American Atheist Magazine Jan 1978

This Issue:
ATHEIST LEADER A "HIT"
/ LOSS FOR RELIGION
NAVY RECOGNIZES ATHEIST / RELIGIOUS WWIII
$1.25
A Joumal Of
Atheist News
And Thought
Vol. 20, No.1
January, 1978
This Issue:
ATHEIST LEADER A "HIT"
I LOSS FOR RELIGION
NAVY RECOGNIZES ATHEIST I RELIGIOUSWWIII
$1.25
A Joumal Of
Atheist News
And Thought
Vol. 20, No. 1
January, 1978
AMERICAN ATHEISTS
"Aims and Purposes"
1. To stimulate and promote freedom of thought and inquiry concerning religious
beliefs, creeds, dogmas, tenets, rituals and practices.
2. To collect and disseminate information, data and literature on all religions and
promote a more thorough understanding of them, their origins and histories.
3. To advocate, labor for, and promote in all lawful ways, the complete and absolute
separation of state and church; and the establishment and maintenance of a
thoroughly secular system of education available to all.
4. To encourage the development and public acceptance of a humane ethical system,
stressing the mutual sympathy, understanding and interdependence of all people
and the corresponding responsibility of each, individually, in relation to society.
5. To develop and propagate a social philosophy in which man is the central figure who
alone must be the source of strength, progress and ideals for the well-being and
happiness of humanity.
6. To promote the study of the arts and sciences and of all problems affecting the
maintenance, perpetuation and enrichment of human (and other) life.
7. To engage in such social, educational, legal and cultural activity as will be useful
and beneficial to members of American Atheists and to society as a whole.
"Definitions"
1. Atheism is the life philosophy (Weltanschauung) of persons who are free from
theism. It is predicated on the ancient Greek philosophy of Materialism.
2. American Atheism may be defined as the mental attitude which unreservedly
accepts the supremacy of reason and aims at establishing a system of philosophy
and ethics verifiable by experience, independent of all arbitrary assumptions of
authority or creeds.
3. The Materialist philosophy declares that the cosmos is devoid of immanent conscious purpose; that it is governed by its own inherent, immutable and impersonal
law; that there is no supernatural interference in human life; that man-finding his
resources within hirnselt=can and must create his own destiny; and that his potential for good and higher development is for all practical purposes unlimited.
ERICAN
JHEIST
January, 1978
ON THE COVER
EDITORIAL
2
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. . . . . .
.
3
NEWS
Atheist Leader a "Hit" at Bingo. .
.
.4
Baird and O'Hair Team Up
9
Navy Recognizes Sailor as Atheist
10
The Roots of India's Intractable Problems
12
Loss for Reiigion
14
FEATURE ARTICLES
The Religious Roots of WWIII, Samuel McMorris
16
The Abortion Issue, Hubert W. Prescott
18
Theories, Proofs and Nonsense, G. Richard Bozarth
19
Those Pitiful Ten Commandments
Speaking for Women: Anne Gaylor
20
A Solsticial Gift, Shibles' Corner: Warren Shibles
22
Locke's Mistake Compounded by Jefferson, Voltaire E. Heywood .26
AMERICAN ATHEIST RADIO SERIES
23
POEMS
31
Editor-in-Chief:
Madalyn Murray Q'Hair/Managing
Editor:
Jon Garth Murray/
Editor: Edmund Bojarski/Assistant
Editor: Barbara Grimes/Circulation:
John Mays/
Production:
Ralph Shirley/Non-residential
Staff: Anne Gaylor, Warren Shibles,
Ignatz Sahula-Dycke,
G. Richard Bozarth, Voltaire E. Heywood, James Erickson.
The American Atheist magazine is published
monthly
by American
Atheists,
2210 Hancock Drive, Austin, Texas, 78756, a non-profit, non-political, tax-exempt,
educational organization.
Mailing Address: P. O. Box 2117, Austin, TX, 78768;
copyright @ 1977 by Society of. Separationists, Inc.; Subscription rates: $15.00 per
year; $25.00 for two years. Manuscripts submitted must be typed, double-spaced
and accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The editors assume no
responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts.
THE AMERICAN ATHEIST MAGAZINE
Post Office Box 2117

Austin, Texas 78768
Enter my subscription for one year at $1.5.00 (two years at $25.00).
NEW
Total Enclosed $,
RENEWAL
_
Name
Address
Don Latimer
The earliest job I remember was a
bakery route which I covered with my father a few times. It was an interesting
business. Go to the bakery in the wee hours
of the morning, stock the truck, and make
the deliveries before the coffee shops, etc.
opened for business. There was some danger
in this business. More than once he ran into
a burglary taking place, and a gun and a
"sap" were tools of the trade.
Father's
family
was from Texas,
mother's from Canada. They met in Los
Angeles, California. The family was nominally Methodist and even if the parents
didn't always go to church, little Don was
sent off to Sunday school with a nickel.
Even then I was more interested in other
things and usually ended up in an industrial
area.
Later, school science classes made it
certain that there was no heaven up there
and no hell below, either. So during my
teens I changed. By mid-teens there was no
literal belief in the Bible and during my late
teens I learned to question the supernatural
and finally to outgrow it altogether.
It was hell to be the only Atheist I knew.
Living in the closet, which works for so
many Atheists, was not suitable for me, and
these were very unpleasant years. I had quit
high school before my last year in order to
get a job. My mother was having a hard time
making ends meet and ajob was a necessity.
With no special skills and no help from anyone else I got a job with Douglas Aircraft
pounding rivets with many others on the old
DC-6's and DC-7's. A massive layoff caught
me.
I had been interested in electronics for
many years and managed to make the
change into a new field, where I've been
ever since.
I was into my thirties before I went to
night school and got my high school diploma, followed by three years of college.
When an organization started that was
for Atheists and didn't drag far right, far
left, or any other politics into itself, I was
pleased to become a part of it. That organization became American Atheists. A few
years ago I started buying my own home
and made it the local headquarters of the
Society.
I am a 23-year member of Auto Club of
Southern California, a member of the
American Association for the Advancement
of Science, and a member of the California
Arboretum Foundation. I had several orchids but time takes its toll and the only
one left is a Cattleya bowringiana that refuses to die. It reminds me of the Atheist
movement in the world of ideas!
AMERICAN ATHEISTS
15339 Naranja Ave.
Paramount, CA 90723
Telephone
(213)634-8055
City, State, & Zip
Page 1
The American Atheist
~/
)
It's often said that man has always been religious
and believed in some sort of a god, but this isn't quite
. correct. The earliest information we have indicates
that man's religion started with a belief in spirits. Early man believed that his dreams were real and that
what he dreamed really happened in some spirit
world. If he dreamed that he hunted, fought, or made
, love, then he had done these things. The pagan religions before Christianity were really the last stagesof
spirit worship. Those gods were generalized spirits.
The grain spirit, fertility spirit, forest spirit, and war
, spirit, etc. These spirit gods were not really gods in
the modern sense. No one really knows the reason
why, but the time was right for a modern god about
the time of Christianity. It couldn't happen before,
and even if Christianity hadn't come along, another
religion soon would have, as Mohammedanism soon
did.
The pagans were more or less ready to welcome a
modern god or a super-god in the pre-Christian sense
of the word.
It was the Christians who weren't willing to tolerate the pagans, not the other way around, that was
the cause of most of the conflict. This conflict would
have happened anyway, with Islam or some other
religion.
The pagans were doomed; they didn't stand a
chance. With the pagans' willingness to tolerate
Christianity and the Christians' unwillingness to tolerate the pagans, the pagans were as good as dead. It
only remained to convert those that would change
and to put the rest in their graves.
THE SECOND GREAT CHANGE
The Bible leaves no reasonable doubt but that
heaven was just a few thousand feet above a flat earth
and that hell was below. The firmament separated
heaven from earth. It was solid and transparent, and
held up by high mountains. The blue of the sky was
the water resting atop the firmament. When god
opened holes in the firmament the water ran down
and made the rains. The stars were campfires or lanterns which showed through the windows in the mansions of heaven.
When astronomy showed that the earth was round
Page 2
and only a planet in the solar system, religion shook.

When the dust settled religion had thrown both
heaven and hell, in the literal sense, in the garbage
can, With both heaven and hell in the garbage can,
religion adopted the modern view of the universe.
THE THIRD
GREAT CHANGE
The Bible speaks only of kinqs and emperors.

Other forms of government couldn't be and were not
considered. The king was appointed by god and ruled
by divine right. No other system was really thinkable
in a serious senseto most people.
When the kings were overthrown or. made impotent, and they were in all modern countries, religion
shook again. Rather than going down the tube with
royalty, religion was only too happy to embrace the
new republics or democracies,
. ,
THE FOURTH GREAT CHANGE
Religion has shown its will ingness to scrap even its
god .. It has done so in the "God is dead" theology,
and other groups aren't far from it.
THE FIFTH
GREAT CHANGE?
Religion has also shown its willingness to bed with

socialism, and even communism. After many years of
oh-so-bitter words on how religion and communism
are totally incompatible we find major forces 'of
Christian communism in France, Italy, and Eastern
Europe, but the conservative Protestants never bent,
never had anyth ing to do with the "other side."
Then it happened. The greatest chunk of bedrock
Protestantism in the western world, the rnan who an
ex-president and much of the country relied on for
moral guidance, went to Hungary. White there he was
reported to have had a change of heart and mind.
With much of Catholicism there, and Protestantism
going left, is this the fifth great 'change? It looks very
much like it is.
,
Religion has dumped its heaven, hell, and its kings.
Even its god, and capitalism may go. One wonders if
there is anything left to dump. If there is, I am confident that religion will find it.
~/
Dear Editor:
Dear Editor:
I'm sure I speak for all
This is to let you know that as
Atheists when I say how sad we
an American Atheist, I am officially recognized by the Navy are for all those people who were
hurt, or killed, in that November
now!
6, 1977, Toccoa, Georgia dam
I've written the the Seattle
Times and the Seattle Post- break and flood.
We realize this catastrophe exIntelliginer to report this and
the publicity will certainly help ploded mainly upon the Toccoa
Falls Bible College, and the
the cause.
I've also gone down to the lo- sleeping community of the town.
cal Bremerton Sun to report all We Atheists feel truly sad for our
that's gone on. It should be in fellow man.
And yet!
the paper the second week of
Bob Harner of Ravenna,Ohio,
December.
at the site stated, "1 believe that
I'll have to write the Chief of
Naval Personnel again and see sometimes God allows Satan to
about deleting "under God," and do things hoping to discourage
such from any oaths I may have us, and we are tested that way."
How much sadder it is that
to take or have taken thus far.
I will not bow my head or ever such religious logic lacks so much
"common sense:"
remove my hat for military
(1) The dam was weak.
prayer again. This I will make
(2) The dam was man-made.
clear.
(3) The dam collapsed.
I will keep you informed of
(4) Man didn't make the dam
further progress. Thank you for
strong enough.
all you've done.
(5) Man didn't
check it
Michael D. Hagen
enough for weaknesses.
Bremerton, WA
To say god did allow Satan to
causesuch a happenstanceto test
Dear Michael..,
Bravo! Your Pearl Harbor Day his people is a "cop-out!"
It seemsthis so-called god just
letter gave all of us here a lift!
We are having the form veloxed loves to scatter dead people
about.
so that we can print it with a folIs it possible the students at
low up letter in this issue. [See
letter and article on p. 10J Please that Bible College might now use
their brains to reason it out? I
send clips (or copies). We don't
have many victories, so we must guessnot.
A. L. Pangborn
use those we have to the fullest.
Oakville,
Ontario
I'm hoping the current equivalent ef the Stars and Stripes of
Dear Editor:
my military days picks up your
Freedom Under Siege, "The
story and all the servicemenwho
Abortion Issue," (p. 169) says
think as you do will be able to
"Only when the life of the moget their records changed. As of
now, they have no idea it can be ther is at stake." A pregnant
done. If the military papers and woman is not a mother. To bemagazines don't pick it up, we come a mother, she must give
can send them clips when it's all birth to a child first. What if said
woman had a sudden miscarover.
riage? What is an "unborn
The Editor
The American A theist
child?"
In medical terminology, there
is no such creature as an "unborn
child." The American Heritage
Dictionary
of
the
English
Language (p. 127) defines child
as "any person between birth
and puberty."
This "unborn
child" was also in an abortion
article in your American Atheist
magazine. It was coined by the
Roman church and Right-toLifers.
It is preposterous and biologically impossible for a woman
to carry in her womb a "person
between birth and puberty."
What is so amazing is that the
hypnotic
Roman
Catholic
church has been able to put
1984 distortionist words in your
intelligent mouth and literature.
It is the responsibility of editors and publishers not to carry
th is distortion of facts.
D. Garcia
New York, N.Y.
Dear Mr. Garcia:
Because of your letter, we
have seen the light! We've never
seen it so clearly before, either.
We owe you a vote of thanks!
Editor
Dear Editor:
After reading your magazine
for a second time, I felt much
better. The opinions expressed
pointed out that Christians
believed in God. I often wondered if they did. Thank you for
helping to restore my faith. Am
enclosing a poem you might be
able to use. [It appears on p. 31]
I like your magazine becausereligion should be questioned, so
should its leaders! I think you
should read Mad Magazine becauseyours is too dull.
Rev. John B. Denson D D
St. Augustine, F L
Page 3
ATHEIST
lEADER
A 'HIT'
AT BINGO
In Texas, as in any other state, the politicians and

the police are afraid to intrude into the situation.
Everyone knows what goes on. The Baptists are
happy to have the power to influence legislation. The
Roman Catholics are happy since they can, gleefully,
ignore the laws. The politicians are happy since no
one is rocking the boat.
But, what is the reason for laws and the definition
of illegal activity if a certain class [in this instance,
the Roman Catholic churches] is given complete immunity from the law?
Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair complained to the law
enforcement agenciesand received the classicand oft
repeated"run around," over a lengthy period of time.
She had personally called at the office of the county
attorney, the chief of police, the city manager, only
to be fended off by secretariesand small-fry administrators who protect the officials from citizens as a
part of their ordinary jobs.
complaint of the persons involved in the felony. She

requested Sam Miller, the South American organizer
of American Atheists, to precede her to the game. Mr.
Miller has been in Austin, since August, working at
the American Atheist Center on the problems of the
American Atheist Library and Archives. He consented
to participate in such a "dramatization" at the San
Jose Catholic church, 2411 Oak Crest, Austin, Texas.
Mr. Miller, therefore, went to the games,purchased
boards, strips, and obtained other equipment for the
activity of bingo playing. He was in attendance at the
gamefrom 7:00 P.M. that evening.
At 8: 15 P.M. Dr. O'Hair went to the church, with
the express purpose of witnessing that bingo was in
session,then to call the police, file a complaint with
the arresting officers, have the operators of the game
charged with a felony and the participants of the
gamecharged with misdemeanors.
When she walked into the church she was immediately recognized. An armed private police guard was
at the door. Dr. O'Hair advised this person that a
felony was in process and demanded that the police
be called. The armed private guard began to curse,
retreated into a small office and locked the door. Dr.
O'Hair approached the game operators and said, "1
desire to purchase into the game. "The operators refused to permit her to do this. Thereupon she also advised the operators that the game was illeqal and
asked them to cease the activity. They refused. She
then went to the public telephone hanging in the
building near the front stage where the bingo equipment was located. The telephone was out of order.
She made four attempts to make calls and each time
her money was returned and the telephone remained
inoperative.
Therefore, she moved to the center of the room
and calmly announced that an illegal gambling activity was in process and that everyone should desist
from these activities and line up to give their names
and addresses so that she could make a citizen's
arrest of a" concerned.
TO DRAMATIZE AN OBJECTION
THEY FELLED HER
Therefore, on 27th October, 1977, Dr. O'Hair felt

that it would be necessaryto dramatize an objection
to the continuing bingo games in Austin, Texas, and
decided to go to one such game and make a citizen's
There were about 250 persons in attendance. The

immediate reaction was that about five personsstood
up from their seats and began to shout obscenities.
Soon a dozen were standing, and threats began, while
The situation in Texas is not so much different

from the situation anywhere elsein the United States:
Here the Baptist churches are so powerful that they
have been able to push through legislation which precludes "gambling" in any of its forms. Many states in
the United States are now opting for "lotteries" to
help finance state activities and easethe burden of
tax-payers. In Texas, and in other southern states, it
is not possible for the citizens to havesuch relief. We
believe that this is an unconstitutional activity of the
Baptist churches.
Also, in Texas, as in any state, the Roman Catholic
churches gain political clout constantly. In Texas
with the influx of Mexicans whole counties have become bastions of Roman Catholicism as these new
citizens bring their reiigious beliefs with them. Therefore, the Roman Catholic churches have,with impunity, been able to ignore the gambling laws and to continue with bingo games everywhere in the state.
NO ONE IS ROCKING THE BOAT
The news. which fills one half of .the magazine is chosen to demonstrate, n:t<?nthafter month, the dead reactionary hand of religion. It dictatJ
good habits, sexual conduct, famtly SIze, It censures cinema, theater, television, even education. It dictates life values and lifestyle. Religion is
politics and, always, the most authoritarian and reactionary politics. We editorialize our news to emphasize this thesis. Unlike any other magazine or newspaper in the United. States, we are honest enough to admit it.
Page4
Dr. O'Hair held ground and repeated her announcement. By then about 25 to 30 persons were standing and they charged her. She was immediately surrounded by Roman Catholics who began to push,
pummel, strike, shoveand finally fell her.
Suddenly they scattered, as Mr. Miller charged the
lot of them throwing both his hands and arms out to
sweep them away from her. The effect was much like
a bowling ball hitting the pins. Immediately Mr. Miller was attacked and the next ten minutes were taken
with Mr. Miller and Dr. O'Hair attempting to get out
of the church. They were both badly beaten.
At this point, they repaired to the nearestall night
store to a pay telephone from whence they called
both the police and the news media. They then returned -to the church. There, Mr. Miller beganto collect the license plate numbers of cars of those in attendance. The police arrived and Dr. O'Hair told officer Carl Barho and his partner that sheand Mr. Miller had been assaulted, that she desired to have a
complaint filed against the operators of the bingo
game and that she desired to have arrested the ten
or fifteen personsshecould identify by sight who had
struck her and Mr. Miller. Mr. Miller demanded the
same.
POLICE REFUSED TO TAKE A COMPLAINT

The police officers refused to take the complaint
concerned with bingo and illegal gambling. They refused to enter the church. They refused to arrest anyone. They refused to take any names and addresses
and they interfered with Mr. Miller as he was trying
to take the numbers of the automobiles. They actively assisted in permitting the persons involved in
the incident to escapeby opening a back door to the
bingo gameroom.
Dr. O'Hair demanded that they enter the church
and see that a game of gambling had been in operation. They refused to do so, and shethen walked into
the church again to pick up some of the gameequipment. Officer Barho followed her into the church demanding that she stop being. "u_nreasonable" and
stating that he could not take any complaint because
she was "unreasonable" and would not "cooperate."
Inside the church, Dr. O'Hair pointed out the game
operators, and identified several persons more - still
lingering there - who had assaulted her, particularly
one woman who had struck her on the shoulders and
head with a bingo board, a heavy lethal device used in
the gaming.
O'Hair raids bingo party

Atheist blasts police; for avoiding arrests
Staff Photo by Lorry Murphy
O'Hair tells her side to Officer Carl Barho outside San Jose Catholic Church
Page 5
The officers absolutely refused to give any assis- involved in such a felony) the police called were retance, refused to take names, refused to take a re- quired to make on the scene arrests.
port. Dr. O'Hair insisted and, again going outside, demanded that a report be written, at which time OfCHARGES FILED AGAINST POLICE
icer Barho reluctantly invited her into his police car
to give information. Dr. O'Hair carefully - selectHaving this information,
Sam Miller and Dr.
ing her' words - gave "information."
At one point
O'Hair filed charges against the policemen for dereOfficer Barho refused to put on his report her com- liction of duty.
plaint that he had refused to take names, refused to
Meanwh ile, a local television station and newsarrest, refused to seize evidence, etc. He told her, "1 paper reporters contacted police chief Frank Dyson,
will keep that in my head." He also refused to permit
who - before he even read the complaints against
her to read the report he had written.
the two officers, Timothy Hannemann and Carl
Barho - stated that he felt they had acted "entirely
Article 3, section 47 of the Texas Constitution
properly. "
provides that the legislature shall pass laws prohibitWhen Dr. O'Hair went to Chief Dyson he advised
ing the establishment of lotteries in the the state. The her that the complaint she had filed concerned with
Texas Penal Code provides the specific prohibition in the bingo playing had been referred by him to the
Sec. 47.01 to Sec. 47.07.
"Special Services Division" for an investigation.
In Spring of 1976 the County Attorney of Denton,
To the newspaper reporter the following day, he
Texas, asked the Attorney General of Texas about a said that his department would not make a bingo
lottery to raise funds for a worthy cause, specifically
crackdown. And, we quote: "he said, 'O'Hair filed
challenging the Penal Codes and the Texas Constituno new complaints of illegal gaming with police
tion. Attorney General Hill replied in a five page officials on October 27th." This statement is a
memorandum at the conclusion of which he append- blatant lie.
ed a "Summary" which said:
"The Texas Constitution and the Texas Penal
COMPLAINT FILED AGAINST NEWSMEN
Code prohibit lotteries even though they may be
conducted for a charitable purpose."
It was at this point that Jon Murray and Dr. O'Hair
The definition of a lottery included the concept of asked for, and received, an appointment with Ray
bingo games. This opinion, No. H-820, was issued on Mariotti, Editor in Chief of the Austin-American
May 16, 1976 and is still in effect.
Statesman newspaper. They went to his office and
spent over 90 minutes with him and half a dozen staff
The Austin-American Statesman newspaper report
reporters while they filed a formal complaint against
appeared on the front page, with the headline and the very sensational and untrue handling of the bingo
picture as heretofore indicated. An obviously ill Dr. game episode. Mr. Ray Mariotti heard them out in
O'Hair, was raked over the coals. Two reporters, their complaint and we are pleased to report that the
Robert Schwab and Tracy Cortese, had interviewed a news coverage of both Dr. O'Hair and the American
Mexican-American participant of the game, age 20, Atheist Center has been factual since the date of this
who charged that Dr. O'Hair had "charged in like a interview.
Brahma bull ...grabbing bingo cards, pushing and
In each and every incident in which Center personshoving people, and the man who was with her nel have been involved. the newspaper - in both
started punching people."
morning and evening editions - has meticulously giThe national story wh ich was re-written from th is ven the facts only and permitted the reader to draw
story had Dr. O'Hair, single-handedly break tables in his (her) own conclusions from these facts.
twain. The supervisor of the private security guard,
Dr. O'Hair, the Director of the American Atheist
who was not at the bingo game, claimed that there Center, Jon Murray, and other personnel feel that this
was an effort "to quiet her (O'Hair) down" and that
personal visit with the newspaper editor was very pro"five or six people took her from the hall."
ductive toward an unbiased presentation of Atheist
The next morning Dr. O'Hair, Jon Murray, the news. You are urged to contact the editor of your
Director of the Atheist Center, Samuel Miller and local paper when you seeslanted stories in relation to
Ralph Shirley, our in-house attorney, went to the Atheism - you may have same pleasant experience.
police station. There, they first inquired what the
exact duty of a police officer was when he was callFORTH WORTH, TEXAS, CLOSES BINGO
ed to an altercation. The sergeant in charge explained that the officer should take the names and addressIt was interesting to note that following the broues of all persons involved, arrest those who were iden- haha in Austin, the Fort Worth police announced
tified as assailants and make certain that all persons plans to crack down on illegal bingo. The lieutenant
involved were given adequate information in regard who heads the department of vice and narcotics said
to names and addressesso that further charges could
on November 3rd that he had contacted organizabe filed if anyone so desired. When a felony was tions to inform them about the state gambling law.
being committed (the operators of the lottery were
Page6
~/
Among the organizations contacted were the Fort

Worth Ministerial Association and the Knights of
Columbus, a Roman Catholic affiliation.
SAN ANTONIO BINGO CONTINUES
Meanwhile, it was necessaryto send Samuel Miller
to San Antonio on a businesstrip. While he was there
he noted that the St. Anne's Roman Catholic church
not alone openly and notoriously advertises bingo
but that it sells pinball machines, juke boxes, pool
tables, cigarette machines and pool supplies - all for
the everlasting glory of JesusChrist.
O'Hair or any other persons at the American Atheist

Center and it is necessaryto conclude from th is that
Chief Frank Dyson lied to Dr. O'Hair - and the newsmedia, when he stated that the complaint filed by Dr.
O'Hair was under investigation.
$40,000 A MONTH INCOME
From a study done by members of the American
Atheist Center it appears that the Roman Catholic
churches of Austin, Texas, were taking in approximately $40,000 per month, per church, in which
bingo was being played.
Therefore, the Center approached each and every
Baptist church in the city, asking that they contact
appropriate law enforcement persons with emphasis
on the need of the Roman Catholic church to comply
with existing law. The Center also noted: "As the
need for legal action becomes apparent to coerce our
elected and appointed officials to such compl iance,
may we have your check for a contribution to our
legal fund?"
SUIT FOR DAMAGES
In early December as the bingo issue continued to

draw comment from all quarters, Bill Baird, the
father of the birth control movement in the current
era, visited the American Atheist Center. One of his
continuing quarrels has been with the Roman Catholic church and he has strongly suggested that a
damage suit be filed against the St. Jose Church, for
the terrible beating Dr. O'Hair and Sam Miller received while upon the premises of that church. This
matter has been turned over to our legal staff and we
contemplate that such a suit will be filed early in the
MORE BINGO
year.
When that suit is filed, there will be other legal
Following this, it was learned that bingo was con- actions taken to remove patrolmen Timothy Hantinuing at a new location: the St. Louis Roman neman and Carl Barho, Police Chief Frank Dyson,
Catholic Church, 7601 Burnet Rd., Austin, Texas. County Attorney Ronnie Earle, City Manager Dan
On Friday, December 2nd, 1977, Ralph Shirley, of
Davidson, and Attorney General Hill. All will be
our staff, went to this church and played bingo. At
charged with dereliction of duty and deliberate
the game the Roman Catholic church was selling selective enforcement of the law.
beer, sandwiches and refreshments. Minors were in
If the Roman Catholic churches of Texas are
attendance. Since the police chief refused to do given the right to break the law with impunity,
anything about bingo, it was decided that this church then the crime community should be given the same
also needed to have a visit by the entire staff of the right. Murderers, rapists, thieves should have their
American Atheist Center, and the media. Therefore, felonies "winked at" if the Roman Catholic church
the media was advised that the staff would appear at has its felonious behavior "winked at." All of this
this church on the 9th of December.
would cause extraordinary difficulties for the human
There is - apparently a leak again in our staff at community. A proper regard for state/church separthe Center - for, when we arrived at the St. Louis ation must be established in Texas and in every other
Roman Catholic Church, it was closed down and no state. The American Atheist Center will continue
bingo gamewas in session.
with th is action.
POLICE CHIEF LIES
From 27th October to the writing of this article,
12th December, 1977, the Special Services of the
Austin Police Department has not contacted Dr.
Page 7
IN ORDER TO REMAIN
VIABLE
IN A MAGAZINE
PUBLISHING
MARKET
WITNESSED THE DEMISE OF SUCH GIANTS IN THE FIELD AS "LIFE"

ARE FORCED TO REQUEST MOST URGENTLY
WHICH HAS
AND "LOOK'"
WE
THAT EACH AND EVERY ONE OF OUR
PRESENT SUBSCRIBERS, INCLUDING LIBRARIES AND INSTITUTIONS, COME TO OUR AID

DURING THIS COMING YEAR BY BRINGING
AL SUBSCRIBER TO "THE AMERICAN
LUTION
INTO THE FOLD AT LEAST ONE ADDITION-
ATHEIST."
PLEASE MAKE A NEW YEAR'S RESO-
BEFORE YOU TURN THIS PAGE THAT BEFORE 1978 ENDS YOU WILL HAVE
DONE YOUR PART FOR THE AMERICAN ATHEIST MOVEMENT BY HAVING ADDED JUST
ONE SOLITARY
SUBSCRIBER TO OUR MAGAZINE.
WE THANK YOU FROM THE BOT-
TOMS OF OUR HEARTS AND WISH EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU AND YOURS THE
HAPPIEST, HEALTHIEST
AND MOST PRODUCTIVE NEW YEAR OF YOUR ENTIRE LIVES!

Editorial and production
Page8
staff
BAIRD AND O'HAIR TEAM UP

We report the following directly from the United
Press tnt'I wires as it came out of an interview by
reporter Anne Arnold who visited with the principals at the American Atheist Center, November30th,
1977.
"Outspoken Atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair and
liberal abortion law advocate Bill Baird are taking on
the [Roman] Catholic Church in an attempt to stop
it from lobbying for strict abortion laws.
"In a joint announcement, Mrs. O'Hair and Baird
urged [Roman] Catholics to stop giving money to the
church and asked the public in general to boycott
products of [Roman] Catholic businesses.
" 'We are declaring economic war against the Roman Catholic Church,' said Baird, director of abortion clinics in Boston and Hempstead, N.Y., and a
key figure in court fights over women's right to abortion.
"Baird and Mrs. O'Hair, head of the American Atheist Center, said they believe the current deadlock
in Congress* over federally funded abortions for welfare recipients is the work of [Roman] Catholic lobbyists.
" 'Who in the heck is the Roman Catholic Church
to have the arrogance to say to us Americans, 'We're
going to tell you what is right and wrong'?' Baird
said.
"Mrs. O'Hair said [Roman] Catholics should turn
in empty collection envelopesmarked 'No money until women have freedom of choice' during the Christmasholidays.
"Baird and Mrs. O'Hair also suggestedabortion advocates boycott [Roman] Catholic business enterprises such as Christian Brothers: Wine, Monks' Bread
and Trappist Jams.
"Mrs. O'Hair said the church is attempting to impose its dogma on all Americans because lRoman]
Catholic women have disobeyed the Pope's decrees
against abortion and most forms of birth control.
" '1 think the Roman Catholic Church is advertising the fact that it cannot control its own women,'
she said. 'If it could control its own women it would
not needto reach out to control all women.'
"Mrs. O'Hair endorsed Baird's court challenge of
a 1974 Massachusettslaw that prohibits women under 18 from obtaining abortions without the consent
of both parents or a judge.
" 'I'm afraid we're going to lose,' Baird said. 'The
U.S. Supreme Court has swung drastically to the
(religious) right.'
"He said a decision upholding the law would encourage other states to adopt similar measuresand
lead to deaths of many women forced to obtain illicit
abortions. "
United P,."
Inter'lllltl1
BOYCOTT URGED -
At a joint news conference i~'

Austin, Texas, atheist leader Madalyn Murra
O'Hair, right, and abortion advocate BillBaird calle
for an economic boycott of the Roman Catholic
Church to protest church lobbying against Medicaid
funds for abortion.
Abortion backer,
Atheist blast
Catholic Church
* The Roman Catholic Church lost this battle in

early December when Congressapproved Medicaid
funding for abortions for poor women.
Page 9
NAVY
RECOGNIZES
"BRE'MERTON, Wash. (AP) - A 21-year-old sailor

who says he will utter no more military pledges or
oaths has been recognized officially by the Navy as an
American Atheist, perhaps the first person allowed to
list his religious preference this way.
"Michael Dean Hagen successfully challenged his
previous designation by the Navy as having 'no preference' about his religious affiliation.
"Hagen, on duty as a hospital corpsman at the
Naval Regional Medical Center at Bremerton, says he
may challenge further the generally theistic atmosphere of the military service since, he says, he will
take 'no more pledges, no more oaths.'
"Hagen belongs to American Atheists Inc. of
Austin, Texas, an organization headed by Madalyn
Murray O'Hair. An atheist generally is defined as a
person who does not believe in a supreme being, and
an American Atheists publication says, 'We are persons who have rejected rei igion.'
"Hagen said he decided the best way to get a nursing degree and training he wanted was to join the service. Then he discovered that to enter the Navy he
had to swear 'before God: In boot camp, he was
AS ATHEIST
SAilOR
ordered to bow his head in prayer at a graduation

ceremony.
" 'I find that religion, at least organized religion,
seems to playa big part in military activities everywhere,' Hagen said.
"In a letter to Navy officials asking to be recognized officially as an American Atheist, Hagen wrote,
'On entrance into the Navy I identified myself among
those listing their religion as 'no preference:
" 'I have since learned that this category is too
vague to adequately describe my postion. I am an
American Atheist ... "no preference" does not indicate th is and places me in a large category of various
indecisive Christians, apathetic individuals and agnostics.'
" 'The fact is I do have a preference ...
Listing
myself as "other"
will not do either, as it implies I
have a religion, but simply not of Judeo-Christian nature:
"A form letter from the chief of naval personnel
noted simply that Hagen's record has been corrected
to show his religious preference as American Atheist.
(Continued on p. 30)
DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

BUREAU
OF NAVAL
WASHINGTON
F-7
(11/62)
PERSONNEL
25, D.C.
Pers-381:GB:sat
16 Nov 77
From:
Chief of Nanl
To:
Commanding Officer
Naval Regional Medical Center
Br emer con , H'A 98314
Subj:
HN Michael
Correction
Ref:
(e)
Subject
Personnel
Dean HAGEN. USN, 264-27-7942

of record
raenber t s request
1.
Actic:-: ~11 be taken to correct
in the Ite:'l{s) checked betev,
of 31 August 1977 (CO?y)
subject
me~8rls
Ccr-r-ee't subject meMber's

n i sh ed in reference
(a).
record
to reflect
;;i
Correet
record
ae ro110\ls:
b.
subject
member's
record
as indicated
the information
fur-
Record Item Changed

DD Form 1966-Bloc.k 12
Religious
Preference
American Atheist
<1;1'1J!d;,
T. L. NARTfN
By direc.tion
Copy to:
MICHAEL
Page 10
DEAN
HAGEN
Per s -L?
MORTGAGE
FUND
The American Atheist Center has come under an economic attack within the last two months. This
has manifested itself by the cancellation of insurance on the building on two separate occasions,for
reasonswhich proved to be specious. At first, we were told that the sign must be removed from the
building. When we offered to negotiate on this we were told that the sign was not the problem but rather
the "Atheist activities" in the building. When the insurance firms were asked if they were afraid of what
Atheists might do to the building they were finally pinned down to admitting they were afraid of what
Christians might do. That admission was printed in the newspapersof our city: Austin, Texas.
We do have insurance again now, but the mortgage holder hasthreatened on both of the above occasionsto "call in the mortgage," i.e. accelerate it so that it would become due immediately.
Our insurance expert urges us to payoff the mortgage and try to get insurance aswe can whenever
it is cancelled again. We are following his advice.
We urgently need help to payoff this $147,000 mortgage. Pleasesend what you can immediately if not sooner!! We will be reporting monthly on this situation. Any gift can be taken as a tax deduction
by you since we are a tax exempt educational organization.
A partial list of the donors this last month is shown here. Each month we will publish a list of contributors and report on how the mortgage payoff is progressing. PLEASE help!!
A SPECIAL "THANK YOU" TO THESE PERSONS:
$1.000 contributions
$184 contribution
Paul G. Tirrnenstein
Signature not legible
Richard A. Scholten
Edward Esty
Ardo Kasbrian
Finley Hall
Lillian Ramsden
$160 contribution
Dean Deq uaine
$150 contribution
$500 contributions
Betty J. Fulford
George F. Smith [$100 gift/$400 loan]
Joe. L. Randles
Walfred Nelson
Dr. John F. Johnson
Jim W. Logan
Chauncey M. Bell
Joe Bonacci
Webster B. Otis
John D. Snavely
Raymond Sowder
$450 contribution
Bernard Milinsky
$400 contribution
Stanley Runge
$300 contribution
Gilbert McCollum
$250 contributions
Richard K. Waldron
Donald Schmick
Glen Whalen
$200 contributions
Carolyn M. Szymanski
Vernon Hone
Ralph S. Woollett
M. C. Kaplan
Douglas J. Brassil
Wallace P. Monnett
Judy A. Roberson [loan]
Solon P. Lellos
Leo M. McGlue
$108 contribution
Robert T. Gross
$102.39 contribution
Dr. Robin M. Lake
$100 contributions
Kirk Mahoney
Fred C. Heightsman
James & Sylvia Woodbridge
Dr. John A. Lindon
Carl & Norene Tusch
Charles Clack
I. Katzowitz
Morton Williams Jr.
Lee Templin
S. J. Sobolak
Frank Supak
George Smulligan
Edwin Pegelow Jr. [loan]
Linda D. Nickel
Lucy J. McLaurin
Willis V. McCollum
Curtis D. MacDougall
Orin McMillan
William Kish
Carolyn Joyner
Dr. Ernest A. Dernburg
Vance I. Hill
S. K. Howard
Bill & Irene Herbst
Robert C. Harder
Sophie and Henry Ettinger
Barbara Eisendrath
Paul Doyle
HELP!
David L. Coppage
Jim Bernbaum
Robert A. Bloomer
Stephen Budai
Aaron Alfred
Elizabeth Albertson
Edna Mae Bevan
Harlow B. Grow
Edward R. Fish
Bernhard Strand
Chris Parker
J. Howard Sheeler
Mary A. Bobone
C. Christatos
Celia Glantz
B. Meredith Winn
Alfons Cers
Dr. E. A. Hackie
Paul Doyle
P. Simms
Send contributions to:

American Atheists,
P. O. Box 2117
Austin, Texas 78768
Page 11
THE ROOTS OF
INDIA'S
INTRACTABLE
PROBLEMS
PREM NATH BAZAZ
hoary past. There is no way out and the burden has

to be borne to the end of one's life. No political or
social revolution has been effective enough to change
the caste system which thrives even in the twentieth
century as it did under the rule of the undeservedly
praised Guptas who revived Brahminism after the
decadence and ultimate fall of Buddhist egalitarian
philosophy.
KARMA AND SUBMISSION

After achievement of liberation from British
Imperialism, India has, despite herculean attempts to
The karma theory is a handy argument to silence
make progress, passedthrough difficult periods, and
is now beset with countless problems, some of them any Indian into humble submission; he meekly acbaffling indeed. Among the vexing ones are wide- cepts without murmur any good or bad that befalls
him. This attitude has incapacitated him to underspread poverty, mass unemployment, population
explosion, colossal illiteracy, dismal ignorance, social stand that every event in individual and social life is
backwardness and lack of self confidence among the not mysterious but has a discoverable cause. The
people in general. Added to these are the power-hun- karma theory is mental panacea for an Indian irreger of opportunistic leadership of all political parties. spective of his being a tribal or a sophisticated
Sincere reformers and thoughtful men who have urbanite; it strengthens him to endure misfortunes
the good of the teeming, toiling millions at heart and and miseries on the ground that they are an outcome
want to find a way out of the present depressing of his supposed previous births; it emasculates and
situation lay stress on one or the other of these prob- prevents him from fighting against adverseconditions
lems and visualize the end of all in its solution. Rarely of living.
Another theory commonly held is that an avatar
does any thinker point to the root from which India's
(incarnation of god) appears on earth to savehudegeneration grows and spreads.
Admitting that mistakes and even blunders have manity from evil and restore good in society; it has
been committed from time to time in the past thirty
done incalculable harm to the growth of senseof selfyears by the government and its eminent leaders, no reliance among the Indians. Indeed, it has been the
small efforts have been made to ameliorate the lot of main cause why our country was conquered by one
suffering massesin different spheresof economic and adventurer after another from outside, has remained
social life. But the endeavours havefailed to bear the under foreign domination and was easily and comdesired fruit and, as statistics show, the conditions in fortably ruled by despots and tyrants for many long
different segments have deteriorated, deepening centuries. Our forefathers believed that the almighty
miseries and adding to the hardships of the people. willed it so and we could have no say or choice in
these changes of far reaching consequences; the
rulers, both alien and indigenous, were manifestaBASIC PROBLEM
tions of the divinity.
The truth is that the politicians who guide the
ELUSIVE RENAISSANCE
destinies of 620 million Indians are either unable to
comprehend the basic problem of the country or if
On reflection, any impartial analyst will not fail to
they have an inkling of it at all, they are afraid to
tackle it lest by doing so the people are antagonized. see that directly or indirectly the various problems
confronting India are the product of the mental outOur basic problem is the religious mode of thinking
which is prevalent in all parts of India and among all look that Indians have adopted from immemorial
classes,castesand communities of people. Progressin times and are not prepared to abandon even when
science has destroyed our innumerable myths and
education, science, technology and industrialization
made but very small dents in the medieval outlook of conquered outer space and the moon where we were
Indians, both literate and illiterate. Their approach to supposedto travel only after death.
Under impact of the new learning introduced by
life has not undergone any drastic change and is today the 'same as it was two thousand years ago. We the British in the nineteenth century signs of enrepose faith in supernatural force which shapes our lightenment becamevisible and there was loud talk of
destiny; we believe that whatever takes place is god- Indian renaissance but it proved still-born as the
reactionary, reiigious-ridden leaders captured the
ordained.
Whatever the claims of uncritical lovers of ancient nationalist movement and reinforced the doctrines
culture, the.structure of Indian society is founded on and practices of Brahminism. Independence gave an
inequality; the people are divided into high and low impetus to it and multiplied our problems which
castes from the Vedic times to the present day. A have become intractable. We refuse to recognize the
person is born in a particular caste and inherits the root and are inevitably and inexorably proceeding
advantagesor disadvantagesattached to it from the towards ,the doom,
Page 12
Until and unless the religious mode of thinking is

revolutionalized and rational ways of thought inculcated, India's numerous ills will resist destruction because their root lies in it. Unhappily the leaders who
are at the helm of affairs and should have undertaken
the task of eradicating the root are giving the least
attention to it, either because its gravity has never
crossed their minds or if anyone among them realizes
it he is not prepared to publicly declare it due to the
fear that it will arouse stiff opposition, jeopardizing
his reputation and high position in the populace.
The popularity-seeking leaders have therefore
found escape in formulating a philosophy of so-called
spirituality: the dismal ignorance of the Indian millions is glorified as greatness of soul and profundity
of thought wh ich is a peculiar gift possessedby only
the Indians and needs to be emulated by other nations of the world, particularly in the west which has
taken long strides in material advancement.
ANCIENT
WISDOM OR IGNORANCE?
Day in and day out high-sounding sermons are profusely given in th is country on the superiority of ancient Indian culture. It is stressed that while the old
cultures of other nations such as the Greeks, Romans,
Egyptians, Persians and others which witnessed pinnacles of glory in antiquity, have vanished, the Vedic
culture has survived because it carries abiding values
of spirituality which have not been overwhelmed by
material progress. This philosophy evades realism, is
meaningless and is an outcome of inferiority complex.
H world history is any guide, it is crystal-clear that
the primitive religious thinking of which we are so
boastful has been a cherished possession in the past of
the races now ahead of us in worldly progress; they
discarded it when it obstructed their march onwards
toward the goal of the spiritual and material liberation of man. So the Indian commodity is nothing new
for progressive nations and they will not be inclined
to touch it with even a pair of tongs, much lessown
it partly or wholly.
It may also be noted that despite the professed
contempt for the scientific culture, Indian leaders are
eager to spread science and technology as rapidly as
they can, forgetting their own vehement discourses
on the superiority of primitive Vedic culture. Even
the most orthodox and conservative Indian is willy
nilly being influenced by modernity in one or more
ways. He cannot help using gadgets which are taboo
by scriptural doctrines. We have established scientific institutions, laboratories and research centres in
different parts of the country. We are hurrying industrialization on a big scale both in the public and
private sector, all the while paying glowing tributes to
Gandhism which is opposed to these aims. Thus, we
are successful only in neutralizing one of our efforts by another; it gives rise to manifold problems
which have retarded the progress of our vast country
and its hapless millions.
AGE OF RELIGIOUS
REViVAL
Blind and implicit faith in a religion and its dogmas, usages and rites which may have served human
needs thousands of years ago but have become chains
of slavery today, is making Indians easy victims of
cheats, swindlers, humbugs who pose as god men and
have been multiplying in number year after year
since 1947, which opened the golden age of religious
revival.
In these circumstances the historic task of an
Indian rationalist is of tremendous immensity. Out
of our huge population of 620 million, not more than
30 percent is literate which includes in good measure
university educated and highly qualified sections. But
whether literate or illiterate, Indians are intellectually
and spiritually in the same category. All are admirers
of the backward-looking philosophy and soul-killing
customs, traditions, ceremonies and superstitions
which are the manifestations of the ancient culture.
Very few Indians have liberated themselves from
these shackles. From womb to funeral pyre they are
to follow the instructions of the brahmin priest and
cannot make a move without consulting the family
astrologer.
Intellectuals, that is those persons whose minds
are really emancipated and can think in a revolutionary manner, are conspicuous by their absence in
Indian society. Surrounded by men and women
known for being wise, educated and intelligent but
who submissively follow the traditions and uphold
the beliefs known to be pernicious, a struggling
rationalist either loses courage to firmly stand by
himself or, in course of time, joins the multitude of
intellectual cowards, wh ich guarantees a Iife of ease
and comfort. But if the rationalist has the hardihood
to be bold enough to persist in developing his independent thought defying society, he has to endure
unceasing obloquy and live in obscurity ostracized
by fellow countrymen.
I
RATIONALIST
REVOLUTIONARIES
It is, however, such men of moral stature (though

beneath dignity in the eyes of so called educated
classes and ignorant multitudes), who lift humanity
from its low level to a high plane of civilization. They
are the salt of the earth and the gems of humankind.
It is such rationalist intellectuals who have by their
sacrifices built up human society into what it is today
not only mentally and spiritually but also materially
and morally. India is passing through a crucial period
of its history. The perspective appears to be dismal
and fraught with grave consequences. We need more
and more the rationalist revolutionaries to let the
country come into its own. Left to the popular
leaders it may go to pieces as it did at the fall of the
Mughal Empire.
Page 13
LOSS FOR
RELIGION
"I'm trying to say to women stop teasing. There
should be a restoration of modesty in dress and elimination from the community of sexual-gratification
businesses," declared Dane County Judge Archie
Simonson. (Time, 9-12-77) "Whether women like it
or not they are sex objects. Are we supposed to take
an impressionable person 15 or 16 years of age and
punish that person severely because they react to it
normally?" Voicing such sentiments, Judge Simonson
let a convicted 15-year-old Madison, Wis., defendant
off last May with a wrist tapping probated sentence in
the rape of a 16-year-old coed in a high school stairwell.
To his supporters, Simonson's remarks reflected a
troubled quest for proper justice in an era notable for
both its sexual liberation and the use of sex as a sales
device. But feminists were outraged. Women picketed
the courthouse and circulated petitions, which were
signed by more than 35,000 voters, demanding
Simonson's removal from the bench.
Paul Soglin, the liberal mayor of Madison, was also

critical, saying: "Regardless of community standards,
under no conditions can a sexual assault or rape be
considered normal.'
LEGAL ATTITUDES TOWARD RAPE
The Simonson case illustrates some changes and
ambiguities in prevalent legal attitudes toward rape.
Since 1974, in response to women's rights advocates,
at least 20 states have modified rules of evidence in
rape cases, restricting, for example, inquiry into the
victim's sexual history. But at the same time, the law
is softening and refining the punishment for rape too.
The U.S. Supreme Court in June banned the death
penalty for rape. When sentencing rapists, judges now
tend to distinguish more and more sharply between
varying degrees of brutality and other mitigating circumstances. Judge Archie Simonson, however, had
obviously carried this mitigation more than just a bit
too far.
The Milwaukee Journal (9-8-77) carried an encouraging story of justice done in a truly democratic
way. Reporting from the state's capital city, Madison,
the Journal wrote:
.
.
"After it was all over, Archie Simonson said, his
loss in Wednesday's judicial recall election was a 'loss
for religion. 'We're a minority now,' Simonson said at
a subdued reception in his honor, 'but our day will
come.'
.
"The victor in the recall election for Dane County
Judge, Moria Krueger, said the quality of Simonson's
judgeship, not religion, was the key issue in the campaign. 'I saw the election as a matter of competence
and principles,' she said at a loud victory party in the
home of friends. Ms. Krueger won the election; which
was the first judicial recall in Wisconsin history, by a
comfortable
margin of about 8,eOO votes over
Simonson in a six way race. She will set another precedent by becoming the first woman judge in Dane
County history. About 77,000 Dane County residents
voted, which is about half the number who voted in
'the presidential election, according to the county
clerk's office.
"Ms. Krueger,33, has practiced law in Madison for
seven years, specializing in juvenile and family law.
She will take over the $35,000 judgeship 10 daysafter the vote totals are officially
certified. Ms.
Krueger's term' will continue until' April, when
Simonson's term would have expired.
RAPE -
Picketers outside Dane County Courthouse

demanding the judge's ouster. Annie Laurie
Gaylor, Wisconsin Atheist, centered.
Page 14
A NORMAL
REACTION
"Simonson, 52, said he stood by all his actions, including the statements that started the controversy
that led to his recall. The controversy started May 25
when, during a hearing for one of three youths accused of raping a girl in West High School here, he
questioned whether rape wasn't a normal reaction in

a permissive community such as Madison.
"Simonson claimed repeatedly that the statements were reported out of context by the press.
'The First Amendment protects the irresponsible
pressas well as the responsible press,' he said.
"After his defeat, he repeated his belief that
Madison is a permissive city and said the persons
behind the recall drive had no religion. Simonson,
who is a Lutheran, would not comment specifically
about whether he thought Ms. Krueger had religion.
".'The religious community, those who believe in
the Supreme Being and have a conscience, is in the
minority,' Simonson said. 'The absence of conscience
contributes to the moral apathy in the community.'
" 'Religious people apply their religion to their
conduct in public and thus would not dress suggestively,' Simonson said. In his remarks in court last
May, Simonson commented at length about the
suggestivedress of women in Madison.
WILL
NOT RUN AGAIN
"As the reception wore on at the Knights of

Columbus hall, well wishers shook Simonson's hand
before they left and encouraged him to run for judge
ill the spring election. He politely told them that he
wouldn't.
" 'I'd be a judge if they would eliminate the politics from the judiciary,' Simonson said. He has no
plans now to ever run for judge again.
"He said he had not given much thought to what
he would do after he leavesoffice in about 10 days. 'I
could always practice law,' he said. 'I've been in
Madison too long to leave, but I suppose if something
came up somewhere else, I'd have to take a look at
it.'
"His immediate goal was to playa round of golf
Thursday morning and relax after the trying experience of the recall election.
" 'I have a sense of humiliation,' he said. 'But it
isn't a great senseof humiliation because I did what is
right. As a rei igious man, I have a conscience. Why
should I feel remorse if I have no guilty feelings?'
"Ms. Krueger said: 'I'm trying not to gloat because
this isn't just a personal thing. There has never been a
judicial campaign like this. I had people working in
headquarters for 8 to 10 hours a day.'
"She disagreed with Simonson's notion that there
was too much politicking in judicial elections.
" 'Shaking hands and kissing babies isn't appropriate,' she said. 'But getting out and telling the peo-. pie what you would do is a good thing. Judge
Simonson didn't get out enough.'
RADICAL
FEMINISTS
"She said she objected to Simonson's complaints
TheAmerican
A theist
during the campaign that the recall was engineered by

radical feminists.
" 'I object to labels,' she said. 'He has made every
effort to make the term feminist a derogatory term. I
look at feminism as having an element of humanism.
I'm a humanist feminist.'
"Ms. Krueger's campaign was the most expensive
of the six candidates. The final voting results show
that Simonson did best in the rural areas of Dane
County while Ms. Krueger rolled up large totals in
some of the student areas of Madison and did well in
other more traditionally conservative sections of the
city.
"In four predominantly
student districts, Ms.
Krueger outpolled Simonson by large margins while
the other candidates received only a few votes.
"In one downtown student district, Ms. Krueger
received 919 votes to 132 for Simonson. In one
traditionally conservative East Side district, Simonson
beat Ms. Krueger by only two votes.
"Citywide, Ms. Krueger beat Simonson by more
than 9,000 votes.
[What preceded is the result of an action begun by
American A theist leader Anne Gaylor and so graphically described in her column on pp. 16-17 of the
August, 1977 issue. It is living proof of what can be
done for the many by the few who have the courage
of their convictions. "Go ye forth and do likewise!"}
RELIGIOUS HARMONY?
In a letter to the editor of the Milwaukee Journal
last spring, Bob Wilkes of Manitowoc, Wisc. objected
to a statement the Journal published which said that
"religion has to do with establishing first relationship
with God and all creation and in so doing to bring
about a greater harmony in our world - a true
peace."
Weekes' response read:
"What a beautiful statement. Just take a look at
the peace and harmony that religion has caused in the
Middle East and elsewhere. I am speaking of the
peace and harmony that exists between the Jews of
Israel and the Moslems of the Arab world.
"I am speaking of the peace and harmony that
exists between the Christians and Moslems of Lebanon. I am speaking of the peace and harmony that religion has caused in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland, the place where Christian kills Christian in the
name of God.
"Say what you will about rei igion, but don't tell
me about how religions brings about greater peace
and harmony in this world."
Bravo to you, Bob Weekes.
Page 15
THE RELIGIOUS ROOTS

SAMUEL
There are many who justify the continuation of

religion into this age of scientific reason on the
ground that it has a civilizing influence upon an
otherwise undisciplined world. To many others, it
would appear that the very advanced degree of our
knowledge, if applied to the realities of human affairs, would be adequate to set a foundation for a
moral code of mutual survival among men.
Be this as it may, it is certain that the history of
religion in modern times, which may be said to date
from the birth of Christ, has been a bloody one, pitting nations or regions, and sometimes continents or
races,against each other.
As a matter of fact, there have been at least two
justifications for the expansion of the Europeans into
the rest of the world. Primarily, as in other eras of
history, wars have an economic function, as when
Europe colonized virtually all of Africa and much of
Asia, at the same time overrunning the natives of the
American continents.
In all these modern conquests, religion has served
as a second reason, or catalyst, giving moral justification to the economic aggrandizement of the aggressors since the churchmen pontificated territorial expansion on the ground that it was god's will that the
"heathens" be Christianized.
Of course, the Europeans were not uniformly successful in their missionary march in all directions
from their Christian nucleus. In the Crusades, they
ran into an equally powerful counter-religious force
in the form of Islam, or Mohammedanism, which was
not of a mind to accept the Christian idea that god
was on their side. In fact, the followers of Mohammed, believing just as devoutly in allah, not only
stopped the march of Christianity at the doorstep of
the Middle East, but expanded throughout much of
Europe and all of North Africa. To the Moslems, god
is allah.
Throughout this period of history, the Far East,led
by China and Japan, remained religiously isolated
from the cross-currents of Christianity and Islam,
preserving to this day creeds quite foreign or "heathen" to those of Europe and the Middle East. The
same can be said for the massive subcontinent of
India.
This historic religious conflict may be symbolized
by the experience of Japan in recent times. I shall
never forget, on my one visit to Japan about ten years
ago, the quiet triumph in the voice of our tour guide
when she pointed out that, in spite of vigorous
American missionary efforts and a generation of postwar occupation, only 6 percent of the Japanese have
been Christianized. Hardly a Henry Alger success
story for the Judeo-Christian faith. To the Japanese,
god is the emperor.
Page 16
The principal religions of Europe and the Western

Hemisphere are collectively
called the JudeoChristian. As I understand it, the Judeo part can be
summed up in the phrase: "First to the Jew."
Judaism originated several milenniums before
Christ as the inbred faith of the Jewish people, a division of the Semitic subrace which also includes the
Arabs. While the latter are the principal adherents of
the Moslem faith, the Israelis remain to this day the
exclusive guardians and benefactors of Judaism.
Although rejected for all time by the Jews themselves, Christianity is an outgrowth or offshoot of the
former, being founded by what can be called Protestant Jews.
According to those who loosely form its various
cults, Catholic and Protestant, Christ was hailed by
his few followers, before he was executed for blasphemy and treason, as the "Son of God" and the
"King of the Jews." His disciples, unable to convert
more than a handful of their own people to the new
faith, wisely, from their perspective, took their
proselyting mission from the Middle East to Europe.
After centuries of clandestine development in the
catacombs, where they hid from the Roman heathens, the descendants of the disciples eventually
became the monolithic Catholic Church, wh ich
Christianized Europe at the point of the sword and
ultimately converted the aborigines of the Americas.
To the church, god is Christ.
Internally divided, first by Protestantism from the
church, then by the ingenious diversification of
Prostestantism, some sects of which, like the LatterDay Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses are of extremely
recent origin, Christianity has remained to this day
the choice of Western Man. The religious schizophrenia of this part of the world is symbolized by the
United States, which can not make up its mind
whether it is a land of religous freedom or a "Christian nation."
Thus, the Christian religion has remained at all
times a decided minority with respect to the whole
of mankind; and in very modern times, with the triumph of "godless" Communism in the world's most
populous nation, China, and in almost equally massive Russia, the percentage of Christians has been
decidedly on the decline.
It is ironic, therefore, that such a handful of people
could assume, in their own self-appraisal, such wouldbe omnipotence or importance. Equally ironic is the
fact that, in addition to the religious division among
mankind, into Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Shinto,
Hinduism, and Buddhism, to mention the so-called
great religions, Christianity itself has been historically
and presently faced with the said internal divisions
and conflicts. The most significant one has been that
~J
CARTEl
.OF WORLD WAR III
ER McMORRIS
between Catholicism and Protestantism, as symbolized in today's civil war in Ireland, of surprising vehemence in a world which is rapidly turning from religion to science.
The Christian division began after hundreds of
years of Catholic monopoly, with the inroads of
Martin Luther, who gave his name to the first Protestant movement as well as to the latter-day prophet,
Dr. Martin Luther King. Today, he is honored by the
existence of over two hundred protestant faiths, and
there are many who feel that so-called reiigious freedom in this country has become in practice religious
license, in which Christianity has gone off in every
possible direction, while tending to suppress somewhat the non-Christian faiths.
The licentious aspect of the proliferation of
American Christianity is best illustrated by problems
arising in two of this country's major branches,
Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses.The former has
remained staunchly inconsistent with the equality-ofman principle upon which this country advertises its
birth and continued right to existence, by denying, in
god's name, the full humanity of the black race. A
second concept of Mormonism was the right of polygamy, up to four wives. While the body politic of
this country quickly put a stop to the latter principle,
as it came in conflict with the Christian concept (and
incidentally state laws) of monogamy, the former
concept of inherent inequality of races has been allowed to flourish as an expression of religious freedom.
Similarly, the belief of the Jehovah'sWitnessesthat
Christ is the "Great Physician" and that no help is
needed from mere mortal doctors in human recovery,
has been brought under state control by court orders
requiring even devoutly religious parents to submit
their offspring to court-supervised medical care.
Generally, though, America has been tolerant of
all religions, to greater or lesserdegree.Thus, it would
appear ironic that we were and are the principal sponsors of the monolithic religious idea upon which the
country of Israel was founded. Although, at the time
of its establishment in 1947, the creation of the religiously exclusive Jewish state was made to appear to
be a United Nations project, the United States hasat
all times been its principal ally and benefactor.
In the eyes of many, the creation at this stage of
history of any state in which one religion hasa monopoly, in which there is a unity of church and state,
would appear to be an anachronism - a harking back
to the pre-Protestant times when the Catholic church
exercised absolute sway, through military conquest,
state support of the church, religious courts, the
Inquisition, and the Crusades. For a country which
has in fact permitted the existence within its borders
of every major (and many minor) religions, to risk its

political future in support of state religious monopoly, may well be the final irony of our time.
While the historic confrontation between the
capitalistic and communistic systems may well lead
to the greatest war mankind has ever seen,on any of
a number of fronts, and for anyone of many causes,
the greatest powder-keg of the day lies in the confl ict of the artificially created Jewish state with its
Moslem neighbors. Since Russia and China have no
religion at all, officially, and since the United States
of America is permissive of all religions, the irony becomes clear: that the conflict between two religions,
basically foreign to the great powers may be in fact
the catalyst or causeof man's final holocaust.
This is true because,while Russiadoes not support
Islam as such, in a religious sense,it does give political support to the Arab governments of North Africa
and the Middle East, as likely allies and as possible
converts to socialism or communism. At the same
time, the United States supports Israel, whose creation by the United Nations it engineered,as a bastion
of "democracy" (by our definition any government
opposed to communism), although Israel is far to the
left of this country, and is more socialist than capitalist.
There are those who suspect that America's support is based in part upon the degree of control or
influence on the American economic and political
scene of the adherents of the Jewish religion and
Zionist philosophy, out of proportion to the numbers
of such in the population. In capitalism, some would
say, the real god is the dollar.
In other words, this nation, being in its majority
Christian and thus by definition non-Jewish, if not
anti-Jewish, is nevertheless greatly under the influence of Zionists because of their disproportionate
power in the political and economic life of this
country, including the means of opinion-control in
the form of the press, radio, television, and cinema.
By the artificial creation of the Zionist state of
Israel in 1947, out of land which for two thousand
years had been populated principally by members of
the Moslem faith, living, however, peaceably with
their Jewish neighbors, the relative religious freedom
and tolerance of that region came to a close. Determined to have a perpetual homeland based upon
religious monopoly, the inhabitants of the new state
either drove out or politically submerged those of
different religions, principally the followers of
Mohammed.
The latter fear, in fact, that the Zionists' ultimate,
if not immediate, goal is to restore the boundaries of
the Jewish state of two thousand years ago. This
Page 17
THEORIES,
PROOFS
AND
G. RICHARD
On page 22 of Catholicism, edited by George

Brantl, I read this astounding declaration: "Reason
can establish the existence of God by proof and can
make certain statements concerning the nature of
God and His operation in nature. " Whew!
You can imagine how my heart pounded and my
hand quivered as I read onward to these proofs that
would convince my intelligent
reason that I am
wrong. Was it the heat of the flames of hell that
warmed my face when on page 23 I read th is sentence: "Aquinas'
proofs are, it is true, scientific
proofs, intricate applications of reason to experiential
data."
Scientific proofs! Data derived from experience!
Oh, no! Cancel my subscription to The American
Atheist!
On I read, truly excited. I am familiar, from over a
year of reading Scientific American, with wrestling,
and even understanding, scientific proofs that are the
product of "intricate applications of reason to experiential data." I know, therefore, what I am looking
for in the way of proofs that would show my reason
that Atheism is wrong. I read on eagerly.
Somewhere between the promises on pages 22 and
23, and the delivery on the following pages, intellectual gymnastics were substituted in the place of
proofs.
I was promised scientific proofs from Thomas
Aquinas. What was I given? His famous "Five Ways"
lifted from Summa Theologiae. All five ways are essentially the same, so I will only quote the one that
is so often used today:
"The second argument is derived from the fact of
efficient causality. In the data of the senses we discover an order among efficient causes. Noth ing is
found, nor would such be possible, which is the efficient cause of itself; for such a being would be
anterior to itself, and this is impossible. Still, it is not
possible that we proceed to infinity in the series of efficient causes, the first is the cause of the intermediary, the intermediary the cause of the last, and this
whether the intermediaries be one or several. If the
cause is removed, so too is the effect removed. Therefore, if there be not a first in the series of efficient
causes, there is no ultimate and no intermediary
cause. If we were to admit an infinite regress in efficient causes, then there would be no first efficient
cause and consequently no final effect and no mediate efficient cause. This, of course, cannot be. Therefore, it is necessary that we posit a first efficient
cause. All men call this Cause God." (p. 30-31)
The other four arguments read the same. The first
declares all motion must come from a First Mover not
NONSENSE
BOZARTH
moved by any other being. The third argument states

that for created beings to exist, there must be a first
Necessary Being not having been created itself. The
fourth argument maintains that the good in the world
must originate with a Supreme, Perfect Being that is
pure goodness. The fifth argument insists the orderliness of nature is the product of divine, intelligent
will.
Now, I ask you, is this a scientific proof? What
happened to the experiential data? In the entire 256
pages of Catholicism not a single experiential datum
slipped out so that I, too, might derive from experience the proof of god's existence that would convince
my reason.
I mean, in An Anatomical Disquisition on the
Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, William
Harvey did not simply say, "The blood circulates in
the body because there is no other explanation for
the beating of the heart, or how so little blood serves
the body." Who of Harvey's 17th Century contemporaries would have been convinced by this Aquinaslike "proof?"
The bulk of Harvey's revolutionary
classic is taken up describing experiments the reader
can use to convince himself, if what Harvey has written is not convincing. Harvey gave an abundance of
experiential data to back up his theory.
A scientific theory is all Aqu inas has given.1 n no
way can his "Five Ways" be construed as proofs because all he offers is logic, not experimental evidence.
I will show you what I mean using a similar statement
made in a book of science that derives its conclusion
much like Aquinas has drawn his - on logic, not
proof. Read this from The Almagest:
"If one should next take up the question of the'
earth's position, the observed appearances with the
respect to it could only be understood if we put it in
the middle of the heavens as the centre of the sphere.
If th is were not so, then the earth wou Id either have
to be off the axis but equidistant from the poles, or
on the axis but farther advanced towards one of the
poles, or neither on the axis nor equidistant from the
poles ...
In brief, all the observed order of the increases and decreases of day and night would be
thrown into utter confusion if the earth were not in
the middle. And there would be added the fact that
the eclipses of the moon could not take place for all
parts of the heavens by a diametrical opposition to
the sun, for the earth would often not be interposed
between them in their diametrical opposition, but at
distances less than a semicircle." (The Almagest by
Ptolemy, The Great Books of the Western World,
Vol. 16, p. 9-10.)
(Continued on p.28l
Page
19"
THE
ABORTION
HUBERT
ISSUE
W. PRESCOTT
The 'abortion issue seems to have become one of

the most ominous spectres that have come to haunt
pol iticians with an instinct for survival beyond the
next election. As a citizen whose support has been
sought by both sides of the issue I must confess to
having great difficulty
in understanding the arguments of the opposition.
The main premise from
which they develop their case is the equating of a human fetus with a born human being. From this premise they then argue that since the illegal taking of
a human life is murder, abortion also is ipso facto
murder.
The presence of certain powerful religious forces
on the opposition side of the abortion issue tends to
imbue their argument with strong cultish overtones.
This fact imposes a duty on the serious minded to
follow their main premise to its logical conclusion to
see where it takes us.
First, there is the question of what happens to a
fetus that is killed by abortion or by any other cause.
If it is a human being, even, as we are told, from the
very instant that the sperm penetrates the egg, then
logic would dictate that it is endowed with a soul.
And since no fetus has ever sinned, or even had a
chance to, all killed fetuses must inevitably go to heaven ...
~That being the case, they do a lot better than a
high percentage of us born sinners are able to do. For
.ever~"ne of us are sinners, so certified by the Judeo-Christian faith. That being the case, the overwhelming
majority
of heaven's inhabitants must be derived
from fetuses that, through one mishap or another,
had their mundane presence prematurely terminated.
I nherent in the above considerations is the obvious
conclusion that aborted fetuses are infinitely more
fortunate than those that are not. For the aborted fetus, having committed no sin, has a dead certainty of
going to heaven, whereas the fetus that is not
aborted, hence is condemned to the ordeal of being
born a sinner, has to take his chances on going to heaven with the odds weighted heavily against it. There
seems a strong Iikel ihood that if fetuses could vote,
assuming they could know what the score is, all
would vote to be aborted.
Unless the above logic is all askew, then it seems
that the great mu Ititude of fetuses destined to be
born into earthly existence as human mortals have a
colossal grievance. This derives from the grossly unfair precondition that at birth they be launched into
a hazardous world fraught with a multitude of snares
and pitfalls leading to sin. This to the extent that
every last one, no matter how he tries to walk the
straight and narrow, must inevitably emerge from the
experience a marked sinner. Yet here is heaven
teeming with all of those ex-fetuses for whom heaven
Page 18
was a shoo-in, yet had they been put.through the test

of spending a lifetime hitcb .on this planet as born
persons no one knows how many would have become
Einsteins
or Spiro Agnews, Beethovens or AI
Capones, boy scout leaders or arsonists.
Even if one of us born sinners were, by supreme
devotion to good works, able to make it through the
pearly gates it might prove a disenchanting experience. With the place teeming with so many ex-fetuses
that never learned to talk, read or write, and in any
case having no worldly
experiences to talk about
other than their brief interrupted uterine existence
here on earth, they would make maddeningly dull
company with which to spend a weekend, let alone
an etern ity.
WOMEN'S
LIB
AND
MISOGYNIC
VEDAS
Though the Vedas were said to be the creation of

god who is again said to be the father and mother of
all, when we see how this so called parent hates his
children, we cannot but be disillusioned. "God" says in
h is Vedas: "A woman cannot be taught, for the women have little intellect. Woman cannot prove to be
good friends for they have cruel hearts like the hearts
of yen as. Women are asked to bu rn themselves with
the dead bodies of the men called their husbands."
Anti-human teachings of this kind deserve severe condemnation in this women's decade.
Prof. Surendre Ajnat
AND
NOW IT'S PRAYER
The Milwaukee Journal (11-9-77) reports that

singer Anita Bryant is adding another cause to her
crusade - prayers in public schools. In an Orlando,
FIa,. interview she said: "1 am not .anti-anvth ing. I
am pro-God,
pro-family,
pro-motherhood,
prolife, pro-Bible, pro-morality - expecially for putting
prayer back in school. I want to share the truth
with people."
SPEAKING for WOMEN

annegaylor
THOSE
PITIFUL
TEN
Critics of the Christian Bible can occasionally score

a point or two in discussion with the religious community by noting the many teachings in both the Old
and New Testaments that encourage the Bible believer to hate and to kill, Biblical lessonsthat history
proves Christians havetaken most seriously. Nonetheless the Bible defendant is apt to offer as an 'indisputable parting shot, "But don't forget the ten
commandments. They are the basic Bible teaching.
Study the ten commandments."
Do study the ten commandments! They epitomize
the childishness, the vindictiveness, the sexism, the
inflexibility and the inadequaciesof the Bible as a
book of morals.
Actually, only six of the ten commandments deal
with an individual's moral conduct, which comes as
a surpriseto most Christians. ("I never realized that!"
said my husband, whose background includes a total
immersion baptism, both Sunday school and church
every week, non-questioning parents and a grandfather who was a Missouri preacher. Happily, the
indoctri nation nevertook.)
The first four commandments are all cut from the
same piece of sleazy cloth. Essentially, they say:
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make thee any graven image
or bow down to them, and if you do I'll get you
and your kids and their descendants.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the lord in
vain.
4. Keep the Sabbath holy.
The exact terminology is found in chapter five of
Deuteronomy. It can be a bit confusing. For
a while, I was convinced there were 11 commandments, and one had been overlooked all these years.
In essence,the first four commandments all scream
that "the lord thy god" has an uneasy vanity, and
like most dictators, must resort to threats, rather than
intellectual persuasion,to promote a point of view. If
there were an omnipotent qod, can you imagine him
or her being concerned if some poor little insignificant creature puttered around and made a graven
image? Do you think that any god, possessingthe
modicum of good will you could expect to find in
any neighbor, would want to punish children even
"unto the third and fourth generation" becausetheir
fathers would not bow down? How can anyone not
perceive the pettiness, bluster, bombast and psychotic insecurity behind the first four commandments?
Weare supposedto respectthis!
"Honor thy father and thy mother" is the fifth
commandment, and it is, of course, an extension of
the authoritarian rationale behind the first four.
Page 20
COMMANDMENTS
Honor cannot be automatically bestowed by an

honest intellect. Intellectually honest people can
honor only those who, in their opinion, warrant their
honor. The biologic fact of fatherhood and motherhood does not in and of itself warrant honor. Until
very recently parenthood was not a matter of choice.
It still is a mandatory, not optional, happening for
many of the world's people. Why should any child be
commanded to honor, without further basis, parents
who became parents by accident - who didn't even
plan to have a child? Honor those who merit honor
would be a much more appropriate teaching, and if
that includes your parents, great.
Commandments six through nine - thou shalt not
kill, commit adultery, steal or bear false witness obviously have merit, but even they need extensive
revision. To kill in self-defenseis regrettable, but it is
certainly morally defensible, eminently sensible conduct. So is the administration of a shot or medication
that will end life for the terminally ill patient who
wishesto die.
Adultery, the subject of the seventh commandment, again raisesthe question of a blanket ban. For
the most part fidelity in marriage is a sound rule,
making for happiness, but some marriages may outlast affection. Some couples may wish to play by different rules. Until relatively recent times Christian
marriages were not dissolvable except by death, so
the ban of divorce coupled with the ban of adultery
obviously created great distress.
"Theus shalt not steal" raises similar questions
regarding the usefulness of a blanket condemnation,
and may put squatter's rights ahead of public and
private welfare. Should the person who is cold or ill
steal to ameliorate his or her situation? Should the
child who is hungry steal? Surely this commandment
cries for some amending clauses.One is reminded of
the comment of Napoleon, who really had religion
figured out. Said Napoleon: "How can you have order in a state without religion? For, when one man is
dying of hunger near another who is ill of surfeit, he
cannot resign himself to this difference unless there
is an authority which declares, 'God wills it thus.'
Religion is excellent stuff for keeping people quiet."
Finally, the tenth commandment, which riles the
feminist blood, says: "Neither shalt thou desire thy
neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant,or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is thy
neighbour's." In addition to rating a wife with an ox
and an ass, the Bible loftily overlooks the woman
who might desire her neighbor'S husband. Covetousnesssomehow does not seemlike such a crime. If you
can't have a comfortable house or a productive farm,

what is the great harm in wishing you did? Covetousness may be non-productive
and unpretty, but to
make a big, bad deal out of it is ridiculous.
Little in Christianity is original. Most of it is borrowed, just as the celebration of Christmas was borrowed from Roman and earlier pagan times. When the
"lord" supposedly wrote h is commandments on two
tablets of stone and delivered them to Moses (Deut.
5:22), he was only aping Bacchus, Zoroaster and
Minos. InT.
W. Doane's book about the parallels
between Christianity and other religions, he says:
"Bacchus was called the 'Law-giver,' and his laws
were written on two tablets of stone. This feature in
the Hebrew legend was evidently copied from that related of Bacchus, but, the idea of Moses receiving the
commandments from the Lord on a mountain was
obviously taken from the Persian legend related of
Zoroaster. Prof. Max Muller has said: 'What applies
to the religion of Moses applies to that of Zoroaster.
It is placed before us as a complete system from the
first, revealed by Ahuramazda (Ormuzd), proclaimed
by Zoroaster.'
"The disciples of Zoroaster, in their profusion of
legends of the master, relate that one day, as he
prayed on a high mountain, in the midst of thunders
and lightnings ('fire from heaven'), the Lord himself
AULD
appeared before him, and delivered unto him the

'Book of Law.' While the King of Persia and the people were assembled together, Zoroaster came down
from the mountain unharmed, bringing with him the
'Book of the Law,' which had been revealed to him
by Ormuzd. They call this book the Zend-Avesta,
which signified the Living Word.
"According to the religion of the Cretans, Minos,
their law-giver, ascended a mountain (Mount Dicta)
and there received from the Supreme Lord (Zeus) the
sacred laws which he brought down with him.
"Almost all nations of antiquity have legends of
their holy men ascending a mountain to ask counsel
of the gods, such places being invested with peculiar
sanctity, and deemed nearer to the deities than other
portions of the earth."
Which brings us to the obvious question: how can
anyone respect those who insist that the Bible is
truth? How can we be expected to put up with the
Bible's use in public ceremonies, with the demands
that we respect it or Christianity?
Surely if Christians had intelligence and good intentions,
they
would
want to debunk the Bible themselves, to
extract from it the modest number of teachings that
are kind and to publ icly label the rest fables,
mythology, legends, superstition and sexism.
LANG
SYNE!
Robert Burns knew the pleasure and value of camaraderie, of the gathering together of friends old and
new, and so should you. "If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" asks poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in his
familiar "Ode to the West Wind," and well may our readers ask the same. It's much later than you think,
so get ready to celebrate the Vernal Equinox (Easter or Passover in your previous reincarnation!) with us at
the fabulous Jack Tar Hotel in beautiful, glamorous and sophisticated San Francisco, the city by the bay.
The weekend of April 7th will be upon you before you can say Jack Tar, so send us your $10 registration fee
right now and guarantee yourself a place at the gathering of the clans of American Atheist activists from all
over the United States. Hear the reports from our chapters around the country, meet people, exchange ideas,
get a fresh point of view, it Will be good for you! The entire staff of the American Atheist Center will be
there, and we'll be looking forward to meeting and talking with you at length about our activities, our center, and our magazine. If you have any specific questions about the convention on your mind right now, jot
them down on a slip of paper and slip that slip of paper into an envelope with your registration fee. You'll
have a response from us by return mail. We guarantee it! I n fact, if we receive your registration before March
1st, we will send you an invitation to a special breakfast meeting for contributors to this magazine. If you've
ever hankered to be a published writer, this is your opportunity!
Write: John Mays, Coordinator, P.O. Box
2117, Austin TX 78768.
Page 21
SHIBLES' CORNER
lWarren shibles
A Solstitial Gift
People also fear death. So they go to church becausethe bible tells-them they will live forever. That
is what they want to hear. But note. They do not inquire into death and dying or promote research on
Number Twenty-Three: "I pray and my prayers are the subject. They prefer dogma and to bribe their
heard." How do you know? Who's listening in? Are way into heaven by leaving money to the church.
you sayingthe right thing? I know severalpeople who Nothing could be more inhumane. Billions have been
are paranoid about it. They pray before, during and left to the church instead of helping living children
after they eat, and while they go to the bathroom. and invalids who are dying through lack of funds or
How do you know you are praying to the right god? due to inadequate researchfunds. The church is more
Maybe by praying you will be condemned. Watch concerned with the "next life" than with this one.
Number Twenty-Eight: "I am living a good life of
out!
My aunt prays only when she needs money. She sacrifice."
The religious person is motivated by greed not
gets it too. To pray is to beg.
Number Twenty-Four: "The Bible historians and sacrifice. He wants more pleasure in heaven than he
theologians, etc., proved that God exists." It is not could have in this life. He wants to live forever not to
enough to refer to the argumentsof others. You must accept the life he has.
Number Twenty-Nine: "But we must avoid sin."
know the argumentsfor your own beliefs.
Number Twenty-Five: "But God, mind, soul, etc.,
The christian religion is based on guilt. A child
are abstract and indefinable terms. They are spiritual though just born is guilty of original sin. "But I just
things. You can't reduce everything to what you can got here." "Tough, guilty." Nietzsche pointed out
see and touch. Such terms are abstract and inde- that religion makes man a shadow of himself, an
finable like 'love'."
inferior. Man is guilty and inferior to god. He must
But you can and must reduce abstract terms like constantly go about atoning (not singing) and generallove to concrete actions, statements and feelings. If ly being inferior and guilty.
you are not concretely clear about love then you
Number Thirty: If you are concerned about these
aren't able to love well. You wouldn't know what to arguments, do not be. They are merely things to condo or how to do it. Love must be reduced to being sider. Some people find that religion is a crutch like
kind, speaking in a certain way, not being angry, com- heroin. Without it they would fall apart. Their whole
municating openly so as to solve problems, etc. It is personality would be in crisis. If so, it is important to
not obscure magic which comes over us. If you do see that I do not wish you to give up religion, as it
not reduce love to concrete things and criteria you may do you great harm or make you suicidal. I do
will not know whether you are in love or not. "Am I not want that on my conscience.
Number Thirty-One: The Bible says, "You should
really in love?" "00 you have that certain zing?"
Much inhumanity is caused by the belief that ab- not suffer a witch to live."
This led to the witch trials.
stract terms have some special meaning in themNumber Thirty-Two: "But religion allows one to
selves.
Number Twenty-Six: "But I must be guided by live forever."
On the contrary. By presenting a dogmatic view of
my conscience."
Yes, but not in itself. You may have an unin- death and presuming to have the answersit prevented
formed conscience. Conscience is developed by our and discouraged genuine research into death and
beliefs and by us. It is not a criterion in itself. One's dying. Honest, open inquiry and genuine researchinconscience may bother him if he does not smoke to death hasonly begun in the last few years.
marijuana with his friends.
In the middle ages,long after, and to some extent
Number Twenty-Seven: "If you speak against still, the religious view was that diseasewas causedby
religion you may be damned forever."
sin, by god and medicine was discouraged.At times it
Religion is basedon fear. It's not just regular fear was a sin to go to the doctor. We now know more
like fear of being burned or having one's legs and about the cause of diseaseand that it can be cured
arms slowly pulled off or being blown up by the without magic. This is one of the thousands of ways
Irish. It has more muscle in it than that. It is eternal
in which humanity and progresscomes at the expense
pain and punishment. Those who believe in this won- of religion.
drous god-works-in-many-waysidea deserveto believe
Number Thirty-Three: "But without religion what
in it.
[Here are the concluding rebuttals to the standard

arguments used by the church ridden in philosophical
jousting. The other 22 rebuttals were printed in the
December, 1977, issue.l
Page 22
Ihe Amtritan Athtist Radio Strits

Program 230
KTBC Radio
Thine own humanity learn to adore".
3 February 1973
Austin, Texas
Concerning a minister,
Hello there,
This is Madalyn Murray O'Hair, American
Atheist, back to talk with you again.
I have a most curious book here, written by
a William Kent, who was the editor of the Encyclopedia of London. This book was printed in England, in 1948 by an Atheist organization there. It
is titled "Lift Up Your Heads", which is a religious
phrase,standard for Lo! these many years.
The author says, "The title is a reminder of
the daily woes of depression called 'Lift Up Your
Hearts'. Could anything more clearly demonstrate
the way in which pietism prostrates the human
mind and the truth of Robert Burns' observation
that of all nonsense the most nonsensical is reiigious nonsense."
The book, apparently, is an anthology of
tid-bits of Atheist writings. Let me read a few of
them to you.
From the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam,
translated in 1859 by Edward Fitzgerald,
"Into this Universe,and why not knowing,
Nor whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing;
And out of it, asWind along the Waste,
I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing."
From "Christmas," written by Thomas
Hardy,
"Peace on earth" was.said, We sing it,
And pay a million priests to bring it.
After two thousands years of mass
We've got asfar as poison gas."
this
anonymous
poem,
"By day and night he besiegedthe Almighty
With matters that seemedof great worth;
So his wife took in sewing to keep things
a-going
While he superintended the earth."
From Shakespeare'sKing Lear,
"As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods;
They kill us for their sport."
There are small paragraphs in this book too.
From James H. Leuba's God or Man?,
"One of the main evils perpetrated by the
Christian religion is disregard of knowledge in general. 'Love the lord with all thy heart and thy
neighbor as thyself is an adequate prescription.
Without knowledge, love is blind; even as,with the
right will, knowledge is dangerous. A religion of
love and of reliance upon providence is by its very
nature indifferent, if not antagonistic to knowledge
and, thereby, defeats its own purpose, insofar as
that purpose is the welfare of humanity.
"The way to Heaven and to sainthood, as
understood by Christianity, lies not through institutions of higher learning; not even necessarily
through the grammar school. The chance of salvation is no greater for the learned than for the ignorant; why then should the churches be concerned
with the acquisition of knowledge? Faith and love,
not knowledge, open the gatesof heaven."
From Voltaire's We Must Take Sides, written
in 1772,
From an anonymous poet,

"I've lost my portmanteau""I pity your grief.""My sermonswere in it"."1 pity the thief."
From William Blake, and his "The Everlasting Gospel",
"Thou art a man. God is no more.
"I would rather deny his existence than be

discourteous to him. Let us get through this miserable life as well as we can, without reference to a
fantastic being whom no one has ever seen,and to
whom it would matter little, if he existed, whether
we believe in him or not. What I think of him can
no more affect him, supposing that he exists, than
what he thinks of me, of which I am ignorant, affects me. There is no relation, no connection, no
interest between him and me. Let us do as nine
Page 23
hundred and ninety-nine mortals out of a thousand

do: they work, generate, eat, drink, sleep, suffer
and die, without speaking of metaphysics, or
knowing that there is such a thing."
From Jonathan Swift's An
Against Abolishing Christianity, 1708,
Argument
"I conceive some scattered notions about a

superior power to be of singular use for the common people, as furnishing excellent materials to
keep children quiet when they grow peevish, and
providing topics of amusement in a tedious winternight."
From G. W. Foote, Letters to Jesus Christ,
1886,
"I cannot understand a baby god. Did god
(mewl [sic] and) puke in his nurse's arms? Did god
kick and squeal inhis bath? Did god stare foolishly
at his little toes? Did god howl when pricked by a
nasty pin? Was god suckled by his mother, or
brought up on the bottle? Did god increase the
family washing bill? Was god put in a cradle and
rocked to sleep? Did god have the measles? Did
god have a bad time teething? Did god learn to
walk by the domestic furniture? Did god tumble
down on his nose, or on the broader part he once
displayed to Moses?Was god spanked when he misbehaved?"
From George Bernard Shaw's Preface to
Androcles and the Lion. (In this, Shaw talks about

an Iconoclater which is a person who adores icons
or idols. Since the word is obsolete, let me change
it to "rei igionists" as I read th is.)
"If you speak or write of Jesus as a real live
person, or even as a still active god, such worshippers are more horrified than Don Juan was when
the statute steppped from its pedestal and came to
supper with him. You may deny the divinity of Jesus; you may doubt whether he ever existed; you
may reject Christianity for Judaism, Mahometanism, Shintoism, or Fire Worship; and the religionists, placidly contemptuous, will only classify you
as a Freethinker or a Heathen. But if you venture
to wonder how Christ would have looked if he had
shaved or had his hair cut, or what size in shoes he
took, or whether he swore when he stood on a nail
in the carpenter's shop, or could not button his
robe when he was in a hurry, or whether he
laughed over the repartees by which he baffled the
priests when they tried to trip him into sedition
and blasphemy, or even if you tell any part of his
story in the vivid terms of modern colloquial slang,
you will produce an extraordinary dismay and horror among the religionists. You will have made the
picture come out of its frame, the statue descend
Page24
from its pedestal, the story become real, with all

the incalculable consequences that may flow from
this terrifying miracle. It is at such moments that
you realize that the reliqionists have never for a
moment conceived Christ as a real person who
meant what he said, as a fact, as a force like electricity, only needing the invention of suitable political machinery to be applied to the affairs of mankind with revolutionary effect."
From W. Somerset Maugham's The Summing
Up, 1937,
"Most of us find it embarrassing when
flowery compliments are paid to us. It is strange
that the devout should think god can be pleased
when they slavishly pay them to him. When I was
young I had an elderly friend who used often to
ask me to stay with him in the country. He was a
religious man, and he read prayers to the assembled
household every morning. But he had crossed out
in pencil all the passagesin the Book of Common
Prayer that praised god. He said that there was
nothing so vulgar as to praise people to their faces,
and, himself a gentleman, he could not believe that
god was so ungentlemanly as to like it."
From
Arhur
Schopenhauer,
Religion: A
Dialogue, 1851,
"One may say generally that duties towards
god and duties toward humanity are in inverse rations. It is easy to let adulation of the Deity make
amends for lack of proper behaviour towards man.
And, so we seethat in all times and in all countries
the great majority of mankind find it much easier
to beg their way to heaven by prayers than to deserve to go there by their actions. In every religion
it soon comes to be the casethat faith, ceremonies,
rites and the like are proclaimed to be more agreeable to the divine will than moral actions; the ceremony, especially if they are bound up with the
emoluments of the clergy, gradually come to be
looked upon as a substitute for moral actions. Sacrifices come to be looked upon as a substitute for
moral actions. Sacrifices in the temples, the saying
of masses,the founding of chapels, the planting of
crosses by the roadside, soon come to be almost
meritorious works, so that even great crimes are
expiated by them, as also be penance, subjection to
priestly authority, confessions, pilgrimages, donations to the temples and the clergy, the building of
monasteries and the like. The consequence of all
this is that the priests finally appear as middlemen
in the corruption of the gods."
And from Robert Burns in a letter dated

August 3rd, 1784,
"I have often thought that the more out-of-
the-way and ridiculous the fancies are, if once they

are sanctified under the sacred name of religion,
the unhappy mistaken votaries are the more firmly
glued to them."
From Chapman Cohen's Essaysin Freethinking, Series I, 1923,
"Th ere are no questions of so vital importance to man and those that cluster around religion. Everyone finds they can quite safely treat
other people's religion as of no importance. The
Christian treats his own religion with the utmost
gravity, and laughs at those of others. The only
reason he has for thinking a particular religion is of
importance is that it happens to be his own. And
the other man never fails to return the compliment. Each one laughs at the other's absurdity ...
and cherishes with the utmost affection his own.
The awe-inspiring narrative of one religion becomes
the laughter-making material of another. What is
revered and what is laughed at is largely a matter of
geography. If Old Mother Hubbard had been in the
Bible, it would have been treated with the same
gravity as Jonah and the Whale. It is a mere accident that we have not as many solemn commentaries dealing with the esoteric significance of Jack
and the Beanstalk as we have dealing with the Song
of Solomon.
Modern religion rests almost entirely on the
perpetuation of this saffron-tea type of mind. Religion always has been; therefore it must continue
to be. People cloak their fear of the future under
various disguises, but it is there. Many thousands
have no religious belief themselves, but they appear
to think it would be rather risky for their womenfolk to be wihout it. Others persuade themselves
that in some unknown way religion does a deal of
good, and that if we throw it overboard altogether
society may be exposed to serious danger. Yet
others are of opinion that for some people religion
does act as a moral restraint. The humor of the situation is that each one thinks it is good for the
other."
From Napoleon Buonaparte,
"What is it that makes the poor man think it
quite natural that there are fires in my palace while
he is dying of cold; that I have ten coats in my wardrobe while he goes naked?; that at each of my
meals enough is served to feed his family for a
week? It is simply religion, which tells him that in
another life I shall be only his equal, that he actually has more chance.of being happy there than I.
Yes, we must see to it that the doors of the
churches are open to all, and that it does not cost
the poor man much to have prayers said on his
tomb."
Lastly, from H. G. Wells, The Fate of Homo
Sapiens,1939,
"It is only in our own time that Protestantism, the progressive etching away of belief by enquiry, has reached its natural finality in complete,
untroubled disbelief in superhuman authority.
Even now many Atheists prevaricate. If the word
"god" means anything at all, it means a powerful
being sufficiently anthropomorphic to have reciprocal relations with the individual man. A god
who is not a personality is a contradiction in terms.
But because of the ribald and ungenteel associations of the word "Atheist" a great number of
Atheistic thinkers and teachers have clung ambiguously to the entirely deflated name of "god". God,
they say, is the Absolute, he is a force not oursselves making for righteousness; he is the whisper
of conscience, he is the brainless Thinker responsible for the mathematical order of the world, he is
immanence. These are mere subterfuges, godshaped vacuums."
And Chapman Cohen, Essaysin Freethinking, SecondSeries, 1927.
"The great historic evils of the world, the enduring wrongs to mankind, have been perpetrated
by "good" people out of the very quality of their
goodness. Good men kept the inquisition alive;
good men kept burning for witchcraft in existence;
good men created the English Sunday; good men
opposed with force scientific discoveries and philosophic speculations; good men have hurried us into ill-advised legislation that has often inflicted
more harm than it has removed.
II
And, all of these have been gathered together by William Kent-and that is all that I know
about him-his name-for inclusion in his book
titled "Litt Up Your Heads.
0
I am certain you will want to search out

these authors, these works, and read the rest of
them yourself.
This informational broadcast is brought to
you as a public service by the Society of Separationists, Inc., a non-profit, non-political, tax exempt, educational organization dedicated to the
complete separation of state and church. This series of American Atheist Radio programs is continued through listener generosity. The Society of
Separationists, Inc. predicates its philosophy on
American Atheism. For more information, or for a
free copy of the script of this program, write to
P. O.{Box 2117, Austin, Texas. That zip is 78768.
Page 25
by Voltaire
E. Heywood
LOCKE'S MISTAKE
COMPOUNDED
BY JEFFERSON
Even today, anyone who reads the general philosophy of John Locke, that enlightened figure of the
Seventeenth Century, will be refreshed by his abandonment of Platonic innate ideas and his initiation of
the doctrine of empiricism. His "white paper" (tabula
rasa) concept, which maintained the mind of an
infant to be without predetermined notion, refuted
Machiavelli's idea of a newborn's natural evil and
Rousseau's claim of its inherent goodness. This
"blank tablet" to be written on by experience was
described by Locke in his work, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding in which he describes
the assimilation of knowledge as follows: "When has
it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I
answer, in one word, EXPERIENCE:
in that all
knowledge is founded, and from that it ultimately
derives itself."
Locke's view of the acquisition
of knowledge
through experience, as expressed in 1690, although
not without criticism in its own time, remained the
doctrine of science for two centuries after his death.
(Heisenberg's uncertainty
principle and Einstein's
relativity physics introduced a new perspective: the
incorporation of the observer in the formulation of
the laws of nature.) Locke, as a member of the Royal
Society, had himself performed experiments and even
assisted Robert Boyle with barometric observations.
With practical laboratory experience and exposure to
the genius of the Society's membership,
Locke
adapted Francis Bacon's scientific method to problems beyond the laboratory and, in the process, singly
revolutionized the epistemology of modern thought.
Why then did Locke vacillate from his empiricism
to include remnants of intuitive knowledge in his
philosophy? Ironically, Thomas Jefferson, also a man
of science and himself a substantial figure in the later
stages of the Enlightenment,
adopted into the
Declaration of Independence fragments of Locke's
uncertainty. To illustrate Locke's indecisiveness, as
perpetuated in that famous document by Jefferson,
one needs only to dwell on the popular excerpt, "We
hold these truths to be self-evident . . . " What an
unfortunate, unscientific choice of words!
In keeping with his role as an exemplary heir of the
early Enlightenment of Europe, why did Jefferson
not rely more on the demonstrable knowledge that
Locke had propounded and say, "We maintain these
assumptions to be evidenced by reason ... " It is hard
to believe that Jefferson, who was writing seventytwo years after the death of his mentor, could not
have abandoned Locke's slight vacillation from empiricism by writing a completely rational document.
In speculating in retrospect as to his motives, one
Page 26
might perceive that Jefferson used the unscientific,

absolute term "truths" and the intuitive, non-demonstrable term "self-evident,"
for impact. He was reasserting the negation of the divine right and omnipotency of kings and addressing this argument to
King George III. (Locke's own century is most significant for the rise of pari iamentary ru Ie and the
diminishing of royal autocracy in Great Britain.) Perhaps Jefferson wanted a more forceful prelude, one
of "certainties,"
not assumptions, to precede the remainder of that sentence: " ...
that all men are
created equa!." (That clause, similarly
unsubstantiated and unempirical, is another matter.)
John Locke's defense of self-evident ideas is so
vague that it is amazing that Jefferson resorted to the
concept
of
intu itive
knowledge
at all!
Locke
explained that revealed truths could be intuitive; they
could be self-evident. Whatever happened to the
blank tablet? Were intuitive ideas written in invisible
ink?
To distinguish between divine revelation (intuitive
knowledge) and the evidence of reason, Locke stated,
"that whatever God hath revealed is certainly true; no
doubt can be made of it ... But whether it is divine
revelation or no, reason must judge." What a grave
contradiction!
Still, he did reserve the final judgment
for reason. That reservation in itself is a monumental
achievement,
regardless of its entanglement
with
divine disclosure. The real tragedy lies, however, in
Jefferson's inability to discern Locke's own insecurity
on that basic point.
For unlike Jefferson, who was detached from the
personal aspects of Christianity since he adhered to
the doctrine of Deism, John Locke was a deeply religious man. Although Locke was the father of empiricism in the Age of Enlightenment, he was also the
child of a unique period of religious turmoil in British
history. Locke's lifetime (1632-1704) spans the majority of the Stuart Era, a period in which religious
pressures created political dissatisfaction and reaction.
This disunity in politics, which was aligned directly
along religious lines, produced an environment
in
which every man's politico-religious
allegiance had to
be well defined.
Locke was thirteen
when the
Catholic Charles I, an enemy of Parliament like his
Anglican father James I, was beheaded in 1645. The
Protestant
Cromwell
Protectorate
then ruled for
eleven years. (Locke was pol itically and rei igiously a
parliarnentarian.l
Thereafter, the Anglican Charles II
allowed persecution of dissenting Protestant groups,
while
himself
showing great sympathy
for the
Catholicism of his brother James. (This situation led
to the formation of the two political parties: the

"Whigs"
were
strongly
parliamentarians
and
Protestant, while the "Tories"
were vigorously
royalists and Catholic.)
By the time the fanatically Catholic James "
assumed the throne, after clandestinely converting
the dying Charles to Catholicism, Protestant forces
(Whigs) had rallied to overthrow him. His escape and
the ascension of William and Mary both restored and
assured Protestantism as the religion of the Crown.
Even with the death of Queen Anne, who had succeeded her sister and brother-in-law,
the Catholic
Jacobite heirs threatened to regain the throne as
descendants of the once exiled James"!
So it went. That insane turmoil lasted through (and
beyond) Locke's lifetime. (He died in the third year
of Anne's reign.) He had lived through a time in
which individual introspection of faith, as well as political philosophy, was necessary with each new, and
vastly different, regime. Had Locke not been among
the first Fellows of the Royal Society, which grew
from the restoration of Charles l l, he might have been
a Seventeenth Century Martin Luther!
But what of Jefferson? Was he under the same
religious and political pressures that Locke had endured? Of course not. (I n fact the Thirteen Colonies
had been the haven for countless numbers of religious dissenters seeking to escape Stuart religious
intoleration!)
Perhaps he is only guilty of adopting
Locke's
philosophy
into
the
Declaration
of
Independence without careful analysis of what he
was employing. Was his regard for Locke so great
that he accepted all of Locke's work implicitly?
(His specially commissioned bust of Locke bears
this out.)
Still, Thomas Jefferson, who is revered for so
many diversified reasons, has left us, the present day
rational descendents of the Enlightenment, with a difficult phrase to defend scientifically.
Words like
"truths" and "self-evident" have no place in a treatise
of reason, wh ich any document written by such a
mind as Jefferson possessed ought to have been. He
should have never glorified Locke's minor religious
reservation, god's influence on our intuitive thinking,
by incorporating
these two words. Perhaps, like
Locke, he too was unsure of that point. But times
had changed. He should have known better than to
rely completely on anyone outside source, regardless
of Locke's renown, to convey the message of a new
generation and a new people. I n short, Jefferson
should have taken the basic purity of Locke's reasoning and deleted his illogical references to divine
influence on intuitive knowledge.
as it is upon the spoken philosophy of many inhabitants of Israel, notably the "riqht wing," however
much the government officials may soh-pedal the desire for expansion. I n the Talmud, god is a Jew.
It was this country's open, even defiant, espousal
of the Zionist cause which led the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries to place an embargo
upon, and increase the price of, oil exports to the
West as a political-economic weapon in their military
opposition to the spread of Zionism. This unexpected
and sudden increase in the cost of the produce basic
to fuel and power had the effect of adding to the
deficit condition of this country, begun in the fight
against the Depression of the Thirties and continued,
after World War l l, in an attempt to buy the world
from communism, almost to the point of bankruptcy;
and there are those in high places who, either openly
or covertly, predict an American expedition into the
Middle East or North Africa in order to protect itself
against such bankruptcy or a loss of oil imports in the
event of another Arab-Israeli conflict, which may be
imminent. In the United States, god is the conqueror.
Given the not wholly unfounded suspicion of the
Arab World that Israel, like Nazi Germany of a
generation ago, is bent upon an expansionist policy
for lebensraum, it is difficult to conceive of permanent peace in the area. The onset of hostilities would
almost certainly mean reimposition of the oil boycott.This country
would then very probably see
its survival as dependent upon occupation of the
Petroleum Producing Countries, or some of them.
Russia, because of its commitment
to the Arab
lands and in its own political self-interest in preventing an American foothold so close to its own borders, would very likely, like China in the KoreanAmerican
War, march its massive conventional
forces, land, sea, and air, to confront the invading
Americans.
At this point, either Russia or the United States, or
both, might push the buttons that would convert a
conventional war into an atomic holocaust. From the
roots of the religious conflicts of the Middle East, we
would then see the rise of the mushrooms of World
War" I.
In this final Armageddon, the United States should
have nothing to worry about. Since our enemy will be
the godless communists, surely god will be on our
side. This is to be expected since we will be fighting
for god's chosen people, the Israelis.
But somehow, in the back of our collective mind,
or in our subconscious, or in the lonely thoughts in
the middle of the night, must arise the troubling question: Who will win this Twentieth Century Crusade,
jehovah or allah? Or whether, perhaps, god is oil.
(World War III continued from p. 17)
would mean, of course, the conquest of Arab land

beyond that already taken by military adventure
since the formation of the Israeli state. The suspicion
of her Arab neighbors is not totally paranoid, based
Page 27
~J
(Theories, Proofs, and Nonsense continued from p.19)
If this very scientific piece of logic fails to convince

you the earth is the center of the universe, then you
can understand why Aquinas' piece of logic failed to
convince me that god exists. In fact, the translation
of The Almagest I have is 478 pages long filled with
an overwhelming abundance of mathematical proofs
to back up the theory. Where is Aquinas' supporting
evidence for his particular theory? Had it existed, do
you think Brantl would have passed it over? Do you
think today Atheism could exist if there were truly
scientific proofs of god's existence?
We're not done with Aquinas yet. Let's take a second look, and ask if the "Five Ways" could ever be a
proof. The answer is no.
What is scientific proof? Scientific theories may
have many diverse explanations for a certain aspect of
nature that is known, but not understood, or unknown, but seemingly necessary to postulate from
what is known. For instance, in 1841 John Couch
Adams theorized that the perturbations in the motion
of Uranus were caused by an unknown planet. If
there were contrary theories, they are forgotten because Adams won with the discovery in 1846 of the
planet Neptune by Johann Gottfried Galle.
So, what is a proof? Adams' calculations were not
a proof. Galle's observation of Neptune was. A proof
is that which convince's utterly that the theory is
right, and therefore no longer theory, but fact. Now,
a proof to be convincing must not prove more than
one theory, or what good would the proof be? Particularly if the offered theories do not allow the simultaneous existence of the other theories' claims.
The question now is, which god did Aquinas think
his "Five Ways" proved? Surely, he was out to prove
the existence of the three-in-one deity of the Christians. Did he? Read that theory again, then show me
how it refers to a specific god.
That theory only refers to a god! In fact, any god
or goddess described as the one responsible for creating the world is "proven" by Aquinas' intellectual
craftsmansh ip. How many such deities have been and
are now worshipped? Bunches. Battalions. Brigades.
Human imagination has never lacked an ability to
create gods and goddesses.
And the famous "Five Ways," so proudly praised
by Brantl, serves them all! Some scientific proof. The
only person capable of believing Aquinas has proven
the existence of a specific god is one who believes in
a specific god. Certainly a rational person whose reason is not befuddled by religion can only laugh at the
offering of the "Five Ways" as scientific proof of the
existence of Yahweh =or is it Jesus? -or Zeus? -or
Ahura Mazda?-or
Odin? -or Allah? -or -or phooey!
One of the triumphs of religionism is the general
acceptance of the idea that god cannot be shown not
to exist. Yet, at the same time it is insisted that god
has always been personally present, and can be expperienced enough to allow one to gather data for scientific proofs of his existence. A religion like Chris-
Page 28
tianity has had through its Jewish roots several thousand years to put together proofs that god exists and I mean proofs, not clever scholastics like the
"Five Ways." How could they fail if god has been and
is personally present as nearly every Christian theologian insists he is and has been?
The hard fact is, in all these thousands of years, the
best the religionists can come up with is nonsense like
the "Five Ways," which is not ever. a proof, but a pathetic theory incapable of even applying to only one
specific god! If Galle, or anybody else, had not found
a Neptune, Adams today would only be remembered
as the scientist who dreamed up fantasy planets with
clever mathematics. Yet, even though no one has ever
found a god, and Atheists easily obliterate so-called
proofs, there are many, many who still believe god
cannot be shown not to exist! Was it Shakespeare
who said, "What fools these mortals be!"? ~
(A Solsticial Gift continued from p.22)
would keep people from being bad?"

That is the Irish question. It is unethical to believe
in religion. It is unethical to believe in religion because to be eth ical requ ires a real istic knowledge of
cause and effect, open honest on-going inquiry,
knowledge of how emotions work, etc., all of which
religion denies or ignores. One should not be good
merely out of fear of hell or a superman but should
be good because it makes sense, because it is humane.
Religion merely promotes one into becoming a neurotic.
Number Thirty-Four:
"You must have faith in
God."
You must have faith in yourself. If there is no god
to blindly obey you will now have to fall back on
your own intelligence.
Number Thirty-Five:
"But each person has a right
to his own beliefs."
Not if they are harmful to others, and obscure and
superstitious beliefs do have consequences. Religion
promotes blind prejudice, dogma, anti-inquiry,
and
leads to great physical harm such as the inquisition. If
a Catholic doctor has to decide whether to take the
mother's life or child's he takes the mother's life. Women are prevented from aborting thereby causing the
woman and society much harm by producing deformed and/or unwanted children. Obscure ideas and
beliefs do have consequences. It is unethical and inhumane to believe in the Christian religion.
For example, it was agreed between two hospitals
in Billings, Montana, that St. Vincent's, the Catholic
hospital would handle maternity cases. A woman was
seriously ill with diabetes, her doctor recommended
that she have her tubes tied at the same time she have
a cesarean because another pregnancy might kill her.
The hospital allowed the cesarean but not the tubal
ligation. She was thus forced to have the cesarean,
recuperate and then travel to another region, have a
second operation
for sterilization
and recuperate
again. The case was taken to court and won - but only at the expense of the underlying religious dogma
and the health and life of the woman.
PLEA TO THE ACLU
FOR AMERICAN
[The fol/owing is a copy of a letter recently submitted to the CIVIL LIBERTIES REPORTER by an
American Atheist, Virginia E. Herzfeld of New Jersey.
It is a powerful letter and, hopeful/y, it will open the
eyes of the ACLU so that they will help the Atheist
cause - separation of state and church.}
Ms. Dorothy Schwartz, Editor
Civil Liberties Reporter
American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey
45 Academy Street
Newark, NJ 07102
To The Editor:
Having just
completed
the
"PRIORITIES
QUESTIONNAI RE" in preparation for the State
ACLU General Meeting, I would like to comment on
the matter of priorities and the ACLU's general divergence from the most vital cause, the separation of
state and church. A perusal of the other "priorities"
revealsclearly that a majority, if not a", of the problems have their origins in the increasedencroachment
of organized religion upon governmental matters.
For example, the present abortion opposition has
its basis in the tax-exempt, illegal church lobby
against this personal decision. Similarly, women's
rights, particularly the ERA, suffer because of the
Judeo-Christian tradition of woman's secondary
status, which has been manifested in more lobbying
against such rights. In a broader sense, even the
impoverished have been harmed due to the enormous sums of monies denied to them with the vast
tax exemptions of religious institutions and their related profit-yielding enterprises.
More direct evidence of church take over of nonclerical matters can be found in the recent defeat the
gay community experienced in Florida. That blemish
on the history of American liberty resulted from
Leviticus's denial of salvation to homosexuals and the
religious community's extrapolation of this denial to
include the basic human rights belonging to these individuals in the here and now! This fear campaign by
a fundamentalist faction waged in general against
homosexuality, a condition no longer considered a
mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association, was in essencea victory of ignorance over
reason,punishment over justice, and religious tyranny
over secular liberty.
There are many other areas in which church influence has openly affected secular institutions. Public
schools are slowly losing their autonomy, as once
empirical textbooks must now include unsubstantiated, scriptural interpretations, as students in many
states are "encouraged" to meditate, and as all school
calendars are arranged around religious events. Similarly, in the areas of science questions, academic
freedom, and censorship issues,the church, stagnated
LIBERTIES
in uncompromising, unconstitutional biases, has continued to intrude on matters of state and matters of
individual liberty.
Those precious liberties which our founding
fathers guaranteed to us in the Bill of Rights will
never be realized in th is nation until state and church
are truly separate. It is understandable why neither
the majority of the population, nor its partisan elected officials cannot and will not be responsible for
such a separation; but it is incomprehensible to me,
along with other lovers of freedom, why the American Civil Liberties Union has abandoned its post as
the last sentinel of liberty! The ACLU's apathy for state-church separation
problems and preoccupation with more popular, less
controversial priorities has in itself set a dangerous
precedent. How could the organization ignore the
substitution of "In God we trust" for "E Pluribus .
Unum" as bur national motto? And what of the
flag salute's unconstitutional insertion, "under God,"
another unchallenged legacy of the enlightened
Eisenhower years? For that matter how long will the
national organization and its affi Iiates tolerate the
opening of Congresswith a prayer?
There are numerous ACLU members throughout
the country in the Society of Separationists. If there
is not a more comprehensive, consistent treatment of
matters of state-church separation, I will definitely
come verbally crashing down on the ACLU on all
levels: county, state and national.
How much longer can the ACLU membership
tolerate negligence of such matters? I hope, not as a
result of my threat of inciting these already disturbed ACLU separationists, but as a result of a
rededication to the First Amendment and the
vital precept of separation of church and state,
that the ACLU will rearrange its priorities.
Virginia E. Herzfeld
234 W. Sixth Ave.
Roselle, N.J.
Page 29
~J
(Navy Recognizes Atheist continued from p. 10)
"Hagen said the nearest chapter of American

Atheists is at Ashland, Ore., and that he may organize
a Puget Sound chapter. He also said he will challenge
any theistic reiigious expression in the Navy.
" '1 don't believe in God, and I don't want to subsidize their beliefs,' he said.
"Hagen is a graduate of a Concord, Calif., high
school and his parents Iive in Oakland. His father is a
drug counselor in Alameda Schools.
" 'Dad and I talked about it a lot,
Hagen said
referring to his Atheism. " 'I've been an Atheist since
I was a little kid.' He said his father supports his views
and that other members of his family, including two
younger brothers, have similar convictions.
"Before joining the Navy in January, Hagen
worked in North Dakota. Prior to that he studied at
Humboldt State University and hitchhiked in Europe
for sevenmonths." ~
I
NEW CARTOON
EDITOR
CARTOON
JOINS
STAFF!
CONTEST!
Our magazine has been fortunate enough to obtain

the services of an expert Non-Residential Cartoon
Editor, James Erickson of Minneapolis, Minn. He is
an "eclectic" Atheist who has had published over 1 00
cartoons during the past few years, but in convincing him to donate his talents to the noble cause of
Atheism we promised him that we would help as
much as possible from the American Atheist Center
./
Page 30
"It
expose
may
of
be
the
most
devastating
a religious
group
ever pub-
Thorkelson.
Minneapolis Star
lished."
-Willmar
Ambassador Report is a 92-page, fullcolor, magazine-sized publication

that
exposes one of the most successful
money-making
religious
operations
In
the world today. Containing 30 articles,
it documents the money-making
techniques of the Worldwide Church of God,
its prophetic failures, Its many bizarre
doctrines, the real background
of Its
founder
Herbert
W. Armstrong,
the
escapades of his son, evangelist Garner
Ted Armstrong,
the Incredible
Inadequacies of Ambassador
College, and
much more.
For each copy, send $5.95 (in Calif.
add sales tax) plus $.75 postage.
Ambassador Report
P.O. Box 4068
(1081 E. Howard)
Pasadena, CA 91106
in Austin. We, in turn, are asking for your assistance

in this matter. If you have an idea for a cartoon or illustration, see a cartoon which could be changed
around to suit our purposes, please send it along to
the Center and we'll add whatever we can and then
send the entire collection on to Mr. Erickson to work
with. His, of course, has to be the final inspiration
which will make the cartoon or illustration striking or
a flop, asthe casemay be.
In the casesof particularly successfulcartoons ofAtheist bent, the idea is to give Mr. Erickson the
copyright freedom to publish them in non-Atheist
journals so that the Atheist point of view gets a wider
spectrum of viewers than merely those of us already
in the fold of reason.Again, we would be most grateful to any reader for any original or adaptation ideas
for cartoons, and our new Cartoon Editor will offer
books and other prizes for the best example received
in any given month beginning with February, 1978,
So rev up your creativity to jet speedand shoot in to
us all those brilliant Atheist cartoon ideasjust waiting
in the backs of your minds to astonish the world.
And don't depend only on current publications which
you peruse for your cartoon triggering mechanism.
Back issues of popular magazines at your public
library may be your particular bonanza, so one to
get ready, two to get set, and three to go for the first
monthly prize of Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair's $8.95
book, Fi eedom Under Siege.
SOME SAY
THAT
THEY
BELIEVE
IN GOD
THE
Some say that they bel ieve in God

Perhaps they really do
You'd think they'd live a different life
If that were really true
BARNELL
BLAST
The Bill of Rights

Was well planned
They're very important
Laws of our land
Take Salesman Sam th' used car man

Who's born again on Sunday
Still cheating blind his fellow man
And here it's only Monday
Regarding religion,
Let's take a pause
To think about
Those important laws
Jane Doe was saved six months ago

She vowed she'd sin no more
We got her wet and prayed a lot
But Jane is still a whore
The Atheist has a

Right to holler
If "In God we trust"
Is on each dollar
I guess th' worst's our minister

Th' Reverend Bigmouth Bass
Who claims despite th' hungry poor
God wants him kept first-class
Let's be consistent
And do not hedge
And omit "Under God"
I n our "Allegiance"
pledge
Bert Barnell
Some say that they believe in God

Perhaps they really do
You'd think they'd live a different life
If that were really true ...
Rev. John B. Denson 0 0
LIMERICK
LAUGHTER
Bud Matlack
DEVILED
ENCORE
HAM
When the devils were cast into swine

They dashed down a breakneck incline;
So the owners conferred,
Butchered most of the herdDeviled ham then became their new line.
Kiiig David had women galore

And a keen eye he kept out for more;
With always in mind
The respectable king He married them for an encore.
NO TALENT
The servant was beaten; he'd
For the talent his master had
He's kept it quite sound
Buried deep in the ground
An investment in land where
'1eAmerican Atheist
nothing to show
loaned him, e'en though
the dough didn't
grow.
Page 3)
BOOK REVIEW
INGERSOLL
THE MAGNIFICENT
Robert G. Ingersoll wrote: "That which has happened to all, happened to me. I was born, and this
event which has never for a moment ceased to influence my life, took place, according to an entry
found in one Bible, on the 12th day of August in the
year of grace 1833, according to another entry in
another Bible, on the 11th of August in the same
year. So you will seethat contradiction was about the
first I found in the Bible, and I have continued to
find contradictions in the SacredVolume all my life."
The American Atheist Pressthinks that the contradictions found by the spiritual father of American
Atheism are amusing enough and interesting enough
to those who have found or are at least searchingfor
intellectual freedom that it has published a 56- page
condensation of them to make them available to
everyone at a mere two dollars per copy.
Entitled Ingersoll the Magnificent, this handy condensation consists of eight radio talks by Dr.
Madalyn Murray O'Hair, opening with "Joseph Lewis
on Robert G. Ingersoll" and closing with "Robert G.
Ingersoll on Superstition." The major portion of the
book, six radio presentations, is devoted to Ingersoll's
views on the Bible. Since the Bible (or any equivalent "Sacred Volume") is for any enlightened Atheist
the root of all evil, this marvelous little book which
demolished that root so completely is likely to evoke
a reaction something akin to that which overwhelmed
Ingersoll, who described it thus:
"When I became convinced that the Universal is
natural - that all the ghosts and gods are myths,
there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every
drop of my blood, the sense,the feeling, the joy of
freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell,
the dungeon was flooded with light and all the locks,
bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no
Yes! I want (
longer a servant, a serf or a slave.There was for me no

master in all the wide, wide world - not even in infinite space. I was free - free to think, to express my
thoughts - free to live to my own ideal - free to live
for myself and those I loved - free to use all my
faculties, all my senses- free to spread imagination's
wings - free to reject all ignorant and barbarous legends of the past - free to reject all ignorant and barbarous legends of the past - free from popes and
priests - free from all the "called" and "set apart"
- free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies - free
from the fear of eternal pain - free from the winged
monsters of the night - free from devils, ghosts and
gods.
"For the first time I was free. There was no prohibited places in all the realms of thought - no air, no
space, where fancy could not spread her painted
wings - no chains for my limbs - no lashesfor my
back - no fires for my flesh - no master's frown or
cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words. I was free. I
stood erect and fearlessly, joyously faced ~II worlds.
"And then my heart was fi lied with gratitude, with
thankfulness, and went on in love to all the heroes,
the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of
hand and brain - for the freedom of labor and
thought - to those who fell on the fields of war, to
those who died in dungeons bound with chains - to
those who proudly mounted scaffold's stairs - to
those whose bones were crushed, whose flesh was
scarred and torn - to those by fire consumed - all
the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose
thoughts and deedshavegiven freedom to the sons of
men. And then I vowed to grasp the torch that they
had held, and hold it high, that light might conquer
darknessstill."
) copies of Ingersoll the Magnificent, at $2.00 per copy plus 50 cents postage and
handling; Pleasefind enclosed$2.50 for each copy.

Make checks/money orders payable to: AMERICAN ATHEISTS, P. O. Box 2117, Austin, TX 78768.
Or charge to my;
o VISA
No.
Date Expires
Signature
.....;.. _
MASTERCHARGE
Name
Addres~s
Ci~-----------------------------State:
_
_
-'"ZiptI-
(Texas state residents please add 5% sales tax.)
'---
The American A thel
Page 32
~J
THE AMERICAN ATHEIST 'PATCH'

A beautiful
patch.
blue, gold, and white embroidered
Great for blazer
pockets,
pocket,
etc. A sure-fire
tion at a social
manufactured
for
fishing cap, blue jean
way to start
gathering.
up a conversa-
Exclusively
American
pocket
Atheists.
designed
This
and
is not
printed iron on patch but the real thing. Yes, it is real gold
thread
.
One patch for only $1.95
Two or more patches for $1.50 each
THE AMERICAN ATHEIST

KEY RING FOR MEMBERS
As the patch, this embroidered item was manufactured exclusively for members of American Atheists.
The words "Member American Atheists" is embroidered on
one side. The symbol of the association is in gold thread on the
opposite side. The key ring will hold ten to twelve keys.
Available only to members of American Atheists .....
One key ring for only $2.50
Two or more key rings for $2.25 each
o Please
rush to me the following embroidered
o One
o
o Yes, I am a member,
blue and gold embroidered

patches
patch for $1.95
$ -----------------
for $1.50 each
$------------------
please send me:
o One
blue and gold embroidered
o
charge to my:
Card No. ____________________
key ring for $2.50
$------------------
key rings for $2.25 each
(Make check or money order payable to:

American Atheists, P.O. Box 2117, Austin, Texas 78768.)
o Please
Amount
items:
$------------------
TOTAL ENCLOSED
o MASTER
o VISA
$------------------
CHARGE
~-----------------------------Date
Expires
Signature
Date
Name
Address
City
State
Zip
(Texas state residents add 5% sales tax.)
!v
I.

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This Issue:

ATHEIST LEADER A "HIT"

/ LOSS FOR RELIGION

NAVY RECOGNIZES ATHEIST / RELIGIOUS WWIII

Vol. 20, No.1

ATHEIST LEADER A "HIT"

I LOSS FOR RELIGION

NAVY RECOGNIZES ATHEIST I RELIGIOUSWWIII

Vol. 20, No. 1

THE AMERICAN ATHEIST MAGAZINE

Post Office Box 2117

City, State, & Zip

The American Atheist

and only a planet in the solar system, religion shook.

The Bible speaks only of kinqs and emperors.

Religion has also shown its willingness to bed with

The American Atheist

The American A theist

In Texas, as in any other state, the politicians and

complaint of the persons involved in the felony. She

THEY FELLED HER

Therefore, on 27th October, 1977, Dr. O'Hair felt

There were about 250 persons in attendance. The

The situation in Texas is not so much different

The American Atheist

POLICE REFUSED TO TAKE A COMPLAINT

O'Hair raids bingo party

Staff Photo by Lorry Murphy

The American A theist

The American Atheist

Among the organizations contacted were the Fort

O'Hair or any other persons at the American Atheist

In early December as the bingo issue continued to

The American A theist

WITNESSED THE DEMISE OF SUCH GIANTS IN THE FIELD AS "LIFE"

THAT EACH AND EVERY ONE OF OUR

PRESENT SUBSCRIBERS, INCLUDING LIBRARIES AND INSTITUTIONS, COME TO OUR AID

INTO THE FOLD AT LEAST ONE ADDITION-

PLEASE MAKE A NEW YEAR'S RESO-

SUBSCRIBER TO OUR MAGAZINE.

WE THANK YOU FROM THE BOT-

AND MOST PRODUCTIVE NEW YEAR OF YOUR ENTIRE LIVES!

The American Atheist

BAIRD AND O'HAIR TEAM UP

At a joint news conference i~'

* The Roman Catholic Church lost this battle in

The American A theist

"BRE'MERTON, Wash. (AP) - A 21-year-old sailor

ordered to bow his head in prayer at a graduation

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

Dean HAGEN. USN, 264-27-7942

of 31 August 1977 (CO?y)

Ccr-r-ee't subject meMber's

Record Item Changed

The American A theist

The American A theist

Send contributions to:

hoary past. There is no way out and the burden has

KARMA AND SUBMISSION

The American Atheist

Until and unless the religious mode of thinking is

It is, however, such men of moral stature (though

Paul Soglin, the liberal mayor of Madison, was also

Picketers outside Dane County Courthouse