f Atheist News And Thought

VOL. 22, NO.6

PRAIRIAL, 188

NEWS
The Atheist Hour

Born Again Atheist

The First International Exhibition of Literature for Non-Believers

ARTICLES
The Turin Shroud: Fake? Fact? Photograph? - Joe Nickell
The Fraud of Turin -Madalyn

Murray O'Hair

The Case Against the United States Military

Chaplaincy - Gene A Diamond
'

14 .
'.;

16

Alcohol and God-Therapy - R. C. Wayne .. ,

27

COLUMNS
Gerald Tholen

---=--

An Outline of Human Intellect

; 20

Madalyn Murray O'Hair - The Wars of the Godly :

29

G. Richard Bozarth - Bozarth's Hall of Fame ~ Part One

32

Ignatz Sahula-Dycke - Little Gained If Nothing Solved

35

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair
MANAGING EDITOR
Jon Garth Murray
ASSISTANT EDITOR
G. Richard Bozarth
PROOFREADING EDITOR
Barry Cashman
ARTIST
Felix Santana
NON-RESIDENTIAL STAFF
Bill Baird'"
Angeline Bennett
Wells Culver
Conrad Goeringer
Ignatz Sahula-Dycke
Elaine Stansfield
Gerald Tholen

What does Summer really mean

Is there special quality that only rarely
man has seen
Shall patronizing effort spawn
complaisant mouthing thereby
feigning false poetic screen
Or can we really understand
That while the sun looms closely it is
life itself that's suddenly at hand
And all the energies that we could ever
hope to seize
Must be collected now within that hour
As green revisits grass and trees
So worry not about the landscape hues
as Summer paints its valued days
For though the summer paints all living
things
It colors not the deepest treasures of ,
its secret ways
G. Tholen

Summer Solstice,

SPECIAL FEATURE
The Woman's Bible

COLOR IT SUMMER

'

24

The American Atheist magazine is

published monthly by American Atheists, located at 2210 Hancock Drive,
Austin, Texas 78756, a non-profit,
non-political,
educational
organization. Mailing address: P.O. Box 2117,
Austin, Texas 78768. Copyright 1980
by Society of Separationists, Inc. Subscription rates: $20.00 per year. Manuscripts submitted must betyped, double-spaced and accompanied
by a
stamped, self-addressed envelope. -The
editors assume no responsibility for
unsolicited manuscripts.
The American Atheist magazine is Indexedin:
MONTHLY PERIODICAL INDEX

Saturday. June 21. 1980

12:47 A.M. E.S.T.

REGULAR FEATURES
Letters to the Editor

EditorialJon Garth MurrayScientific Cretinism

Poems ......................

19

Serious Smiles

31

Film Review - American Gigolo /

Chapter Two/ 10
37
Book Review - Atheist Truth vs.
Religion's Ghosts by Robert. G.
Ingersoll
39
Classifieds

40

ISSN: 00324310

A!..ISTIN,TEXAS

PRAIRIAL

188 [6/80)

PAG~ 1

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Another Atheist For The Foxholes
Dear Madalyn,
Read this dog tag and smilel I am the proud father of an 18 year old Atheist
Marine, and the Marine Corps knows itl
It reads:
MARSA
A. J.
148-40-8204
Atheist

Alan wanted to make sure I let you know. He, too, is very proud.
Paul Marsa
New Jersey

Dear Editor,
I'm sick of seeing articles in the
American Atheist magazine that glorify Atheist breeders. I can't see any difference between an Atheist who has
five children and a Catholic who has
five, except that an Atheist is worse
because he knows better.
If Atheists' minds were as free as
they claim, they would realize by now
that overpopulation is the single greatest threat to humankind, and if they
were morally superior the two child
family would be the rule among A
theists.
Atheists should acknowledge their
fair share of guilt for the mess the
world is in and should stop blaming it
all on religion. Atheism is one thing,
Atheists are quite another.
Sincerely
Esther Mattson
Wisconsin
Dear Esther,
Your are so right. Atheism is 'one
thing and persons professing to be
Atheists - such as yourself - are quite
another.
Your letter speaks for itself, as does
the next.
Editor

Dear Folks,
I read the notice of the World A
theist Meet in India in December,
1980. I am very much interested in attendirig if I can handle the costs. What
city in India will be the meeting place?
Are there any plans for charter flights
or accommodations? Please let me
know and what the projected dates of
the meeting will be.
Keep up the good fight.
Love
Claire & Bill Axelrod
California

PAGE 2

Dear Ed,
Please keep me informed on the
World Atheist Meet-Il in India with
specific dates, itinery costs, etc.
Thank you
Jack Moyers, New Jersey
Dear Everybody,
. We are working as well as we can on
the trip to try to take d. plane load if it
is feasible. Pan Am has a {light out of
New York for $1,060 round trip, but
as you know prices keep increasing. It
is almost necessary to make plans now
to hold the air costs at some affordable rate.
The World Atheist Meet is in the
city of Vijayaw~da. Azrflights go to
- Vijayawada {rom Hyderabad. One gets
to Hyderabad (rom either Calcutta,
New Delhi or Madras. Else, it is necessary to take a train from. Hyderabad.
Most international flights go to New
Delhi to enter the country.
This is to be a four day meet, December 25th through December 28th.
All the information we can obtain
will be given to you as fast as we have
it.
The Editor

PRAIRIAL

188 [6/80)

Dear Sirs:
I would appreciate knowing who
gave you my name. It is true that I
type myself as an Atheist.because I do
not believe in a single Creator but the
scientific evolution of man and I believe that the State should be entirely
separate from one's religious leanings
and beliefs and they should be left free
to decide such things for themselves.
Most people need a faith and thus I
believe in the church. Most satisfy a
need. I believe in majority rule. I do
not wish to try to persuade anyone to
follow my thinking in this regard. I believe that each is free to choose and
should. Kindly remove my name from
any of your mailing lists.
Yours very truly
W. W. Robinson
Toronto, Canada
Dear W. w.,
You will be interested in the computer language for "removal from the
mailing list. " The term is "flush." In
your case it is more than appropriate.
Editor

AMERICAN

ATHEIST

EDITORIAL

JON GARTH MURRAY

SCIENTIFIC CRETINISM
Recently the Georgia General Assembly was asked to pass a Darwinistic theory. That is, that evolution was only a theory
bill "to assure academic freedom by requiring the teaching
postulated by a mere mortal and that it could never compete
and presentation of scientific creationism in public schools if with the word of god. As the proof came in for evolution, from
the theory of evolution is taught." Two versions of that bill the fossil record, from botany from biology and related
were passed in the two houses of that Assembly and failed to sciences, evolution began to emerge for what it really is, not a
emerge from committee before the end of the term. We have
theory at all.
not, however, heard the end of the outcry from the creationist
Evolution is nothing but an ongoing cycle of adaptation to
buffs.
environment. Darwin merely was among the first to notice the
Starting back as early as 1926 in Mississippi, where, the overall system that had been at work for many years. It is like
nation's first law banning the teaching of evolution was being a single link and one day realizing that there is a whole
passed, through the famous "Monkey Trial" in Tennessee, to a chain. Evolution is. It is an ongoing process in both nature and
pending law suit in San Diego this summer, the anti-science
manmade worlds. Animals evolve or change with respect to
corps are on the march. A variety of groups led by the so-called
the envjronmental
demands upon them. Automobiles have
"creation scientists," most of whom are from the physical
been forced. to change by the environment of our changing
sciences and thus should know better, are campaigning
society and their change has changed society in turn; so has
vigorously for what they call "equal time" for the creationist
evolution. It is a continuing cycle from which we cannot
view in both the classroom and text books.
escape any more than we can escape from the fact that we are
Most of their argument hinges on "academic freedom," that
animals. Evolution is and has always been. It just took
is, that both sides of any issue must be heard. But their
humankind a little while to notice it.
definition of this concept is as one-sided as their definition of
Now that overwhelming
evidence is in, the creationist
the FCC fairness doctrine. If you put an Atheist on the air, position has softened to saying that neither creationism nor
religion must have the chance to rebut. But, put a religionist
evolution are absolutes. They are both theories that must be
on the air and the Atheist is given no chance to rebut because
given equal consideration. That is quite a departure from the
Atheism does not represent a "significant
community in- "perfect word of god." It is interesting to note that when the
terest." In a similar manner "academic freedom" does not going gets rough that god can suddenly have "theories"like
he
extend to Bible criticism classes in public schools or comparacan be "patriotic" on the coins; anything to keep a foot in the
tive religion courses from an objective viewpoint but only to door.
combating the peril of "secular humanism" somehow genThe next step is for the theists to go on to say that although
erated by any course of study unlaced with moralistic overboth are theories, the theory of god has more "scientific"
tones. Science has turned a lot of heads away from the Bible in evidence on its side. How did science get intd:~this? I thought
its initial days and is doing so at an ever increasing rate. The science was the enemy of theism? I guess since the pope
cry for "academic freedom" comes from the religionists'
pardoned Galileo science and religion have kissed arid made
realization that it is becoming increasingly more difficult to up.'(Except for the pill, of course. But that gets into sex, which
beat science in explanations of things that once awed the 'is too personal to make up over just yet.) Well, from my point of
savage, increasingly more difficult to accept the tales of the view religion has a long way to go to catch LIP to science and - it
never can. Science and religion are quite mutually exclusive. '
clergy. The old Uncle Remus type solution to how the leopard
got his spots does not even hold water with a second grader
Logic and fairy tales don't mix.
anymore. The religious community knows this and must react
The "scientific"
evidence these theist scientists give for
with the tactic that has worked for it over and over again, that
creationism is even better. than the pope giving the last waltz
. of attacking the more credible explanation on morality or other
to Galileo. It boils down to one of three things: First, that
collateral grounds. Part of "academic freedom" in my book is modern historical events are fulfillments of ancient biblical
the freedom to expose irrational or illogical ideas for what they
prophecies. Any book that can foretell future events with such
are. If exposing fallacy make me immoral, I would like to know
accuracy would surely have known about evolution. Since it
wha~ closed the deal on morality for the religionist who covers
does not mention it, evolution must not exist. This argument
up contradictions and pursues the path of hypocracy?
fails to take into account, however, the general nature of the
biblical prognostications ..They fall into the same category as
Our children should be guaranteed the right to "academic
your horoscope. Virtually anything you do can be interpreted
freedom" starting with exposes on the Inquisition for openers.
as falling within the prediction
of your astrological
InI don't think our creationist counterparts are willing to dig that
terpretation then becomes the word of the day. Since biblical
deeply into freedom, however.
The creationism push has given a little as time has gone on interpretations are for the most part subjective, not objective,
and the scientists score in the skeet shoot against myth has how do they qualify as science? They don't.
On to number two. The second argument is that one
gotten a little out of hand. Back in the 1920s when it all began,
in the United States that is, the creationist view was that a "cannot have a watch without a watchmaker," or complexity
conflict existed between the true word of god and the
(continued on page 15)

AUSTIN.TEXAS

PRAIRIAL

II

188 [6/80)

PAGE 3

NEWS
The news is chosen to deomonstrate, month after month, the dead reactionary hand of religion. It dictates your habits, sexual conduct, family
size. It censures cinema, theater, television, even education. It dictates life values and lifestyle. Religion is politics and, always, the most
authoritarian and reactionary politics. We editorialize our news to emphasize this thesis. Unlike any other magazine or newspaper in the United
States, we admit it.

THE ATHEIST HOUR

"Between the dark and the daylight.
When the night is beginning to lower
Comes a pause in the day's occupations
That is known as the Children's Hour. "
- Henry Wadsworth L~ngfellow
It is an old poem and almost every
school child has had to learn it. In this
area, between the dark of religion and
daylight of a fully Atheist world, there
. is something new in the United States:
The Atheist Hour.
For many years the "American Atheist Radio Series" has been a staple
on some radio stations, mostly FM,
across the nation. This is a once-aweek, fifteen minute radio program.
The series appears as a regular feature in this magazine. For many years,
since the inception of that series on
Prairial (June) 3, 1968, the American
Atheist Center has had as a requirement of each chapter to obtain an
airing for the series in its city. The
going has been rough.
For a six-month period, the Los Angeles Chapter had the program on the
air, as an educational outreach of that
chapter, but the price for the purchase
of the air time ran into several thou-

was a regular feature on KLBJ, the

radio station owned by the (Lyndon
Baines) Johnson family, in Austin,
Texas, for over 10 years. In Dallas,
Oscar Kirzner, an officer of that city's
chapter, was able to have it placed on
an FM station, with a fifteen minute
limit live commentary lollowing each
program. This latter effort was a shortlived project. The American Atheist
series spread at one point, being heard
on over thirty stations.
However, the best efforts of the
American Atheist Center have one
parameter: money. Bogged down in
legal cases over the right of broadcasting, unable to fund a professional
person to handle the many tapes,
mailing and accounting necessary to
the upkeep of the program and seriously challenged by the spread of rock
music on most of the stations, the
American Atheist Radio Series was
phased out in about the year 1978.
In 197~, the Director of the Denver
Chapter, Dale Woodcock, moved to
Texas to see if he could revitalize the
program. Plagued with ill-health, he
was finally forced into retirement and
his efforts were aborted.

'Over the years, I

realized the GOd I prayed
to was the God I
invented. When I was
talking to Him, I was
talking to mysell He had
no understanding or
qualities that I did not
have. When I realized
God was an extension 01
my imagination, I
stopped praying to Him.'
PAGE 4

PRAIRIAL 188 [6/80)

Then, on Ventose (March) 27, 1980,

the Murray-O'Hairs
visited Houston,
Texas, where Dr. O'Hair was scheduled to address two groups of law
students at the University of Houston.
Howard Kreisner, Director of the Houston Chapter of American Atheists, had
also arranged for two radio interviews
in the morning, one taped on KAUM,
the ABC-FM affiliate and the other a
live call-in program on KPFT, a nonprofit, educational station owned by
the Pacifica Foundation and affiliated
with National Public Radio. For about a
year, Howard had been plaguing the
station with requests to have the American Atheist Series aired there. The
requests had been transferred to one
or another person, with no visible (or
audible) effect. On Ventose (March)
27th, however, Dr. O'Hair, set for the
interview, invited both Kreisner and
Gerald Tholen to join her on the air
-and the talk host agreed, as did the
director, that a foursome of Atheists
might be unusual arid interesting. The
four shared the time, all of them answering callers' questlans, both enlightened and inane. Tlie response to
this unadvertised airing was intense
and affirmative, an unusual situation
on this radio station which carries
both educational and alternative programming. The interview, intended to
be half an hour, was extended to two
full hours. Enthused with the response, Dr. O'Hair explained to the
public affairs director of the station
that there had been such recent considerable success with a Dial-AnAtheist program reaching to all of the
chapters of American Atheists, that it
might be feasible to have a regular
Dial-An-Atheist
radio program issue
from the station. She suggested that a
30-minute program be made a regular
weekly feature of the schedule. Considering listener interest on that morning, it seemed like a good idea and
management was to take it under
consideration.
After the convention in Detroit, Kreisner arranged for an interview with

AMERICAN ATHEIST

The succeeding programs were well received. People called

the station management to pursue the possibility of having an
during the hour to say how much they liked having a rational
Atheist program as part of the station's weekly schedule. He
alternative to the praying, preying, screaming and preaching
was informed that the programming schedule had already
which other stations enforce. Listeners also spoke to the
been decided for the month of Floreal (May) but that it was
station manager with letters and during a weekly program
really the programming director who made the decision.
called "The Manager's Report" many called to relate how
When Kreisner spoke with the KPFT programming director,
much they enjoyed this refreshing Sunday morning exercise
Richard King, he was told that a one hour block had been set
aside on Sunday mornings for an alternative religion program . in clear thinking.
The American Atheist Hour is now a regular feature
called "Other Religions." The purpose of this program was to
presented on Mondays at noon beginning with Floreal (June)
provide an alternative to the Christian broadcasting bludgeon
2, on KPFT, 419 Lovett Blvd., Houston, TX, 77006, FM 90, on
to which people are subjected on Sundays. King said that
your dial.
although the time was available, no specific programming
Rosenburg, Texas, is a typical American small town and
content had been prepared or arranged to use it. Kreisner
from there came a letter about the new program. It read:
suggested that might be a good time to experiment with a
program he called "The American Atheist Hour."
He described an hour long weekly program that had four
"Dear Howard, After listening to 'The American Atheist Hour'
diverse elements, all relating to Atheism, science, philosophy,
on the radio this morning, I immediately sat down and wrote a
history, law, religion, current events, and humor. The first
letter to the station management at KPFT applauding its
element is an educational presentation of some subject of
courage and sense of public responsiblity for airing such a
interest to Atheists. This is followed by "Nirvana Newsreel"
worthwhile program.
which is a compendium of recent news items relating to-the
I also want to thank you for what I imagine must have been a
violence, greed and prejudice of specific religious activities.
monumental selling job in getting a whole hour every Sunday
Thirdly, there is an interview with a civic or educational leader.
devoted to an intelligent and rational discussion of events.
The program ends with phone calls from listeners as time
It has been years since I have had the stomach to turn on a
permits.
radio or television set on Sunday morning. What a beautiful
The first American Atheist Hour presented as a segment of
contrast your program provides I A true oasis in the barren
"Other Religions" was aired on Sunday, Floreal (May) 4 at
desert of Sunday morning wailing and kneeling and sickening
8:00 am Kreisner's opening talk concerned Dr. O'Hair's recent
prostration.
court confrontation
in Austin, the history from Brumaire
If you have the time, perhaps you could send me a list with
(November), 1977 forward, and the legal context. Another
the names and addresses of people who helped you get the
member of the Houston Chapter read six Nirvana Newsreel
program on the air or who can help keep it from being
articles. This was followed by readings of American Atheists
cancelled. I would be willing to write letters of support to these
aims and purposes and listing of First Amendment religious
people. You have taken a giant step forward and I would hate
rights as formulated by the Senate Committee on the Judito see the Atheist movement set back because the religious
ciary. The. program ended without a phone call to the station
sheep were the only ones who let their views be known.
(Kreisner had forgotten to repeat the phone number).
Thanks again for your efforts.
The second program began with a narrative concerning the
Sincerely,
insulting incident perpetrated by hotel employees at the
Detroit Convention and the legal context of such civil rights
(Signed) J. S. (name withheld because of small town)
violations. This program also included an interview with
It was following all this that the Houston Cnronicle called
Gerald Tholen about his book, Massism vs Natural Religion:
Howard for an interview and on Floreal (May) 17th, 1980, a
The Atheistic Connection. This time, the phone number was
large 4-column, 8" x 9%" article appeared, reproduced here.
given and people called.

'Born-Again Atheist'
Howard Kreisner as evangelical about 'unfaith' as some are about faith
BY LOUIS MOORE

[from: Houston Chronicle newspaper,

Sec. 7, p. 1, May 17, 1980

Chronicle Religion Editor

Th~ Director of the Houston chapter
of American Atheists says the reported
conversion to Christianity] of the son of
Atheist firebrand Madalyn Murray O'Hair
is nothing more than a play "for public
attention. "
Howard Kreisner, 33, says Mrs. O'Hair's
son, William J. "Bill" Murray, "became
disenchanted with the Atheist movement
when it failed to materialize as spectacularly as he had hoped.

AUSTIN, TEXAS

"His recent comments about his mother,

the Atheist movement and his recent
public statements about his belief in a
god are simply an attempt to gain attention in the media," says Kreisner.
Murray recently wrote a letter to an
Austin newspaper in which he said he had
wasted his 33 years of life without faith
and without god. "I pray that 1 may be
able to correct just some of the wrong 1
have created.

PRAIRIAL

188 [6/801

"I would like to apologize to the people

of Austin for the part 1 played in the
building of the personal empire of Madalyn O'Hair. My efforts to that end were
an affront to the people of Austin, the
people of this nation and to god;" Murray wrote.
Murray, of Houston, was unavailable
to comment on Kreisner's remarks because he was in New York taping a Tom
Snyder program about his conversion

PAGES

part of an old, old family.

, "Over the years;" says Kreisner, "I
realized the god I prayed to was the god l'
invented. WhenI was talking to him, I
was talking to myself: He had no understanding or qualities that I did not have.
When I realized god was an extension of
my imagination, I stopped praying to
him."
, Kreisner was about 18 or 19 at the
time.
Since leavng the Jewish faith, he has
investigated a number of churches. "I've
been to lots of churches - Catholic,
Methodist, Baptist, Adventist, Episcopalian. I've been a visitor, witnessed the
ceremonies and admired the art."
Could the visits and interest in religion
be a deephunger.for a god?
"I've gone out of curiosity. You're not
talking about me (wheri you talk about
god hunger). I was Atheist. I wasn't
looking for answers."
He says "one of the worst things about
Christians" is their belief in an afterlife.
He says s~ch a belief "devalues life. Jfyou
knew this was your only life, you'd make
the most of it.
'
"Once you say you are an Atheist, you
have to develop a philosophy, a lifestyle,"
he says. "An Atheist is riot a doubter, an
agnostic. An Atheist has knowledge. His
knowledge has its limits, but he is not
uncomfortable with admitting the limits."
He describes his pilgrimage from belief
to unbelief this way: "You first realize
that you are alone. You are the person to
whom you are responsible. Whether you

experience.
Kreisner himself knows what it means
to be a convert. He calls himself a "bornagain Atheist."
He says he was "born an Atheist"; but
reared in a Jewish home and attended
synagogue before reclaiming his Atheist
faith. He says "all people are born Atheist."
Kreisner is as evangelical about his
unfaith as many Christians are about
their faith.
From his youth, Kreisner says he has
"always been interested in religion. I took
the Jewish religion seriously when I was
younger. I actually went to syna-gogue on
Friday nights. My parents didn't go, but I
went."
He says some friends even suggested to
him that he should study to become a
rabbi "because I was so interested in the
religion."
His home, says Kreisner, was nominally Jewish. "Both my parents were Jewish.
Their parents were Jewish. But in New
York you can be a Jew and never participate in the affairs of. the synagogue.
There are so many Jews there that your
presence is not missed."
He says his parents seldom attended
synagogue, but did hold family seders at
Passover, light candles at Hanukkah and
attended High Holy Day services on
Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. "I think
they did it for the benefit ofthe children,"
he says.
'
"My feeling is that Jews don't have a
theology. They have symbols and ceremonies. The ceremonies make them feel a

Jr\.

-,

CHURCH MOVIES!!

/~
/

TONIGHT!!

/~

'AGNES, GORGEOUS
HOLYGAL

fail or succeed, you alone are responsible

for what you do with your life. You are
completely independent. There are no
'spirits affecting your life. There is no
punishment except for the revenge of
your peers (if you break the laws)."
Alone or not in the universe, Atheists
are banning together in groups throughout the country. The Houston chapter of
American Atheists was formed in Jan,uary 1979 when Mrs. O'Hair came here
to start the chapter. Kreisner says "about
20 attend" and "about 40 are active" in
the regular meetings of the group here.
He refuses to say where the group meets,
but says interested persons can write the
chapter at Box 92008, Houston, Texas
77206. He says "people who join our
organization are very brave, very courageous."
Kreisner says that Atheists need the
group because "it is comfortable to be
with a group of like-minded people to
exchange ideas."
Kreisner is also the host on a new
Atheist radio program at 8 am Sundays
on KPFf radio here. He says it is the first
["live" - ed] Atheist radio program in the
country'.
He says that Atheists are "normal
patriotic Americans." He says he attended the University of Texas in Austin,
majored in communications, has served
in the U.S. Army, was married in an
Atheist wedding ceremony and' has one
child. He works as a claims examiner for
the Veterans Administration. He says he
authored, usingpseudonomns, two novels
that could be described aspornographic.

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PAGE 6

II
"

PRAIRIAL

~/ -

188 [6/80)

AMERICAN

ATHEIST

UNITED WORLD ATHEISTS

SWEDEN

THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF

LITERATURE FOR NON-BELIEVERS
"Aperson who believes in a god needs no science, no books, no culture. He can live like a
dumb brute. He may be happy, but he can not live as a human being. A human being is a
seeker;"
by FELIX SANTANA
On Thermidor 24, 187 (8124/80), I
was flying to Sweden to help start an "
event which was to be the first of its
kind in the history of the world: "The
First International Exhibition of-Literature for Non-BelieVers". Strong motives caused me, here in the USA and
Dr. Jose Santana, in Sweden, to pursue this ambitious project. The prime
motivation however, was our strong
opposition to any religious dogma;
such negative influence in the life of
human beings and especially in children was causing us both much concern. We were not alone. Hundreds of
enlightened human beings from every
corner of the world sent their published material to Sweden and also
helped to spread publicity for the exhibition in their own countries. Our
. motto was: "Publicity for the Exhibition is Publicity for Non-Believers".
The exhibition started on Fructidor
1st. 187 (9/1179) in the "Glass Cage"
(a special exhibition room) at the Uni. versity of Stockholm. For thirty days

the exhibition was open to professors,

scholars, students and the general
public. Leaflets were distributed 'on
the university campus and in the city
of Stockholm We were encouraged
and attacked. In the words of Dr. Jose
Santana, in his final report of the
event. "After almost five thousand
hours of unpaid work for a period of a
full year (Fructidor 186 to Fructidor
187) I succeeded in .organizing the
First International Exhibition of literature for Non-Believers. This display
opened Fructidor 1st at the University
of Stockholm, Sweden.
"Over .the thirty day period of the
exhibition hundreds of Swedes and
foreigners visited the Exhibition Center, where I was present for 199 of the
210 hours that it was open to the
public. There I engaged in discussions,
ate meals, displayed materials, answered questions, met with reporters
and gave information concering participating organizations - every day for
a whole month.

Dr. Jose Santana, the Organizer of the Exhibition

AUSTIN, TEXAS

PRAIRIAL

188 (6/80)

"The final cost of the Exhibition came

to several thousand Swedish crowns,
my family and I having invested our
savings in this event. Voluntary donations were also received and much
appreciated.
"It is my intention to repeat this
exhbition in other cities of Sweden
and other countries.
"This first exhibition included 221
books, 43 magazines, and hundreds of
brochures, parr",;,lets, catalogs, newspapers, leaflets, etc. in English, French, Rumanian, Spanish, Russian, Hindi, Telugu, Norwegian, Finnish, German, Dutch and Swedish. Twenty-one
countries were represented.
"The exhibition was ignored (boycotted) by the international press and
almost the entire Swedish press. Believers insulted me, organized
a
counter-exhibition
and launched an
unprecedented war of nerves ... but it
was a beautiful thing to see Atheists,
freethinkers, secularists,humanists,
rationalists
and agnostics,
all together, representing the Non-Believer
tradition in Sweden.
"I dream of uniting all these in a
single vyorldwide movement against
churches and religions.
"My sincere thanks to all those
participating. THE FUTURE IS OURSI"
Our efforts and the importance of
the exhibition attracted the attention
of the-main newspaper of Stockholm
and they sent Mr. Arne Soderlund to
interview Dr. Jose Santana. On Fructidor 4, 188 (9/4179), an interesting
article was published in Dagens Nyeter in Swedish. The following are excerpts from that article:
"The country is Sweden, the year
1979. An exhibit of books about nonbelief in god has been organized singlehandedly by a man using his own
money to pay expenses. To put on the
exhibit he got together almost 9000
crowns.

PAGE 7

"The man behind the exhibit is Jose Santana. He does not

believe in god. 'I believe what I can see. I believe in science: he
explains. 'There are people who think that they have seen god.
But what they saw were psychological phenomena. At bottom, a" religion is based on ignorance, neurosis or opportunism. God was believed to be up in heaven until humans
sent up satellites. Then god moved out: says Santana with a
friendly smile, 'and science follows, chasing him. But a person
who believes in god needs no science, no books, no culture. He
can live like a dumb brute. He may be happy, but he cannot live
as a human being. A human being is a seeker.'
"Jose Santana is a seeker. What led him to organize this
exhibit? 'When religion is mixed with politics, human rights
are threatened:
he says."
Dr. Jose Santana was born in Spain; he is a professor and
lawyer and at the present he 'is living in Sweden. Among his
publications
are: The Secret Instructions of the Jesuits,
Catholicism, CIA, and Communists, Catholicism in Africa,
Catholicism and Vietnam, Vatican Document: Dialogue with
Non-Believers, and Consequences of Religious Activity.
From this exhibit. the peopte of the world can realize 'that a
few dedicated people, committed
to ideals, can develop
something which is both important and beautiful, such as the

American Atheist Literature

in the International Exhibition

Swedish exhibition.
But what is more important,
is the
realization that now there is not enough power in this world to
suffocate the high aspirations of humankind. Even if the most
powerful forces of organized religion should murder these
few, someone will be born somewhere
on our planet to
replace that life which disappears and that person will support
similar and updated ideas. The words of one noble Spaniard
who was killed for the crime of spreading the same ideals are
most appropriate for a conclusion:
Rational and scientific
knowledge must persuade the man and women of the future
to expect nothing from any privileged being (fictitious or real)
but tbet they may expect all that is reasonable from themselves and from a freely organized and accepted social order.
- Francisco Ferrer Guardia, (murdered by the Spanish state
on 10/12/09.)

PRESS PRESS

Press Clips of Different Countries Publicizing the Exhibition

"All religion is based on ignorance, neurosis, or opportunism." - Dr. Jose Santana.

WORLD ATHEIST MEET II

Worla Atheist Meet Two will be held at The Atheist Centre, Vijayawada, Andre Pradesh, India in December 1980, sponsored jointly by the American Atheist Center (Director - Jon Murray) and the Atheist Centre of India (Director - Lavanam)
in ~e tradition of international cooperation begun by Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair and Gora, through United World Atheists.

PAGE 8

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ATHEIST

THE TURIN SHROUD:

FAKE? FACT? PHOTOGRAPH?

Is this famous relic a "portrait" of Jesus? Here's a

possible answer.,

By Joe Nickell
[ Reprinted

Were photographic processes known

to an obscure genius in northern France in the Middle Ages? Did he discover
a method of deveJoping remarkable
photographic negatives on woven fab, ric? Or is the solution to the mysterious Shroud of Turn that a miraculous
"flash"
somehow "photographed"
the image of Jesus at the moment of
resurrection?
On the other hand, could the "Shroud"
be only a simple fake, as spurious as
the questions just posed?
Sometime in the mid-1350s the enigmatic cloth showed up at a new little
church in Lirey. France. a town within
the bishopric of Troyes. The 14-foot
length of linen bore the front and back
imprints of a bearded man. scourged
and crucified in the manner of Jesus
in the Gospel stories. The cloth was
said to be the true Holy Shroud.
But scarcely had the de Charny
family (who owned the cloth) begun to
rake in the donations from awed pilgrims. than a bishop's investigation
uncovered fraud. The artist who produced the Cloth was actually located
and he confessed to forgery. This was
reported to Clement VII in 1389 by
Bishop Pierre D'Arcis. The matter was
hushed up - for a time. at least.
But. until the granddaughter of the
original owner sold the Lirey Cloth to
the Italian monarchy in 1452. there
were persistent attempts to exhibit the
"relic" as genuine. As a result. there
were repeated scandals.
Then in 1532. there occurred what
many Christians m'ight regard as Divine Intervention: the cloth was very
nearly destroyed by a fire which consumed the chapel sacristy where it
reposed. resulting in burn marks and
water stains that disfigured the image.
The modern era of the cloth. now
known as the Shroud of Turin. began
in 1898 when it was first photogra-

with permission from: Popular Photography/November,

phed. As he developed his plates.

Secondo Pia was astounded to see
that his negative actuallly revealed a
positive image of a "body." The conclusion was inescapable: the image
upon the cloth was actually a true
negative I
Thus. the argument was advanced
that the shroud was ge,nuine after all.
since it was unreasonable to expect
that a mere medieval forger could
have anticipated photography. And so
the campaign to rehabilitate the old
Cloth of Lirey. and to attempt to justify
it on "scientific"
grounds. began in
earnest. Of course. it wasn't easy.
At the turn of the century. a French
dilettante and adventurer named Paul
Vignon teamed up with a zoologist,
Yves Delage. and between them they
concocted the so-called "vaporograph"
theory. They guessed that ammoniac
vapors from the corpse had interacted
with burial spices upon the cloth (likened to a sensitized photographic plate)
to produce the imagery.
That no burial cloth in the history of
the world had ever exhibited such
vaporographs did not inhibit the theorizing in the least. Nor did repeated
failures. Vignon - who had begun his
experiments after recovering from a
nervous breakdown - spent the remainder of his life in futile pursuit of
the elusive va-por pictures.
In the January/February.
1978. issue of The Humanist. I reported the
results of a battery of experiments I
conducted in an attempt to produce a
vapor "photo." I concluded that. even
by heroic means. using potent chemicals, vaporographs could not be produced as theorized since the vapors
travel in perfectly straight vertical lines.
I braced myself for what I believed
would be an attack from "sindonologists" (as they call themselves. sindon being Greek for Shroud) defend-

PRAIRIAL

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188 [6/80)

1979]

ing poor, old dedicated Vignon. I was

partly right: I was loudly accused of
flogging a dead horse.
New Vignons are now crusading for
a fanciful theory which again draws
many of its analogies from photography. Perhaps. the thinking goes. a
burst of heat. light, or other radiation
- at 'the moment of resurrection somehow "X-rayed" or "photographed" or even "scorched"
the image
onto the fabric.
The term flash photolysis is. often
used to describe the hypothetical process. Thomas Humber (The Sacred
Shroud. Pocket Books. New York.
1977. p. 200) explains it as "a burst of
extremely high-intensity heat or light
for an extremely short duration. probably registered in, milliseconds."
But. like the Vignon of old. the new
theorists are faced with a similar problem: the elusive vapors have become
still more elusive rays.".Ordinary human bodies are incapable of flash
photolysis so the theory cannot be
demonstrated with a corpse. (I predict
that. unlike Vignon, the new breed will
not even attempt a demonstration.) In
summary, it is necessary', to attempt a
defense of the theory. to postulate a
miracle.
Much has been written by uncritical
writers about the "space-age" discoveries concerning the cloth. For example. shroud devotees. Drs. Jackson
and Jumper of the Air Force Academy.
produced a three-dimensional
relief of
the shroud image using Interpretation
System's VP-8 Image Analyzer.
They report that the three-dimensionality of the shroud image is far
superior to that of photographs, contact prints from corpses, and artists'
copies of the shroud when subjected
to the sa me process. (See Proceedings
of the 1977 United States Conference
of Research on the Shroud of Turin,

PAGE 9

Controversy over authenticity of Turin Shroud (on left) has continued since 14th century. Negative image (on right) apparently reveals
impressions of front and back of bearded man with folded arms. Some believe still that shroud is authentic cloth used to wrap body of
Jesus Christ after crucifixion. althougb ancient records report confession of aforger to having created "relic." First photo of shroud in
1898 revealed positive image of "body" on the negative, caused controversy about authenticity to be renewed.

PAGE 10

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188 [6/801

AMERICAN

ATHEIST

Holy Shroud Guild. pp. 74-92.)

Unfortunately, much needs to be clarified concerning Drs. J
& J's results. First. the technique is not valid in its application
to "ordinary" photographs. As they admit: "It should be
pointed out that ordinary photographic images cannot usually
be converted to true three-dimensional reliefs.
"The photographic process does. not cause the' objects
filmed to become exposed in inverse relationship to distances
from the.camera: hence, three-dimensional information is not
usually recorded onto film. Only when the degree of illumination received from an 'Object depends, in some way, upon its
distance (for example in a stellar photograph) would threedimensional analysis and reconstruction be possible (by the
VP-8 Image Analyzer)."
. Thus, there is the serious question of whether the technique is even valid for the purpose to which it was applied. (We
are familiar with "paranormal" buffs, often scientists, who
, attach "lie detectors" to plants to measure their "emotions,"
or who use Kirlian photography or infrared photography in
attempts to view the human "aura.")
Another Air Force scientist and sindonologist, John d.
German, Jr., faults the three-dimensional results (Proceedings, p. 235). He calls attention to "an important source of
error in the construction of the three-dimensional image of
the shroud .... If the gain (amount of relief) is reduced to
produce an image with a realistic nose and forehead, the
fainter portions of the image corresponding to large clothbody distances have little or no relief.
Resulting brownish image produced true negative image of subject
"On the other hand, if the gain is increased to bring out
on fabric. '
these fainter portions of the image, the nose and forehead
grow way out of proportion."
'.
It is also worth noting that the allegedly superior 3-D relief
yields a frontal image with a large bosom and a dorsal image
which is extremely flat and formless. Burn marks and water
stains - which are, of COI,Jrse,
not three-dimensionalyield
tremendous relief in relation to the figure.
There are other serious problems with the Jackson-Jumper
approach. They fail to detail the photographic processes
(exposure, filters, etc.) by which the shroudphoto (used in
their experiments) was made. Actually they used the official
1931 Enrie photographs which yet another shroud scientist
(also of the USAFI), Robert D. LaRue, Jr. caUs"inadequate for
today's advanced research techniques." (Proceedings, p.
\ 219.)
,
.
There are tonal distortions in the Enrie photos, and it is now
known that Enrie used orthochromatic, rather than panchromatic, emulsions. LaRue also states that Enrie "used a
yellow filter for some of his exposures."
He continues: "In the official report of the 1969 Turin
Commission on the Holy Shroud, the photographer Gian
Battista Judica Cordiglia reports that he was surprsed to see
that his photographs were quite different from Enrie's: "We
were astonished to find that the developed picture did not look
as if it had been "engraved" as with Enrie's pictures, but
fainter and more diaphanous: "
Further, Jackson and Jumper do not explain (and apparently
do'not know) what photographic processes were used in some
of the photos selected for comparison with the shroud photograph. They also reveal a dangerous lack of caution in electing
the various photos, prints, and paintings, for comparison.
Their published photos reveal that some of the contact-print
Photographic negative of hand-made picture of bas-relief subject
pictures they used w~ereobtained from books. (The relief
shows positive. Was this how Shroud image was made?

AUSTIN, TEXAS

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~I

188 [6/80J

PAGE 11

captions: "Fig. 1 ... ." etc.: beneath the images are proof of
that.) What this means is that they used photographs broken
up into dots by the half-tone process and printed with printer's
inkl One picture is described as a "normal photograph of Pope
Pius XI" (p. 80); yet the same picture (used to illustrate a report
byThos. M. McCown, p. 95) is captioned "3-D Relief of Normal
Painting."
It is worth noting that not all paintings may be labeled
"normal" since watercolors and oils (for example) are produced by radically different media and techniques. No statement is made by Jackson and Jumper as to how many
different kinds of paintings or even how many different
photos, prints, and paintings were used for comparison. And
they make no mention of testing any of the many variants of
rubbings (as opposed to contact prints).
Now, what of the possibility of forgery as an explanation for
the shroud? Could a medieval artist have produced the image?
, Could it be, in the words of the investigative bishop-s successor, only "ct;clnningly painted"?
The "blood" areas were tested by a secret (later revealed)
commission (1969-1976).
Several modern tests failed to
detect the presence of blood, and the commission report
suggested the crimson was probably the result of painting.
This would explain the oft-mentioned "picture-like"
nature of
the bloodstains.
But surely the body images are not merely "painted." (After
all, the word "cunningly" may be the key.) There are no brush
Basis of author's method of producing "negative "image onfabric . marks; the weave of the cloth shows clearly through the lightbrown stain; the stain does not (tests indicate) soak into. the
is suitable bas-relief Bing Crosby portrait is used here.
fibers, nor does it darken beyond the edges of the burn holes
as might be expected of paint. And the imagery is very similar
in color to a scorch. Too, artists' attempts to copy the negative
images, freehand, repeatedly met with poor success.
For such reasons, and many others, shroud proponents
have rejected the "artistic" theoty - despite the 14th-century
forger's confession. In the December 28, 1978, issue of
Rolling Stone, in an article titled "The Shroud of Turin: The
First Polaroid in Palestine," Michael Thomas wrote: "If it [the
shroud] is a forgery, then some sly devil in the 14th century
. knew more about photography than we know now."
Sindonologist Leo Valla is another who believes the image
is somehow "photographic." He has experimented photographically with the images and states: "I've been involved in the
invention of many complicated visual processes, and I can tell
you that no one could have faked that image. No one could do it
today with all the technology we have. It's a perfect negative. It
has a photographic quality that is extremely precise." (Quoted
by Robert K. Wilcox, Shroud, Macmillan, New York, 1977, p.
131.
But Mr. Valla was too hasty. Someone could produce
negative images on cloth with the characteristics
of the
shroud. Someone has. In 1978, using only 14th century
technology, I recreated the type of imagery
"cunningly
painted" by the artist of Lirey.
I described my technique in the November IDecember,
1978, issue of The Humanist.
(The article describes the
technical aspects with several illustrations and references.).
My success was all too briefly noted in Science News (Dec. 23
and 30, 1978), but this year was featured prominently in the
Parisian journal La Recherche.
Wet cloth is carefully molded to contours of relief, allowed to dry.
Several radio interviews and debates followed plus a
Blunt tool is used to press fabric into narrow detail areas (above). presentation of my research on a nationwide television
Powdered 'pigment' is applied to "highlight" area with cotton- program on the shroud. Here is the "secret formula" for
producing "14th-century negatives" on cloth.
wrapped dauber (below).

PAGE 12

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~/

188 [6/80]

AMERICAN

ATHEIST

-:.:-""

First, obtain a suitable bas-relief. (If you are a true medieval "shroud" craftsm)J~, iou-carve ori~ in the style of French G~thic
artl) Suitable is the key word here, for the relief should be neither too sha,lIownor'too.iprOnQunced,
but must be like Baby Bear's
porridge -c- just right.
'
';,f,
'"
,:
' ,
'
,
Large body images are too easy, so for a test of your skill select a small, detailed r~lief portralt, ~oakyour (suifable) cloth in hot
water and carefully mold it to the relief.
'
.' .:'
", ""~.', ",
.
As the cloth dries, you will probably find it necessary to repeatedly press and sha~e tbe fabric
the molded forms. Improvise a
tool for working details such as the crease ofthe mouth. Be prepared fodrustr~tion
as:yoo'pres$dowh:on
one area and another
pops up. Try to work out the wrinkles, since they will become permanently inlpigmented.
(YQumay smile knowlinglvat
the
keepers of the "shroud" who kept unfastening the stretched cloth from its frame in vain attempts to smooth out apparent
"creases" for photographing.)
,
"'"
When the cloth is thoroughly dry, it should be tightly formed to the relief like Ii mask. (Otherwise there may be distortions like
,
..
.
" .~
.
~'f.'~''''
those seen in the shroud imagery.)
,
.
,,':
;<",
- ,
.
Make a dauber by twisting soft cloth around a wad of cotton and mix your "pigment.' This will be dry powder such as a mixture
of roughly equal parts of myrrh and aloes - the burial spices mentioned in the-Gospel of-.,Iohn and usua!ly available from herbal
apothecaries).
.
':,.
.
Now, carefully and sparingly apply the powder, slowly developing the image to complete the rubbing. Voila!, as the lirey artist
might say.
'
.
While sindonologists are abstractly theorizing over the numerous peculiarities and flaws of tbeshtoud+rnages
and divining as
many complex formulas to account for them, you will (especially:if you have used herringborie-twill~weave
linenjfind that more
than 50 previously perplexing little shroud puzzles fall, like a row of dominoes, from a single, simple technique!
.
For example, your experimental cloth will bear a true negative image; the image will be a delicate sepia in tone; itVII:ill appear to
have been created without
"pigment,"
'showing no brush marks; the stain will not penetrate the fibers of the cloth but will
remain a "purely surface phenomenon"
(as shown by microscopic examination); and so on.
.
You will have created an amazing medieval "photographic"
negative with 14-century chemicals and techniques.
(Photos by John A. May, W. Liberty, Ky; and Videocom, Orlando, Fl. Photos copyright 19768-79 by Joe Nickell.)

to

Los Alamos Monitor, New Mexico

Shroud revisited

(AI Gibesphoto)

Pinon fourth grader Anna Jandacek won a $15 award

from the Kiwanis Club for her Science Fair project on
the Shroud of Turin. Jandacek covered hersetf.ln lembn

juice and then wrapped herself in a treated cloth to

produce a shrqud-like image.
I

AUSTIN, TEXAS

PRAIRIAL

188,[6/80)

PAGE 13

THE FRAUD OF TURIN

by Madalyn Murray O'Hair
The Shroud of Turin fraud, so assiduously pushed by the
Roman Catholic Church for the last 80 years, has finally
reached a respectable journal. The National Geographic, Vol.
'157, No.6, June, 1980 issue, on pages 730 to 752, including
two large foldout pages, featured as the lead story an article by
senior assistant editor, Kenneth F. Weaver, on "Science
Seeks to Solve the Mystery of the Shroud." Twenty-nine full
color photographs are included.
The only reason for th is fake is the desperate outreach of the
Roman Catholic Church to show material proof that there
actually was an historical jesuchrist. There is not one secular
proof in all of human history for any god, or son of god, and
especially with jesuchrist. there is not even one word of
secular historical evidence. The New Testament speaks only
to the popular myths of the times of its origin, circa 300-400.
A cloth (Greek: sydoine for shroud) was allegedly seen in
1203 in Constantinople.
A second cloth was reported in Lirey, France in 1353 and
put on public exhibit in 1389, all during the century when relic
hunting was at its height. At that time a Roman Catholic
Bishop (of Troyes) denounced that one as a phony, based on a
confession he had of the artist who had contrived it, painting a
representation of jesuchrist thereon.
There have been a dozen or more cloths throughout history,
some with and some without "images."
The Lirey cloth came into the hands of the Duke of Savoy in
1453, no one knows how or why. It was partially destroyed in a
fire in 1532, thoroughly water soaked and this subsequently
stained the cloth. This ducal family moved to Turin in 1578 and
supposedly the cloth went with the family.
The cloth was not heard of a.Qain for another 236 years,
when it was displayed in 1814 by Victor Emmanuel I. Then it
was displayed six more time, in 1815 at the request of Pius VII,
in 1822 at the accession of Charles Felix, in 1842 at the
marriage of Victor Emmanuel I, and in 1868 at the marriage of
Prince Humbert. It's current display started in Turin, Italy, in
1931,478 years after its first appearance in Lirey, France. At
that time belief in jesuchrist was still abroad in the world and
no large claims were. made. Since that time, the historicity of
the jesuchrist myth has been attacked. In 1978, the shroud
was again dragged out and a school of sindonolgists (from the
Greek sindon, fine cloth) was established to foist the hoax
officially on the still-believing part of the world.
.
An international congress was called and Roman Catholic
"scientists" descended en masse to prove the truth of their
collective insanity.
The first such "examination" had occured on May 1st. 1898,
when "photographs" were taken. One can just imagine the
sophistication of the technique of photography then. An

PAGE 14

PRAIRIAL

~I

attempt of authentication
was made before the French
Academy of Sciences in 1902 and that body was outraged,
with the claims of the religious zealots. Of course, then, only
the photographs were being studied.
In 1906 Italian "experts" were permitted an examination of
the actual cloth with still more claims than evidence forthcoming. The orgy of mental masturbation called the "Shroud
of Turin Research Project" lasted five days in Turin, October
8-13, 1978, while every outreach of science which could be
used to bolster the fraud was used. The United States
government participated in that the following people are listed
as a part of STURP (Shroud of Turin Research Project). They
are Steven Baumgart and John D. German of the U.S. Air
Force Weapons Laboratory, Robert Bucklin of Harris County
(Texas) Medical Examiner's Office, Rudolph J. Dichtl of the
University of Colorado, Robert Dinegar, Donald and Joan
Janney, J. Ronald London, Roger A. Morris, Ray Rogers, Larry
Schwalbe and Diane Soran all of the Los Alamos National
Scientific Laboratory, John P. Jackson and Eric J. Jumper of
the U.S. Air Force Academy. A legitimate question is whether
the U.S. government paid the expenses of these people and
furnished the "72 crates of sophisticated and electronics
gear" weighing six tons used in the fiasco.
The author of the National Geographic article concludes: "Is
it the shroud of Christ Himself?'That. say both scientists and
theologians, will remain forever outside thebounds of proof."
Meanwhile, the church refuses the carbon dating~~t (Q[le
square centimeter is needed) because it would "rui~ the 14
ee ong cloth to snip that bit t e size 0 ffie tip of your little
finger) fro-mtne it. Several problems are enormous, even for
t e zanies.
t ey accept the New Testament, they cannot
accept the shroud, for John 20:6 gives an "eyewitness"
account by Peter when jesuchrist was said to have been
resurrected. At the empty tomb "he (Peter) viewed the
bandages lying, also the cloth that had been upon his head not
lying with the bandages but separately rolled up in one place."
None of the "professed" Christian writers ever mention the
existence of a "shroud." Up through the 13th century, of all
the persons now alleged to ave seen t e cloth none ever
mentione an image on It.
owe r, gawCl moves in mysterious ways, but none so
mind boggling as this Roman Catholic Church effort to prove
that the actual physical body of the totally mythological
jesuchrist was wrapped in a cloth about which no one even
knew for 1350 yearsl
It is interesting for Atheist historians that a Holy Shroud of
Besancon had a similar history - discovery in the 13th
century, an encounter with a fire in 1349, and with a similar
body image. This served the Roman Catholic Church well to
influence the credulous until 1794 when it was ordered
destroyed. It would seem to be appropriate that another such
order should issue today and that this Fraud of Turin be
assigned to the limbo it. and the Roman Catholic Church,
deserve.

188 (6/80)

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ATHEIST

(continued/rom page 3)
EDITORIAL
and organization cannot come out of randomness. There must
be intelligent design to turn randomness into order, they
argue. When faced with this argument all the scientist must
do is to evidence the "intelligent" design of cancer. A disease,
the purpose of which is the destruction of its own host and
therefore its own destruction, is quite logical, isn't it? Or,
another way of looking at it is that the random combination of
genes makes some pretty well ordered and complicated
organisms.
On to number three. The third argument is the entropy
argument. Entropy is a measure of the tendency toward
randomness, that is, that everything tends to be random, not
ordered. The religionist says, "See, that means that something outside nature (god) must come in and provide the order
if everything naturally tends to disorder." But, entropy, alas for
the theist, is definable only in a closed system. Is nature or the
universe a closed system? Who knows? One can't apply the
entropy theory to the nature of the universe because it is not a
closed system as far as we know. That would be an assumption, but a damned convenient one for the religionist.
The creationists are not only on the warpath on the
legislative level with all this very "scientific" thinking but they
are trying on the school board and state board of education
level as well. In 1970 they succeeded in getting the California
State Board of Education to modify its "scientific framework
for public schools" to include the notion that "several theories" need to be viewed on the topic of evolution. The science
teachers in that State were primarily responsible for the
elimination of that notion but something called the "Creation
Research Society," operating out of the Institute for Scientific
Creationism in San Diego, has taken the issue to court. As a
result, we now have another "Monkey Trial" in the making.
Especially since the California State courts have now consented to allow cameras in the courtrooms.

This same Institute for Scientific Creationism hasalso been

circulating, nation wide. a form bill for legislators in every
state to introduce into state congresses demanding "equal
time" for "scientific creationism."
The bills introduced in
many states are all patterned after the one circulated by the
Institute. The Institute also recommends a text book, Biology:
A Search for Order in Complexity, for use in the schools to
implement this "equal time." It just so happens that the text
book is published by Creation Life Publishers, which is the text
book arm of Zondervan Corp., the second largest distributor of
Christian books in the world. Zondervan has such titles as
Late, Great Planet EC!rth by Hal Lindsey and Harold LindseWs
news magazine "Christianity
Today," as two of its most
famous productions.
'
What is heartening, however, is that the biology teachers in
the United States are beginning to see the error of their ways
with the "unwritten policy of total aloofness" to the problem of
creationism as science that "professors" at San Diego State
have uncovered. These same professors are teaching a course
in "Evolutionism v. Creationism" in an attempt to confront the
problem head-on. We, as Atheists, knew it was there all along.
The scientific community has always thought of itself as too
respectable to get down to answering the bible thumpers they
must fight for their very lives. If science is not to be replaced by
the likes of alchemy and metaphysics, scientists and science
educators have got to wake up. I am happy to note in the, March
issue of BioScience and in the June issue of Scientific
American that the National American Association of Biology
Teachers is ready to do something about it. American Atheists
has already offered them our full support and we welcome
them to the battle.
I hope this is the signal that the pope had better take back his
pardon and put up his dukes. It looks like science has its
second wind in the final rounds. You don't need to guess on
whom we at American Atheists will put our money

OKAY MY BOc,: WHICH

DO YOUPREFER THE
RIGHT OR THE LEFT?

-- " ~

- -.YOSCAA@/SO

AUSTIN, TEXAS

PRAIRIAL

188 (6/80)

PAGE 15

The Case against

The United
States

MILITARY
CHAPLAINCY
.~'by Genp,A.Diamond

Separation of church and state is an essential concept of the

United States Constitution that assures every American freedom of religion and freedom from religion.
, Too bad it isn't a reality.
The fact is that some American citizens are actually contributing to the support of a religion that they do not embrace.
"How can this be?" you may ask.
,Very simple. Since all American taxpayers help support
government programs, this 'means they also help support the
U.S. Military Chaplaincy, which is Judeo-Christian in function
and structure. In other words, some people are supporting religious programs that they do not espouse. Or, since Atheists,
Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, freethinkers, etc., pay taxes they
are required to subsidize a religious system that they do not
endorse.
"Unconstitutional!"
you say.
Yes. The U.S. Military Chaplaincy violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution; the establishment
clause in particular.
James Madison, who wrote the First Amendment, was of
the opinion that the chaplaincy did violate the amendment,
but he chose not to make an issue of it. He regarded such an
issue as a "trifle of little importance" at the time. *
Trifle that it seemed, something nebulous had been established that would eventually permit almost unbound expansion of the chaplaincy ..... a precedent.
On March 3, 1791, Congress authorized the first chaplain.
Conditions "at the time" favored the admission of one
chaplain. After all, most people were Protestant, white and
god-fearing. The Black man was still a slave and any Atheists
or free-thinkers were regarded as faithless infidels.
So, the military went into the religion business. From now
on they would determine religious activities within the military establishment. This military-ecclesiastical union became
the U.S. Military Chaplaincy.
The chaplaincy then was created by a pro-Christian Congress that didn't anticipate the eventual influx of a multitude
of races, customs and religions. Future social changes were unforeseen.
Whatever. From one chaplain (authorized in 1791) the
caaplaincy has steadily grown to its present authorized strength of over 3000 chaplains. Furthermore, all chaplains are of
the Judeo-Christian faith and hold commissioned ranks equivalent, at least, to a captain in the U.S. Army. Of course, career
officers can progress up the military ladder to the lofty ranks
of Major General and Rear Admiral.
The U.S. Army Chaplaincy provides an adequate example
of the gradual escalation of the military chaplaincy. The Army
is the largest segment of themilitary chaplaincy, true, but all
branches of the armed-forces are basically the same.
'-Table 1. Growth of the U.S. Army Chaplaincy
The United States of AmeJ;!sa is established.
No chaplains are authorized.
1791, Mar. 3 U.S. Congress authorizes one chaplain.
A chaplain is authorized for West Point at
1815-1847
~
public expense.
1776, July 4

*For an excellent account of Madison's opinion on the U.S.

Military Chaplaincy read The Bill of Rights by Irving Brant.
(Bobbs Merrill) Indianapolis, Kansas City, New York. 1965.

PAGE 16

PRAIRIAL

~/

188 [6/80]

AMERICAN

ATHEIST

1836

The first debate in Congress over the constitutionality of the chaplaincy. The Hon. B.F.
Butler (then Secretary of War) recommended
authorization of chaplains. He acknowledged
the constitutional prohibition of the establishment of religion, but he felt that Congress
had the responsibility of providing servicemen an opportunity to worship whereever
their orders took them. Congress authorizes a
chaplaincy.
1846-47
U.S.-Mexican War. The chaplaincy is opened
to Roman Catholics. (Mexicans claimed that
the U'.S. Chaplaincy was exclusively Protestant.)
1862, July 17 Jewish clergy allowed into chaplaincy.
1864
Civil War. Negro, Indian, Catholic, Jewish
clergy serve with chaplaincy; but must be of
Judeo-Christian faith.
1917, Apr. 6
Beginning of WW1. Regular Army had 72
chaplains on active duty. National Guard had
74:
1918, Nov.
By end of war over 2300 chaplains had seen
active duty. Chaplains'insignia now includes
Star of David and Tablets of Moses. Two
chaplains' schools are opened (to help the
chaplains in their mission).
1940-45
The U.S. Army Chaplaincy expanded from
383 active duty men in June of 1940, to a
total of nearly 10,000 in September 1945.
1941
Pres. Roosevelt signed $12,816,880 appropriation for 604 cantonment-type chapels.
1964
By 1964 a new position of Staff Chaplain in
the office of the Surgeon General was created. Retreat Houses were instituted in
Berchtesgaden, Germany and Seoul, Korea. '
1966
All active duty chaplains accorded rank of
captain.
1971
' By 1971 U.S. Army Chaplains Center is developedr This includes the U.S. Army Chaplains' School, the U.S. Army Chaplains' Museum and Archives and the potential location
of the U.S. Army Chaplains' Board.
1974
Permanent chapels, chapel centers, built at
major installations throughout the nation;
the effort continues. 'Seminaries completed.
1980
Approximately 1450 U.S. Army chaplains
on active duty.
Obvious evidence of favored status Judeo-Christian faiths
can be seen by observing the official seals of the U.S. Army,
U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force Chaplains service. All bear a
symbol of a cross (Christianity) and all bear symbols of the
Tablets of Moses and a Star of David (Judaism). Other beliefs
.are excluded.
Discrimination is again apparent when qualifications for ado,
mission into the chaplaincy are disclosed. A candidate must
have credentials from an accredited Judeo-Christian school
listed in the Education Directory published by the Department
of Health, Education and Welfare or a theology school listed in
the Directory of Catholic Colleges and Schools in the United
States.
In, 1791 Congress authorized the first chaplain. Table 2
shows the approximate current strength of the U.S. Military
Chaplaincy today.

Table 2. Approximate Current Strength of Military

Chaplaincy
U.S. Army - 1400
U.S. Navy'- 800
U.S. Air Force - 850
Total- 3050
Table 3. Distribution of Rank in the U.S. Military
Chaplaincy
U.S. Army (Feb. '80)
Captain
Major
Lt. Colonel.
Colonel
Brigadier General. . .
Major General
"

~..

).

,"U.S. Air Force (approx.)

Captain
300
Major
'. : .. 223
:U. Colonel. ........
223
Colonel". ..........
109
Brigadier General. . .
1
Major General. . . .
1
U.S. Navy (approx.)
LTJG
41
LT. h: ........
'-.146
, LCDR
:
302
CPR
;
227
" Captaln . ';
:
96
Rear Admiral .'
:
2
Accusations of "favoritism" are understandable when the
chaplaincy is separated into faiths. There is a noticeable absence 'of non-Judeo-Christian faiths. '(See Table4.).'
Table 4. Distributlon of Chaplains by Faith
(andapproximate percentage)
Branch
Protestant Catholic,
Jewish E.Orth. Other
Army
80%
17.5%
1.5%
1%
0%
Navy
70%
27%
1%
1%
1%
Air Force
67.5%
30%
1.5%
1%
0%
Conclusion: We have a state established religious system that
favors Judeo-Christian faiths.
The American Civil Liberties Union investigated the U.S.
Army Chaplaincy (1973) and found that the abuses it exposed
were common to all branches of the chaplaincy. They recommended the abolishment of the present system.
Martin Siegal in Notes of a Jewish Chaplain states: "Religion has been exploited by the military for its own purposes.
It is time we stand up and say this cannot continue any
longer."
Robert McAfee Brown in Military Chaplaincy as Military
claimsthat the military chaplaincy" ... legitimates war; approves of training men to kill" and that a chaplain's role as an
officer implies his sanctioning and condoning of war.
In defense of the chaplaincy, Col. Samuel G. Powell, USAF
Executive Director, Armed Forces Chaplains' Board, writes
that, "The First Amendment not only states that Congress
shall make no law establishing religion, but it also states that

PRAIRIAL

AUSTIN, TEXAS

605
3g5
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108
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188 [6/80]

PAGE 17

Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise thereof." This basically is what Secretary of War B.F. Butler argued
in 1836. Powell further writes, "When our nation guarantees
this freedom of religion, it then has the responsibility to assure
each citizen the opportunity to worship in the faith of his/her
choice. Through the military services every effort is made to
'provide our men and women with the same religious services
and support that are available to them in civilian life. To do
otherwise would be to deny them the great benefits and ministrations of our religions simply because they are. serving their
country."
A U.S. Navy corpsman, an Atheist stationed in Bremerton,
Washington, reasoned that the theistic clergy of the present
chaplaincy were not qualified to serve non-theistic members of
the armed forces. (Indeed. fie felt that they were the least
qualified!) He therefore proposed an Armed Forces Atheist
Council (later the name was changed to Humanist Council).
Major General R. Dean Tice, U.S.A., Deputy Assistant Secretary, replied, in part:
Your request to establish an organizational structure to
support the atheist philosophy has been carefully considered. But in view of. the organizations available to you and
similar ones available aboard ships and other installations,
creation of an Armed Forces Atheist Council is denied."
Contrary to what the Hon. B.F. Butler and Colonel Samuel
G. Powell claim, freedom of religion and freedom from religion are not assured. to every serviceman. The Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Atheist and free-thinker are denied the same religious services and/or support that are available to them in civilian life. This quandary is magnified when one realizes that the
non-theistic element of our armed forces is increasing.
Separation of church and state, then, is not a reality. It cannot be when the American taxpayer is contributing to a military ecclesiastical system that favors Judeo-Christian faiths,
but excludes others. If there is to be a valid separation of
church and state then there cannot be a U.S. Military Chaplaincy.
So be it.

OSCAR@8Q

DON'T GO TO CHURCH'
COME TO THE ELEVENTH'
AMERICAN ATHEIST CONVENTION

SALT LAkE'CITVGE~M~NAL1~
~PAGE 18

PRAIRIAL

188 [6/80)

AMERICAN

ATHEIST

f/oem4
NOTHING

THE BEST

Our god awoke in darkness

Six thousand years ago
And looked around on NOTHING
To see what he could do.

The Christians minds dangle with mist

As they mingle with the Atheist
The schools teach us religious crap
As the Atheists fill in every gap

He never had beginning

Not born like you and me
But he had existed
Throughout eternity.

People teach us a bloody religion

To every soul in every season
So don't believe all the rest
Go with the very best ...

But what he had been doing

.
'Through all those countless years
No preacher ever told us,
In no book it appears.

An Atheist
Mark Fulcher, age 15

Perhaps he had been sleeping

With NOTHING for a bed,
With NOTHING for a pillow
And NOTHING in his head.
With NOTHING for companion
Through all that dreary night
And only boundless NOTHING
On which to feast his sight.
But now he arose to action
Like one aroused from sleep
And of his "SIX DAYS" labour,
The tale is rather steep!

Angeline Bennett

He took a pinch of NOTHING

And made this glorious earth;
Another pinch of NOTHING
The planets had their birth;

IF ALL THE YEARS LIE FALLOW

Stupidity in youth we overlook
With only an occasional, "it's dumb."
When wisdom still eludes a later age
Intolerance is nard to overcome.

With a little pinch of NOTHING

He made the powerful sun
And then he worked on NOTHING
Until the stars were done.

WAI LING WALL

After all else was finished

Of dust he then made man
By mixing it with NOTHING
In some mysterious plan.

Tears shed freely are for self

Theld requires ablution
Weeping laves the Ego but
Avouches no solution.

He took a rib from Adam .

With NOTHING for a knife
By mixing it with NOTHING
He/made a full grown wife.

Whimpering is seldom pretty

From a ghetto of self-pity.

He knew the kind of people

He was about to make
But had to drown them later
Because of his mistake.

Just a certain kind of someone

Should sort through an antique trunk
Lest its worthy memorabilia
Be, too quickly, classed as junk.

And now he sends us to hades

Unless we all believe
The story of Creation,
The Snake, the Fruit and Eve.
/
'
James B. Epperson

from It Could Be Verse

Angeline Bennett

AUSTIN, TEXAS

,.

OLDE BUT GOODE

PRAIRIAL

188 [6/80)

PAGE 19

A'N 'OUTLINE TO H

by GERALD 1

S:UMMUM BONUM* RO
II
PRIMITIVE MAN

PRIMAL RELIGIOSITY
, ancient god ism
(sun, wind, etc.)
regimentation
(re/igare)
priests, seers, fakirs, etc.
human sacrifice
animal sacrifice

FEAR
death
animals
catastrophe
birth of idea of Summum
(highest good)

Bonum

~------------+---

-8

III
PRESENT DAY PRIMITIVES

XVII
APATHETIC PUBLIC

~ReUO~ __-r_X_V_I~II~~

Atheistic skeptics
pro-re/igare skeptics
Unitarians, secularists, humanists,
rational ists, philosoph ical material ists

E=MC2
XIX
POSITIVE ATHEISM
scientific material ism,
naturalism

Summum Bonum = MAN

PAGE 20

XVI

XV

SCI ENTI FIC'SKEPTICISM

SCIENCE

PRAIRIAL 188 [6/80]

AMERICAN ATHEIST

MAN INTELLECT
THOLEN

(*HIGHEST GOOD)
IV
PRIMEVAL

SKEPTICISM

ANTHROPOMORPHIC
GODISM
(several thousand years, B.C.)

VI
MEDIEVAL

SKEPTICISM

VII
INQUISITION
heresy
murders, torture
IX
REFORMATION
RELIGIONISM
slightly liberalized
religare regimentation
ministers
atrocities

VIII
PRESENT'bAY
FUNDAMENTALISTS
orthodoxy
conservatives

re/igare
X
MODERNAGE

SKEPTICISM
XII
XI

FAMOUS

PHI LOSOPHERS

religare
XIV

social chastisement

DEISM
philo.sophical materialism

COLONIAL
EUROPE
SKEPTICISM
agnosticism

AUSTIN. TEXAS

1700-1800

PRAIRIAL

188 [6/80)

PRESENT DAY
RELIGIOUS
LIBERALS
massism, religare
XII I
ESOTERIC RELIGIONISTS
aestheticism
cultism

PAGE 21

~------------------~--~------~----~~------------------~------------------~-----ten reveal such "lost" tribes of primitive intellects who still

register the symptoms of ancient Primal Religiosity.

FORWARD
This diagramed outline is an attempt to demonstrate, in lay
terms, both the history of human intellectual advancement
and to point out the major interpretations and misinterpretations of social education over thousands of years.
The. eventual realizations described by this writing will verify the total irrelevance of living organisms to the Universal
and Cosmic systems. In a sense, the equation "E=MG2" does
not depend in. any way on living things, but only symbolizes
the ability of an intelligence to "put on paper" the necessary
literary symbols or markings that establish man's realization
concerning the what, why and wherefore of Cosmic existence,
Knowing these things, man himself must decide on any conceivable role that he must play in establishing a pseudo-human
necessity and what that assumed necessity might be (individually).
One might call this an A-B-C lesson for Atheism or materialist education.
BLOCK I
PRIMITIVE MAN
An increasing awareness of the certainty of death, dangers
from other primitive animals, natural catastrophes; food scarcities, etc., caused early man to acquire a greatly magnified
feeling of inadequacy .
His primitive mental attitude began to interpret that these
fearfully uncontrollable forces were working independently
and in authority over his own existence.
This inherent naive attitude, in time, led him to the acceptance of Primal Religiosity.

BLOCK IV
PRIMEVAL SKEPTICISM
No matter how naive human intellect was in its most primitive state, evolutionary change has consistently altered. the
mental format of all creatures. Life experiences from day to
day will invariably cause some degree of change - regardless
of how small or how insignificant that change may be.
Skepticism is the word meaning doubtful of previous feelings. If one becomes doubtful of the efficacy of certain ideas
or beliefs, it is quite natural to then incorporate "new" meanings or values. Thus, skepticism must be the precursor to education. So it was even in primitive man.
BLOCK V
ANTHROPOMORPHIC GODISM
Anthropomorphism,
generally speaking, developed in the
early Egyptian and Greek Polytheistic period (perhaps differ'ing ages of the Oriental development),
Also, anthropomorphism was preceded by: theriomorphism
(gods in the form of beasts) and therianthropism (gods that
were part man and part beast),
The anthropomorphic gods were invented because of man's
egotistical outlook and because it became intellectually necessary for him to be able to intercommunicate with the "divinities."
This system was also necessary to the equally egotisticallyoriented emperors and kings of the day who could then become "divinized" and absolute.
BLOCK VI
MEDIEVAL SKEPTICISM

BLOCK II
PRIMAL RELldIOSITY

. Man's ever present juvenile intellect gradually changed in a

Primal religiosity gradually became the ancient godism of
the developing human of pre-history. The wind, sun, earth- . naturally evolving trend and the acceptance of human/god
quakes, volcanic disasters, etc., became paramount in his prim- entities was abandoned, for the most part, and once more he
itive child-like awareness. Great intellectual respect for these assumed that the god or gods were paramount and supernat"powerful forces" soon became ritualized and regimented in ural. It became necessary then to establish absolute-control of
primitive communities. Certain- authoritative leaders among the masses by a priest system in order to reestablish authorithem became interpreters of social condition in relation to tarian religion.
This was accomplished in a most tragic manner: sinful punthese various established "god symbols." These leaders, often
ishment.
referred to as "priests," "seers," "fakirs," etc., devised ~ uncompromising system of tribal beliefs which became known as
BLOCK VII
religare (religionism). The literal translation is from the ancient
INQUISITION
Latin, meaning to tie or fasten ("re" signifies over and over
again; and "lig" signifies bind or tie). In essence it meant that
The processes of "supernatural" reacceptances were acceleno tribal member was to deviate or depart from that particular rated" after the Judaic enforcements and the introduction of
belief system.
"christianity"
by a period of unequalled persecution and
In order to appease the established "gods" certain ritual cruelty called the "Inquisition." During this time the former
practices were developed among the primitives which were the horrlble practice of human sacrifice became negligible when
practices of human and animal sacrifices, prayer (derived from compared to a system of punishment including murder and
the Latin, meaning to bargain or gain by entreaty), ceremonial . torture of any "heretic" who dared to differ with the then acdancing to entertain the "gods" and many other eccentricities
cepted monotheistic supernatural gods Allah, Jehovah, etc.
thought by the "priests" desirable to the pleasure of these Consequently the combined effect of Anthropomorphic Inquicreature/forces.
sition led to two parallel transformations: present day fundaThis pattern persisted to the present day "primitives" but mentalists and reform religionism.
also fell victim to "Primeval Skepticism."
<
BLOCK VIII
PRESENT DAY FUNDAMENTALISTS
BLOCK III
PRESENT DAY PRIMITIVES
Current fundamentalists are the direct result of almost total
Certain communities in Borneo, the Philippines or other re- acceptance of the anthropomorphic
supernatural "creators"
mote geographical areas not visited by modem civilization of- invented by the literal followers of certain sects, cults or de-

PAGE 22

PRAIRIAL

188 [6/80)

AMERICAN

ATHEIST

nominations of religionists: Fundamental Baptists, Orthodox

Jews, Orthodox Catholics, Mohammedans, etc.

sulted in three identifiable patterns: (1) Present, day religious

liberalism, (2) Esoteric religionism, (3) Deism
philosophical
materialism - religare or massism still flourished.

ot

BLOCK IX
REFORM RELIGIONISM

BLOCKxn
PRESENT DAY RELIGIOUS LIBERALS

During the transitional periods of Medieval Skepticism and

Inquisition certain religious philosophers, in defiance of inquisitional methodology, began to openly review religiosity. The
authority of the "priests" began to give way to the "humanization" of the "minister" or more secular representative of
mankind. It then became permissible for a mere human to
communicate directly with "god" through individual prayer.
However, at the same time,an atmosphere of religare was
maintained - although a person could now directly petition
his god. he could not deviate from the doctrinal practices of
his particular religious affiliation.

Represented by those denominations deviating from the

various fundamentalist positions and allowing a more tolerant
latitude for the individual, yet still requiring certain ideologies
incorporated in former belief systems, but greatly liberalized.
BLOCK XIII
ESOTERIC RELIGIONISTS

Newly devised "religious" systems which abandon some or

all of the fundamentalist positions .in favor of aestheticism,
humanitarianism or cultism. They seem to aimlessly search for
BLOCK X
existentially acceptable values for "poetic" existence or seek
MODERN AGE SKEPTICISM
. to establish a new value system which can incorporate an. "all
powerful" yet "all good" supernatural entity. They comproThrough the continuing and accelerating evolutionary men- mise a hypnotically induced abandonment of the evils of past
tal changes of society a period of even greater religious deyi. religiosity: hypocritical mesmerization.
ance occurred. Inquisitional murdet and torture began to subside as skepticism and ancient scientific evidences increased
BLOCK XIV
and so new philosophical ideas became apparent. Punishments
DEISM AND PHILOSOPHICAL MATERIALISM
for religious deviance were reduced to social ostracism or chastisement or occasional imprisonment and individual courage
Acknowledgement of a naturally existing creative force or
began to flourish. The dawn of the Great Philosophical Era ap- energy to replace the former supernatural godism of past
proached.
"intellectual"
cultures. Still vaguely clinging to a gossamer
religare fabric intended to involve or guide mankind's moral
BLOCK XI.
pattern: conservative Atheism and leading directly toward
FAMOUS PHILOSOPHERS
scientific investigation.
This period emerged most evidently during the 1700's,
1800's and 1960's, i.e.: Hegel, Fuerbaeh, Huxley, etc. Although philosophical Atheism had been adamant for centuries
on a lesser scale, the first militant Atheist now appeared Charles Bradlaugh. Still, the only true significance "of this period was that controversial skepticism became legitimate.
It was also during this period that Thomas Huxley invented
a supposedly new side to the age old. argument of religiosity
versus Atheism. Obviously there can only be a negative or affirmative answer to the question of "god's" existence. Huxley
erroneously called his "new" position agnosticism. Whereas
religiosity legitimized the god idea as opposed to its total nullification by Atheists, Huxley proposed a third, two-fold position: (1) God exists but is unknown. ,(2) God exists but is unknowable. The second part of his position adequately demonstrates the almost complete absence of scientific method or
understanding that flourished during that time. The science of
physics has made clear the definition of the word "exist." To
qualify as existing or being, the subject in question must be
measurable or identifiable, i.e., it must either occupy space so
as to be materially measurable or must be dynamically measurable in terms of energy/force. This should not presume
to mean that the scientific methods of the period, 1700's,
1800's and early 1900's, actually included all such measurement systems, but that such systems existed regardless of mankind's inadequate knowledge of them. Continual investigation
was and is necessary to discover or devise such measurement
systems, i.e., 2 + 2 = 4 whether a system of mathematical symbols is available or not. Thus, if something exists, it exudes
. evidence! Whether we are able to perceive those evidences is
immaterial. Huxley was wrong! He was only an un courageous
skeptic. There is no agnostic position.
Modern age skepticism and its ensuing philosophical era re-

AUSTIN, TEXAS

BLOCK XV'
SCIENCE
Modern science developed chiefly during the middle 1800's
and the early 1900's and accelerated drastically in our present
time frame. Admittedly, science had much earlier beginnings,
i.e., astronomy, mathematics, biology, medicine, chemistry,
etc., all developed from rather primitive beginnings. None,
however, had been openly allowed to refute the religious authority 01 'any given era. Even the factual laws of physics' have
been misguided, misunderstood and ignored intentionally by
virtually all communities under religious infl.uence. The apathetic posture of the masses of people have allowed, if not encouraged, such stupidity. Related scientific information did,
however, set up the current atmosphere of Scientific Skepticism.
B'LOCKXVI
SCIENTIFIC SKEPTICISM
Aided by a seemingly indifferent attitude displayed by today's media, in their attempt to sensationalize events and perpetuate self-serving publicity, scientific "revelations" have
been related to the public and an overall greater understanding
and acceptance of factual- science has somehow emerged.
Although a complqte understanding has not been developed by
any means. Actually, many pseudo-scientists are presently
employing their' efforts toward the distortion of scientific
information which refutes religiosity. Such "soap box" scientists presently enjoy a vacuum existence due to massive
individual educational deficiency of the people: massism. This
era led directly to two current positions: (1) Apathetic public,
(2) Positive Atheism.
.

PRAIRIAL

188 [6/80]

PAGE 23

BLOCK XVII
APATHETIC PUBLIC

BLOCK XIX
POSITIVE ATHEISM

Comprised of 'the so-called "agnostics," Atheistic skeptics,

pro-religious skeptics, Unitarians, secularists, humanists, rationalists, philosophical materialists, etc.

The current Positive Individual Atheist has become automatically charged with the duty of educating his fellow man in
order to enable a continued intellectual advancement of society.
This obligation is not decreed by any "higher authority" or
manifested "need" other than the fact that without such a realization by the masses, the human condition can only deteriorate under the pressures of survival in an overpopulated and
rapidly depleting environment.
The majority of the Positive Atheists that have ever existed'
in the U.S. or in the world are alive today. They are the most
knowledgeable people concerning arguments detrimental to religiosity and offering positive proofs of facts that supernaturalism is destined to extinction:
As we (Positive Atheists) continue to educate our fellow
humans so will society gain an ability to pleasurably survive.
If you are interested in that pleasurable survival you will contribute to that effort. The alternative is to remain apathetically
inactive and take your chances with' a dangerously teetering
world community.

BLOCK XVIII
E=MC2
A subsequent disclosure by Albert Einstein, concerning the
scientific explanation for all components of the physical material system. A factual relationship' of energy and matter
which accounts for all existences and further verifies that all
things are measurable.
To therefore imply that something exists "supernaturally"
is no longer a speculative or argumentative proposition because
any such existence must be physically demonstrable by evidences. One can no longer legitimately assume that the basic
argument of the religionist, absolute idealism, is a valid position. Only ignorance of available information can create such
an illusion.
Factual scientific information has given rise to the totally
new educational position of the past 30 to 50 years: Positive
Atheism.

THE WOMAN'S BIBLE

by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, et al
Part Six - Chapter Seven
~~

0~~ /,.

,./
~,
1f1
~~0:J

! :x, /

VI

f\V,'

i.I.'
,-

draw water, and I say to her, Give

me, I pray thee, a little water of thy
pitcher to drink:
44 And she say to me, Both
drink thou, and I will also draw for
thy camels: let the same be the
woman whom the lord hath appointed out for my master's son.
45 And before I had done speaking in mine heart behold Rebekah
came forth with her pitcher on her
shoulder; and she went down unto
the well, and drew water: and I said

Genesis xxiv.
37 And my master made me
swear, saying, Thou shall not take a
wife to my son of the daughters of
the Canaanites in whose land I
dwell.
38 But thou shalt go unto my
father's house, and to my kindred,
and take a wife unto my son.
39 And I said unto my master,
Peradventure the woman will not
follow me,' ,

PAGE 24

This is the sixth part in the serialization of The Woman's Bible,

published in 1898, edited by the great American :4 theist Elizabeth
Cady Stanton. The book was largely written by Stanton, with
portions contributed by Lillie Devereux Blake, Rev. Phebe
Hanaford, Clara Bewick Colby, Ellen Battelle Dietrick, Ursula N.
Gestefeld, Mrs. Louisa Southworth, and Frances Ellen,7Jurr.
The Woman's Bible was a significant point in the early feminist
Movement, representing apeak when perhaps the movement could
"have brokenfree of its debilitating attachment toreligion. Itfailed
to do so, and the sorry state of feminism today proves the tragedy.
ERA is definitely endangered, and the only successful prochoice activist is Bill Baird - a man! That Women:S-Lib (that pale
, ghost of the Feminist Movement that Stanton and Susan B.
Anthony led) is in such a shambles today is directly the result of
overt and covert activity by the churches.
The Woman's Bibie should be read by every feminist, and every
feminist should understand its atheistic message can be the
'salvation 'offeminism.

PRAIRIAL

188 [6/80)

unto her; Let me drink, I pray thee,

46 And she made haste, and let
down her pitcher from her shoulder, and said Drink, and I will give
thy camels drink also: so I drank,
and she made the camels drink also.
47 And I asked her, and said,
Whose daughter art thou? And she
said, The daughter of Bethuel Nahor's son, whom Malcah bare unto
him: and I put the earring upon her
face, and the bracelets upon her

AMERICAN

ATHEIST

hands.
49 And now, if yewilldeal kindlyand truly withmymaster,tellme;
and if not.tell me;that I may turn to
the right hand or to the left.
50 Then Laban and Bethuelanswered and said. The thing proceedeth from the Lord: we cannot
speak unto thee bad or good.
51 Behold, Rebekah is before
thee;take her, and go,and lether be
thy master'sson's wife,as the Lord
hath spoken.
53 And the servant brought for-

th jewels of silver, and jewels of

gold, and raiment,and gavethem to
Rebekah; he gave also to her brother and. to her mother precious
things.
56 And he said unto them,
Hinder menot, seeingthe lord hath
prosperedmy way; send me away
that I.may go to my master.
57 And theysaid,wewillcallthe
damseland inquire at her mouth.
58 And they called Rebekah,
and saidunto her, Wiltthou gowith
this man?And she said, I willgo.

59 And they sent away Rebekah

their sister, and her nurse and Abraham's servant, and his men.
61 And Rebekah arose, and her
damsels, and they rode upon the
camels,and followedthe man: and
the servanttook Rebekahand went
his way.
63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the fieldat the eventide:and
he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and
behold, the camels were coming.
64 And Rebekah lifted up her
eyes, and when she saw Isaac she

HERE is the first account we have of a Jewish courtship. Th~

women seem quite as resigned to the custom of "being taken"as the
men "to take." Outside parties could no doubt in most cases make
more judicious selections of partners, than young folks themselves
under the glamour of their ideals. Altogether the marriage of Isaac,
though -rather prosaic, has a touch of the romantic.
It has furnished the subject for some charming pictures, that
decorate the galleries in the old world and the new. "Rebekah at the
well," has been immortalized both on canvas and in marble.
Women as milk-maids and drawers of water, with pails and
pitchers on their heads, are always artistic, and far more attractive
to men than those with votes in their hands at the polling booths, or
as queens, ruling over the destinies of nations.
In fact, as soon as man left Paradise, he began by degrees to roll
off of his own shoulders all he could of his curse, and place it on
woman. Why did not Laban and Bethuel draw the water for the
household and the cattle? Scott says that Eliezer had attendants
with him who might have saved Rebekah the labor of drawing
water for ten camels, but he would not interfere, as he wished to see
whether she possessed the virtues of industry, affability and
cheerfulness in being serviceable and hospitable.
It was certainly a good test of her patience and humility to draw
water for an hour, with a dozen men looking on at their ease, and
none offering help. The Rebekahs of 1895 would have promptly
summoned the spectators to share their labors, even at the risk of
sacrificing a desirable matrimonial alliance. The virtue of self- ,
sacrifice has its wise limitations. Though it is most commendable to
serve our fellow-beings, yet woman's first duty is to herself, to
develop all her own powers and possibilities, that she may better
guide and serve the next generation.
It is refreshing to find in the fifty-eighth verse that Rebekah was
really supposed to have some personal interest and rights in the
betrothal.
The meeting of Isaac and Rebekah in the field at eventide is
charming. That sweet restful hour after the sun had gone down, at
the end of a long journey from a far-off country. Rebekah must
have been injust the mood to appreciate a strong right arm on
which to rest, a loving heart to trust, on the threshold' of her
conjugal life. To see her future lord for the first time, must have
been very embarrassing to Rebekah. She no doubt concealed her
blushes behind her veil, which Isaac probably raised at the first
opportunity, to behold the charms ofthe bride whom the Lord had
chosen for him. As Isaac WaS forty years old at this time, he
probably made a most judicious and affectionate husband.
The 67th verse would be more appropriate to the occasion if the
words "took Rebekah" had been omitted, leaving the text to read
thus: "And Isaac brought her into his mother's tent and she became
his wife, and he loved her." This verse is remarkable as the first
announcement of love on the part of a husband at first sight. We
may indulge in the hope that he confessed his love to Rebekah, and
thus placed their conjugal relations on a more spiritual plane than
was usual in those days. The Revising. Committees b':{the infusion
PRAIRIAL

AUSTIN, TEXAS

188 [6/801

lighted off the camel.

65 For she had said unto the
servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the
servant had said, It is my master:
therefore she took a vail (sic),and
coveredherself.
66 And the servant told Isaacall
things that he had done.
67 And Isaac brought her into
his mother Sarah's tent, and took
Rebekah, and she becamehis wife;
and he loved her: and Isaac was
comforted after his mother's death.

of a little sentiment into these ancient

manuscripts, might have improved the
moral tone of our ancestors' domestic
relations, without falsifying the important acts of history. Many ancient writings in both sacred and profane history
might be translated into more choice
language, to the advantage of the rising
generation. What we glean in regard to
Rebekah's character in the following chapter shows, she, too, is lacking in a nice
sense of honor.
With our ideal of the great first cause, a
God of justice, wisdom and truth, the
Jewish Lord, guiding and directing that
people. in all their devious ways, and
sanctioning their petty immoralities seems
strangely out of place; a very contradictory character, unworthy our love and
admiration. The ancient Jewish ideal of
Jehovah was not an exalted one.
E.C.S.
This romantic pastoral is most instructive as to the high position which women
really held among the people whose religious history is the foundation ,Df our
own, and still further substantiates our
claim that the Bible does not teach woman's subordination. The fact that Rebekah was drawing water for family use
does not indicate lack of dignity in her
position, any more than the household
tasks performed by Sarah. The wives and
daughters of patriarchal families had had
their maid-servants just as the men of the
family had their man-servants, and their
position indicates only division of responsibility. At this period, although
queens and princesses were cooks and
waiters, kings and princes did not hesitate to reap their own fields and slay their
own cattle. We are told that Abraham
rushed out to his herd and caught a calf to
make a meal for the strangers, and that
while he asked Sarah to make the cakes,
he turned over the calf to a man servant
to prepare for the table. Thus the labor of
securing the food fell upon the male sex,
while the labor of preparing it was divided between both.
.
The one supreme virtue among the
~attiatchs 'Hashos~ita\it':{,and no mattet
PAGE 25

how many servants a person had it must be the royal service of

his own hands that he performed for a guest. In harmony with this
spirit Rebekah volunteered to water the thirsty camels of the tired
and way-worn travellers. It is not at all likely that, as Mr. Scott
suggests, Eliezer waited simply to test Rebekah's amiability. The
test which he had asked for was sufficiently answered by her
offering the service in the first place, and doubtless it would have
been a churlish and ungracious breach of courtesy to hllVerefused
the proffered kindness.
That the Jewish women were treated with greater politeness than
the daughters of neighboring peoples we may learn from the
incident narrated ofthe daughters of Jethro who, even though their
father was high priest of the country were driven away by the
shepherds from the wells where they came to water their flocks. Of
all outdoor occupations that of watering thirsty animals is,
perhaps, the most fascinating; and if the work was harder for
Rebekah than for our country maidens who water their animals
from the trough well filled by the windmill she had the strength and
the will for it, else she would have entrusted the task to some of the
damsels of whom we read as her especial servants and who, as such,
accompanied her to the land of Canaan.
The whole narrative shows Rebekah's personal freedom and
dignity. She was alone at some distance from her family. She was
not. afraid of the strangers, but greeted them with the selfpossession of a queen. The decision whether she should go or stay,
was left wholly with herself, and her nurse and servants accompanied her: With grace and modesty she relieved the embarrassment of the situation by getting down from the altitude of the camel
when Isaac came to meet her, and by enshrouding herself in a veil
she very tactfully gave him an opportunity to do his courting in his
own proper person, if he should be pleased to do so after hearing
the servant's report.
It has been the judgment.of masculine commentators that the
veil was a sign of woinan's subject condition, but even this may be
disputed now that women are looking into history for themselves.
The fashion of veiling a prospective bride was common to many
nations, but to none where there were brutal ceremonies- The
custom was sometimes carried to the extent, as in some parts of
Turkey, of keeping the woman wholly covered for eight days
previous to marriage, sometimes, as among the Russians, by not
only veiling the bride, but putting.a curtain between her and the
groom at the bridal feast. In all cases the veil seems to hve been
worn to protect a woman from premature or unwelcome intrusion,
and not to indicate her humiliated position. The veil is rather a
reflection upon the habits and thoughts of men than a badge of
inferiority for women.
How serenely beautiful and chaste appear the marriage customs
of the Bible as compared with some that are wholly of man's
invention. The Kamchatkan had to find his future wife alone and
then fight with her and her female friends until every particle of
clothing had bebn stripped from her and then the ceremony was
complete. This may be called the other extreme from the veil.
Something akin to this appears among our own kith and kin, so to
speak, in modern times. Many instances of marriage en chemise are
on record in England of quite recent dates, the notion being that if a
man married a woman in this garment only he was not liable for
any debts which she might previously have contractd. At Whitehaven, England, 1766, a woman stripped herself to her chemise in
the church and in that condition stood at the altar and was married.
There is nothing so degrading to the wife in all Oriental customs
as our modern common law ruling that the husband owns the
wife's clothing. This has been held times innumerable, and in
Connecticut quite recently a husband did not like the gowns-his
wife bought so he burned them. He was arrested for destruc-

PAGE 26

PRAIRIAL

tion of property, but his claim was sustained that they were his own
so he could not be punished.
As long as woman's condition, outside of the Bible, has been as
described by Macaulay when he said: "If there be a word of truth in
history, women have been always, and still are over the greater part
of the globe, humble companions, playthings, captives, menials,
and beasts of burden," it is a comfort to reflect that among the
Hebrews, whose records are relied on by the enemies of woman's
freedom to teach her subjection, we find women holding the
dignified position in the family that was held by Sarah and
Rebekah.
Charlotte Beebe Wilbour

DIAL AN ATHEIST
Phoenix, Arizona

(602) 899-7411

Tucson, Arizona

(602) 623-3861

Los Angeles, California

.. (213) 634-8055

Sacramento, California
San Francisco, California

(916) 989-3170.
(415) 969-4477

Denver, Colorado

(303) 233-1278

Atlanta, Georgia

". . . . . . .. (404) 329-9809

Chicago, Illinois

(312) 335-4648

Lombard, Illinois

(312) 597-2433

Indianapolis, Indiana

(317) 234-9652

Lexington, Kentucky . . . . . . . . . . .. (606) 278-8333

Boston, Massachusetts

(617) 344-2988

Detroit, Michigan

(313) 721-6630

New York, New York

(212) 726-3647

Charlotte, North Carolina

(704) 568-5346

Portland, Oregon

(503) 287-6461

. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

(412) 734 0509

Providence, Rhode Island

(401) 423-0883

Dallas, Texas

(214) 388-7669

Galveston, Texas

(713) 935-4721

Salt Lake City, Utah

(801) 364-4939

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

(414) 442-9786

188 [6/801

AMERICAN

ATHEIST

Alcoholism and GodTherapy R.C.Wayne

Life that stagnates tends to die;
if the stagnation is complete, death
has occurred. It follows that life
in its moving quality tends to break
out of and to overcome the status quo.
Erich Fromm.
The christian rationale and desire to believe is incredible.
I offer the following remark as a typical example: "If you
don't believe in something beyond this life you might as well
go to the nearest bridge and end it." Bitterness of spirit is the
salient point in this statement which was made by (of all persons) the director of a mental health center! He is responsible
for providing rational counseling for psychologically and emotionally disturbed individuals, including alcoholics. Some of
these clients may be non-believers, and this is clearly a value
judgement which could prove harmful to certain individuals.
The "hereafter or die'? philosophy described above points
out how some people try to rid themselves of anxiety concernIng life, death, and god by rationalizing (finding an acceptable reason for an unacceptable situation). Many alcoholics
choose to narcotize their anxiety. Neither method is very effective, and both techniques must be used frequently to gain
even minimal satisfaction. The most effective method of reducing anxiety is acceptance, i.e., face the issue honestly and
realistically.
Most people just think that life would not be worth living
if there were no god or hereafter because that.is what they
have been taught to think. In reality this isn't thinking, it's
feeling, and as Mark Twain once said, "We all do no end of
feeling and mistake that for thinking." This christian belief
is a "Belief created by the desire to believe."l It is based on
perceived need and emotion rather than intellect.
The alcoholic Atheist may be clutching some potentially
harmful christian views concerning his problem. For example,
the "disease" concept of alcoholism has been promoted for
centuries - fervently by Alcoholics Anonymous for the past
42 years - yet it is scientifically unvalidatable. After an extensive study, Larkin (1974) concludes: "It seems then that
the disease concept may be adding problems to the treatment
of alcoholism above and beyond the possibility that the main
tenets (loss of control and abstinence) may be invalid."2 The
disease concept is based on a purported mysterious susceptibility to alcohol and the phenomenon known as loss of control.
There is however, no generally acceptable etiology of alcoholism; every case is different, both psychologically and medi:
cally.'Alcoholism as a disease was viewed by its most famous
scholarly proponent, E.M. Jellinek, as a "working hypothesis"
and he proposed further research.3
Jellinek also put forth the idea .of "loss of control".
Among other things, this theory holds that one drink for an
alcoholic, sooner or later, leads to drunkenness. His conclusions were based on the results of two sets of questionnaires
administered to members of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)
only! Jellinek was aware, however, that his data isrepresentative only of the type of alcoholics who populate AA groups.
Nevertheless, his inadequate conclusions are, implicitly or ex-

AUSTIN, TEXAS

plicitly, applied to all who seek help with a drinking problem

today - whether they are applicable in certain cases or not is
not contemplated.
Briefly stated, the main tenets of AA are disease, abstinence, and god. Members of AA state unequivocally that the
alcoholic is susceptible to the toxic effect of alcohol and can
therefore never drink responsibly again. Hope is to be found
only in accepting a power greater than oneself (god), and total
abstinence, one day at a time. The technique used to get this
message across is repetition, a brainwashing tactic quite similar
to that of the classic American temperance movement, which
was: "A simplistic educational approach: that is, if you tell
enough people enough times in sufficiently striking terms
whatever it is you want them to believe or do, then they
will so think and act."4 It is this method which has kept AA:
and for that matter, christianity, alive.
Failure is built 'into AA dogma. The brainwashed alcoholic
has little chance to succeed when he attempts to drink responsibly because he has been taught to believe that it is impossible.
Sobel et al concluded that the "first drink - then drunk'
expression is a myth and that the danger in this belief is that
it may function as a self-fulfilling prophecy.5 Just as religion's
concept of sin guarantees self-debasing guilt, so does AA's
concept of "one drink-then drunk."
For many alcohol abusers "god-therapy" and abstinence
is necessary. There are those who may be constitutionally incapable of grasping a manner of living which demands selfsufficiency, non-dependency, and personal responsiblity. In
addition, many are intellectually incapable of safely drifting
away from the status quo. Some are natural followers and .
most followers are dependent - dependent on god,on consistent and immediate reinforcement - dependent on any person
or group that will not point, but rather lead the way. The
single most prominent reason many alcohol abusers should
abstain is because of a seeming inability to achieve satisfaction
from the minimal euphoric effect produced by small amounts
of alcohol. This usually occurs when a significant increase in
tolerance has manifested itself.
As a professional with ten years experience in the field of
alcoholism, I would abandon neither abstinence nor responsible drinking as a goal of treatment. Treatment plans should
be the result of objective observation. Each individual's past
performance, current capabilities, and needs must be assessed.
Many therapists today are quick to force abstinence on a
person who may be incapable of conforming to such a request ..
Faced with this situation, many alcoholics will drop out of
treatment. This is a primary reason why a strict "tunnel vision"
policy is unrealistic. Larkin (1974) noted another difficulty
witli rigid abstinence requirements: "It concluded on the
basis of these three studies that abstinence and mental health
are not parallel phenomena. Indeed it appears that for some
patients at least, the attainment of abstinence is related to the
deterioration of mental health."6
AA "spiritualists" will stop at nothing to prevent their
cherished beliefs from crumbling; which is why the alcoholic

PRAIRIAL 188 [6/80]

PAGE 27

Atheist has a difficult time being heard or getting desirable

help in any community. The non-believer, the free-thinker, is
on his own when he rejects god-therapy. If he chooses not to
believe AA dogma, or to reject god as his chief counselor, he
is written off as a dishonest failure.
By allowing reason to govern his beliefs and actions the
Atheist alcohol abuser may discover the answers necessary for
him to design his own recovery plan. I suggest finding other
alcoholic Atheists and forming a group. "Great satisfaction
and therapeutic benefit can be achieved by intense subjective
personal interaction and a high degree of group support - two
factors which can be found in "all successful curative religious
and non-religious healing ceremonies."?
Religion is not therapeutically significant. A look at the
statistics reveals that god-therapy is ineffective. Still, the head
therapist (god) is praised obsequiously. He gets all the credit,
even though the majority of his alcoholic clients never recover.
Footnotes
1. White, A. D., A History of the Warfare of Science With
Theology, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1960, Vol. II,
p.217.

tice, and Evaluation, Toronto:

tion, 1974, p. 29.

Addiction Research Founda-

3. Jellinek, E. M., The Disease Concept of Alcoholism, New

Brunswick: Hillhouse Press, 1960,.p. 155.
.
4. Bacon, Seldon D., "The Classic Temperance Movement of
the U.S.A.: Impact Today On Attitudes, Action and Research," Great Britain: Pergamon Press, Vol. 62, British
Journal of Addiction, 1967, p. 18.
.
5. Sobell, L. C.; Sobell, M. B.; and Christelman, W. C., "The
Myth of One Drink," Behavior Research And Therapy, Vol.
10, 1972, p. 119-123.
6. Larkin, E. J., "Successful Treatment of Alcoholism 1: The
Concepts of Abstinence and Loss of Control," Sub-Study No.
488, Toronto: Addiction Research Foundation, 1972, p. 27.
7. Vanderpool, Harold Y., "Is Religion Therapeutically Significant?", Journal of Religion and Health, Institute of Religion
and Health, Vol. 16, No.4, 1977, p. 258.

2. Larkin, E. J., The Treatment of Alcoholism: Theory, Prac-

.....

.'

OSCAR@ao

PAGE 28

PRAIRIAL

188 [6/80)

AMERICAN

ATHEIST

THE AMERICAN ATHEIST RADI~SERIES

THE WARS OF THE GODLY

r)

***** Program

No. 395 *****

This is Madalyn Murray O'Hair, American Atheist. back to talk with you
again.
To llve and work in the American
Atheist movement is probably one of
the most interesting and exhilarating
life styles of our time. There is always
something new or, if not that". there is
an old discovery to convince all of us
all over again, every day, that we have'
been right about religion, that we are
right about it now and that we are
correct in knowing that the future
belongs to Atheism and that we will
help to get the nation there.
This week I received another old
book in theAmerican Atheist Library,
titled The W8rs of the Godly and written by one Reuben Maury. It was
published by a little off brand publisher whose company has been defunct for many years. I thought this
would tie the story of Europe and the
Middle East, but it turns out to be an
interesting exposition of armed conflict in the United States over religion.
How many times have you heard
someone called "Mac" in conversation? When I was growing up and into
my adult life, even during the Second
World War, it was a synonym for "sir,"
or "chief," or "boss," or "captain." It
was a coin in the lip currency of the
street. Now, I find out that it is a peg
upon which was hung one of our
legends. That simple monosyllable
has a dread cabalistic meaning if one
knew where to speak it and wHom to
ask.
The story goes that Mac is a password, tossed back and forth from Roman Catholic to Roman Catholic.
Wha-t's this?
Surely I jestl No, I do not, according
to Reuben Maury. The letters composing Mac are M.A.C., and each stand for
a word and the words are "Make
America Catholic"l

No one knows how the rumor started, but it may have been printed in an
anti-Catholic paper published in Aurora, Missouri in the early part of the
century, a publication
called
The
Menace. It is a far-fetched tale, but
one of the most effective pieces of
propaganda ever given out. And, of
course, to counter it the Protestants
needed a slogan and began the idea of

"Kap" - which letters stand for the

words "Keep America Protestant."
And though it is highly amusing to
view it now, the entire matter brought
a presidential candidate down. for Alfred E. Smith, a Roman Catholic, was
then running for the presidency. He
was, at the time, the governor of New
York State.
Actually, it all started much earlier
than this, although our school books in
the United States discreetly pass over
the difficulties.
Take Maryland - and, oh boyl anyone who wants that state can have
it. There have been religious difficulties there since the beginning.
"Every schoolboy knows of the royal
grant of Maryland to Cecilius Calvert,
Lord Baltimore, in 1633, and the
founding of that colony under him and
his brother Leonard.
"Not everyone knows that George
Calvert, the father of Leonard and
Cecilius, had led a body.of both Roman
Catholic and Protestant colonists to
Newfoundland four years before the
Maryland grant. George allowed his
Protestants a minister and his Catho- .
. lies a priest. The Protestant cleric
shortly went home to England, where
he complained against Calvert for allowing mass to be said in Newfoundland. Calvert started south with his
followers. He attempted to settle in
Virginia, but was summarily put off
I the premises when he declined to take
the oath of Protestant supremacy at
[the] Governor's
[name of Potts]
demand.
"Religious equality was guaranteed all Maryland colonists in the
'charter issued to young Cecil ius
Calvert. But within 35 years thereafter, screams ...
were going up in
Maryland: that the lord proprietor
meddled with elections, he used his
-veto power too freely,. he gave the
good political jobs to Roman Catholics
~ and his own kinspeople.

~-=:;;..;;;;::..
__

..;;;;;;;;;;.

PRAIRIAL

AUSTIN, TEXAS

~J

188 [6/80]

PAGE 29

"The first Calverts meant well, however. The famous

Maryland Act of Toleration was passed in Leonard's regime
(1649), guaranteeing religious freedom to all Christians who
believed in the trinity. Anabaptists, Jews and unbelievers (that
is, Agnostics, Atheists, Humanists, Freethinkers) thus became the only classes of white people whom Maryland
refused to, protect from the ferocities of whatever Christian
sect was strongest in number. [Yet] so sweeping a renunciation by a state of the right to persecute for the glory of the
authorized god had not been witnessed in the Christian world
prior tothat time-and the scandalized excitement stirred up by
the Act of Toleration was immense.
"The Act irked especially William Claiborne, new governor
of Virginia to the south of Maryland." A staunchly religious
Church of England man, he hated the Roman Catholics with a
passion. So, when Cromwell came into the saddle of government in England, Claiborne sailed the ship Reformation to'
Kent's Island, off Maryland's eastern shore. He captured the
island and held it against the attack by Calvert. From the island
, Claiborne leapt into Maryland itself, drove out the governor,
and took over the colony in the name of the Puritan party. In
charge of his government of Maryland he placed his man
Friday, an ex-pirate named Thomas Ingle. For two years Ingle
carried on a reign ofterror ... wrecking Catholic plantations ~..
deporting two priests to England after letting them season
suitably in a Maryland [ail.,
"Leonard Calvert then gathered a battalion of Roman
Catholics in Virginia, whence he had fled on Claiborne's
invasion, and returned to Maryland to kick Ingle out.
"The next move on Claiborne's part was to get himself an
appointment from England as commissioner for Maryland.
This was in 1652, Leonard Calvert having died meanwhile.
Claiborne overthrew the Maryland Catholic government.
called an assembly from which Catholics were barred, and
passed a new law which began by saying: 'It is hereby enacted
and declared that none who profess and exercise the P9Pish
(commonly called the Roman Catholic) religion, can be protected in this province by the laws of England ... " A fierce
battle on the Severn river followed. Claiborne won and he
celebrated the victory by shooting to death four prisoners, of
whom three were Roman Catholic.
"Maryland was a football field of battling sects from this
time off and on until the American Revolution one hundred
twenty-four years later.
" ... in 1690 a Rev. Mr. Coode ... snatched control from both
Puritans and Catholics, declared his Anglican church to be the
state religion of Maryland, levied a tax upon everyone in
Maryland, regardless of religious affiliation, of forty pounds of
tobacco per year to finance the building of Anglican churches
and the support of Anglican ministers. This tobacco tax
remained in force in both Virginia and Maryland for nearly a
century."
What probably stands as the champion anti-Catholic law for '
all time in the United States was enacted in Maryland in 1704
under Governor Seymour. On pain of penalties payable in
sterling, tobacco or jail duty, Catholics were forbidden by this
statute (1) to baptize any child into their church, (2) to
"proselyte", (3) to purchase land, (4) to inherit land, or (5) to
send a child abroad for education in the Catholic faith. A sort of
footnote to the law provided for a collection of a twenty-pound
fine from anyone importing an Irish farmhand.
Until 1751, the Roman Catholics were, however, undisturbed, and though deprived of rights and privileges, enjoyed
peace and quiet.

PAGE 30

PRAIRIAL
(

The war between England and France lasted from 1755

until 1763. France was a Catholic nation, and anti-Catholic
feeling flamed in the British colonies - particularly in the
colonies of America. Out of the Treaty of Paris, Great Britain
cleared most of Lousiana of French and Spanish influence.
France had quit Canada inthe 1760s. This left the NewWorld
of North America free for the Protestants.
After the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the colonies
found themselves to be States, at least in name, with a
pressing need for State constitutions wherewith to govern
themselves. In New York, John Jay, who was later to become
the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, fought for a
constitutional provision against naturalizing Catholics - and
he won. To disarm Catholics who had already slipped under
the bar of citizenship, the oath prescribed for public officers
was so worded that Catholics could not take it without
renouncing their faith.
New Jersey's 'first constitution ruled Catholics bluntly out of
all public offices. No one who "denied the truth of the
Protestant religion" could hold office in North Carolina, while
South Carolina's constitution declared that "the Protestant
religion is the religion of this state."
Catholics were made the equals of Protestants by the
revolutionary constitutions of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland.
New Hampshire's constitution boasted of a creed controlling eligibility to office until 1877. New Jersey did not rub its
last religious law off the books until 1844, and Massachusetts
taxed Catholics for the support of Protestant churches up to
1833.
One of General Washington's early official acts as commander-in-chief of the Revolunonarvarrnies
was to forbid a
"Pope Day" celebration planned by some of his Continentals
for November 5, 1776. Pope Day was the New England brand
of the British Guy Fawkes Day. As you will remember, Fawkes
headed the renowned Gunpowder Plotagainst the life of King
James I of England in 1605. The plot was concededly Catholic
and the anniversary of the arrest,of Guy Fawkes was celebrated by Protestants. In New England the custom '!ad been to
parade effigies of the pope in all the villages and fin'ally giving
them to the flames in the public squares. Washington announced, with engaging naivete, that "we are soliciting .....
friendship and alliance of the people of Canada" and must on
no account insult the religion of those people.
The Constitutional Convention of 1787 founded our nation.
.. and difficulties arose for the dissidents of religion when
Charles Pincknew inserted into the original draft of the
Constitution theclause: " ... but no religious test shall ever be
required as a qualification to any office or public trust under
the United States."
Of all the states, Massachusetts suffered the severest
gagging when requested to swallow the religious-test clause.
A Major Lusk "shuddered"
at the thought "that Roman
Catholics, Papists, and Pagans might be introduced into office,
and that Popery and the Inquisition may be established in
America." His opponents state that "the imposing of religious
tests hath been the greatest engine of tyranny in the world."
The Federalist Party organized the first central government
and where religion was concerned, the Federalists distrusted
Catholicism.
The Catholic-Protestant fight in the United States took on
the complexion it still wears today. Until recently it has been
the Irish Catholic who has drawn most of the rage of the native'
American Protestant white Gentile, and the Irish Catholic who

188 (6/80)

AMERICAN

ATHEIST

has returned most of the Protestant punches with all possible

vigor.
And, the first religious fight of modern character broke out
in New York City at Christmastide in 1806. A gang of nativeborn Americans gathered outside of St. Peter's Roman Catholicchurch on Barclay Street with intent to enhance god's glory
by breaking up the Christmas Eve mass there. But no services
were held. The following night the Irish rallied at St. Peter's in
force, expecting and probably hoping for trouble. The Protestants charged. A city watchman interfered and was stabbed
and killed. To avenge this insult to law and order, the mob
chased the Irish all around lower Manhattan. The Irish section
would have been looted and burned but for the appearance of .
Mayor De Witt Clinton, who argued the natives out of their
frenzy.
That was the beginning - and actual full scale battles
erupted later - a story which I will bring to you on another .
American Atheist Radio program.
Meanwhile, this informational broadcast is brought to you
as a public service by the Society of Separationists, lnc., a
non-profit, non-political, tax-exempt, educational organization dedicated to the complete separation of state and church.
This series of American At

SUF1fR

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THE

CHILDREN
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AUSTIN, TEXAS

PRAIRIAL

~/

~.I.

188 [6/80)

OSCAR@/80
PAGE 31

A JOYOUS A THEIST
BOZARTH'S HALL OF FAME
PART ONE
G. RICHARD BOZARTH
One of the pleasures of working at the American Atheist Center principles, we shall make more progress. The increase and
is that I have unlimited access to the Charles E. Stevens American
better distribution of wealth also help to reduce crime. In most
Atheist Library and Archives, Inc., which is a paradise for a civilizations the workers and the small middle-class are four
scholarly Atheist such as myself who loves books almost as much times as well off as they were a century ago, and this
as he does his wife. I have in my explorations in the library come economic improvement will continue, to say nothing of other
across many works that are classics of such excellence that it truly possible changes.
hurts that the American Atheist Press is not yet capable of
reprinting these magnificent works. However, many of them I have
Without Eternal Laws And Gods And Devils
found are short enough for booklets (and will be reprinted asfast as
we can produce them amid all the other essential work that goes on
All these influences make for a better type of character, by
at the understaffed and underfinanced Center) and even short which I mean a habitually just, honest. honorable, generous,
enoughfor a magazine article. It seemed to me an excellent idea to' firm, truthful, self-controlled character. I do not mean the
turn over my space in the American Atheist magazine in order to stained-glass-angel
business. How much a man smokes,
pass on to all of you readers those classics that are short enough to drinks, or dances, what sort of shows or books he enjoys, and
fit into a magazine. In fact, so excellent did the idea seem to me, so on, is not the business of the moralist. It has never been
that I am in this month s column putting it into execution" I am considered a "sin" for a man to make a fool of himself, and
pleased to offer this first, installment of what I modestly call . excess in these things is rather a matter of folly. If we can get
"Bozarth s "Hall of Fame.
more honesty in business and politics, more truthfulness and

THE NIGHTMARE OF SEX

by Joseph McCabe
Moralists have been in the habit of distinguishing between
social virtues and self-reqardinqvirtues:
habits (justice, honesty, veracity, etc.) which are useful because it would be to the
profit of all of us if they were generally cultivated, and habits
which affect no one but oneself. Any quarrel about the future
of the social virtues is neglible. The police will look after
grosser breaches - if we look well after the police, which
religion never does. And education, public opinion, and the
experience of life will secure what does not concern the
police.
Once upon a time - and it is not many centuries ago - no
one had a pocket handkerchief, even amongst the gentry and
nobles, and men made rude noises whenever and wherever'
they would. Without the slightest assistance from god and his
ministers we have altered all that so drastically that a breach
of the new laws is almost unthinkable amongst educated
people. It is nonsense to say that we cannot socially enforce
laws or standards of conduct.
And we shall have the help of other changes which are
occurring. A vast amount of sourness of character, hypocrisy,
secret cheating, even crime, has been caused by indissoluble
marriage or inadequate arrangements for the relief of the
unhappily married. When we shift the hand of the clergy
finally from these matters and regulate them solely on social
r
'

PAGE 32

PRAIRIAL

geniality in social life, more justice in industrial and all other

relations, the rest is far less important. The principle, at all
events, is clear. When a man's conduct becomes socially
mischievous, socieity will sit on him. It will be done more
promptly when we no longer leave it to god.
One of the funniest things about these people who fear,
they say, that society will never be able to enforce'jts laws of
conduct is that they are actually making a most tyrarinicaluse
ofthe power of society. They are dreaming of a whole series of
prohibitions, and in the name, not of religion, but of morals.
These interf.erences with personal liberty are more provocative of moral rebellion tl'ian anything else in the world. Our
young folk are beginning to loathe the word "morals," and I do
not blame them. It is moralists who are making it necessary to
abandon the word morality.
When we get behind words and know exactly what we
mean, there is little dispute. Qualities or modes of conduct and
character which are highly desirable in order to maintain and
increase the amenities of life can obviously be cultivated
without any talk about eternal laws and gods and devils. Let
children be taught in school the real reason conduct necessarily has limitations in a social group, and it will be found far
more profitable than telling them about the flora of Tierra del
Fuego or the dates of battles in the Civil War.
There is only one real controversy: sex. Drunkenness is not
. a moral problem. In countries which are dealing with it on
sensible lines it is decreasing every decade. A hundred years
ago, when certainly the majority of men who could afford it got
drunk habitually, the clergy had very little to say about it. In
Catholic moral theology drunkenness is a "venial" (light)
offense,unless
a man quite loses the use of reason "in a

188[6/80]

AMERICAN

ATHEIST'

bestial manner"; and even this quiet principle has never been
taken strictly. All the fuss about drink, which would have
astounded even priests when all the world was Christian, has
originated, like so many other asceticisms, in our skeptical
age.
But, as I said, the actual experience of countries which
discourage drunkenness without interfering with the liberty of
sensible men is that drunkards decrease in number every
decade, and are now relatively few. We are concerned with
general laws. The man who merely exceeds occasionally, with
no damage to anybody except his own head andstornach, may
very well tell the moralist to mind his own business. I know
Roman Catholics of distinction who have these occasional
"binges" and stoutly maintain that neither church nor state
has anything to do with the matter. The people who are
shocked had better learn a little common sense.

The Purity Of Our Women

The thing that warps the entire moral controversy of our
time is sex. Clergymen are the worst, the crudest, moralists in
the world. They do not even know what morality is. But they
are the standard, and nearly the whole of our press and
periodical literature whoops after them. During a stay in
Christchurch (New Zealand) I once found an editorial in a
leading paper bluntly telling the local clergy, who were
goading the women to a purity campaign, to mind their own
business. Such frankness is rare. The whole precious aroma
of morals is usually concentrated in the words purity and
chastity. The novelist gets his thrill by making the hero reserve
his last cartridge to protect the heroine from "the thing that is
worse than death." The films win the permission of the police
and clergy to exhibit the vamp in all her skin-tight loveliness,
orthe wicked man just kinking over the languorous heroine on
the couch as the picture fades out, but crowding blushes into
the titles and subtitles. The papers revel in sex, and groan over
it. The British clergy, to the dismay of Fleet Street,hatte lately
got a law passed prohibiting the publication of reports of the
evidence in divorce cases (which in England always include
adultery), and no politician dared to make a stand against the
puerility.
The gods, if there are gods, must rock with laughter at the
stupendous spectacle of hypocrisy, stupidity, lying, sneaking
into dark places, mutual deceit and mutual fooling. And this is
.the moral situation in which the clergy take the greatest pride.
Your sound education, they would say to me, may reduce
crime, and secure more honor and honesty, but it will never
either maintain or protect - here the voice sinks to a low
vibrant note - the purity of our women.
I have many Agnostic friends who in this respect use the
same language as the clergy, yet I repeat that the situation is
grotesque. This for two reasons. First, the Christian Era,
before our un-Christian days, reeks with sex-license from the
fifth century to the nineteenth. I could fill a volume of a
hundred thousand' words with explicit testimony to this by
Christian writers in every age. A large number of the popes
themselves were notoriously immoral (some for unnatural
vice), and the license of prelates, priests, monks, and nuns has
been colossal. The notion that Christianity has been a special
guardian of purity of women is not a theme for discussion. It is
a joke.
The second reason is that just as notoriously the cult of
chastity is the greatest swindle, the most widespread hypocrisyof modern times. In England and the United States, the

AUSTIN, TEXAS

two shrines of modern Puritanism, there are - I reflect and

calculate before I put this down - more professional ministers of love than professional ministers of religion. Half the
married men seek variety abroad and are acrid with jealously
at home. Three-fourths
of our films and novels turn on
immorality, and this is merely because the overwhelming
mass of the public will have them so. The producer who
purveyed only pictures of chastity would face ruin. Catholic
films even have to be allusive attimes. The best story is always
the sexual story. The most popular novelist is almost always
the one who refuses to recognize the law of chasity.
The world reeks with rebellion against sex-restrictions and
then, with the execption of a few outspoken writers, agrees
that our ideal of purity is our noblest possession and religion
its essential guardian. I have made no specific research into
this, but I think I can appeal to my reader. How often do not the
clergy figure in your daily paper in connection with sexoffenses? Do you find professors, doctors, or lawyers in the
same position as frequently as you find clergymen? Surely not.
I should say that if some person with plenty of leisure cared to
compile the lists of cases, he would find that these clerical
guardians 'of our chastity figure in the daily press for sexirregularities three times as frequently as any other correspondingly large body of professional men. I have three
further sources of information. I was once a priest: I have a
large acquaintance with medical men: and I have considerable
knowledge of the 'experiences of domestic servants. The
clergy are far more immoral than teachers, doctors, or
lawyers, .and Catholic priests are, naturally, more immoral
than Protestant clergymen.

It Is - Cosmic - ?
If it vyere not for this tyrannical obsession of chastity, this
cowardly lip-homage, this almost universal cozening of each
other, we should settle the matter on sensible and decent
lines in a generation. The confusion itself points plainly to one
fact: half of us at least are no longer Christians, yet we are
pretending that we are under the obliqation of Christian law
and, knowing that we are not, we secretly ignore it.
Here very many people who are not Christians will demur. I
have in mind a distinguished American, one of many men of
high character and culture whom I know, and he is as stern on
the law of chastity as any saint. He once almost turned me out
of his house for defending a certain brilliant writer of amorous
habits. My friend is an Agnostic. This article would disgust
him; as it will disgust great numbers of Agnostic Unitarians
and Ethical Culture people. The law of chastity, they say
warmly, is not a distinctively Christian law. It is - cosmic - it
isWell, what the devil is it? I defy them to say in plain EngliSh.
What Kant or Emerson or Eucken says about it is not plain
English. We have got beyond verbiage of that sort. There is a
law of justice, of veracity, and so on. We quite understand it.
The foundation of it is solid social requirement. But where is
the foundationof
your law of chastity? It is either in god, in
Christ, or in the clouds. John Stuart Mill, the first Ethical
Culture philosopher, "the saint of Rationalism," saw that
clearly. He gave it up. But he never said so. It is from private
letters of his, first published by me in my Life and Letters ofG.
J. Holyoake, that I learned it. In 1848 Millwrote Holyoake, who
was strictly Puritanical:

The root of my difference with you is that you appear to accept

the present constitution of the family and the whole of the priestly

PRAIRIAL 188 [6/80]

PAGE 33

morality founded on and connected with it - which morality, in

my opinion, thoroughly deserves the epithets "intolerant, slavish
and selfish. "

chastity will be when Modernists have the courage of their

convictions. If Jesus was not divine, he may have blundered
on this point as he did in regard to the end of the world and a
In the same year Holyoake took the unusual course of hundred other things. There is therefore no law. The Old
returning several of Mill's letters to him, fearing "they might Testament authoritatively forbids only adultery; and we agree
fall into the hands.of the authorities." As Mill had not the least that married folk should keep their contract as long as they
sympathy with Socialism - he was the leader of the Indi- hold each other to it. The belief in god has in itself nothing to do
vidualists - the sentiments of the letters which scared with the matter. It is rather funny, in fact, to imagine the
Holyoake are such as I have just quoted. Amongst his papers, almighty, ifthere is one, taking any interest in thecopulations
in fact, besides the letter I have quoted, I found half a letter of mortals. The religious person does not seethe humor of this
because he curtly says that god is "holy" and must disapprove
which also escaped his notice. Mill says in it:
The use of the word "morality" is likely to give an idea of much of such things. He forgets that he has to prove that sexual
greater agreement with the ordinary moral notions, emanating intercourse has anything todo with holiness. It is precisely the
from and grounded on religion, than I should suppose you intend. question at issue.
Well, I am content to agree with the man of whom Lord
What Superstition Can Sustain
Morley, comparing him with Gladstone, once wrote (in a letter
. which he forbade me to publish): "He was as much GladThe future, at all events, is clear. The law of chastity, in so
stone's superior in character as he was in intellect." Mill was
in practice and taste a Puritan, but he was inexorable in logic. far as it is a law for modern civilization, is based entirely on the
The law of chastity is "priestly morality" and "emanates from Old and New Testaments; and nearly the whole of modern
religion." European-American civilization bows to it (in theory) scholarship regljlrds them as pious fiction. Even if they do give
only because Christ endorsed it. He did not, of course, invent the words of Jesus, which is hardly credible, his authority has
it. Every moralist of those centuries, from Pythagoras to gone. We are working out the clear formulation of social law
without the entanglement
of laws "emanating
from and
Marcus Aurelius, urged it. Three thousand years earlier
Egyptians had protested in their prayers to Osiris, "I am pure, I grounded on religion." Christians ought, I suppose, to observe
am pure, I am pure."
their own law - though most of them never did, and half of
them do not now and never will - but non-Christians
may
justly requestthem to mind their own business. When they try
The Goddess Chastity
to make it their business by invoking "the voice of conscience"
The r;eal evolution of the idea has never been traced - it is and "the universal moral sense," they talk psychological
one of those literary tasks I have had in mind for years, but rubbish. There is no such thing. A man's feeling of obligation
is the plain product of education and environment
and
have now no hope of realizing - but it will, when accomplished, make a volume of rare attraction. The first root of it is faithfully reflects them ..
And when religious people go further and speak about
probably the monogamous tradition of the earliest men which,
the practiceof the apes suggests, goes back to animal days. social consequences, they do but prepare a rod for their own
backs. To talk, as some of them do, of an approaching time
Moralists make the silly mistake of saying that modern
tendencies portend a reversion to "primitive promiscuity." On when women may find the streets unsafe is too silly to be
the contrary, all the evidence suggest that quite primitive man discussed seriously. As to other consequences to women, any
injury to them at once falls under social law. The kind of brute
was for millions of years monogamous, and it is the moralist's
ideal which is primitive. Originally it meant that the sexes who brings grave trouble on a girl and runs away will be
hunted down; but women are developing the sense of selfwere equal. in number (there was no war), that a man with
possession, and conception is now easy to avoid.
sheer animal impulses and nerves did not feel the monotony,
On the other hand, within ten years writers will turn
and that he kept his wife "virtuous" by means of his club and
he himself was kept virtuous by his neighbor's club. Then, in truculently on the moralists and preachers and ask them to
count up, if they can, all the misery and suffering their law of
time, the mysteries of woman's processes began to intrigue
the savage mind, and tabus began to grow. Then the cult of a chastity has caused and causes all over the world today, all of
the joy that mortals might have had in their brief lives and the
goddess of love suggested sacrifices .....
clergy have persuaded them to sacrifice for an illusory heaven,
But it is useless to attempt to trace the evolution here.
Civilization took over the law of chastity from barbarism .six all the dreary waiting and anemia and nervous disease, all the
sourness of disappointment and the feverish anxiety to secure
thousand years ago, and religion,adopted it. In its earlier form
it was simply - for Egyptians, Babylonians, Hebrews, etc. a mate. I never see a trainload of maids returning from their
work but I reflect on the ghastly havoc that lies behind all this
-"Thou
shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife"; it did not forbid
hollow rhetoric about "the Christian purity of our women."
concubines and harlots. In the first millennium before Christ;
Yes, I admit that religion alone can sustain the law of chastity.
however, priestly and philosophical ascetics arose everyThe only thing that superstition can sustain is superstition.
where, and "chastity" was evolved. The more philosophers
glorified the spirit, the more the flesh was depreciated. The
Essenes of Palestine got these ideas from the Persians, and
Jesus got them from the Essenes; and two thousand years
later this marvelous scientific civilization of ours, this generation which cuts off the heads of kings and boasts of its'
independence, bows down to the commands of a dreamy and
hallucinated young carpenter who spoke at street-corners in
ancient Galilee.
One of the next and most piquant stages in the evolution of

PAGE 34

PRAIRIAL 188 [6/80]

AMERICAN ATHEIST

__--------------------------------------~------------~------~--=-~--~--~~--------~==~~.~
...
I

ON OUR WAY

Ignatz Sahula- Dycke

LITTLE GAINED
IF NOTHING SOLVED
The solution of everything with
which our world challenges us depends on our view of it, on what sense
it rriakesto us, and what our reasoning
tells us its meaning seems to be. Due
to explanations with which the religious elements have over the years
lambasted their believers, the world is
presently a place occupied by people
of tiNo kinds: one kind innocently believing life to be one thing, and the
other kind taking life as being what
their senses and reasoning tell them
about it. Briefly, then, this world of
ours is now a place divided into people
who distinctly either think for themselves, and those others who depend
upon yet others to do their thinking for
them. The latter folk are soothed when
told all about the boons of the thinking
being done for them; the former kind
are highly conscious of what the latter
kind don't see. These latter folk don't
realize that much of what they're told
is being done for them is really being
done to them. So, we have an option
- a choice - to be able, or be entitled,
to live our lives the way we ourselves
wish to do it, or live the way others tell
us to go about it. It's that Simple.
The trouble is that our life is nowadays so cluttered up by rules, which
those who've become used to thinking
for others have set up, as to have made
living unpleasant for everyone who'd
like to conduct life in his or her own
way - according to the way he or she
craves it: on the basis of his or her own
thinking and planning. This serious
distinction between the two previously mentioned groups of people was
established long ago on the basis of
the most noteworthy characteristic of
our human species. Nearly all of us
nominalize
this characteristic
as
IMAGINATION. Everyone of us has
this imaginativeness; some in greater
intensity, others in lesser amplitude.
Artists are said to have it in greater
volume than most other people.

Wilting Florescence
About a hundred years ago the renowned artist and sculptor, Paul Gustave Dore, had devoted no small portion of his fecund skill and imagination
to picturing biblical subjects such as
heaven, hell, angels, Satan, the prophets and saints, Jesus; even the
Bible's god. Others, notably Michelangelo, Rubens, Rafael, Blake, and
many besides, devoted parts of their
talents to the pictorial depiction of
religion's fantasies - as though they
factually existed. These experts of the
pictorial arts in this way actually
forced religion's extravagant suppositions into the minds of the people of
the generations predating ours and, in
this manner, persuaded the Western
peoples to believe as true very many
things that really and actually existed
at first only in the bizarre imagination
of the priests of our christianism and,
before the advent of christianism's
now wilting florescence, in the delirious fantasies of shamans and witch
doctors who preyed upon and thereby
profited from the superstitious fears
evoked in the common people by nature's phenomena. Irt this way the
priests subjugated the mass mind of
the West and became its tyrannical
rulers.
For more than one thousand and
seven hundred years the church thus
constrained the people. Only during
the past two hundred years have the
freethinkers of philosophy begun to
overcome the mental sickness with
which the christian doctrine had been
debilitating the sane outlook of the
West. If, as is commonly attested,
religions usually manifest a resurgence during times of public stress,
the situation presently faced by Western nations (especially our own U.S.)
is a long way from salubrious.

PRAIRIAL

AUSTIN, TEXAS

~I

188 [6/80)

The periodic coming-back-to-life

of
a religion steadily on the downgrade
for more than two centuries, is puzzling until we remember that in times
of economic difficulties
the people
(especially those who until such times
have depended on the priests' say-so)
attend to their religious "duties" in
increased numbers, hoping that their
god will take a hand in their extremity
and, as promise the priests, allay it.
They consequently revive their old,
brainwashed
habits and make the
existing crisis take on the appearance
of a blessing vindicating Hie priesthoods.

Hempel's Paradox
A minor religious resurgence of this
kind is now percolating
and kept
steaming not alone by the clerics, but
by no few officials of our government;
some of them in high places: members
of the House, of the S.~nate, of the high
Court and no less ii' figure than our
avowedly baptistically religious President. There's also considerable assurances nowadays in the public
prints about god's avowed existence,
and about the supposed good sense of
daily prayers to him for merciful help
in our current predicament. Well, we'd
better get on the ball and start skulling: the old god can't be, and more
than likely won't be, in any greater
hurry to repair the veritable mess
we've made of our Founding Fathers'
country than he seems inclined to in
the case of Ireland, Lebanon and
other places. One way or another,
proving that god exists isn't going to
have much of an effect. I mentioned in
one of my previous columns that any
god can be "proved" to exist by recourse to the theory of probability and
attacking it with a bit of twisted logic; a
procedure neither acceptable nor admirable. Nevertheless, let's see how
religion used this sophistry to get its

PAGE 35

Religion's Motto

foot inside man's mind.

It's theoretically easy to prove that a
given god exists - to people who wish
for it. For example, paraphrasing
Hempel's paradox of the black ravens,
and construing as universal the proposition that gods are mysterious and
unseen, then: if we'll iet X represent
gods, X will equate with everything
mysterious and unseen; be supported
by anything of that character; and be
refutable by everything UNmysterious
and NOT unseen. So, on the basis of
refutation, anyone can now at will
produce a god no longer mysterious
and unseen, but one understandable
and perceivable. Welt, why not? Man
. has after all been creating god for one
or another reason since time immemoriaL And in this way.
Yet, no matter how many people
accept the results of the above procedure as valid proof, there's one important and glaring flaw in it that
knocks all of it into a cocked hat. Our
premise harbors a tautology, ignoring
rational thinking which forbids our
believing anything that lacks sufficient evidence. Because of this, our
attempt to prove god's factual existence lacks validity - is without authority. Ever since the days of Thomas
Aquinas, errors of this kind have confuted all attempts to make ontological
proofs of god's existence acceptable to
the atheistically whetted philosophical fraternity. The only thing proved by
procedures of this tautological character has been the sterility of intellect
of the christianistic philosophers who
engaged in them. They were engaged
in the support of religion - depended
on methods of this variety to prove
what they wished were a fact.

PAGE 36

The
scandalous
thing
about
"proofs" of this unfounded ilk is that
they're in this largely scientific day
still being lauded and even revered as
pearls of god's truth. Why? Because
those who do it are aware of the
money that's in it. Today's organized,
institutionalized, so-called religion is
purely and simply precisely what the
clerics who run it privately admit they
know it is: America's (U.S.A:s) largest
governmentally
subsidized commercial enterprise. Religion's continuance in.business, wholly untaxed, as it
now is, makes it the number one and
most serious problem that in our twohundred-year history we've yet had to
face. Religion's motto is MONEY, it
business WORSHIPPERS. It is a Cartel
now, a Trust that. because it has
properties,
investments,
cash and

behind all this its people who for good,

hellish reasons are afraid to criticize it,
amounts to a problem which - should
the citizenry not wake up and control it
- will beyond all doubt control them
and the nation that, two centuries ago,
was entrusted to their care and, hopefully, to their love.
The day when Religion generated
the moral force it once did, is long
gone. Religion has in recent years
changed its hymn. At every opportunity Religion now tells us we owe. our
loyalty first of all to its god. And who is
Religion's god but its ambitions? Today, now, the American
citizen's
highest and most pressing moral duty
should be keeping Religion out of his
nation's affairs of state.

,JON & OSCAW80

PRA.IRIAL 188 [6/80)

AMERICAN

ATHEIST

FILMREVIEW
elaine stansfield

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 O'0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

o
o
o

0
0

9000000000000000000

American Gigolo
Believe it or not (and I know many of
you will not) this picture has a lot of
thought-value. There is more to this
gigolo than meets the eye - and what
meets the eye is attractive, too. Paul
Schrader, who both wrote and directed the film, was said to have wanted
John Travolta to star, and Travolta was
interested, but other commitments forced him elsewhere, and Richard Gere,
who was in Yanks and Looking for Mr.
Goodbar, got the job.
Although I think Travolta would
have been absolutely perfect for the
role, Gere gives us a satisfactory, if
enigmatic, Julian, a man whose selfrespect is generated because he is
good at what he does - and never for
a minute do we think he is not good at
It. He has worked hard for the proficiencythat enables him to move easily
in the milieu he wants, that of the
sophisticated, rich intelligentsia, his
entree being idle women in need of a
man who can make them believe they
are beautiful, desirable sexual beings
- even if they're paying for it. His
services are variously referred to as
chauffeur, guide, escort and translator. He has studied art, music, tennis,
swimming and can speak several languages, some well and some just well
enough to be entertaining. He has
come up from the world of kinky sex,
where he was just a "trick" for anybody with the money, but now he can
choose his Malibu lifestyle, as he
takes his beautiful sports car to some
of the most prestigious
homes in
Southern California.
The picture is given first class treatment: the photography is absolutely
excellent, the music so carefully chosen that it is not intrusive except
where it needs to be, and the costumes are in every case just right. The
lady who falls in love with him is
played by Lauren Hutton, who has the
intriguing huskyvoice and walk reminiscent of Bacall. She is a fascinating

AUSTIN, TEXAS

actress and, as the unhappy wife of a

busy politician, utterly believable to
this reviewer.
.
The religious community has leveled several criticisms at this picture,
first that it has no moral values, and
second that it is a corrupting influence. Treading on somewhat shaky
ground, for the subject matter will not
meet with everyone's approval, I watched it very carefully for such flaws
and couldn't find them. It portrayed
the seamy side of the sexual underworld as depraved enough to revolt
anyone, and to make one sympathetic
to the hero's determination to get out
of it. This, in turn, creates an additional sympathy when he is forced
back into it, and when he is jailed for a
crime he did not commit. I found his
moral standards consistent with the
way the character was set up in the
beginning: he believed in giving good
value for his money and he believed he
earned it fairly in performing a needed
service. Do I h~ar hoots and catcalls?
Do we have to talk about the prostitute
with a heart of gold? Must we forever
be bemused at the law of supply and
demand in the area of sex? Do we still
shut our eyes to the fact that our
society is built around what is done for
money? Surely, this is the corrupting
influence, far more than whether sex
is sold?
There is also an exploration here of
some interesting side issues: that of
connections. The woman who arran-

PRAIRIAL

188 [6/80)

ges for him to meet potential clients.

The black man who has the gay and
leather world sewed up. The police
detective whose specialty is "pimps
and husters." The hypocrites who use
the gigolo, but will deny it even when
his life is at stake. All turn their backs
on him when he is in trouble.
In watching his relationship with
Hutton evolve into fondness, we see
his opportunistic feeling about money
slowdown and falter, and therein lies
at least one of the seeds of his future
trouble, for he cannot permit himelf to
look to her for help, knowing the scandal would have far-reaching repercussions in the political world. Compare
how quickly this would happen in a
similar plot with the sexes reversed. It
would be easy to extrapolate further
and give my interpretation of what
symbolic representations are embedded in the plot and characters, but this
would be tantamount to going off into
a digression of enormous proportions
for which we do not have space.
Suffice to say that'va critique of
society was undoubtedly intended,
with' all the so-called good people
representing indifference and frightened self-protection, while the male prostitute ends up as their victim. Schrader
obviously had great difficulty with his
ending, exemplified by the burst of
elegiac music when the two lovers
declare themselves, and it may well be
that the course of this particular true
love will not be smooth, but I deny
knowledge of any such smooth course.
As some wag recently said, "You can
be right, or you can have a relationShip."
All in all, a not particularly important
picture, but with some interesting insights, enough of them so that I would
be unwilling to dismiss the effort. .

Chapter Two
Marlon Brando, you have a lot to
answer for. The Mumble School of
acting seems to have taken hold. Even

PAGE 37

Caan has now fallen victim to the

throwaway line, the words cast into an
overlap of either sound effects or another person's dialogue. Older people
who don't hear too well can be heard
by other members of the audience as
they ask their companions, "What did
he say?". In American Gigolo, the
sound track was full of noises or cars
cutting out words and sometimes
whole lines of dialogue. In Chapter
Two, we are especially annoyed by
this when we suspect a witty Neil
Simon line may be passing us by.
Well, don't worry. This is not a funny
film. Occasionally amusing, yes, sometimes touching, too, but not typical
Simon. Rather it is Simon using his
writing to exorcize a trauma in his
personal life and I rather resent it.
James Caan, playing Simon's alter
ego, asks Marsha Mason (Mrs. Simon
in real life) to marry him after a two
week whirlwind courtship, which she
does, and then he begins to regret it
because he had been so much in love
with his first wife who died. The
method of his regret is embarrassing
to watch:
he becomes taciturn,
monosyllabic and unwilling to look her
.in the eye. She gets desperate, tries
every way she can to get him out of it,
as he keeps lacerating her. Finally, like
the Arthur Miller character in After
the Fall lacerating Marilyn Monroe,
we lose almost all sympathy for him,
which is obviously not what the author

intended, in his zeal to say mea culpa.

Marsha Mason is a delightful actress, a wonder to behold -remember
her in Cinderella Liberty? - and it is
she who holds the picture together.
Her enunciation is so good that you
miss words only when the director has
her whisper certain lines. But perhaps
Si mon has come to the end of materia I
from his own life for his plays, for
though the film is good in spots, it
falters frequently in construction, as
one perceives the material to be taken
literally out of Simon's life tape recorder. There are two excellent supporting roles by Joseph Bologna as his
brother and Valerie Harper as her best
friend. Beyond that, I'd say that the
padding of the original script to extend
it into a movie has not helped the
material. This is not to say I didn't like
it, for the world is in desperate need
for all the humor it can get, and there
are a few scenes here that are terrific.
But it's a curious mixture, like oil and
water, and I could have done with less
soul-searching, fewer montage shots
and more laughter.

10
Nothing prepared me to like this
picture - and I loved it. No critic
bothered to point out that the sexrating often, hence the title, did not
make this picture sexist. Nobody reminded me that its bumbling hero,
Dudley Moore, was the same very
funny man who played the inept
would-be swinger in Foul Play. If
there's anything more fun than laughing out loud again and again at the
movies, I don't know what it is. Even
the plot holds together. The "10" girl
of his dreams is Bo Derek, and she's a
10 for sure, a flawless beauty, amodern girl ina very modern open
marriage a situation for whichMoore is unprepared, despite his desire for her. .
The direction by Blake Edwards is
superb, as is the finely tuned performancebyJulieAndrews(Mrs.
Edwards
in real life) as the lady who quietly
waits out his infatuation.
The perceptive viewer will note that
there is no religion involved in any of
these pictures, no sense of anything
other than people working out their
problems by themselves, with as much
grace and humor as they can manage.
I am somehow inordinately pleased
that these movie characters no longer
invoke god to help them, and I tend to
think of it as a firm (not faltering) step
in the right direction.

ATHEIST T-SHIRTS FOR SALE!!!

NOW, in response to popular demand, the American
Atheist Center is offering for sale
ATHEIST T-SHIRTS!
See the illustration on the inside back cover for a
representation of this hot little number, then order
your$ TODAY!
$7.50 including postage & handling.
Specify Small, Medium, Large, or Extra-Large
Send orders to:
American Atheists
P.O. BQx 2117
Austin, TX 78768

PAGE 38

PRAIRIAL

188 [6/80)

AMERICAN

ATHEIST

BOOK REVIEW ~

Atheist Truth vs. Religion's Ghosts

Two Lectures
by Robert G. Ingersoll
Robert Ingersoll, popularly
known as "The Great
Agnostic"
in his day and age, was one of the most
prolific of Atheist writers and speakers. An American
lawyer and a leader of the Republican
party founded
during his maturity,
he was born in 1833 and died in
1899. He spent most of his entire adult life in Lincoln
country,
Illinois, except for the extensive lecturing
work he did throughout
the United States.
His single most popular and most well received lecture was titled "Ghosts."
It was discussed endlessly
by the clergy -and misquoted copiously by the media.
Finally, with an angry "Preface,"
Ingersoll published
the lecture on April 13, 1878. He charged the clergy
and the press with "maiming
and mutilating"
his
work - "with orthodox malice." His fury was grand:
"The chief business of the clergy has always
been to destroy the joy of life, and multiply and
magnify the terrors and tortures of death and perdition. They have polluted the heart and paralyzed
the brain; and upon the ignorant altars of the Past
and the Dead, they have endeavored
to sacrifice
the Present and the Living."
.
In our present age, those who feel that religion
should be treated with "an official policy of aloofness" and that it will "wither away" if this is done,
have not taken a look at the contemporary
scene. Ingersoll knew this, and in his "preface" lashed out:
"I oppose the church because she is the enemy
of liberty; because her dogmas are infamous and
cruel; because she humiliates
and degrades woman; bec'ause she teaches the doctrines of eternal
torment and the natural depravity of man; because
she insists upon the absurd, the impossible and the
senseless; because she resorts to falsehood and slander; because she is arrogant and revengeful; because
she allows men to sin on a credit; because she discourages self-reliance,
and laughs at good works;
because she believes in vicarious virtue and vicarious vice - vicarious punishment
and vicarious
reward; because she regards repentance
of more
importance
than restitution,
and because she sacrifices the world we have to one we know not of."
And, if you think that is fiery, wait until you read
the two lectures. Lectures in those days were lectures.
A speaker was expected to go on for at least three
hours,
with a well conceived,
flowing, intelligent
speech that was structured,
consistent and logical. Ingersoll brought the exercise to perfection.
His fame as
a lecturer was so great that he continues even today
to be listed in your ordinary dictionary,
under the
section titled "Biographical
N am es."

The lecture "Ghosts" is subtitled "Let Them Cover

Their Eyeless Sockets with Their Fleshless Hands and
Fade Forever from The Imagination
of Men."
He is relentless in his icon smashing, driving the
religious to bay. And, freely he says that he hates the
religious leaders:
"I thank Luther for protesting against the abuses
of the church, and I denounce him because he was
the enemy of liberty. I thank Calvin, for writing a
book in favor of religious freedom, and I abhor
him because he burned Servetus. I thank Knox for
resisting Episcopal persecution,
and I hate him because he persecuted in his turn."
When he has finished that tirade, he turns to truth
as seen by an A theist. This lecture, "Tru th" is subsubtitled
"Truth
Is The Intellectual Wealth of The
World."
And, here he is after religion again. "There is no
real investigation
without
freedom - freedom from
the fear of gods and men." Conversely, "Truth has always been in favor of free speech - has always asked
to be investigated
- has always longed to. be known
and understood."
..,
He not alone asks shocking questions,
but he answers them. "What are the orthodox clergy doing for
the good of mankind?
Absolutely
nothing."
Say that
on television
or radio today and the interviewer
is
stunned and the audience horrified. It would not be
possible to say openly today what Ingersoll said a
hundred years ago:
"They (the clergy) paralyze the minds and pollute the imaginations.
of children. They fill their
hearts with fear. By their teachings, thousands
become insane. With them hypocrisy
is respectable
and candor infamous.
They enslave the minds of
men. Under their teachings men waste and misdi. rect their energies, abandon
the .e n ds that can be
accomplished,
dedicate
their lives to the impossible, worship the unknown, pray to the inconceivable, and become the trembling
slaves of a monstrous myth born of ignorance and fashioned
by
the trembling hands of fear."
You will love Ingersonll - and quote him. You will
use his arguments
many times and hold his memory
dear. It is a small booklet, but you cannot do without
it. This is a 45 page, 6" x 9" masterpiece,
costing
$3.29, 41 cents postage and 30 cents handling for
a total price of $4.00. Order from American Atheist
Press, P.O.Box 2117, Austin, TX 78768.
\

AUSTIN. TEXAS

PRAIRIAL

~/

188 (6/80)

PAGE 39

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PAGE 40

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AMERICAN ATHEISTS

AMERICAN

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redress

of

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THE UNTOLD HISTORY I

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