruary 1977/ American Atheist 20

ly impersonal that I have decided

the clergyman wen t to his files,
grabbed a prepared sermon under
"funerals", hastily penciled in a
few blanks here and there with
the name of his victim, and proceeded to present his atrocity,
comfortable
in his knowledge
that his audience would be too
polite to object and that his fee
would be forthcoming despite his
total lack of homework.
Sometimes the clergy person is
so indifferent he does not even
get the right name. A sweet aunt
of mine who died recently at
age 80 had been known all of
her life by her middle name, but
the clergyman, of whose church
she was a member, and who publicly professed his friendship of
several years duration for this
"blessed soul", referred to her
throughout his otherwise impersonal remarks by her first name.
Bewildered,
I wondered
as I
listened, which one of us, I or
he, was at the wrong funeral.
Years ago I attended the funeral of a 96 year old woman,
whom I loved dearly, who had
kept house for our family for
ten years after my mother's
death. Protestant Irish, of independent spirit, she was a feminist, a maiden lady, and very
proud of it. She sincerely regarded most men (not all, but
most) as inferior, and her single
state was definitely by choice.
The unctuous
clergyman, who
again publicly stated his intimate
knowledge
of her soul, concluded his asinine sermon with
the passage from the Bible which
extols the good wife! Had I not
already
been convinced
that
there was no afterlife, I would
have been at that moment, because had there been any possib-

ility, my feisty friend w

risen from the dead
tled that agent of god!!
It pains me parti
have to sit through this
service when I know
much of relevance could
One woman I know
lived a particularly I
life - a scientist who
neered in a field tra
closed to women - an
interested and interes .
up to the moment of
should have had a mem
vice that was meanin
here again we had anoth
of religious prattle.
I think the saddest
ever attended was that
elderly woman who had
care of our children
were young. She had w
us about four years,
week days when I wase
full-time, and she was a
half-grandmother and
I remember I had hired
trepidation because she
and looked a decade or
than her 70 years. But
fabulous. She was always
despite her age and health
had had some major 0
over the years including
moval of most of her
She loved to work - w
her hobby - and we
cleanest house, includiol
and basement, in all of
sin. She was organized
telligent, and she was
children. Our youngest,
one not in school, ado
For a year or two he
"Bisitor", his version of
Every morning he would
meet her at the door,
"Hi, Bisitor, what are we
to bake today - cake or

e of her jobs - she had

owed at an early age as a baker, and she
bulous cookies. We still
r with reverence her
chocolate turtle cookies.
ondaymorning she came
our hill with an angel
somethingshe had baked
me over the weekend
children. At Christmasbrought a dishpan full
ed treats.
ur cat loved her. She
one at a time beher joints, and one of
ant memories is watchcat, who liked to be
r, go up the stairs a
and then sit and wait
woman to catch up.
sekeeper seemed to
fleeted badly on her

if I lifted a finger around the

house, and I remember her first
words many mornings, as I casually cleared the breakfast table,
were, "Mrs. Gaylor, you put that
down.
That's my job. I'll take
care of that."
Surely no family
was ever so pampered.
Asthma and accumulated ills
finally forced her retirement,
and a few years later she died.
My husband and I attended her
funeral and waited in vain for
some word from the clergyman
about
her intrepid
character,
some reference to the years she
had supported her three children
by holding two jobs - days in a
laundry and nights in a bakery.
There was a great deal of
mumbo-jumbo
prayer
at her
bleak funeral, several reference
to a soul and everlasting life, but

you are there! We do see those notes attached

, weeven read your letters.

there were NO WORDS ABOUT

HER.
It is time, surely, to stash
away the clergy.
Memorial
services,
with or without
a
corpse, can honor the person
who had lived. Services can be
planned
with
readings
from
favorite poets and writers, with
music the person had enjoyed
while
living,
with
personal
anecdotes told by friends - all of
this could be so easily arranged.
I am up to here with clergymen and their laziness and their
trivial, dimestore, carbon copy
funerals.
A memorial service
should celebrate life, not death.
It is much too important a ceremony and it has too much potential for substance, beauty and
joy to be left to clergymen.

to book orders or on the back of renewal

d we would answer each and everyone

of the questions you ask personally.
in the position of barely being able to produce the magazine and get it to you.
u miss an issue and send a letter asking what happened don't
t issuein your mail box a week or so later (if we have any left).

be too surprised

Unfortunately,

if your only

rson receiving The American Atheist would just plain donate $5.00 or $10.00 and not ask for
return but a better magazine and better service we could have the additional equipment and
d so badly.
, please help. The magazine could continue to look like this issue for a year if you do.
subscription envelope enclosed and mark it "Magazine Donation Only".

The Staff
American Atheist Center

February 1977 /American Atheist - 21

The Vatican Considers Masturbation

Mort Lewis
Pope Paul VI ordered and approved a twenty-page document
entitled "Declaration on Certain

Questions Concerning Sexual

Ethics" authored by the Sacred
Congregation for The Doctrine
of The Faith,
the Vatican's
watchdog body on church dogma. The document says that premarital sex, homosexual relations
and - the very Saints preserve
us! - masturbation - are mortal
sins that should never be condomed (pardon
the Freudian
slip. That should read condoned)
but only god can judge the degree of guilt of each sinner. It
will be very interesting, indeed,
to learn just what criteria god is
going to use to establish the degree of guilt of various sinners
whose number will be legion or,
if veneral disease becomes epidemic, whose numbers will be
lesion. Perhaps he will view each
offence personally. I can hear him
now: "Scribe! Note that nasty
little beggar! He's using illegal
wrist action in order to gain an
unfair
advantage.
Give that
rhythmic little ambidextrous rascal fifteen demerits." Or, "Gracious what is that young lady
trying to do with that bowling
pin? She's holding it backwards.
My Stars! I wouldn't have believed it! Scribe, reduce her demerits by three because of her
marvelous perseverance and her
simply amazing ingenuity in the
use of the thumbs."
In the area of masturbation,
an area probably not totally unfamiliar to the majority of those
with fair memories and a passing
respect
for the truth,
some
might be reminded of the young
pianist who lamented "Oh, how
they laughed when I sat down to
play. How did I know the bathroom door was open?" Shortly
after the outset of the twentieth
century,
when
the brothers
February

1977/ American

Atheist

- 22

Wright were experimenting with

powered flight,
a stock phrase
used in religious circles was, "If
god had wanted man to fly, he
would have given man wings."
Following this same crystal clear
and irrefutable logic, it can only
be said that "If god had not
wanted man to masturbate, he
would have given him shorter
arms." What a boon that would
have been to the military's
short arm inspectors! Actually,
Biblical scholars could make a
strong
case for masturbation
from the pious rejoinder that
"The hand of the lord has been
known to move in mysterious
ways."
The Italian woman quoted by
U. S. Secretary of Agriculture
Butz, said a great deal concerning
the Vatican's meddling in sexual
matters (more particularly birth
control)
when she remarked
"You no play-a the game, you no
make-a the rules."
If the younger more generously endowed priests follow this
sexual code to the letter, a goodly part of the time one won't
be able to approach one of them
face-to-face
closely enough to
shake hands. If one got that
close, one couldn't ever be absolutely sure that it was a hand he
was shaking.
It would be advisable for anyone with a few dollars available
for investment to buy shares of
common stock in the Peerless
Handcuff Corporation.
The demand for its product is bound to
soar. Every unmarried Catholic
will need to handcuff his hands
behind his back to th wart evil
temptation during solitary or unchaperoned
moments. The demand for contraband
handcuff
keys will, no doubt, go out of
sight.
If the an ti-rnasturbation
code
is enforced in the priests' living

quarters, some of the

aren't going to like it a b'
are going to be a lot
feelings. No doubt, even
solution will come to
meanwhile knotty pine
will have to be removed
Catholic homes and a kn
missing at a suspicious
would put the entire h
into an uproar, with ea
member thinking that th
had somehow found
Altercations might en
cerning who had been
what with who's board.
Times have certainly
It used to be that a bird
hand was worth two in
A bird in the hand from
will be worth a visit f
priest and at least five
The actual number of
given will, no doubt, be
mined by style, approach.
tion, classical wrist m
if any, and the number of
used. The fumbling
will, of a certainty, recei
demerits than the heavy
calloused old practition
Cardinals will be the only
functioning birds to be f
the entire unmarried
community.
It certainly wouldn't
true Christian spirit if 0
to advise a musically .
priest to "go pump your
Such a suggestion might
him to the point of .
Should one become en
small talk with a priest, it
be well, at least for the .
ing, to refrain from asking
Father, are you keeping
hand in?" Or, "Are y
holding your own?" Or,
are you making it?"
The reaffirmed sex c
make it difficult for good
lies to refer to the second
of Christ because, having

man, he shouldn't have

the first time. It would
t the church hierarchy
ed a Pandora's box with
code. Heaven knows, if
tend to practice what
ach, they have no busiling around with Panbox in the first place.
w years ago, the church
took away sainthood
, hardworking, Good
ieholas. They took the
t of Santa's sleigh and
to Santa. Several reasons
drumming out of the
have circulated about.
y that Santa came only
year and then, much to
chagrin, only when he
t of town. Others insist
up of Saints who sang
in the heavenly choir,
ick question to Santa,
owing it was a trick, re.K.,I'll bite" whereupon
visedthat if he did, he
immediately thrown
the club. He did and he
one of the Saints has the
ks to prove it. Another
. ts that the real reason
stripped of his rank
he had been caugh t
und with his reindeer;
ing it is sometimes
ferred to by members
ingand ranching comIt seems that Dancer
cer pranced and Runose lit up because of
entionable activities on
. In any event, Santa
a fat, disillusioned old
itting in his tomb spite. g old religious musical
just sitting in his tomb
. g, so to speak.
er to put the fear of
the faithful in regard to
e, the Catholic leadermassmeetings (a little
words, there) of its
und the world ( a poor
words,perhaps, considcircumstances.) In any
group of several hunwas addressed by a
o informed the group

that god had made known a sign

whereby practitioners of masturbation could be identified without question.
They could be
identified by the fact that those
having been guilty of this mortal
sin would be found to have very
fine blonde hairs growing sparsely from the inner-center
of
offending hand(s). A very small
number of extremely fast-thinking priests instan tly clasped their
hands as if in prayer, while hundreds of other priests, some
searching madly for spectacles,
were seen to hold their breath
as they frari tically scanned their
palms for signs of guilt. The Bishops, of course, sly fellows, all
wore gloves.
Potential investors might be
well advised to put any idle dollars into corporations dealing in

saltpeter. It will be difficult to

tell, in future months, whether
there will be a greater interest
in peter, St. Peter or in saltpeter.
Increased
saltpeter
sales to
Catholics trying to comply with
the sex code will cause a serious
droop in businesses everywhere.
As saltpeter sales soar, Catholic
businesses will sag in direct correlation. Ah, but then, if the
church finds it necessary to make
the faithful feel guilty for indulging in an internationally
recognized and universally appreciated indoor/outdoor
recreation,
then one can bu t grumble a bit
before one comes finally to agree
with Cardinal Flaccid the Impotent, when he said: "I suppose it
would only be natural to hold
hard feelings, but I certainly
don't have any."

SEVENTH NATIONAL ANNUAL

AMERICAN ATHEIST CONVENTION
You should Register Now!
In 1977, on the weekend of the celebration of the Vernal Equinox (the
Christians call this Easter; the Jews call it Passover) American Atheists from all over
the United States will be gathering at Chicago's spectacular $40 million luxury
Hotel - The Hyatt Regency O'Hare.
Meet the Atheist of The Year who is recognized for achievements during 1976 but
named at this convention. Meet other Atheists of The Year, who will be in
attendance also.
Meet the Chapter organizers for your State and hear their reports of progress. They
will be there from all over. And, there will be a kick-off for the Chapter which
will organize in Illinois from this meeting.
Get involved with other American Atheists. They are the finest citizens that the
United States has - and you will be proud to be associated with them - and they
with you.
Get dressed up for a formal dinner - Why not?
Hear the most exciting addresses delivered and put in your opinion too.
The Annual Business Meeting and the Annual Board Meeting of American
Atheists will be held at the same time. Those who are members of that organization
are entitled to vote .

SEND FOR YOUR REGISTRATION

BLANK TODAY

Registration fees are $10.00 per person, paid in advance, upon the receipt of which
we send the registration blank. You have from now until April 1st to pay for hotel
rooms. We can help you with this by taking your Bankamericard or Mastercharge.
You can pay so much per month - and when you get there you are paid in advance
and have no worries later. (Limited to 500 participants; first-come; first-served.)

Send your request for information to:

John I. Mays, Convention Coordinator
American Atheists, P. O. Box 2117, Austin, Texas 78768

February 1977/ American Atheist 23

Indian Rationalist Code

We recently received into the
American Atheist Center a thick
packet of magazines sent to us
from India, all titled Freethought
and published by The Indian
Rationalist Association. In this
stack, Vol. 3, No.5, dated May,
1973, carried a "Code of Conduct
for Members"
of the
Indian Rationalist
Association,
written by the Secretary of that
organization, A. Suryanarayana.
It will be instructive to American Atheists to see the problems
of the Atheists (who hide under
the name of "Rationalist")
in
India.
As you read this list, of
"guidelines" issued by this organization, would you equate them
to your own life and culture?
Would you consider how you
might feel if our organization
should issue these to its members? Makes one a little squeamish doesn't it? Yet, the necessities of Indian life are reflected
in the "Code of Conduct" and
can only make you, and all of
us, realize how tight the grasp
of religion is - not alone in the
United
States,
but in many
countries of the world.
CODE OF CONDUCT
FOR MEMBERS
A. Suryanarayana
The Indian Rationalist Association Advises its Members to endeavor their best to follow the
following guidelines in their dayto-day personal, social, official
and poli tical life :
I. Rationalism in Religion:
I. As you are a Rationalist
you should make it explicitly
clear that you are so in every
possible manner especially at the
religious functions without any
fear or delicacy. You should
avoid all functions which are
February 1977/ American Atheist - 24

directly or indirectly connected

with religious superstitions
in
your house and boycott such
things even when you are invited
to attend.
2. You should scrupulously
avoid going to any place of worship except when you want to
visit such a place with a critical
mind or with a view to expose
the so-called
divine miracles
there.
II. Rationalism in Your House
3. Try to convert the other
members of your family into
your fold.
4. Let there not be any place
for any idols of gods or goddesses in your house unless it is insisted upon by other members of
your family.
5. Let there not by any pictures of gods or goddesses hung
on the walls of your house not
even on the calendars.
III. Rationalism in Social life
6. You need not be afraid
that you are a Rationalist, as a
Rationalist has got every right to
follow his own ideology as any
other religious person. You need
not also be pessimistic that you
form a negligible minority in the
society as one day the majority is
sure to accept your line of thinking.
7. Do not feel shy to declare
yourself
a Rationalist.
You
should not be ashamed to call
yourself a Rationalist.
In fact
you should feel proud to make
people know that you are a
Rationalist as you know it requires a sharp brain to be a
Rationalist.
8. When you are asked about
your religion or caste, simply say
you are a Rationalist, a human
without
a religion or caste.
9. When you are asked to fill
up the application
forms for

various purposes simply

"RA TIONALlST" agai
respective columns.
10. Be scientific in the
of food habits and do no
your likings and dislikin
controlled by the caste
and customs. Try to b
taboos in your food
II. Avoid all caste
gious symbols in your
habits, especially in the
of wearing "Sacred"
Naman, Viboothi, etc.

12. Do not participate

religious functions con
within
your office p
13. In case you are in
ment Service you can
your
resentment
over
prayers conducted within
ernment offices. You m
protest against presence
pictures of gods within the
ises.
14. Bring the instances
ouritism or ill-treatment
by your colleagues tow
subordinates, Superiors
tomers on the basis of
caste, community etc.,
notice of the highest au
in your organisation under
to our Association.
V. Rationalism in Edu
Institutions
IS. In case your chil
studying in Government
Schools/Colleges you sh
vise them to boycott daily
ly prayers in the educati
stitutions as a matter of .
16. Members who are
by profession will do well
an
example
by boy
prayers.

y political party which

will do good to the
. general. However, Intionalist Association
members to be free
y rigid political leanas possible and have an
d on different problems
come across from time
ou wiII scrupulously
pporting any political
ich indulges in comligiousor seetarian actilitical scepticism is a
ble virtue. However, a
t should attempt to re-

les,

arrange an inexpensive reception

only to give publicity for our
Rationalist marriages.
25. You are also requested to
send the details of such marriages
to us for publishing the same in
our monthly journal for giving
wider publicity.
IX. Rationalism in
Family Planning
26. You should carefully plan
your family.
27. You should also try to
educate the people around you
about the importance
of birth
control in their own interest and
in the larger interests of the
country.
X. Rationalism

may also be a rnernOffice-bearer of any

n as long as the objects
ociation are not conthe principles and obdian Rationalist Asso-

in Fine Arts

28. A Rationalist should encourage

secular arts and he
should discourage any form of
art which is associated with religion.
XI. Rationalism after Death

the caste system can

dicated by promoting
marriagesyou will do
. g up an example to
this respect. In case
t married, you should
to marry a person besome other caste or
case you are already
u should try your best
children in marriage
belonging to some
or religion.
there not be any relionies in connection
marriage or the marchildren.
the dowry system is a
~d illegal, do not acwry and do not offer
. Similarlyin the case
s of your Children
demanding or offere absence of religious
lutely essential to
marriages registered.
canafford you may

29. A Rationalist should make

it clear in his will that his body,
after his death, should be donated to a Government Medical
College near the place of his
death or cremated without any
religious rites.
XII. Your Duty to
The Association
As members of the Indian
Rationalist Association you owe
the following
duties
to the
association:
30. Read our monthly journal
regularly and offer your comments to improve upon the existing quality.
31. On different subjects you
can send your suggestions so that
the Working Committee can consider and take necessary action.
32. You may bring to the notice of the Working Committee
instances of fraudulent cases of
religious preachers, saints, etc.,
to enable us to give the widest
publicity to such acts.

33. You may forward the cuttings or interesting news items

for publication
in our journal.
34. You may also send the details of the inter-caste,
interreligion marriages which come to
your notice for publication
in
the journal.
35. You are requested to lend
your copy of the journal to your
friends and relatives and let them
read it. Try to enroll as many
members
as possible for our
Association.
Try to enroll as
many subscribers as possible for
our monthly journal.
36. The last but the most
important
duty is to keep the
association going smoothly by
paying your subscription regularly and donating generously to
support its programmes and actions. Just check yourself to see
whether your money goes directly or indirectly to be wasted in
cheap sensationalism of politics,
religion, entertainment
by which
our fellow men of India are surrounded. If so, direct all your
precious time, energy and money
to prop up our serious message
that needs spreading faster, wider
and deeper.

NOTICE:
Membership
in
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include a subscription to the
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American

AMERICAN ATHEISTS

February 1977 /American Atheist - 25

Rei

9 Ion

vs

Public

Welfare

WARREN SHIBLES
Religion is the single greatest
threat to rationality and humanism, even more so than illiteracy
and ignorance because it is aggressive ignorance.
We cannot solve the religious
problem
merely
by ignoring
religion, avoiding the issue, or
allowing religion merely because
we cannot decide between two
conflicting religions. We cannot
decide between two religions because both are beyond intelligent
argument and reason. But we can
decide easily between reason and
religion or mysticism.
Secular
reason can in no way be put on
the same level as superstition.
The state assumes and must
favor secular rationality.
Irrational
and mystical
religious
institutions
are given tax exemption along side of rational,
and scientific institutions.
This
supports irrationality and an irrational state. Rationality
and
mysticism should not be given
equal priority when health and
lives and public welfare are at
stake.
People fear open discussion of
Catholicism
because they fear
Catholic reprisal or fear losing
their jobs. Editors, politicians,
etc. fear criticism of Catholics.
"You
should
not criticize
religion,"
it's like saying you
should
not criticize lynching
Blacks or Nazis. The right to
religious beliefs is a right to believe what one cannot prove. It
is a stress on an irrational society
to encourage irrationality by taxexemption.
It is inhumane and a prejudice
to say, "Everyone has a right to
his own belief." This is false
because: 1.) There is no such
absolute "right," 2.) Some beliefs are harmful to society and
we in fact do not allow absolute
freedom e.g. of the press 3.) Beliefs spoken or written can be
harmful to the public welfare.
One may have a right to
February 1977/ American Atheist - 26

express his beliefs in order to

question them or debate them
but if after objective debate they
are seen to be harmful to society
they may be rejected. We do this
about scientific and other ideas,
why not also about religious
ideas? It is inhumane to be silent
about religion.
Thus I promote
free discussion and free speech to present any view but legislation does
and has to bar to our society
views genuinely harmful. Albert
Einstein said, "I am convinced
that some political and social
activities and practices of the
Catholic organizations are detrimental and even dangerous for
the community as a whole, here
and everywhere." He wholly supported Paul Blanshard's exposure
of the Catholic Church.
If freedom
of religion is
protected
then making knowingly false statements ought also
to be protected. It is as if there is
no standard at all for truth.
My position is to promote
rationality,
to promote objectivity, honesty, critical discussion, openness of discussion, to
stress that ethics involves looking
at the actual concrete consequences of one's actions and
humanism.
This is opposed to
dogma, absolute authority
and
mystical and superstitious
religious belief. My position is to
stress intelligence
over blind
obedience.
The practices,
uttered
and
written statements of the Catholic religion are against public
policy. "Congress shall make no
law respecting the establishment
of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof ... " This
means that unprovable beliefs or
beliefs founded only on faith are
not to be prohibited as long as
they do not interfere with the
public welfare'. But such beliefs
do interfere
with the public
welfare
and
so should
be

watched
carefully and sho
certainly
not be given
exemptions.
Religion is
stitutionally allowed only so I
as it does not violate or
public health, morals, the libe
of others or the public welf
On all counts religion d
undermine all areas.
Churches are given tax-exe
tion because they are not in f
for the public benefit and
would not qualify for direct .
The Constitution is interpre
by the courts as holding that: I
The law must reflect a see
purpose. 2. It must neither .
hibit nor advance religion. 3.
must avoid excessive entan
ment with religion.
It will be seen in the folio .
that all three are in practice .
lated by state and federal aeti
We have a duty to make chil
rational
otherwise we eann
blame them for irrational iIIe
acts. This argues against religi
and superstitious
training
parochial schools. Society
protect children from the ex
of their overzealous religi
parents.
Tax-exempt religious insti
tions are encouraged in in
merable ways to propagandi
and dogmatize students. Socie
needs more protection from
gious institutions than it
been receiving.
On Jan. 23, 1894 the Am
can Protective Assoc. at a Blo
ington, Illinois convention hel
"1.) that no one should be el
ed to public office who owes
legiance to any foreign k
potentate,
or ecclesiastical
thority ; 2.) that we should mai
a single, non-sectarian seh
system and oppose all attemp
to supplant it by sectarian ed
tion; 3.) that no public f1
should under any circumstan
be used for a sectarian purp
4.) that all church real esta
with the exception of the

tuary itself, should be subject to

taxation; and 5.) that all parochial and other private schools as .
well as convents and monasteries
should be opened for inspection
by public officials."
What religion needs is not taxexemption but full, honest, open
and informed discussion and criticism. Each consequence of religious belief should be examined
to see its effect on society and
the public. Many have effectively
argued that religion is harmful to
society, that superstition and religion are immoral in that they
are inhumane and hinder a rational society to realistically and
intelligently cope with its problems.
Religion is immoral.
Religion is exempt from state
taxes and exempt from rationality. Religion is the "loophole" of
rationality.
The tax exempt status of religious institutions
divides the
nation and the privilege creates
inequality and hostile environment. It divides the nation. Because rationality
is a genuine
and humane goal in the public
interest it would not be interfering to disallow tax-exemption to
religious groups. In the public
interest of promoting
humane
rationality there is good reason
to oppose mystical,
superstitious and religious groups. Religion
encourages
irrational
thinking such as that which led
to the present Irish religious prejudices and wars. Tax-exemption
of religious institutions is to aid
all religions against the rational
man and non-believer.
The child or adult citizen
should be able not to have a
Catholic judge, lawyer, teacher
or doctor. The government does
have the police power to regulate religious activities in a reasonable manner that protects
society in general. But religion
opposes rationality, and children
as well as the general public
should be protected
from the
irrationality of religion.
Religious people and others

who have their vote dictated to

them by higher authority are 1.)
coerced and cannot vote freely
2.) not exercising
intelligent
choice in their vote, and so
should not be allowed to vote. A
Catholic may, because of his religion, be forced to vote for an issue of which he does not even
approve.
The government
should not
hire or use Churches to carry out
its social and welfare programs.
Social welfare and public health
should not be left in the hands of
religion or the church. Churches
on such. roles and have been
encouraged to do so because of
their tax-exempt status. But this
duplicates
programs
and lets
religious institutions
take over
professional
health, social and
therapeutic functions of society.
There is thus a parallel religious
society with religious schools,
hospitals,
universities,
law
schools,
medical
schools,
companies, etc.
Religious institutions such as
Christianity which bases its views
on a psychology of fear and guilt
are erroneously made tax-exempt
sponsors of counseling and social
welfare programs.
Religion is self-serving and
only concerns itself with its own
welfare and fear of a next life. It
is not the sort of institution deserving of tax-exempt status. In
place of church supporting the
state, the state, in effect, now
supports the Church.
Religious people already give
to churches
to make
their
chances for immortality greater.
Money is given the church for
selfish rather than public welfare
reasons. People seldom give extra
money to the U.S. government.
People should be encouraged to
leave their money to the state or
public
secular
organizations
rather than to religious or mystical organizations.
Churches give public support
in some cases but only with a
loaded message.
The state opposed plural marriage beliefs of Mormons and so

interferes with religion for the

good of the state. There would
then be even more reason for the
state to promote open critical
rational
argument
and oppose
the irrationality
of religion for
the benefit of society.
"Discrimination
against religion" is a contradiction in terms.
It is like "discriminate against irrationality"
or discrimination against those who are trying to
overtake the government.
"No
discrimination"
does not mean
no distinction.
It applies only
where discrimination is the unmerited favoring of one over another. But if the case is merited
such as because
of harmful
actions then it is not discrimination but "good judgment." One
meaning of "to discriminate" is
to "use good judgmen t."
(Let religion and mysticism
and all views be expressed freely
however.) But let them be fully
discussed
and criticized.
Discrimination against Blacks or the
poor may be inhumane favoring
of the white and rich. But
discrimination
against irrationality, absolute and mystical thinking on superstition is not discrimination but good and humane
judgment. We do this in government and science everyday. We
weed
out
uncritical
and
fallacious thinking. We oppose
the dogmatic in place of the
rational.
It is no argument that some
churches contribute
to society
sometimes.
If there are ills in
society they should be properly
cared for by state or government
not by a hit or miss charitable
organization
especially
one
which "attaches strings" by promoting
or requiring
religious
belief.
Poor priorities. The government allows tax-exemption
for
religious groups to have equal
and. more than equal priority
over areas such as medical research and education.
Taxpayers
give
billions
in
tax-exemptions
to
irrational
religions
when
people
are
February 1977/American Atheist - 27

starving, in need of medical

care and jobs. Poor priorities:
The government allows religious
groups to be tax-exempt when
people in the United States are
starving, out of work, New York
and many other cities are in great
financial trouble, there are real
and extreme
health,
medical,
crime, and educational problems
in our country.
It is not justifiable to allow
anyone to have a right to his own
beliefs insomuch as it is harmful
to society. Religion is harmful to
society
and insomuch
as it
promotes mysticism and irrationalability and is anti-inquiry it is
unethical and harmful to society.
Thus, the Consititution
is too
liberal
in allowing
absolute
freedom of belief but not disallowing absolute freedom to act
if against the common good. Beliefs are themselves actions and
can have harmful consequences.
The harmful consequences of religious beliefs are pointed out in
this paper. Catholicism and religious beliefs are statements and
as such are actions and the
Courts have held that activity
should be limited insofar as they
are against the public welfare.
Religion is not a public interest
but a private interest.
Catholicism
opposes a free
democratic
society.
For
the
Catholic the secular is used as
a scapegoat-all
the wrongs of
man and the world are due to
not worshiping god or to secular
sin against god. A July 1975, St.
Louis County Mo. case cleared
for trial to claim that public
schools teach "secular humanism" which is a religion. Religion
is basically the enemy of secular
government as well as the enemy
of rationality and honest, open
inquiry. Our democratic secular
free society is tolerant of Catholicism. The latter is not tolerant
of the former but wages verbal
and legal war against it every
way. Church members serve god,
not the state. Their funds and
contributions
go to the church.
The Catholic problem is not just
February 1977/ American Atheist - 28

a religious problem but a power

and political problem. Catholicism is based
on absolute
authority and dogma, not democracy and freedom.
The Pope
is an absolute
monarch. His visitors must kneel
to him. They kneel three times
when they leave. It is monarchic
compulsion.
He is too exalted
to eat with anyone. He has 500
phones which only work for
outgoing
calls. Visitors
must
dress formally and legs and arms
must be covered. The Pope is
carried
through
streets
in a
golden
chair.
The
most
important
thing in a Catholic's
life can be to kiss the Pope's ring
or kneel before him. At coronation the Pope wears five layers
of rich garments and gold embroidered garments. This is not
the figure of a poor christian or
humanitarian.
The Pope is a
comical yet tragic and neurotic
spectacle. Every Catholic cardinal must kiss the Pope's foot when
receiving his red hat. Suppose
that happened
with our president. When the cardinals choose
a new Pope they blind the
windows and seal them with
lead-presumably
so that the
"devil" will not get in.
Catholic censorship
has oppressed our society. The Catholic
system is a dictatorship
(from
Rome), one which is absolute,
unfree, undemocratic
and lacks
fair judicial due process-everything our democratic
form of
government
is opposed to-yet
we reward it be tax-exemption.
Catholic education of children is
dictated
not run by school
boards or run democratically.
Religion often opposes vaccination and medical treatment.
This is based
on irrational
and superstitious
views and is
not in the public interest. Yet
such institutions
are given taxexemptions.
Jehovah's
Witness
vs. King County Hospital (1968)
390 US 598. The religion in this
case actually exposed the child
to ill health and death. Crimes
are committed
in the name of

religion. It is one of the many'

rational and anti-state aspects
religion.
As recently as 1975 (DanielVI.
Waters 515 F2d 485) in Tennessee the Court found against
religious
views because they
attempted
to
indoctrinae
mystical and religious views
students in violations of the F'
Amendment. It was a recent
peat of the Scopes Trial. Catholic
texts oppose rationalism, libe~
ism, modernism, socialism, Oar-;
winism, humanism. Liberalism
here referred to separation 0
state and church. Catholics tea
that the State must be subjectto
the Church.
Religion,
especially
the
Christian religion, is dogmatic
and depends on fixed, absolute
truth. It is in this way antiinquiry. This is harmful for the
preservation
and
intelligen
operation of a rational society
Canon 1372 "From childhood,
all the faithful must be reared
that they are taught nothing
trary to faith and morals...
The Catholic church imp
non-adjustive
social, mate'
and psychological laws on i
people then turns around
condemns
crime,
war
poverty.
The Catholic Can
gation of the Holy Office is'
control of heresies, miracles, .
dulgences, medical practice ce
sorship. This is a return to th
dark ages, medieval witch hunt
ing and inquisition. One of
most deceptive techniques of the
Catholic church is for clergym
to claim liberal and pro-dem
cratic views which are in fact
not the official Church position
Bernard Shaw said the Rom
Catholic in Ireland, "is conte
to regard knowledge as so
thing not his business; he is
child before his Church".
philosopher John Dewey wro
about
the
Catholic Chu
influence:
"It is essential
this basic issue be seen for w
it is-namely,
as the encou
men t of a powerful reaction
world organization in the m

realm of democratic life

the resulting promulgation
principles inimical
to
cy."
olicism keeps people inal cripples for their entire
It discourages inquiry and
their thinking as much
ible. It denies them as
g humans to create in, thoughtless, obedient
of them. It denies their
human qualities. They
senseless,inert objectsd non-entities.
cannot be both intellid religious.
olic policy is to eliminate
blic school. Once it is
t ethical terms (goodright-wrong, ought and
not) which ultimately
to likes, knowledge of
ffect, knowledge of how
about our goals, then it
seen that the "realm of
ethicsand morals" reduce
empirical.It is, then falla-

people." It is no more an argument to say we should support

sacrifice
and
killing
young
women because we are a sacrificing people. Members of the "I
am" movement
believed that
"Guy W. Ballard alias Saint
Germain,
Jesus,
George
Washington, and Godfrey Ray
King, had been selected . . . as a
divine messenger." They can be
rewarded
by
means
of
tax-exemption.
November
11,
1974 a lower court ruled that the
Church of the New Song is a
religion. It was founded by Harry
Theriault
while an inmate of
Atlanta penitentiary.
"Religion
aids the spiritual life of the
people." Compare: "Mythology,
alchemy, astrology,
talking to
the dead, and belief in faith aids
the spiritual life of the people."
Is belief in angels and belief in
eternal cruel and horrible hell
good for. the nation? This is
indeed
"cruel
and inhuman"
treatment.
Do not say religion

long." Neurotic com pulsion is

shown
by
Father
Gregory's
Sacred
Heart
Auto
League,
which is paid by members to
pray thousands of times for the
Catholic
travelers
on
trips.
Catholic fanatics are taken as
moral heros, e.g. Matt Talbot
who wore chains to prevent
sexual sin, until they became imbedded in his flesh.
As to sacrifice, Christianity is
merely
selfish
unselfishness.
Catholicism
keeps
people
ignorant and in poverty. (esp.
Spain
and Spanish
speaking
countries). The more the Catholicism in Europe, the more the
poverty, e.g. Portugal, Spain, and
Italy are remarkably poorer than
Germany,
Scandinavia
and
England. The same rule applies
to South America versus North
America. In Spain (the I 960s) it
is estimated
that 85% of the
children from 14 to 17 were not
in school. The Spanish problem
is that most of the people are

"The Catholic Church does not make men moral but it does make them obedient."
think that religion deals
e whole man. It deals
titious entities and is not
tional or
intelligent
ge or guide to cause and
'on is not of moral
"It is said that churches
be tax-free because they
d moral influence. This
atter of private opinion,
; and even if it be true,
other institutions ...
moral influence may be
great, [though church
is immoral) and yet
, arily are not exempt
ation."
a and authority forms
t sort of moral training.
honestyand understandthe most sound basis of
training. Religion
is
, The Catholic Church
t make men moral but
makethem obedient. To
are a religious people"
"Weare a superstitious

is moral. Thus, it should be kept

out of the schoolroom.
If religious ritual is allowed
we must also allow cross-burning
and any kind of ritual no matter
how horrible. Christ nailed to a
cross is a horrible sight. If a
religion is found to be obscene
would the state oppose it to protect public interest?
Absolute
neutrality
between reason and
irrationality cannot be maintained. One religion may require
virgins to be killed in sacrifice to
the gods. We do not put biochemistry in the hands of a poet.
Reason must be preferred over
mysticism and irrationality both
for survival, in order to be
humane and to avoid horrible
consequences of irrationality.
Catholicism
is neurotically
compulsive. The official booklet
"How to Avoid Purgatory" says
to say "Sacred Heart of Jesus I
place my trust in Thee" 1000
times each day to gain 300,000
days indulgence or say it "all day

ignorant and those who are not

are merely brainwashed by the
Catholic church. Twice as many
women than men are illiterate
and more than twice as many
women
are faithful
to the
church. The Vatican is rich yet
Italy is riddled with poverty and
crime.
Religious
institutions
often
replace
rather
than
promote the public welfare. Poor
communities in many countries
require
church support
when
there is not enough money for
food or education. Magic, superstition, fear, exploiting the ignorance
and
weaknesses
of
people, especially young children
are the basis of Church power.
They command absolute obedience and object to inquiry,
censoring all other knowledge
but their own dogma.
The Christian religion has inhibited progress on the study
of death because it claims to
have the absolute dogmatic truth
about the subject. Only recently
(Continue on page 31)
February

1977/ American

Atheist

- 29

Knowing Versus Believing

w. D. Price
The word "knowledge" is defined in the dictionary as being
"The body of truths acquired
by mankind in the course of
time." The significant word is
"truths".
Fundamental
knowledge is only attained by perception of physical substances and
occurances thru stimuli affecting
the sensory organs and hence
the
comprehension
through
neural-brain-mind
equipment. It
cannot come through abnormal
and unusual functioning of damaged or defective or chemically
maltreated perceptive equipment
as in hallucinations or illusions.
If our world is real, what we perceive of it through our senses
is what we know. The source of
an individual's knowledge is always based on logic and reason,
whereas "beliefs" have emotional
connotations
and emotions are
the consequence of glandular discharges into the central nervous
system, not directly the consequence of sensory perceptions.
"Known" facts remain facts permanently whereas beliefs are subject to change, especially when
positive understanding or actual
knowledge of facts is attained,
displacing erronous
belief. In
many cases belief based on partial evidence or second hand
information later develops to the
status of knowledge when positive proof or observation is acquired.
Our common use of the verb
"to know" frequently includes
certain less than positive or absolute meaning, as when we learn
at second hand as by being informed of events and objects of
which we have not had personal
experience. Thus there can be degrees of certainty
under this
circumstance as when there may
be some degree of doubt of the
veracity of what we have been
told, have read or otherwise been
February 1977/ American Atheist 30

informed. It is a semantic defect

to use the word "know" in such
cases. One should always qualify
reference
to such information
by saying "I have been told,
I have read, or I believe."
A belief may be compared to
a hypothesis (or theory) in scientific research which has a legitimate place in scientific research
as a preliminary
guess in the
search for final truth. Things positively and logically shown to be
true are generally referred to as
postulates
or principles.
The
term dogma is most frequently
used in reference to statements
based only on the authority of
a religious or political power.
Authority and power have their
source in the beliefs of the individuals.
The legal rules of evidence in
our jurisprudence rule out hearsay evidence, thereby making
"believing" completely useless in
the courtroom. The court wants
to know exactly what the witness knows, but not what he believes. This is necessary for the
purpose of true justice.
Some examples of the difference in meaning are: "I know I
am hungry; you believe I am
hungry." The prisoner knows he
is not guilty, the jury believes he
is guilty. I see a man coming up
the creek bank with a string of
fish. I believe he has been fishing, he knows he bought the
fish from a small boy.
Historically
the search for
truth and positive knowledge
pertaining to our physical environment, including the shape of
our planet and the operation of
the solar system and of the cosmos, began quite early in man's
developmen t. The search began
to become scientifically successful with the Greeks, Archimedes,
Ptolemy, Hippocrates,
Aristotle
and others, who began to report

their observations while at the

same time imagining supernatural
explanations.
Over 3,000 years
passed
while
superstitions
reigned and all sorts of "beliefs"
developed.
Eventually
came such minds as Francis
Bacon, Descartes, Galileo and
Newton. Their mental activities
were based not on the beliefs
of predecessors or authority but
strictly on what they could observe of the world about them.
The modern method known as
empiricism
or the scientific
method of formal and careful
experiment began to show results
not only in new positive understanding and knowledge but also
resulted in useful and practical
aids to human life.
The period since 1600 has
seen an explosion of new knowledge and knowing far exceeding
any previous era in the history
of civilization. It has been esti-

mated that ninety percent of the

scientifically
trained minds
which have ever existed are now
living. The things that mankind
now knows, chemistry, mathematics, physics, astronomy, electronics etc. have been acquired
by the scientific method of explanation and logic. The things
that our ancestors believed but
did not know have contributed
nothing to the acquisition of all
this knowing. In fact it has
slowed the development of positive knowledge. Cases in point
include the persecution and burning at the stake of earlier scientific minds. Copernicus and Galileo
were persecuted for showing how
the solar system of planets
worked. Today it is illegal to
teach the' doctrine of evolution
of species in some American
states and "believers" acquire
and spend tremendous sums to
disseminate their emotional beliefs which can be categorically

'cally proven to be in
ntradiction to positive
large part of the world
'on "believes" in reincarof the body, most relich belief in continuation
ter the disintegration of
. There has never been
dence or proof of either
beliefs but they are susby a very powerful fear
unknown and an urgent
less hope. The instinct
es one hang on to the
th of life carries over to
ortem existence in our
tions and makes mortaliul thing. Therefore we
d "believe" we will sometinue a further existence
one can possibly know it,
ming it might be true.
, ation of the mathemachance or probability
show the ease of mistakibility for certainty. It
onstrable that if one
ins ten thousand throws
and tails count will be
to 5,000 each or 50
t, and for one hundred
d throws the percentage
even closer yet. If one
n times and gets heads
in succession it is very
to expect to get heads
the eleventh toss. Howe probability of either
r tails will be exactly the
on the first throw. Tails
greater probability just
it waspreceded by heads
. Study your mathematterm "believing" is somed with a slightly differotation, that is to mean
of' an activity or proConsider that one may

"believe in" birth con trol or the

Communist
Manifesto.
Such
things are impossible of certainty
or falsity as circumstances may
change and what should be a
very strong probability
today
may be proven completely erroneous tomorrow.
Examining the opinions of a
few authorities on the subject
of belief, faith, credulity and
wishful thinking we read Bertram
Russell - "Credulity of course
can lead to disaster: rats eat
food which contains poison. But
if before eating they would subject their food to scientific
analysis they would die of hunger meanwhile, so they are well
advised to take the risk." Mark
Twain remarked that "Faith is
believing what you know ain't
true". Fred Hoyle, the cosmologist, "I cannot see how the smallest advantage is to be gained by
deceiving 'myself". Josh Billings,
"It isn't what a man doesn't
know that makes him a fool,
it is what he believes that isn't
true". My friend the poet insists
that scientific research of truth
destroys the quality of life. I
submit that three fourths and
maybe seven eighths of human
life on this planet, with only the
technology
of the year 1600,
could not possibly survive.
Human beings display an astonishing determination to resist
changing of their beliefs, even
in the face of positive proof.
Emotion prevails and fanaticism
comes into play. Too often the
conflict of beliefs causes dreadful suffering, war and death. Consider the religious wars in Ireland, Protestant against Catholic;
in Lebanon,
Christian
versus
Moslem, in Vietnam, Buddists

versus Catholics. No appeal to

reason seems to affect these
devotees who frequently do not
know thoroughly
the teachings
which they are upholding with
the sword. The Holy Crusades
of the 1100's were a dread ful
example
of this blind faith.
The nature of the human mind
is such that even our unconscious
and instinctive acts can be controlled by beliefs, as in hypnotism. The skilled hypnotist can
often instill into otherwise unconscious minds completely unfounded beliefs and urges that
certain
foolish acts must be
performed
upon the return to
consciousness
and the subject
may find it virtually impossible
to refrain from performing the
required act, without
comprehending any reason whatever for
so doing. Sometimes ill persons
are greatly helped by a powerful faith or belief in certain medications or an effective physician.
Such cases are obviously the function of the mind in cooperation
with the physical body. "Miracle healing" will never heal a
broken bone or a bacterial infection.
Always effort is required to
acquire knowledge. Books have
to be studied and beliefs examined critically and the final
decision of what is true is only
determined by the use of intelligent logic or sensations appealing
to one or more of the physical
senses. Belief however can be the
result of dreams, hearsay, or
vivid imagination and is easy to
come by because it requires no
mental effort whatever.
The only alternative to knowing is not-knowing or ignorance.

Opposed
toPublic
Welfare,
continued)----------------------------

the expense of religion

itication of death begun.
'on to have impeded an
open clarification of the
of death and research

to extend a long healthy life is

suicidal for society.
The Catholic as hypocrite is
shown by the fact that the
Vatican opposed birth control
yet owns the controlling interest

in a drug company which makes

millions
yearly
selling
birth-con trol
pills.
Druggists
often sell the pill saying it is to
"reduce nervous tensions".

February 1977/American Atheist - 31

Bill Murray on Atheism

Some
people
spend
their
youth learning the family hardware business and then inherit
the store when they "come of
age," carrying on the family
tradition.
Bill Murray, 30, is something
like that, but he is heir apparent
to a tradition that's a little different.
The son of Madalyn
Murray O'Hair, he will probably
have to accept the mantle of
the country's foremost Atheist
someday.
He views that responsibility as
significant and he knows what
role he will have to play in order
to have the degree of impact on
American
society
which
his
mother enjoys.
"After Edison invented the
light bulb, he needed Consolidated Edison to make it work,"
Murray said. "The individual
with the idea is not always the
one who can finish the organization. "
His mother, he said, is the philosopher. He sees himself as the
businessman who can "bring political power to Atheists as a
group." And that is his goal,
to increase the strength of American Atheists by 10 times in the
next 10 years.
Growing up Atheist in the
United States was not an easy
chore. As a teen he enjoyed status as a controversial figure, serving as the subject for his mother's famous lawsuit that led to
outlawing of prayer in public
schools.
"The meanest thing anyone
ever did to me," he grins, "was
to push me in front of a moving
bus. It was six guys and they
were trying to kill me.
"I took a lot of beatings but
that doesn't mean I didn't get in
a few good licks of my own, at
least when there were less than
three
of them,"
he recalls.
Murray said he never once
considered believing in the exisFebruary 1977/American Atheist - 32

tence of god, but added that his

mother never forced him to read
Atheist literature.
He said the first time he ever
considered his Atheist beliefs was
when he was young. "Another
kid told me he could make good
grades by praying rather than
studying. I thought that silly."
Still, his youth showed him
that life as an outspoken, practicing Atheist would not only
be "non-profitable
but injurious," as well.
So, armed with a bachelor's
degree in business he spen t the
last eight years "away from the
movemen t." And those years, he
feels, were the best preparation
for his return. So he returned
full-time in 1975 to the office
in Austin.
Formerly the Society of Separationists, the organization has
changed its name this year to
American Atheists. The action is
an acknowledgement,
Murray
said, that admitting Atheism is
now acceptable.
But the group has more managerial problems, he said, than
names. It suffers from a lack of
professionalism in general and a
lack of money.
The cover of their ] anuary
magazine, for example, carries a
"1976" dateline. They can't afford proofreaders. Atheists average $57 per year in donations to
their organization compared with
$570 per year for the average
practicing church member.
The support is there, he believes, and reorganization of the
group will make it viable. He has
vowed to give Atheists a magazine of which they can be proud,
he said, and an organization
which will give them ammunition
for their battle.
"Thomas
Edison,"
he says,
"could make a light bulb but he
couldn't
string all the power
lines for New York City."
So don't be surprised if, dur-

ing the nex t major earthquake,

officials of the ravaged country
receive a box of canned goods
marked: "Donated by American
Atheists. We do not believe in
god."
Murray says it will happen.

BILL MURRAY
The interview printed here came as
the result of the activities of the
Houston-Galveston
Chapter of American A theists. That group had asked
William J. Murray to address students
and others at the University of Hous-ton, on January 16th, 1977.
Gerald
Tholen,
the
HoustonGalveston Chapter Director, had been
laboring for a breakthrough to the
hard media (i.e. newspapers) in the
area for several months.
One of the reporters invited was
Gary Taylor. Bill Murray, of course, is
a dynamic and forceful speaker and
Mr. Taylor seized upon him after his
address, for a several hour interview.
From this came a banner headline [O'Hsir's Son Hopes to Streamline
Atheism} and a six column wide story
on the front page of The Houston Post
on Monday
morning
January 17,
1977. It was a brilliant way to start
the week. The more spokesmen we
have, the better the cause of American
A theism prospers.

American Atheists you receive a comip packet, This includes the current
-Insider's" Newsletter, Membership card
III of which are pictured here.

Membership
certificate
is 8Y;' x 11" parchment
paper.
Dr. O'Hair signs each certificate
personally
after Board of Trustees votes for membership.
Only
one issued per member.

AMERICAN ATHEIST
NEWSLETTER
(512)4581244

folder contains first newsletter,

and card.

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