AMERICAN ATHEISTS

"Aims and Purposes"

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

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

Vol. 19, No. 10

October,

EDITORIAL/About
LETTERS

1977

This Issue

TO THE EDITOR

NEWS
Suit Filed to Remove "In God We Trust"
Atheist Fights Council Prayers
Baptist Corp Folds
Did Jesus Rise Bodily?
FEATURE ARTICLES
Christians, Jews, And Persecutors
Secular Sentry/Carl Shapiro

Arguments

for Abortion

2
3
4

5
5
9

13

Arguments for Atheists

G. Richard Bozarth

14

Breathing Is Not Living

Speaking for Women/Anne Gaylor

19

(a continuation from last month's issue)

Shibles Corner/Warren Shibles

23

AMERICAN ATHEIST RADIO SERIES

The Council of Nicaea 325 A.D.

27

POEMS

31

Editor-in-Chief/Madalyn
Murray O'Hair, Managing Editor/William
J. Murray,
Associate Editor/Jon G. Murray, Design/Valerie L. Murray,
Circulation/John
I. Mays, Non-Residential
Staff/Anne Gaylor, Warren Shibles, Carl Shapiro,
Jo Kotula, Production Coordinators/Ralph
Shirley, Julie Saylor, Susan Strobel.

Paragraph

THE AMERICAN ATHEIST MAGAZINE

Post Office Box 2117
Austin, Texas 78768
Enter my subscription for one yeai' at $1.5.00 (two years at $25.00).
NEW
Total Enclosed $,

RENEWAL

ON THE COVER
IV of the complaint filed in the U.S. Federal
District Court to remove the offensive phrase
"In God We Trust" from our currency.
The American Atheist magazine is
published monthly by American
Atheists, 2210 Hancock Drive,
Austin, Texas, 78756, a non-profit,
non-political, tax-exempt, educational organization. Mailing address:
P. O. Box 2117, Austin, Texas, 78768;
copyright C> 1977 by Society of
Separationists, Inc.; subscription rates:
$15.00 per year; $25.00 for two years.
Manuscripts: the editors assume no
responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts. All manuscripts must be
typed, double-spaced and accompanied
by a stamped, self-addressed envelope.

Name
Address
City, State, & Zip

If you are planning a change of address,

please notify AMERICAN ATHEIST, giving
both your old address and your new address,
as well as both your OLD AND NEW ZIP
CODES. This will enable us to process the
change more quickly and not interrupt your
subscription. Please allow six weeks for change
to become effective. If possible, please include
old label off of your magazine envelope.

THE NEWS
The staff of the American Atheists places a great deal of
time locating and publishing news events pertinent to Atheism.
This month, however, we had no difficulty in locating a lead
story. The major item in the news is the federal suit to strike
down Public Law 851, Chapter 795 (H. J. Res. 396). That law
was approved by the U.S. House and Senate on July 11, 1955.
That law stated:
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America
in Congress assembled, That at such times as new dies for the printing of
currency are adopted in connection
with the current program of the Treasury Department
to increase the capacity
of presses utilized by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing,
the dies shall bear, at such place or places thereon as the
Secretary of the Treasury may determine to be appropriate,
the inscription
"In God We Trust", and thereafter
this
inscription
shall appear on all United States currency and
coins."

THE FEATURES
We believe the quality of our feature section has been irnproved with the addition of Carl Shapiro and Richard Bozarth.
Carl Shapiro's
"Christians,
Jews and Persecutors"
is just a
beginning of what to expect from this prolific writer. Richard
Bozarth's
"Arguments
For Atheists"
should almost be read
twice and used as a study manual to be appreciated.

THE PEOPLE
The staff of American Atheists has increased and correspondingly
the efficiency of the American Atheist magazine
should increase. We have, for the first time, a full-time computer operator. Answers 'to questions concerning subscription
duration
or changes of address should be answered
more
promptly
than in the past. Still, the postal service is slow.
If at all possible, try to give us a change of address at least two
weeks before you move.

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

The Circulation
February of this year, the readers of the American
magazine have seen many changes in this publication
as well as in the organization
that publ ishes it. The most
dramatic change, however, is in the number of subscribers to
the American Atheist. During 1977, the circulation
of this
Since

Atheist

OCTOBER,

1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST

- 2

publication
has increased 47%. Still, the American Atheist
must increase its circulation
by another 60% before subscription dollars will match production
costs. We believe that by
the spring of 1978 we will have reached that goal and the
general membership
of American Atheists will no longer have
to support
this magazine
with their organization's
general
funds.
One of the major factors for the magazine's deficit is the
lack of commercial
advertising.
This also restricts the size of
the American Atheist. Except for one or two advertisements
once every issue or so, all the merchandise
offered in the
American Atheist are products offered by American Atheists
or American Atheist Press. The "profits"
from these books,
cassettes,
post cards or whatever,
go back to American
Atheist's general f~nd. By patronizing
American Atheists, by
buying their products, a reader is helping to defray the cost of
publication and reduce the burden of the deficit to them.
In purchasing products from American Atheists, the American A theist is benefited and the readers receive the most up-todate information
on Atheism and the materialistic
philosophy
that can be furnished.

Dear Editor:
Congratulations
to
New York's
finest for finally nailing "Son-of-Sam".
My heart goes out to the families
whose
loved ones were mercilessly
gunned down by this mad theist.
The April 10 letter to neighbor Sam
Carr clearly identifies the author as a
very irrational and intolerant
person
whose belief in "God"
was tightly
interwoven
with
belief
in curses,
hatred and vengefulness - all recurrent
Biblical themes.
In part it read, "You wicked, evil
man-child
of the devil. I curse you
and your family forever. I pray to God
that he takes your whole family off
the face of the earth. People like you
should not be allowed to live on this
planet."
The concept of killing innocents is
a well-worn theme of the Holy Bible.
In Exodus 11:5 the Lord decreed
(thru Moses) death for all first-born
(even of animals!).
Exodus 15:3-6
states that "The Lord is a man of
war" and has Moses singing the praises
of "Thy right hand, which dashed in
pieces the enemy."
In Numbers 17,
'God' ordered a man stoned to death
for gathering
a few sticks for his
Sabbath hearth.
Also in this collection of gory tales
of the supernatural,
'God' is credited
with killing 50,070 men for looking
at his statue in a box (1 Samuel 6:19),
and Uzzah for saving the box from
falling
(II Samuel 6:6), for killing
many of his own "chosen"
people, for
complaining
about
their starvation,
for ordering
the slaughter
of entire
communities,
man, woman, and child,
EXCEPT for virgin girls! (Numbers
31 :1-18), for killing 42 children for
teasing a bald man (II Kings 2:23), and
for planning eternal torment
for the
vast majority of Jesus' claims of being
a solter (entire New Testament).
Poor Berkowitz's
mental
circuits
may have been overloaded by reading
too many of the schizophrenic
scribblings
of
the
unknown
Biblical
authors. (I hear there has been no verification of the LSD story put out by
his fellow Christians.)
Several years ago a fellow teacher at
my school was having marriage problems and he asked another
theist

teacher to pray for him. A few weeks

later, during the Christmas vacation,
this Christian teacher put a .22 pistol
to his head, after first shooting
his
four daughters.
I attended the funeral,
and the five open coffins made a very
impressive testimonial
to the "power
of prayer."
We would
not
ban the "Holy
Bible", but perhaps we should make a
serious effort
to have it carry the
warning "Caution:
This reading material has been found to be hazardous to
mental health."
Bruce Hunter
Dallas, Texas
Dear Editor:
I am an 80-year-old man. A product
of the "Bible Belt" but I have never
affiliated
myself with any church or
religion. As a child, as all children,
I
pretended
to believe things that
I
didn't
understand.
As a young man
I still doubted the mythological
stories
told by the church but did not have
the courage to fight against such a
powerful traditional
belief. In my late
years I view this church "Christianity"
as being ridiculous, and not only ridiculoirs, but a curse to ignorant minds.
This Jehovah was the product
of
the Jewish
priesthood
and ancient
mythology
and came about like all
ancient mythological
gods.
Henry T. Suttle
Clinton, South Carolina
Dear Ed itor:
THEISM, WORLD ENEMY # 1
Most of the world's
major and
minor
problems
are the result of
theism (belief in gods).
As children we are taught numerous
myths, i.e. Santa Claus, Easter Bunny,
Tooth Fairy, numerous superstitions,
and finally the truth of the Bible,
Koran, etc.
As we acquire knowledge
we discard these harmless
(?) lies, or our
parents tell us the truth about all but
one; theism. As for theism, our parents
and whole society are so brain washed
from cradle to grave, they are not sure
what is true.
Fear,
inertia
and
intellectual
inability keep them in ignorance and
they perpetuate
the lie by active and

passive tolerance.
Theism
is behind the Israeli-Arab
situation,
the violence
in Ireland,
excessive
population,
poverty,
high
taxes, welfare and homosexuality
just
to name a few.
The primary
danger, however,
is
that theism is at the root of the East
versus West cold war. We are loosing
this war and have been for years;
as the communist
are free of theism
and can devote total effort to progress.
In the West we devote at least 25%
of our manpower
and resources
to
counter productive theism.
The free world has the intelligence
and resources to remain free, but only
if we renounce
the myth of theism
and adopt Atheism (free of theism) as
our national-international
policy.
Wilson R. Horne, Sr.
Jupiter, Florida
Dear Editor:
While I heartily support your position of separation of church and state,
I cannot join American Atheists as a
member because I consider the Atheist
position
no more 'logical'
than the
theist position.
As I have discussed
with Madalyn a number of times in
previous letters; an A-theist is someone
who believes there is no god. This
position
is clearly described
in the
American Atheist creed. The opposite
is the theist, who believes there is a
god. I respect anyone's right to believe
either
way. In my case, I am an
Agnostic - one who believes it cannot
be known whether or not there is a
god. Both the theist and the Atheist
positions require an act of faith, and
thus are both 'faiths'. In my opinion,
American Atheists would have been in
a much
stronger
position
had it
adopted
the Agnostic position.
Membership and support would, it seems to
me, be much wider, and antagonism
lessened, but thank goodness I am not
running the organization,
and thank
goodness Madalyn is! I wish her and
all concerned much success.
Ferne H. Norris
Grinnell, Iowa
Dear Ferne:
The following

is our definition
of
(Continued on page 32.)

OCTOBER, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST .: 3

ItftJ(~~ _N_Ew_s----"'litl1111Illllilil!.lllltlt11
Suit Filed
to Remove
nln God We Trust"
On September
1, 1977, Dr. Madalyn O'Hair,
President of American Atheists, filed a suit against
the Secretary of the Treasury and the Director of
Printing and Engraving to have the words "In God
We Trust" removed from lawful currency in the
United States. William J. Murray, Vice President,
and Jon G. Murray, Secretary/Treasurer
of American Atheists, joined her in a petition before a
Federal District Court in Austin, Texas. Hundreds,
and perhaps thousands, more Americans will more
than likely add their names to the petition in the
fight to remove the offensive phrase from all currency. The effort is now widespread and donations
to the legal fund of American Atheists increase
as it becomes apparent that more than one hundred thousand dollars will be needed to complete
the suit and win. Most members of American
Atheists contribute more because they are aware
that some of their own tax dollars will be used
by the federal government to' battle against them
in court.
Unlike the reports on this suit given by the
nation's newspapers, the American Atheists present
the full and unabridged petition to the Federal
District Court. The actual complaint, Civil Action
No. A77; CA166, filed in the United States District
Court for the Western District of Texas, read as
follows:
"COME NOW plaintiffs Madalyn Murray O'Hair,
Jon Murray and William J. Murray, complaining of
W. Michael Blumenthal,
the Secretary of the
Treasury and James A. Conlon, Director of Engraving and Printing, Defendants and for cause of
action would respectfully show the Court:
I
Jurisdiction of this Court is invoked pursuant to
28 USC, Section 133', as amended October 21,
1976, and Section 1346 (2). The rights sought to
be secured in this action are rights guaranteed by
the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, specifically the free speech, free exercise
and establishment clauses thereof.

"

Plaintiffs are citizens of the United States and

reside in the City of Austin, County of Travis,
State of Texas. Jurisdiction rests in this Court pursuant to 28 USC, Section 1402 (a) (1).
Defendants are the duly appointed and acting
Secretary of the Treasury and the duly appointed
and acting Director of the Mint. Service of process
may be had on Mr. W. Michael Blumenthal at the
Department
of the Treasury, 1500 Pennsylvania
Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C., 20220. Service
of process may be had on Mr. James A. Conlon,
Department of the Treasury Bureau of Engraving
and Printing, 14th and C Street, S.W., Washington,
D.C., 20228.

'"

This is a proceeding to have declared unconstitutional 31 USC, Sections 324 and 324(a) (1976),
which provide for the inscription of the religious
motto, "In God We Trust" on all United States
currency and coins, and for a permanent injunction
restraining Defendants
from imprinting the religious motto, "In God We Trust" upon the United
States currency and coin.
IV
Plaintiffs are forced to handle and display with
regularity, currency and coin which is imprinted by
Defendants with a religious motto, "In God We
Trust", with which Plaintiffs disagree. This inscription on the currency and coin compels Plaintiffs to
subscribe to and affirm a belief which is antithetical to Plaintiffs' most deeply held convictions and
represents an abridgment of their rights under the
free exercise clause and establishment clause of the
First Amendment. Plaintiffs must pay their financial obligations on a daily basis with United States
currency and coin. This compelled dissemination
of religious symbolism by Plaintiffs through their
regular and unavoidable handling of currency and
coin so imprinted deprives Plaintiffs of their right
to disaffirm Ithe motto in contravention
of the
First Amendment right to free speech.
V
Plaintiffs are denied any practical means of disaffirming the religious beliefs imprinted upon currency and coins. The criminal sanctions against removing the motto, which is the only practical way
of disaffirming the religious sentiments
printed
thereon, first denies Plaintiffs the right to disaffirm
these beliefs and further serves to effect an establishment of religion in contravention
of the First

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

OCTOBER, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 4

Amendment to the United States Constitution.

WHEREFORE, Plaintiffs respectfully pray that
31 USC, Sections 324 and 324(a) be declared unconstitutional and that an injunction issue restraining Defendants from printing or inscribing any
religious motto on the United States currency and
coin.
Plaintiffs also pray for the costs of this action
and for such attorney's fees and expenses as may
be "reasonable,pursuant to 28 USC, Section 2412."
As of press date, no response to this complaint
has been received from the defendants.

Atheist to Fight
Council's Prayers
By GABRIEL GLUCK
Metuchen-The Borough Council here is about to
become the first target of an Atheist's holy war.
The council opens its regular public meetings
with an invocation to god, as do other governing
bodies in the area, such as those in South Plainfield, New Providence, Mountainside and Green
Brook. As far as Paul Marsa is concerned, the invocations violate. the First Amendment separation of
church and state.
The Metuchen council is Marsa's first target
because he expects to move back into the borough
next month after having previously lived there for
eight years. He has spent the last year in Edison.
"The groundwork will be laid in Metuchen",
Marsa said recently. He would not discuss specifics on the approach he plans to use at the first
council meeting in October, but he said he will
formally request the governing body to stop holding invocations.
"To keep the church and state separate; this
is the only thing that I am after," said the 43-yearold owner of a gasstation and car wash. He said he
isn't the type of citizen who normally attends
council meetings. Invocations came to his attention
when he went to one meeting because a subject
of interest to him was on the agenda.
Born in Newark, Marsa's parents rwere Jewish
"and I always rejected it as highly irrational
thought," he said. He refused to go to Hebrew
School and believes he has always been an Atheist.
"It was only later, when I realized the power of
organized religion, that I became more active," he
said.
Marsa is appealing for support from all "free
thinkers, humanists and agnostics, who will understand what it is all about."
He said Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair, a national

leader of opponents of prayer in the schools, is

planning to file a lawsuit soon in an effort to restore "E Pluribus Unum" as the national motto
in place of "In God We Trust" and remove "one
nation under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance.
He hopes O'Hair's suit will cover the practice
of invocations as well. He said he has thought
about filing a lawsuit of his own, but added it is
too early to make a decision.
Marsa is incensed that local politicians have
told him privately that they agree with him, but
could not support him publicly.
So, in October, he will begin his battle with
the Metuchen council to see whether there is
any truth to the adage that "there are no Atheists
in foxholes."

Baptist Corp
Folds; Small
Investors Hurt
By OTIS WHITE
Lansing, Mich.-Gwendolyn
White is a tiny, energetic woman who lives with her son, Ed, in rural
Williamston.
Somewhere, tucked away in her old-fashioned,
two-story farmhouse, Mrs. White keeps an ornate,
blue and white document. She took out the legalsized paper-a $1,000 debenture, or corporate
bond, from the Michigan Baptist Homes Corp.and showed it to a visitor.
"I was looking forward to that thousand dollars," Mrs. White sighed. "We were going to use it
to paint the house."
Mrs. White's thousand dollars, and the thousands
and tens of thousands of dollars of more than 850
other Michigan small investors are tied up now in
federal bankruptcy court in Detroit.
Their investments were put in jeopardy earlier
this year when the Michigan Baptist Homes Corp.,
a church-affiliated, 14-year-old company that built
Christian retirement homes around the state,
went into receivership.
The story of how the quasi-rei igious corporation
got into receivership and how the American Baptist Churches of Michigan, the state's largest Baptist convention, got enmeshed in the world of high
finance-and lost its shirt-is one of the most puzzling to unfold in Michigan.
Part of the story is told in the federal bankruptcy court records.
According to the records, the corporation,
wh ich was created and totally owned by the state
Baptist convention, had attracted and still owned

OCTOBER, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 5

more than $6.6 million in generally small investments before it sought refuge under the federal
bankruptcy laws.
In its 14 years, the records show, the originally
Lansing-based corporation built, or bought and
rehabilitated, four senior citizens developments
in Detroit, Ann Arbor, St. Joseph and Grand
Rapids.
According to lawyers involved in the case,
most of the people who put their savings in the
corporation's bonds did so becauseof the Michigan
Baptist Homes Corp.'s direct ties with the Baptist
church.
"The fact is." said Joseph D. Hartwig, a St.
Joseph attorney who represents several debenture
holders, "the identification with the Baptist church
made all the difference in the world."
Many of those investors took it hard when the
company went into receivership, a move that
freezes the company's debts while trying to get the
businessback on its feet.
Some of the people, court records show, invested as much as $47,000 in the retirement home
corporation, only to see the interest payments
halted and their investments put in danger when it
went into receivership.
"1 was shocked," Mrs. White, one of the small
investors, remembered. "1 couldn't believe it."
The Michigan Baptist Corp. is actually only one
of two corporations created and totally owned
by the American Baptist Churches of Michigancorporations whose business practices have raised
seriousquestions recently.
The other Baptist company is the Michigan Baptist Foundation. Like the Michigan Baptist Homes,
it is in the retirement home business.
But where the homes. corporation owns four
developments in Michigan, the foundation's only
apparent interest is in a single retirement home
development in Florida.
Where the two are similar is in the magnitude
of their financial problems.
The Michigan Baptist Foundation, the Florida
corporation, is not in receivership, but by its own
admission in a statement circulated by the Baptist
convention in Lansing, the businesshas lost more
than $1.8 million during its brief existence.
Reporters from The State Journal in Lansing
and from The Fort Myers News-Press,a Gannet
newspaper in Florida, have been examining the
tangled public records of the two sister corporations and interviewing dozens of people connected
with the two companies during the past four
weeks.
What they uncovered includes the following:
- The Michigan Baptist Foundation, seeking
investors for its development in Lee County,
Florida, sent offers to sell investment certificates
to Michigan residents in January of more than

OCTOBER,

1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST

- 6

2,000 garden-type apartments.

But two months earlier, reporters have discovered, the state of Florida took actions against the
foundation's planned development that would
prevent it from building more than 999 apartments.
Nowhere in the offering did the foundation
mention the state's action, which could materially
affect the investments.
- The Michigan Baptist Homes Corp., the Michigan-basedcompany, by its own admissions in public records, used special "restricted" donations
in the amount of $242,787 for routine operating
expenses.
The Michigan attorney general's office, Asst.
Atty. Gen. Edwin M. Bladen said recently, will
investigate the use of the restricted gifts to see
if there is a violation of state law.
- The Michigan Baptist Homes Corp. failed to
tell a "substantial" number of investors about
its "deteriorating financial condition," when it
was selling them debentures, the federal Securities and Exchange Commission has charged in a
document filed in the federal bankruptcy court
in Detroit.
If the charges by the SEC, the agency that
polices corporations, are true, they may constitute a serious breach of federal securities law.
- The homes corporation ailowed at least one
of its high officials to live in its Detroit development without paying the fees the other residents
were required to pay, one of the attorneys in the
casesaid.
Joseph D. Hartwig said Michigan Baptist Homes
Corp. officials admitted in court testimony they
allowed a former president of the corporation,
Alton T. Curtis, to live in Whittier Towers in
downtown Detroit without paying fees that
ranged up to $80,000 for other residents.
- The Michigan Baptist Foundation's development in Florida, the Estero Woods Village, had its
tax-exempt status revoked recently.
The tax assessorthere said the Michigan Baptist
Foundation "isn't serving any charitable purpose,
they don't {take people off the streets, so they
should pay taxes."
Only last summer, the Michigan Baptist Homes
Corp. lost a legal battle in the Michigan Supreme
Court, where it wasbattling to keep its tax exempt
status in the state. The court, like the Florida tax
assessor,cited the homes' lack of charitable activities in denying the corporation's contention it
merited a tax exemption.
As a result, two Of the corporation's four
Michigan homes are now billed for property taxes
each year.
- A prominent Florida land appraiser said a
1974 evaluation he made of the Michigan Baptist
Foundation's Estero Woods Development was misrepresented by the foundation in a prospectus it

used to help sell $4 million worth of bonds.

- The accountant whose name appears on the
foundation's prospectus, Peter G. Bailey, is not a
registered certified public accountant in Florida,
even though the financial document lists him as a
CPA.
Bailey, the treasurer of the Michigan Baptist
Foundation, said he is a CPA in Connecticut.
A spokesman for the state board of accountancy
in Hartford, Conn., said Bailey had once been certified in that state, but his registration expired in
1972 - three years before his name appeared on
the foundation's prospectus.
The Michigan Baptist Foundation 'Isn't serving
any charitable purpose, they don't take people
off the streets, so they should pay taxes'
Florida tax assessor.
What the exact connection is between the Michigan Baptist Homes Corp. and the Florida-based
Michigan Baptist Foundation is not clear.
The two corporations shared, public records
show, some of the same board of directors
members at various times.
Both are owned 100 per cent by the Lansingbased American Baptist Churches of Michigan.
And as the financial troubles began in Michigan
with the homes corporation, some of the em-

Lucifer's Handbook
SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM
is the most widespread religious philosophy of the
20th century. But this philosophy assumes
a nontheistic universe. LUCIFER'S HANDBOOK is
a simplified explanation of why modern
intellectuals reject traditional religious concepts.

ployees here went south to work for the foundation, various sources have said.
But no money appears to have been exchanged
between the two legally separate and autonomous
sister corporations.
The corporations' effect, however, on their
parent corporation
the American Baptist
Churches of Michigan, which represents some
55,000 churchgoers in Michigan, is clear.
The state Baptist convention is deeply in debt,
its own financial statements reveal, because of
mortgages the convention co-signed with the
Michigan Baptist Homes Corp.
In all, the convention says it owes more than
$2.6 million in mortgages on the retirement homes.
In a newsletter dated May 13, the convention
said the financial institutions which loaned nearly
$2.2 million of those mortgages are asking for their
money back.
Over the past, reporters were unable after numerous attempts to make contact with high
Baptist convention officials to comment on the
two corporations' actions or the convention's
apparent financial plight.
The attorney who represents the Michigan
Baptist Homes Corp. in its receivership proceedings in Detroit said he is unfamiliar with much of
the past workings of the corporation and has only
scant knowledge of the foundation ..

After 20 years of research, an outstanding

college professor has compiled all of the arguments
for the existence of god th~t have been
proposed throughout the centuries. Thesearguments, and all of the objections to them,
have been condensed and simplified so that any
high school student can understand the entire
controversy in one evening.

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OCTOBER,1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST-7

What debenture holders, like Mrs. White, can

get out of the corporation, now that it is in receivership, is open to debate, interviews with
people close to the caseshow.
Another of the debenture holders is Gladys aids
Anderson, the 83-year-old daughter of R.E. aids,
the founder of Oldsmobile, and a matriarch of
Lansing society.
How many debentures Mrs. Anderson, a longtime Baptist, holds is not known. They are thought
to be substantial.
Quenda Story, a law professor at Cooley Law
School who specializes in teaching bankruptcy
matters, said it is not unusual for the unsecured
creditors - like the debenture holders - to lose
all or a good part of their investments in receivership cases.
And Joseph D. Hartwig, a lawyer who represents some of the St. Joseph creditors of the Michigan Baptist Homes Corp., said he's doubtful the
bond holders will get much back.
"If they get anything," Hartwig said recently,
"it will be miniscule."

Paris:

The French National Assembly voted

in July to increase the tax aid to parochial schools
begun in 1959. The new plan would increase social
benefits to paroch ial teachers and provide
parochial schools with tax aid for building programs. The vote came only a few days after the
July 5 publication of the Vatican document seeking tax aid for Catholic schools. The French
Communist Party voted with clerical interests for
the parochiaid measure.

Did Jesus Rise

Bodily? ost
Scholars Say No
By JOHN DART

Times Religion Writer

[John Dart is the Religious Editor of the Los

Angeles Times. When he started asking the question "Did Jesus Rise Bodily?" he did not ask any
Atheist scholars for their opinion. Still the answer,
as you will see, in his article below was a flat 'NO'.
-Ed.]
True"or false?

-Jesus did not regard himself as 'God' made

flesh and probably did not call himself the Messiah.
-Jesus did not rise bodily from the dead.
If you said "false," you are in step with popular
understanding of the New Testament but out of
step with the prevailing views of most prominent
biblical scholars.
This conclusion comes from interviews with U.S.
scholars who reflect the teaching at all but the
more conservative universities and theological
schools.
The interviews also revealed the width of an
enormous gap between contemporary New Testament studies and the assumptions of the general
public, even most churchgoers.
For instance, at the nine-school, Catholic and
Protestant
Graduate
Theological
Union
in
Berkeley, which has the largest theological faculty
in the world, New Testament professor Edward
Hobbs said he didn't know of one school there in
which a significant part of the faculty would accept statements that Jesus rose physically from the
dead or that Jesus was a divine being.
"Students come here in the first year, and many
of them are shocked and ask why they weren't
told," Hobbs said.
"The only answer is that many of the clergy
are afraid, so they keep quiet about the things they
learned in seminary," he said.
Hobbs was not the only scholar to blame the
knowledge gap on the timidity of the clergy.
Certainly such candor is rarely heard in the
churches and seldom expressed in the news media,
except to rebut the claims of supposedly radical
professors and affirm the more traditional understanding.
Such reactions were seen'this summer with the
publication in Great Britain of "The Myth of God
Incarnate," a collection of essays by seven British
theologians. They said Jesus was best understood
as "a man approved by God" (as he is described inActs 2:22) for a special role in the divine purpose.
The concept of Jesus as god in the way flesh "is
a mythological or poetic way of expressing his significance to us," wrote the Rev. John Hick, a
Birmingham University theology professor and
editor of the book.
Hick told a news conference that virtually
all scholars agreed that Jesus had not presented
himself as divine "although many church members
are not aware of th is."
Coauthor Maurice Wiles, recently the chairman
of the Church of England's doctrine commission,
said the Christian Church "has never succeeded in
offering a consistent or convincing picture" of
Jesus as both fully human and fully divine.
Both churchmen and press commentators reacted sharply in England, and five other scholars
rushed through a rebuttal book, "The Truth of

OCTOBER, 1917/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 9

(Did Jesus Rise Bodily? Most Scholars Say No)

God Incarnate." Both books will be put out soon

by American publishers.
The Chicago-based Christian Century magazine
said much of the outcry over the first book was
undoubtedly due to the gap between the world of
professional theologians and the world of church
leadersand their flocks.
"It is a measure of the continuing insularity of
British theology that the present controversy has
been delayed until 1977," the magazine editorialized.
However, the "insularity"
may not be typical
only of England. Some news articles in this
country have drawn heavily on conservative coun-

terviews and downplayed the "liberal" conclusions.

Time magazine characterized the first book as
typical of the attack "from the Christian left"
on the divinity of Jesus over the last century and a
half. The rebuttal book, says Time, draws together
a "blue-ribbon panel" and presents "well-framed
academic arguments."
'Maybe it's time we leveled with the public,'
one scholar said.

American scholar Robert Funk, now head of

Scholars Press and once executive secretary of
the Society for Biblical Literature, said the "Myth"
book sounded typically British.
Making the World Safe for Hypocrisy
"They don't get around to
things until after the fact but
they have a way of startling
people when they do," he said.
Funk said it is possible that
the seven theologians have inspired a new public debate.
"Maybe it's time we leveled with
the public", he added.
That's the message,too, from
Rudolf Augstein, editor of Germany's
Der Spiegel, whose
somewhat abrasive book, "Jesus,
Son of Man," was published
this year in English.
In an "afterword"
to the
book, the University of Michi-

Scholars a century

ago knew the

BOOK OF DANIEL is a forgery.
Do you know the evidence?
Send one dollar for booklet
detailing the proof.

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OCTOBER, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST -10

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gan's David Noel Freedman, current president of

the Society for Biblical Literature, said Augstein
"is determined to expose the hypocrisy of the
church; that is, the huge credibility gap between
what its best minds have known for decades and
what it nevertheless continues to teach and preach
to the masses."
Some Bible interpretations that might seem
radically new to nonspecialists are actually "old"
tones.
One example is the opinion of scholars that
Jesusdid not claim to be a supernatural Messiah.
"I think, and most think, it is problematical
that he claimed any such thing," said Van Harvey,
newly appointed Stanford professor of religious
studies.
.
Funk agreed, but said that at the same time
there are "a large number of New Testament
scholars who regard what Jesus thought about himself as unimportant."
What is more important, they say, is that Jesus'
early followers were so impressed by his life, teachings and martyrdom that they tried to preserve
that memory plus the reports/beliefs that god had
somehow raised him from death to an exalted
heavenly position.
Broadly assumed in New Testament research
today is that the gospels are not "biograph ies"
but narratives of Jesus' life, death and resurrection
es seen by writers whose accounts are colored by
their own perspectives.
It is primarily the gospel of John that has Jesus
asserting his divinity. But that gospel is widely
considered to be unreliable-compared to the gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke--as an aid to
understanding the "historical Jesus."
"There is a growing consensus that many of the
statements of Jesus are not to be regarded as
literal statements of what Jesus said, but highly
sophisticated restatements" in which the gospel
writers try to convey Jesus' meaning, according to
Leander Keck of Atlanta's Candler School of
Theology.
Modern biblical criticism assumes that "all the
stories were told in the service of worship and faith
and that everything has gone through that filter,"
Keck said.
As for the Bible stories of a resurrected Jesus
appearing to his disciples, some scholars refer to
them as "Easter visions" or "dramatic imagery
seen through the eyes of faith."
Even the most liberal theologians would not
deny that the first Christians believed there was a
resurrection, but a "spiritual" one rather than
a "physical" one.
The apostle Paul, whose letters to fledgling
churches are the oldest New Testament writings,
made that distinction himself in an epistle to the
Corinthians. "Paul himself says literally nothing
about the details of the resurrection," one scholar

said.
Accounts of an empty tomb and Jesus' appearances to the disciples after his death (and as a
blinding light to Paul) are contained in later New
Testament writings.
For centuries, churches have tried to smooth
over what seemed to be differences of emphasis,
belief and fact in the Bible to arrive at a non-conflicting picture.
But George MacRae, a Jesuit scholar at Harvard divinity school, said biblical scholarship today
attempts to come to grips with the diversity of
early Christianity.
Churches have tried to smooth over the biblical
differences.
"Luke and Acts seem to put forward the idea
that Jesus became son of god," MacRae said, "and
the epistle to the Hebrews believes Jesus was
eternally the son of god."
Contemporary biblical analyses, which include
a study of the history and literary styles of the
period, are used in some major conserv,ative Protestant seminaries such as Fuller Technological
Seminary in Pasadena and Gordon-Conwell Seminary near Boston.
"The professional biblical scholar spends his or
her time working with the Bible as an historical
collection of documents and is concerned with the
human authors of the text in the original setting,"
said David Scholer, associate professor of New
Testament and admissions director at GordonConwell.
Evangelical or conservative scholars often
ponder the same questions raised elsewhere in
research, such as whether th~ story of Jesus' glowing transfiguration in Mark is really a ressurection
story placed back into his lifetime.
Robert Stein of evangelical Bethel College dealt
with the issue in the Journal of Biblical Literature
and concluded that it was not a misplaced Resurrection story but a separate event.
Gordon-Conwell's Scholer said some conservative scholars take such questions very seriously
while usually coming up with conservative answers.
In conservative Protestantism, however, many
clergy and laymen object to the idea that such
"liberal" assumptions or theories should be considered at all.
Such objections contributed to a schism in the
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod two years ago
and inspired a hard-hitting book by retiring Christianity Today editor Harold Lindsell. Lindsell and
the Missouri Synod Lutheran leaders have insisted
that evangelicals must regard the Bible as providinq
an unerring, literal picture of Jesus.
Some segments of Protestantism and Catholicism are comfortable with a non literal reading of
the Bible. Myths, they say, may be nonhistorical

OCTOBER, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST -11

but may still convey a deep truth.

But how to convey that understanding, held
widely at the university and seminary level, to the
pews and to nonbelievers who have rejected
fu,!/ldamentalism?
The Rev. John Burke, P.O., executive director
of the Word of God Institute, a Catholic organization devoted partly to that task, said he did not
know of "any credible biblical scholar who would
hold for a bodily resurrection."
Yet Burke emphasized that complicated theories
about New Testament evidence could not be laid
out with pure detachment.
"You're not dealing here with Einstein's theory
of relativity. You're dealing with people's happiness. If somebody gets the wrong idea, it has
serious consequences for their lives," Burke said.
The Washington, D.C., priest claimed that at
least 79% of Roman Catholics never study religion
again after they complete childhood preparations
for their first Communion or after they finish
Catholic schools.
"They are functional illiterates when it comes to
the Bible. They have a mind of a child-they want
black-and-white answers," he said. "They become
very insecure when someone says it's not that
simple."
The Rev. Kenneth Watson, pastor of Hollywood
First United Methodist Church, admitted that he
would describe the working assumptions of contemporary Bible research only with "a select group
of people who want to theologize" over a period
of time.
"I would never take advantage of people on a
Sunday morning when there would be no chance
to talk it over," he said.
Another pastor, the Rev. John Townsend of
Los Angeles' First Baptist Church, conceded that
clergy often avoid such topics.
"But most people in a church are asking for
something else-'How can you help me to face
life?' or 'How can I help?'" Townsend said. Most
clergy want to help people where they are and not
tell them "things they don't want to know," he
said.
Church members themselves are not necessarily
at fault, Townsend said.

Evangelical Protestantism has tended to place

more emphasis on spiritual transformation and
less on intellectual understanding. And churches
that concentrate on community service and social
action tend to consider Bible interpretation questions irrelevant and time-consuming.
Theologian Robert McAfee Brown of Union
Theological Seminary, New York, recently urged
the churches not to concern themselves with questions from the nonbeliever but with those from the
poor and downtrodden.
"For them the problem is not so much 'How
can I believe in god in the world of modern
science?' but 'How can I believe in god when my
children are starving or my family is being tortured
or the system under which I live doesn't care
whether I live or die?' " Brown said.
Nevertheless, most biblical scholars think it is
important to update public conceptions of the
Bible.
"I'm concerned," said M. Jack Suggs, dean of
Texas Christian University's Brite divinity school,
"whether Christianity can remain a viable option
for those who have not been taught to be reflective about the meaning of their religious symbols.
"I think everybody is having trouble articulating
faith today; it's easy to fall back to what amounts
to jargon," Suggssaid.
"If someone says Jesus didn't think he was god
incarnate, the average person shivers," he said.
"Of course it has consequences."
But the gap will only grow larger if attempts are
made to keep it camouflaged, Suggs indicated,
because of the information explosion in religious
studies along with other fields.
Howard Kee, principal coauthor of "Understanding the New Testament," the most widely
used introductory
textbook in universities and
divinity schools, said modern research is not destructive to Christian faith.
"Far from whittling down the faith, it gives an
extra dimension to understanding," asserted Kee,
now on the faculty at Boston University's school
of theology.
"I think the churches have shortchanged themselves to not allow laymen to seethe tradition as a
living one of adaptation rather than one in which it
(Continued on page 21.)

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OCTOBER, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 12

SECULAR SENTRY
earl shapiro
Christians, Jews, And Persecutors
We are very often reminded of the centuries-long
persecution of the Jews. That is an undeniably true
and terrible story, indeed, and one which must be
deplored by all decent folk.
Nevertheless, contrary to the piously romantic
delusions of Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem
Begin, and others, let me say that there is nothing
"holy,"
nothing "eternal," and nothing especially
"chosen" about the Jewish people. They are no
better and certainly
no worse than any other
people. The only thing different about the Jews,
historically and collectively, is that they have been,
unfortunately, the longest persecuted of any ethnic
groups. *
Yet in realizing that the Jews do not in any
anthropological way differ from Christians, etc.,
it is not too presumptuous to say that if Judaism
had been the dominant religion of Europe for the
past two thousand years we might have experienced the Jewish Crusades and Hebrew Inquisition, rather than the Christian.
The truth is, that power, in whatever hands it
may be, seeks to gain more power. It is vicious,
greedy, knows no morality (except what it defines
as "moral itv"), and wi II resort to any means to
preserve its authority.
During the long, brutal
nightmare known as the Dark and Middle Ages,
Christianity had the power, and so the Jews were
high on the list of infidels and enemies. It could
just as well have been the reverse.
All right, you may say, but the fact does remain
that it was the Jews, not the Christians, who were
persecuted mercilessly. Still, does that require us
to forget the Biblical account, believed by many
millions, of how the ancient Israelites, under god's
command,
violently
conquered
a land which
flowed, not with "milk and honey," but with the
blood and entrails of its previous inhabitants?
But that detestable folly was completely justified:
god was the Supreme General. Actually, historically speaking, such aggression has been duplicated
by others in different parts of the globe.
At any rate, let us take our beloved Pilgrims,
or more correctly, the Puritans, who came to the
New World in order to escape religious persecution in the Old, and to whose cherished memory
every November an annual butchery devastates
the turkey population. Now what do you think
these wonderful Puritans did after they got rooted
here and began worshipping their god in peace?

Well, they soon established a little theocratic

empire in New England and, 10 and behold,
commenced their own cruel persecution against
all those who defied, among other things, the Sabbath work-ban; that is - they got after those who
felt that laughter and frolic on Sunday were infinitely more natural and human than solemnity,
endless praying, and listening to a pulpit moron
ranting about how everybody, excepting sex and
pleasure-haters, will go to hell. Indeed, we have
heard it said that it would have been far better if
Plymouth Rock had landed on the Pilgrims!
What, we now ask, is the significance of all this
perpetual herd-thinking and insanity? Aside even
from
the religious
implications
which
weigh
heavily in many instances of persecution, we
observe the one malignant defect in human nature,
summed up by the inimitable H. L. Mencken: "It
must be confessed that man's inhumanity to man
is almost intolerably
distressing. Unfortunately,
no workable cure for it has ever been discovered.
It seems to be inevitable for all men, after they
are put in position of authority, to exercise it in a
brutal and inequitable
manner. There is little
choice here between one man and another, but if
any difference can be demonstrated it probably
stands to the credit of what are generally regarded
as immoral men. The moral bully is the worst of
~n

[*Editor's
note: Atheists have been the longest
persecuted of any other ethnic group.]

Carl Shapiro, who begins his monthly column with

this issue, is a New Jersey writer, publisher and
composer-member of A SCAP. He attended Montclair State College and Seton Hall University but
found many of their courses "filled with bunk and
balderdash. n In 1963, at age 25, he formed a
friendship with Joseph Lewis, late president of the
Freethinkers of America, and soon experienced
the light of Atheism. He has written freethought
and historical articles, and articles on music for
such newspapers and periodicals as The New York
Times, Jersey Journal, Hi-Rise-Living, Libertarian
Review, Entertainment Eye, and The Age of Reason. He has lectured at schools and colleges, made
television and radio appearances, and has been
written about by AP and UPI wire services.
OCTOBER, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 13

____

Arguments for Atheists __

-,

By G. Richard Bozarth

The Second Coming

The very heart of Christianity is the Second
Coming. It is no secret that Christians are once
again convinced the end is nigh. Armed with wild
scriptural interpetations, such as are found in The
Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey, the Christian debater seeks to scare his intended victim by
convincing him that the book of Revelation is at
this moment being fulfilled.
I reply:
Every century since Christ, the glorious Second
Coming has been prophesied and every century has
seenthe world go on. Who first failed to correctly
prophesy the Second Coming? It was Jesushimself.
Did he not promise once "there are some of those
standing here who will not taste death before
they have seen the Son of Man coming in his kingdom" (Matthew 16:28)? He lied. They are all dead.
Everyone who ever stood before him has tasted
death. Another time, did not Jesus again promise
his listeners that "the present generation will live
to see it all. Heaven and earth will passaway; my
words wi II never passaway" (Mark 14:30-31, Luke
21:32-33)? That "present" generation lived out
their lives seeing nothing of all that is fabled to
take place when the Second Coming comes.
The first Christians had no better success at
calling the Second Coming. Paul reassured the
Romans that "it is time for you to wake out of
sleep, for deliverance is nearer to us now than it
was when first we believed. It is far on in the
night; day is near" (Romans 13:11-12). Paul was
wrong, unless 1970 years and still counting is to
be considered a proper waiting period for something that is near.
James told "the Twelve Tribes dispersed
throughout the world" that "You too must be
patient and stouthearted, for the coming of the
, Lord is near" (James 5:8). All those patient stouthearts are dead. Everyone of them tragically.
Peter warned those he preached to that "the
end of all things is upon us, so you must lead an
ordered and sober life, given to prayer" (1 Peter
4:7). Peter was wrong. No matter how exemplary
his listeners lived, no matter how devout and
numerous their prayers, the end did not come.
John declared dramatically to his followers, "My
children, this is the last hour! You were told that
Antichrist was to come, and now many antichrists

OCTOBER, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 14

have appeared; which proves to us that this is indeed the last hour" (1 John 2:18). Indeed, a 1900
years long hour! Now that would be a wonder if
only it were true. But, no, John was wrong.
Foolishness is demeaning and the foolishness of
religion demeansworst of all. This is why I am an
Atheist. No human can escape being foolish in
someway, but it is easy enough to escape being
religiously foolish. One need only put "holy truth"
to the same hard test every scientific truth must
survive to become a truth.

The Crucifixion
Christians quote John 3:16 more often, I think,
than any other verse. They try to overawe the
skeptical mind with the spectacle of a god sacrificing himself to himself to give humans an opportunity for eternal happiness.They try to shame
us for being so ungrateful for what they consider
to be the supreme act of love.
I reply:
I grant that in the history of Western civilization, there are few moments asdramatic in historical consequencesasthe execution of this particular
man, whom Jewish and. Roman authorities had
considered to be a pest, best exterminated before
he caused much more trouble. Aside from historical impact, what does the crucifixion of Jesus
mean to an Atheist?
It goes deeper than the surface fact that the
blood that trickled from Jesus' wounds became
a gory flood of hate and violence and death; that
in that roaring crimson tide the very ugliest aspects
of human nature arose (and still rise up) and found
savageexpression. Christianity has been one of the
most vicious and violent reiigions in all history,
being, as it is, half-mad with a very Jewish intolerance. It has carried this intolerance and violence
with it everywhere it has gone. Th is alone is
enough to turn one towards the cleannessof Atheism, but there is a more significant aspect of
the crucifixion to render its symbolism abhorrant.
Consider the burden of guilt this heaps upon
those who believe! Christianity thrives on this
guilt, surviving because the burden keeps Christians on their knees, it is so heavy. How dare anyone lift their head with self-esteem when, but for
the blood of god, slaughtered to purchase forgiveness from god, we would be in hopelessthraldom

to sin? Imagine how naturally evil we humans must

be if god has to kill part of himself before even he
will saveus?
This is the real meaning of Jesus' death. It lays
upon the weak and meek and humble who are the
most susceptible to a sense of sin. Rather than
admit they are lowly becausethey lack the personal characteristics to raise themselves up, they
blame their lowness on the inherited vileness of
sin and imagine that their lowness is god's punishment for that sin. Then they delight in a perverted
sense of pride by imagining themselves worth a
god's death.
There, too, is another secret of Christianity:
the chains of sin to bind the weak and the narcotic
of distorted pride to make the chains bearable.
No wonder Christianity has been and is such a
vicious, murderous religion! Humans can only be
good by believing they are good. Christianity
teachesexactly the opposite.
The crucifixion inspires me not to worship, but
to Atheism. In Atheism I can enjoy my pride
cleanly, building it upon my talents and accomplishments. In other words, earning my pride.
In Atheism I need only feel guilty when I've actually done bad. In other words, earning my guilt.
In Atheism I can be as free as I am strong enough
to be. In other words, earning my freedom.

The End
"Scientifically" Proven
The crucifixion led to the resurrection, which is
supposedto eventually lead to the Second Coming.
The 20th Century is the most scientific of all the
centuries humans have been civilized. So, it is not
surprising that the Second Coming scheduled for
1988 (according to Hal Lindsey) should have
"scientific" verification.
Scientists are human and as humans are asprone
to religious delusions as any human. Remember,
Gregor Mendel was a monk, Nicolaus Copernicus
was a Catholic clergyman once recommended for a
bishopric, and Isaac Newton wrote more works on
his theology than his revolutionary physics.
So, it is not surprising that in the ranks of the
believers eagerly waiting for Jesus to come again
there are scientists who allow their reason to be

distorted by their religion. These scientists give to

the Christians we must debate with, "scientific"
weapons to batter our Atheism with. The two
forms of this I've come up against are the present
world food shortage and the so-called Jupiter
Effect, when the planets are supposedto be in such
an alignment that the earth will be ripped up by
earthquakes in 1982, or thereabouts, thus fulfilling Jesus' promise "There will be signs in the
sun and moon and stars" (Luke 22:25).
I reply:
The world food problem is indeed a problem,
but hardly is it a sign of the end of the world. Such
gloom is unjustified. A little rational, more truly
scientific thought ought to be considered. For instance, in the September 1976 issue of Scientific
American there are these observations on the world
food problem:
The world food situation is serious, even precarious. It is also true that the world may have,
for the first time in history, the ability to deal
effectively with the interacting problems of food
production,
rapid population growth and
poverty.
"Food and Agriculture" by Sterling Wortman,
page31.
Considering only such natural factors, one
can say that with the present baseof arable land,
with a largely vegetarian. diet based on yields
that could be achieved with present knowledge
and with a substantial amount of energy and
human effort the world could support a human population of 50 billion or more.
"Agricultural Systems" by Robert S. Loomis,
page 105.
As one considers the tropical farming world
and the technology now available or soon to be
available, there can be no grounds for pessimism
about the latent potential of the world to feed
increasing numbers of people for a long period
ahead.
"The Development of Agriculture in Developing Countries" by W. David Hopper, page 203.
It is important to recognize that the world's
food problem does not arise from any physical
limitation on potential output or any danger of
unduly stressing the "environment". The limitations on abundance are to be found in the social
and political structures of nations and in the
economic relations among them.
Ibid, page205.
When great social pressures bear upon civiliza-

OCTOBER, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST -15

tion, civilization and the institutions of humans

that perpetuate civil ization always bend to that
pressure. That is why royality in Europe no longer
controls Europe. That is why in the West religion
no longer has even a tenth of the pol itical power it
once exercised with gory, murderous viciousness.
The billions on this planet can be fed; the technology to feed them already exists; their will to
be fed is one of the greatest pressures on civilization today. Does anyone think civilization won't
bend? No student of history would think that.
A Christian endeavoring to convert me told me,
"Scientists believe that something catatrophic will
hit our planet within the next few years." He told
me that, after telling me Jesus would be coming in
the next few years, making what he thought was a
subtle connection. I demanded to know what "scientists"? I read Scientific American and those
scientists aren't warning their readers of doom.
Such frightening forecasts don't appear in the
Encyclopedia Britannica Yearbook of Science and
the Future. If this is a general concenus of scientists, why has Time, which I've subscribed to for
three years, failed to report it? If this is not satisfactory, I can now add th is fact from the March
1977 issueof the Smithsonian:
Californians may take comfort from a report in
Nature (Vol. 265, No. 5589). A critic of the
Jupiter Effect theory points out that the "superconjunction" of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and
Neptune has occurred every 179 years, more or
less. The critic, W. H. lp of the University of
California at San Diego, looked back through
the record of earthquake activity in northern
China. He found that high levels of earthquake
activity just don't match the periods of superconjunction.
"Phenomena, Comment, and Notes" by James
K. Page,page 28.
Perhaps, taking the less foolish, calmer, Atheist
second look, the heart of such dire doomsaying can
be revealed by recalling a similar sort of end-of-theworldism that took place in the 16th Century:
Some astrologers predicted a second Deluge for
February 11, 1524, when Jupiter and Saturn
would join in Pisces; thereupon Toulouse built
an ark of refuge, and cautious families stored
food on mountaintops.
The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel
Durant, Vol. VI, "The Reformation", page 855.
Needless to say, the Deluge failed to take place.
Christianity has filled the Western civilization with
a longing for the destruction of the world. It is one
of the most evil influences of Christianity, for it
spreads the disease of pessimism. Infected persons
succumb to the disease, and see everywhere evidence the longed for destruction is nigh. Occasionally, members of prestigious professsions (astrologers in the 16th Century; scientists in the 20th)
squirm with the illness and lend it the honor of

OCTOBER, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST -16

their profession. Other infected mortals, who have

been taught to esteem the pronouncements of such
professions without examination, readily accept
their authority, for it excites their own longing for
the end. I lump the "scientists" of the Jupiter
Effect and the great famine where they belong-on
the same heap of fools the astrologers of Toulouse
litter!
Here again is the value of Atheism. It involves
one in the least amount of foolishness. It frees one
from the Christian disease of end-of-the-worldism.
The Atheist can more rationally evaluate the
hysterics of the doomsayers, even the doomsayers
who try to overawe the skeptic with his alphabet
monkey tail attached to his name. The diseased
scientists rants, "You must believe me! I'm a Scientist!" The Atheist calmly replies, "A fool by any
other name is just as ridiculous."

God's Morality
Christians are always bubbling about how much
god loves us. After all, John 3:16. And look at the
nifty heaven he has prepared for all of us who are
good Christians. However, he also prepared a hell,
which was hardly an act of loving kindness. To
escape the charge that hell proves god might not be
so in love with us as John claims, the argument is
given with the reasonable assertion that god has
a right to uphold the moral law of the universe and
punish sin, but nevertheless he doesn't condemn
anybody.
I reply:
For the moment, let's assume god exists. I
would then think that as an'administrator of moral
law, god would be superior to any human; that god
would be more moral than any magistrate that any
human civilization could raise up out of its ranks.
In fact, this is not so. I have read the Bible, so t
really must disagree that god is moral and does not
condemn anybody.
Take the case of Onan, recorded in Genesis
38:6-11. After god killed off his brother for offending him, Onan was required by levirate custom
to marry his brother's widow and sire children for
his brother. Note this passage:
Then Judah said to Onan, "Take your brother's
wife, and do your duty as her brother-in-law, to
produce a child for your brother." (Genesis
38:8)
It was Onan's father, not god, who commanded
this. God did not lay down the levirate law until
centuries later when he had Moses record it in
Deuteronomy 25:5-10. So Onan, who evidently
had no particular love for his brother, enjoyed
Tamar without giving a child to dead Er. He was
not breaking god's laws, for the law had yet to be
given to the Jews by god. Yet "what he did was of-

fensive to Yahweh, so he brought about his death

also." (Genesis 38: 10)
God does not condemn anyone? Here are two
examples of god condemning and executing someone. Does what god did to Onan constitute a moral
action superior to any a human could hope to perform? Imagine a judge who could peer into the
22nd Century and see the laws in the future, then
condemn a person today to death for violating
a 22nd Century law. Could anything be more outrageously immoral? In fact, the levirate law of
Deuteronomy smells like god is trying to justify
his murder of Onan after the fact.
God isn't even consistent! In Genesis 19:30-38
we read that Lot's two daughters committed with
Lot a crime that carries a death sentence. in
Leviticus. These wenches got Lot drunk, then
enjoyed incestuous sexual relations with him. Not
only did god not punish this worse crime, but the
sons Lot sired with his daughters flourished and
their descendants became entire nations, the
Moabites and Ammonites.
Even more immoral is god's treatment of Job.
Job committed no crime at all! Did not god boast
to Satan, "Did you notice my servant Job? There is
no one like him on the earth: a sound and honest
man who fears God and shuns evil." (Job 1:8)
When Satan suggested to the upholder of the
moral law of the universe that he might be wrong,
what did god do to the most holy man on earth,
his best, most devoted servant? "'Very
well,'
Yahweh said to Satan, 'all he has is in your
power.' " (Job 1: 12)
Satan, in those days, god's hitman (hitangel?),
loyally obeyed his savage master. The bloodshed
resulting is incredible, a real tribute to a just god
who so loves the world. All of Job's servants murdered. All of his sons and daughters murdered.
Job stricken with a hideous disease. All because
of a petty argument.
How moral can one get? What an admirable precept of administrating moral laws. This atrocity
was not atoned for simply because after torturing
the most holy man on earth, god "restored Job's
fortunes." (Job 42:10) Even god knew he was
acting criminally, for he said to Satan, "You incited me to ruin him without a cause." (Job
2:3)
Without a cause! Morality was certainly well
served! "Patient" Job knew he was being treated
immorally and by whom. "My lament is still
rebellious, that heavy hand of his drags groans
from me. If only I knew how to reach him, or how
to travel to his dwelling! I should set out my case
to him, my mouth would not want for arguments."
(Job 23: 1-4)
Now, if it is true that god doesn't condemn
anybody, why did Job, whom god himself praised
as the best of all men, have to at last call god "the
living god who denies me justice?" (Job 27:2)

It seems a rather perilous adventure serving the

Christian god. He may kill you for violating laws
that he doesn't reveal to humans until centuries
later. Or to win a silly argument, he may send an
angel to torture you unmercifully. Scant wonder
when this god decided to save mankind, all he
could think of was a bloody human sacrifice. And
worse still, the human being was his son. What an
immoral savage!
If this god is real, an insane, murderous savageis
at the helm of the universe. And if he has moral
laws, he disregards them with bloodthirsty abandon. His own holy book convicts him of immorality as surely as The GULAG Archipelago convicts
Stalin.
But this god doesn't exist, so I can feel reasonably optimistic about the destiny of the universe
and human life.

The Religious
Revival
Another argument used is a sort of jump-on-theband-wagon approach. Currently in the Seventies
religion has been on the upswing. This revival is
often used as a "proof" that Christianity is the
true religion. After all, if it wasn't, why would so
many be returning to it?
I reply:
This revival has more than a Christian manifestation. Certainly attendance isup in the traditional
churches and there are those crying "One way!"
with their index fingers stabbing the skies. But,
there are also those filling the ranks of Moonism,
that curious oriental version of Christianity. The
purely oriental religions are enjoying success in
America. One example is the Nicheren Shoshu;
which began here in 1960 with 300 Japanese war
brides. By 1972 they had grown to 300,000 and
the sect was then increasing by 60,000 a year.
(Newsweek, June 5, 1972)
Exactly how impressed am I supposed to be?
Understanding that religion is a need as real as
hunger and that in most humans the need is an
actual weakness that enslaves them to religion no
matter how ridiculous their particular religion is,
revivals seem to be necessary occurrences. Knowing
history, I'm even less impressed by this current
revival.
For instance, from 1730 to 1745 there occurred
in America a similar religious revival called the
Great Awakening. Jonathan Edwards, a Puritan
minister of that time, commented on this in a
letter he wrote in 1743 to the Reverend Thomas
Prince. At first, god and Jesus were triumphant, or
so it seemed.

OCTOBER, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST-17

'I

, Ever since the .great work of god was wrought

here about nine years ago, there has been a great
abiding alteration in this town in many respects.
There has been a very great alteration among the
youth of the town with respect to reveling,
frolicking, profane and unclean conversation,
and lewd songs.
The Annals of America, Vol. " page 458.
The normal outlets of youthful energy were
restricted to the churches, and the result is predictable.
Many of the young people and children that
were professors appeared to be overcome with
a sense of the greatness and glory of divine
things, and with admiration, love, joy and praise,
and compassion to others that looked upon
themselves as in a state of nature. And many
others at the same time were overcome with
distress about their sinful and miserable state
and condition; so that the whole room was full
of nothing but outcries, faintings, and suchlike.
Ibid, page 459.
However, such periods of religious need gone
wild seldom last long or have any real permanent
effect. Victory in America has snatched from god,
as it so often in history, repeatedly and repeatedly.
In the beginning of the summer of 1742, there
seemed to be some abatement: of the liveliness
of people's affections in religion; but yet many
were often in great height of them. But in
general, people's engagednessin religion and the
liveliness of their affections have been on the
decline; and some of the young people, especially, have shamefully lost their liveliness and
vigor in religion, and much of the seriousness
and solemnity of their spirits.
Ibid, page 461.
Knowing the rise and fall of the Great Awakening of the same fate of numerous other revivals
that are one of the cycles of history, I'm not impressed by today's "one way" shouters or "Nammyoho-rengekyo" chanters. These revivals prove
nothing but the existence of a religious need. These
revivals are a form of catharis for the religionists.
It seemsthat every so many years, or decades, they
must experience a phase of religious euphoria. It
doesn't mean much. It doesn't improve the individuals in general, nor the societies it happens
in. It creates a lot of shouting and activity and
news and madness; in other words, much ado
about nothing.

Christians Who
Divorce Religion
A certain

OCTOBER,

minority

1977/AMERICAN

of Christians try to slip

ATHEIST

- 18

around the ugly history that damns religion byarguing, as one Christian wrote to me, "Christianity
and religion are at opposite poles." Right away,
this is laughable, because opposite religion is
Atheism and I don't seeany Christians anywhere in
the neighborhood with us. However, for an Atheist
whose grasp on what religion is, is as weak as the
Christians who attempt th is impossible divorce,
the argument may be difficult to rebutt. Not so.
I reply:
Amazing! Christianity is not religion! I really
doubt that such a definition will ever be accepted
by the majority of humanity. Consider this:
To know god, and to render him a reasonable'
service are the two principal objects of religion.
"Religion, or Theology", Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th Edition (1976), Macropedia, Vol.
15, page 592.
Does any variety of Christianity avoid being
a religion by this definition? Can any Christian
persuade me, or anybody, this definition of a
religious person does not describe him or her? The
answer is decisively no.
Christianity is permanently wedded to religion
and cannot escape custody of their misanthropic
offspring, Christianity's ugly history. All religion
is is a belief in some sort of supernatural presence
humans owe obedience to and the guiding of one's
life by a theology founded on that belief. Any
species of Christianity is very much a religion and
no Christian will be able to escapethat unalterable
fact by any amount of agile intellectual gymnastics.
~

As can be seen, my weapons were not easily

acquired. It took me at least five years of study
and thought to become so armed. Religionism
is a theology, needing only faith to sustain it and
faith requires only ignorant superstition to fuel
it. Atheism is a philosophy, which means it must
be sustained by reason, and reason requires the fuel
of enlightened education. My best advice to the
Atheists in the closet is to get out of their closets
end-into their libraries.
"We Are Atheists' Because"

is a 3W' x 5" card printed on both sides. One side

lists the reasoning behind Atheist philosophy. The
reverse side lists what A theism teaches. These cards
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Order from:
AMERICAN ATHEIST PRESS
P. O. Box 2117, Austin, Texas 78768

.1

SPEAKING forWOMEN
annegaylor
Breathing Is Not Living
I never knew Jennie Turner, a feminist who died
in June of 1967 in Middleton, Wisconsin, at age
82, but as the then-new editor of the Middleton
weekly paper, I had a chance to get to know about
her when her husband, Glenn, brought in her "last
letter." Glenn Turner, a lawyer, a politician and a
member of the Society of Separationists, was
active in the world peace movement and vigorously
promoted Esperanto, an international language,
until his death in the early 70's.
Jennie's letter, written for her family and friends
a few days before her death, told about her love
for the wildflowers around her home, her early
work for women's right to vote, her later efforts
in her middle years to ally labor with education,
and her work for world peace.
The most poignant paragraphs in her letter, however, were those that spoke of her illness and impending death.
"It is June 15, 1967," she wrote, "and I am
sitting by an east window, gasping for breath and
wishing, but with little hope, that each breath
would be my last ... writing, trying to forget the
old pain on my right side and now the new pain on
the left side where the doctors sliced off a bit of
skin for the laboratory tests ... the burned-out
emptiness of my whole left center and side since
they found the cancer by means of a week of unbelieveable tests, and attacked it with a month of
morning radio-therapy treatments in which I would
lie one morning on my back for five minutes, and
one morning on my stomach for five minutes,
while the rays burned in (without any feeling on
my part except that the laboratory was too cold).
"The whole thing hasn't done any good, and so
I still sit and wait and try to get up enough
strength to write ... simply because no one can
write it except me, because nobody else has had
exactly my experience, and I want to get this
down before I die ...
"I wish I could write notes to all the people I
love. I close this (my last letter) instead.
"I am still not finished. I wanted to write a
few paragraphs on the matter of health. We have
gone off in science on spectaculars like visiting
the moon when there are so many problems

neglected at our door. Even of these we have

picked the spectaculars, putting people in iron
lungs ... who on earth would want to live in an
iron lung? It's almost as bad as living imprisoned
under a rock in a cave.
"I want to live free, not enslaved physically or
men tally. Just mere breathing does not appeal to
me as living. I am trying so hard to stop this
breathing. It is horrible to struggle for breath.
I have stopped eating, but how long will it take
to starve to death? If doctors and nurses would try
shutting off their breath, they would know what
suffering really is, and they would realize the importance of a pill at this end of life-a pill that
would enable a human being to die in dignity,
clean, whole, comfortable, at an expected time."
It took another ten days for Jennie to starve to
death, interminable days and nights of struggling
for breath.
You know, we wouldn't do it to a dog. If a pet
had an incurable, terminal ailment, we would not
let it suffer and strain to breathe. We would not
let it die by painful inches. We would mercifully
put it to sleep with anesthetic:
But people-we do not regard human beings so
highly.
Most of us have had to watch in silent and helpless anguish as someone we loved died by degrees,
when hope for recovery was totally lacking. Those
of us who are free from religion share Jennie
Turner's conviction that this is wrong, that people
should be allowed to die as easily as possible, on
their own terms.
The pill that Jennie Turner longed for- "a pill
that would enable a human being to die in dignity,
clean, whole, comfortable, at an expected time"
-is available, but who will prescribe it? Shots to
end a life that has become only breathing, not
living, are available, but who will administer them?
The religious idea of maintaining human life at
all costs prevails, even over the wishes of the
human being who must endure the suffering.
Granted there are people who would want to
live at all costs, who would want to prolong their
lives no matter what. And they should have that
(Continued on page 32.)

OCTOBER, 1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST -19

From Joseph Lewis'

INGERSOLL THE MAGNIFICENT
When I became convinced that the Universal is
natural - that all the ghosts and gods are myths,
there entered into my brain, into my soul, into
every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the
joy of freedom. The walls of my prision crumbled
and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light and all
the locks, bolts, and bars, and manacles became
dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf or a slave.
There was for me no master in all the wide wide
world - not even in infinite space. I was free free to think, to express my thoughts - free to live
to my own ideal - free to live for myself and
those I loved - free to use all my faculties, all my
senses - free to spread imagination's wings - free
to reject all ignorant and barbarous legends of the
past - free from popes and priests - free from all
the "called" and "set apart" - free from sanctified
mistakes and holy lies - free from the fear of
eternal pain - free from the winged monsters of
the night - free from devils, ghosts and gods.
For the first time I was free. There was no
prohibited places in all the realms of thought - no
air, no space, where fancy could not spread her
painted wings - no chains for my limbs - no
lashes for my back - no fires for my flesh - no
master's frown or cring, or crawl, or utter lying
words. I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly,
joyously faced all worlds.
And then my heart was filled with gratitude,
with thankfulness, and went on in love to all the
heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the
liberty of hand and brain - for the freedom of
labor and thought - to those who fell on the
fields of war, to those who died in dungeons bound
with chains - to those who proudly mounted
scaffold's stairs - to those whose bones were
crushed, whose flesh was scarred and torn - to
those by fire consumed - all the wise, the good,
the brave of every land, whose thoughts and deeds
have given freedom to the sons of men. And then I
vowed to grasp the torch that they had held, and
hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still.

Robert Green Ingersoll,

(1833-1899) was a D.S.lawyer, political leader,
orator and lecturer. But, more than any other thing
- he was an Atheist.

(See advertisement, page 21.)

OCTOBER, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 20

Religion Is A
Gigantic Fraud
By JAMES HERVEY JOHNSON
Intelligent men do not decide any subject until they
have carefully examined both, or all, sides of it. Dummies,
cowards and those too lazy to think, accept blindly, without examination, religious dogmas and doctrines imposed
upon them in childhood, before they are capable of reasoning, by their priests, teachers and parents.
By hypnotic methods, by imposing fear of a god or
devil, beliefs contrary to science, common sense are implanted into the subconscious minds of the children, and
then by massive propaganda, which saturates the TV, the
press, often schools and libraries, the victims are brain
stuffed into accepting religion, on "faith", which is attempting to believe things which cannot be proven, and are
contrary to common sense, intelligence and reason.
Back of this massive scheme of deception is the clergy,
who reap enormous profits of many billions a year, mostly
tax free. It is to their immense profit to deceive and fool
the children, then to keep them deceived by their massive
propaganda schemes, while they collect their billions of taxfree income, accumulate hundreds of billions in real estate,
stocks, bonds, mortgages, railroads, TV stations, newspapers, magazines, hospitals (immensely profitable), apartment houses, schools, colleges and all kinds of property.
They discourage exposure of their immense moneymaking schemes by smearing, ridiculing and attacking those
who tell the truth about their activities. The clergy work
closely with the politicians, helping the latter to power,
where they can soak the taxpayers, while the politicians
grant tax exemption' to the churches and appropriate
billions of subsidies to keep their gigantic fraud operating.
For centuries, when it had the power, the church burned
dissenters, "heretics", at the stake, or tortured them to
death. Even in the U.S., the religious fanatics hanged 19
innocent old ladies and children on the grounds that they
were witches, and that the Bible says: "Thou shalt not
suffer a witch to live." Exodus 22:18. Using this and other
passages in the Bible, the religious promoters have caused
the deaths of millions of people in never ending religious
wars, the Catholic Inquisition, the Crusades, and scores of
other wars, the conquest of the Indians in Latin Amerca, in
which they were either enslaved or killed, the wars against
the Arabs, even the war by the Catholic fanatics against
Protestants of Northern Ireland, in which the vicious
murderers bomb and kill innocent women and children

indiscriminately.
Only a few years ago men were arrested and jailed for
declaring that there was no god, and religion is a gigantic
fraud. The church attempted to prevent anyone from
practicing birth control and they got a law to impose a jail
sentence of a year and a fine of up to $5,000 for sending
literature through the mails teaching people how to prevent
the birth of unwanted children. Now they seek to interfere
in the control of their own bodies by women. The religious
promoters have always sought to control the lives of others,
by laws.
The Ten Commandments are used by the religious
fanatics as a pretext for extermination of dissenters. "Thou
shalt have no other 'Gods' before me", is the second
commandment, used as a basis for waging war against the
Mohammedans for centuries, and against anyone who had a
different belief of a god than the church in power at the
time.
The fourth commandment has caused and still causes a
great deal of trouble. It starts, "Remember the Sabbath
day, to keep it holy." The fanatics had for centuries, the
power to imprison, even kill, anyone who even worked on
the sabbath, or Saturday. Later, when the Christians took
over the pagan religions of Rome, which celebrated Sunday
(the day set aside to worship the sun by the Romans) they
made it a crime not to acknowledge Sunday as the Lord's
day. Sunday closing days were in force only a few years ago
in much of the U.S. and the fanatics still fight with each
other over whether to observe Sunday or Saturday.
Human progress has been made by the elimination of
religious control of our lives.
~
(Did Jesus Rise Bodily?-continued

from page 12.)

is an all-or-nothing literal account," said Kee.

The so-called liberal interpretations are being taught
more widely today partly because of the increased number
of Bible scholars now teaching and writing at state universities and at colleges not linked to churches, according to
Jonathan Z. Smith of the University of Chicago.
But even seminary professor Ernest W. Saunders, given
the assignment to write the entry on ressurection in the
Interpreter's
Dictionary
of the Bible,
Volume, presents a non literal theory.

Supplementary

The earliest form of resurrection accounts among the

first Christians "may have been the experience of Peter and
his brethren in coming to faith, 'seeing' that Jesus was not a
martyred prophet but in very fact Lord and Christ enthroned in glory. The mystery of that conviction is the
mystery of faith," Saunders wrote.

The American Atheist Radio Series of Ingersoll the Magnificent

A 56-page booklet published by the American Atheist Press by .popular demand. These are the transcripts of eight of the best radio programs written and produced by Dr. Madalyn O'Hair on Robert G. Ingersoll. First released on cassette tapes in July of 1977, the demand for a
printed version has become so great that we must offer it now. The man, who he was, what he did, what he believed, is presented in eight
distinct sections. Ingersoll at his best as his views on the Bible and organized religion are clearly delivered by his own writings.
This booklet is so valuable we 1------------------------------------------------------------------------------------believe you will wish to order copies i
Please send me
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for friends, relatives and more than I The Magnificent for $2.00 each. Enclosed is $
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OCTOBER, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 21

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SBIBLES' CORNER
",arren shibles
cAT{Jurnents for Abortion.
(Part II, continued

from Vol. 19, No.9)

To ask if the embryo or fetus is in itself a "person" or "human being" is to ask a misleading
question. It assumes that "person" or "human
being" name entities in themselves and that by
certain procedures we can discover if the names fit.
They are arbitrary terms. We use them for our
own purposes. We, in law, even regard corporations as "persons." It is not murder to dissolve
a corporation.
To apply "person" to new uses
(e.g. to an embryo) is to personify and anthropomorphize. On their view pet rocks' could have
souls.
To suggest that cells are "people" is to go far
beyond reason and common sense and into the
area of personification
and anthropomorphism.
A homunculus was thought to be a man the size
of a cell which just grows larger in the womb.
That there is some physical analogy to an embryo or fetus does not make the embryo or fetus
a person. The fallacy is committed of substituting
the part, or the few characteristics for the whole,
a full human being. (Some Catholics even argue
that the embryo only has a vegetative soul).
If an embryo is a person why not also a chimpanzee? The likeness of the latter to man is greater.
Viability is no criterion for being a person.
Viability is an arbitrary criterion for being a person. The baby cannot live on its own ou tside the
mother at that time and need not be considered to
be a person.
Some such as Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) have proposed that abortion under all circumstances be
banned. This is to propose murder of living
persons.
Potentiality Argument as
Mechanical Determinism
It is held that aborting is like chopping down an
acorn. But suppose a bomb is already lit in a train
station. The anti-abortionist would say you cannot
put out the fuse because it is already lit. But such
mechanical
determinism
fails to consider the
"potential"
for living men and women. If a

woman's life will be emotionally and physically

painful or if the consequences
are adverse for
others in society then the potential life of the fetus
is sustained at the expense of the potential life of
the parent or the lives of the members of the whole
society. It is held that the embryo is a potential
person and so murder to abort. If so, it is murder
to fail to implant sperm in eggs all the time. Those
who don't always engage in sex are murderers for
they destroy potential humans.
Misuse of Ethical Terms
The abortion issue cannot be effectively and
realistically resolved unless we become clear about
how ethical terms work. "Right to life" is a vague
obscurity. It dogmatically implies that everything
has a right in itself to life. Abortionists want people to believe that their view is somehow "right"
in itself. But when they do tell us what they mean
by "right" they give metaphysical, obscure Catholic religious arguments. "Right to life" is a misnomer and is a dangerous misuse of ethical terms.
Nothing is "right" or "wrong" "good" or "bad"
in itself. It is right or wrong only because we think
so, for an example, because of the consequences.
It shows ignorance of ethical terms to say "Aborti on is in itsel f righ t. "
Appeal to "Authority"
Abortion is said to be "wrong" mainly because
the Catholic church by dogma holds that it is
wrong.
inconsistency
If the fetus has the right in itself to life then so
has harmful deadly bacteria and living grass. It is
not a mystical and religious to appeal to "right"
or "wrong" in itself which counts as an argument,
but rather honest intelligence and knowledge of
cause and effect. To assert that the embryo has
"rights" in the same way as human persons with
reason and complex desires and understanding, is
to misuse the term "rights."

OCTOBER,

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Obscuring The Issue

Questions of "value," and "moral" questions
are pseudo questions. "Value" and "moral" merely refer to the terms good, bad, right, wrong,
ought, ought not. These terms mean nothing in
themselves. To mean something by them we must
substitute an empirical statement e.g. "Abortion is
right because it is now legal in accord with the
1973 Supreme Court decision," or "Abortion is
good because it prevents monstrous birth and great
psychological abuse of women who do not desire
children." The "realm of value" is only a realm
of vague abstraction. Value terms only gain meaning by substituting concrete statements for them.
The "realm of value" is not separate from the
realm of intelligence and knowledge of cause and
effect. But to say "Abortion is wrong because it
is killing a metaphysical soul" is appeal to a mystical standard or at least a narrowly religious
standard. To base value and morals on mysticism
or dogma or prejudice can be harmful to people.
It is a question of intelligence and consequences
not of a mystical "morality." The abortion question is then not a moral question. It is a question
of examing the (non-metaphysical) facts and consequences for the needs and intelligent beliefs of
oneself and others in society. To be ethical is to
be intelligent not mystical or metaphysical. Abortionists try to persuade by misuse of ethical terms
such as "right to life," "It is a moral question,"
etc.
"Moral" A Misused Term
The anti-abortionist often opposes "The lack of
moral fiber of the nation." This is a misuse of
terms and says nothing. It is more harmful, then,
to oppose abortion than to abort as the argumen ts
presented here show.
Embryo as "Innocent"
This is to personify, misuse language and give
value judgment. "The embryo is innocent," is like
"The cells are innocent," or "The innocent wind."
Anyway, on the religious view the embryo is probably already guilty of "original sin," and is the
"guilty embryo."
Anti-abortionists confuse, and cause guilt and
negative emotions. One of the consequences of
confusing women about abortion with metaphysical and confused arguments and not allowing her
choice of abortion is to create negative emotions in

OCTOBER, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 24

her and those around her. Such negative emotions

lead to ulcers, shock, neurosis, psychosis, suicide,
physical malfunction, defense mechanisms, as well
as failue to enjoy living. By not allowing a woman
to abort we, in effect, abort the woman. Anti-abortion acitivity and legislative proposals create confusion and guilt on the part of pregnant women
who obtain or desire abortions. This leads to
psychological problems. Clear rational arguments
on the issues is preferable to dogma or mysticism.
A consequence of disallowing abortion is the
1964 rubella (german measles) epidemic which
caused 30,000 American children to be born
mentally retarded, with cardiac deformity and with
cataracts. (R. Hall A Doctor's Guide ... 1971)
Mongoloids, detectable in the 20th week of pregnancy, have been born. Those born deformed or
without parents often become the burden of
society and the taxpayer.
Anti-abortionist causes emotional damage. One
of the most significant consequences of disallowing
a woman to have an abortion is the emotional
harm done to herself, her child, and her family.
A committee of the Group for The Advancement
of Psychiatry reports, "The Adverse consequences
of maternal rejections have long been recognized
by psychiatrists as one of the major contributing
elements of human psychopathology. In fact, some
psychiatrists believe that one of the most important goals of preventive psychiatry is the prevention of "unwanted offspring"; such prevention was
declared by Dr. Stephen Fleck to be 'preventive
psychiatry's single most effective tool.' " The 1968
Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders lists the
classification "Psychosis with childbirth." Allowing
abortion would help eliminate that.
A consequence of disallowing abortion is that
children are born without fathers, without there
being financial support to care for the child, with
little or no possibility for being adopted, especially black children or children of minority groups.
In 1961 of the three million illegally born children
in the U.S. under age 18, only thirty-one percent
had been adopted. White babies are now wanted
for adoption. But if abortion were disallowed there
would be 15,000 to 30,000 non-aborted children
in Wisconsin alone and many of these would be
malformed children-who will never be adopted.
In Japan fifty percent of pregnancies end in
abortion. In Scandinavia one in five is aborted.
If abortion were not allowed this many children
would in no way be adopted. It is thus inhumane
to disallow abortion at any time during pregnancy.
(R. Hall A Doctor's Guide to Having an Abortion

1971). Strict abortion laws are inconsistent with

actual practices in the United States as well as with
those in other countries where abortion is legal.
The poor hurt most. Legalization of abortion
at any stage would allow the poor to afford an
abortion and would allow qualified physicians to
do the abortion.
Abortion on Demand
And Pseudo-Medical Denial
Although it would seem that the women liberationist demand for an abortion anytime is as
absolute as the Catholic's opposition to any
abortion, there are arguments in favor of the
former view. First, is that the consequences for the
women and society of not being allowed to abort
are adverse. Second, physicians supposedly serve
society and do so in a medical capacity. Why
shouldn't a woman, then, demand an abortion even
after the first three or six months assuming she is
aware of any risk to her life which may be involved? And if there is risk we should do research
to reduce the risk. It would appear that women are
not being allowed to have an abortion after three
months under the guise that it interferes with
sound medical practice. Medical practice has
nothing to do with it. After three months there is
more risk to the life of a woman, but if she understands this and chooses to take the slight extra risk
why shouldn't she have the choice to do so? We do
not condemn or refuse help in giving birth just
because there is normally some risk involved and it
is riskier to give birth than abort in the first three
months. Thus, anti-abortion laws persecute physicians and do not allow them to perform their
occupation freely.
Prohibit Catholic Physicians's Practice
Catholics are prohibited by threat of excommunication from performing or having abortions.
Because this restriction would not allow Catholic
physicians to carry out lawful legal procedures,
their practice, in areas involving pregnancy and
giving birth and sterilization should be limited to
Catholic patients. They should not be allowed in
emergency rooms where mother or child decisions
might come up unexpectedly. Catholic physicians
are not even allowed to recommend another
physician for the purpose of abortion. A woman
on an operating table may learn too late, or not at
all, that her physician is a Catholic who believes in
monstrous births, or that the fetus should live even
at the expense of the mother. There should not be

legal penalties. for aborting but rather for not allowing abortion. Anti-abortion laws interfere with
sound medical practice and threaten the practice
and occupation of the physician.
The father is often also brought to mental
anguish or illness by restrictive abortion laws.
Abortion leads to a better life. If abortion were
more liberally allowed women could be more interested in and able to achieve and provide sexual
satisfaction and emotional and physical closeness
to other human beings. It would be one corrective
of the prevalent divorce rate, alienation and sexual
and emotional frustration. Fear of pregnancy is
one well-known cause of frigidity. So also is fear
that one may not be able to obtain an abortion or
be humiliated when one tries to obtain an abortion.
Abortion has positive consequences. When abortion was legalized in New York a) maternal mortality dropped, b) there was a sharp drop in hospital
admissions for "botched" abortions, c) infant mortality dropped, d) out-of-wedlock births declined
(and infant mortality rate for illegitimate children
is double that of other children), e) abortion itself
became safer. ("50 Physicians Evaluate Legal
Abortion in New York" NARAL)
There are wrong reasons for desiring children.
Women often want children because of their own
psychological 'imbalance, desire for immortality,
etc. One may want a child because she is bored.
One should be clear about what is meant by asserting "A woman needs a baby." A woman may have
a baby just to "hang onto" a man or force him to
marry her. The Catholic position encourages people to believe that it is their duty to have children
and regardless of the consequences to the parents.
Anti-abortion laws impose on a person's constitutional right to have or not have a child, privacy,
privacy of patient and physician relationship. Marriage is not just for having children. Marriage is
entered into for many reasons and having children
may not be one of them. One often marries to enhance each other as people and for sexual and emotional companionship. Anti-abortion can undermine marriage if the couple prefers to adopt or
does not want another or children. Abortion may
help strengthen the marriage and family and keep
them together. An unwanted child would not keep
together a bad marriage.
Woman Treated as An Inferior
Everyone else both state and federal governments, doctors and lawyers, and Catholics have
control of the woman's body (and fetus) rather

OCTOBER, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 25

than the woman herself. Give women back their

bodies. Anti-abortion laws deprived women of life
and liberty without due process of law. Catholics
deny women are people. Not only are women not
given rights to their body and choice to abort and
are chosen to die over their fetus but Aquinas, the
Catholic theologian wrote, "As regards the particular nature, woman is defective and misbegotten ... " Summa Theoloqice 1. Anti-abortion
laws lead to death of women. Illegal abortions were
found to be the cause of 350,000 hospital admissions a year and 400 deaths a year.
Humiliate Women
Women still are humiliated when they try to
obtain an abortion. There are abusive and unconstitutional state restrictions and anti-abortion
groups which induce guilt and oppose women who
wish to abort. State opposition to the 1973 Supreme Court decision on abortion has meant that
women especially are denied choice, endangered
as to their health and life, and oppressed by restrictive and guilt imposing state laws and practice.
Restrictive 'state abortion laws dehumanize women
and men. For example, some state laws
prohibits abortion advertising, require residence
or medical board permission, allow medical staff
to refuse to do abortions, etc.
Inconsistency
Religious authorities disagree about when
embryo or fetus mystically is supposed to gain its
soul. Aquinas on his hylomorphis theory claims
it is after the third month. Pope Paul's encyclical
"Of Human Life" claims a soul at conception. The
soul is a controversial issue even with the church.
Pope Pius XII said the soul enters the egg at conception. St. Thomas Aquinas said it was after three
months. It is often admitted that it is not certain
when the soul enters. This reveals insufficient evidence for soul or whether the fetus is a person ..
How can they tell if anyone has a soul? It is hard
to get metaphysics straight.
It is not that "right to life" advocates are prolife. Abortion is usually objected to by those who
favor capital punishment and killing such as in a
"just" war. Those who encourage animals to be'
hunted or killed for food oppose abortion. Catholics use the metaphysical argument that animals do
not have souls. Killing born animals for food may
be more violent than aborting the unborn.
In New York it was found that abortion in the

OCTOBER,

1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST

- 26

first 24 weeks is only twelve percent as dangerous

to a woman's life as is childbirth. Thus the argument that the state has an interest in the health of
the mother would require rather than restrict
abortion. It would restrict childbirth. If it is killing
to abort an embryo it may be killing to amputate
or destroy tissue. Cells of living beings may be
derived from such tissue. (Do cells have souls? Do
trees have souls?) The biologist would be a murderer. Shall we sentence him to life for chopping
down a tree?
If abortion is killing it is not clear why causing
a mother psychological anguish by refusing abortion is not killing. Psychological harm may lead to
illness, social death and actual death. Abortions
are allowed sometimes only to protect the life and
health of the mother. If so, their abortion should
always be allowed because not being allowed to
abort causes emotional damage and leads to mental
illness as well as suicide. If a psychiatric examination is needed before having an abortion, why not
rather administer a psychiatric exam before a
woman decides to be a mother to see if she would
be a suitable mother? We screen prospective
adoption parents thoroughly but not prospective
mothers. The question is not just "Is it wrong to
have an abortion?" but also "Is it right to give
birth?"
If abortion is a crime it would also be a crime to
use now widely employed contraceptive devices
which interrupt pregnancy after conception. Abortion is sometimes allowed for incest and rape and
deformed fetuses. On the premise that to have an
abortion is to kill; it is not clear why this also
would not be regarded as killing. To be raped by
a man and then forced to have the child would be
a double rape.
Allowing abortion does not lead to killing older
people or anyone else. Abortionists have a practical and great non-mystical concern for living persons in this life. Rather anti-abortionists traditionally favor killing in "just" wars and favor capital
punishment.
Anti-abortion laws in the United States are more
oppressive than in other countries. The following
contries have very liberal abortion laws: Scandinavia, Japan, Soviet Union, Hungary, England,
Czechoslovakia, Poland, Rumania, Bulgaria, Iceland, East Germany, over three hundred tribal
or cultural groups.
The Wisconsin statutes are restrictive and unconstitutional. Wisconsin Statute 140.42 states
"No hospital shall be required to admit any patient
(Continued on page 32.)

No. 449-August,

1977

II

Hello there,
This is Madalyn Murray O'Hair, American Atheist,
back to talk with you again.
Christian churches have always preferred obscurity
to clarity in respect to the origins of the Christian
religion. Well they should.
But, to a researcher attempting to reconstruct what
actually happened, the activities of the churches and
the obfuscation practiced by the writers is a difficult
path to follow.
Christianity
owes everything to Constantine,
a
Roman Emperor. He was called Constantine
the
Great, and was born A.D. 274. After the death of
his father, the Emperor, he was proclaimed to that
position by the troops, in the year 306 at the age of
thirty-two.
His second wife, Fausta, became a Christian and
induced Constantine
to the same religious conviction. Constantine then began to treat the Christians
ministers at Rome with great distinction. He made
costly offerings to the churches and he gave the
Palace of the Lateran to Silverster, Bishop of Rome.
As you all know, this palace is generally, now, called
the Vatican. It had originally been a part of the
estate of the wife of Constantine.
All pagan temples were slowly closed, and the
pagan religion began to be suppressed. However, the
Christian religion had not as yet taken accurate form.
There was great dissension in the church about the
nature of Christ and the time to celebrate Easter.
Constantine
was much troubled by this, and he,
therefore, ordered a convention to be held at Nicaea
in Bithynia, to which bishops were invited from all
nations. The object of the Council was to have some
harmony result from the decision of the chief Christians assembled there.
The Council, itself, will be the subject of the next
of these radio programs. But, suffice it to say now
that major questions were decided and then Emperor
Constantine directed his attention to building a great
church in Jerusalem, on the spot where it was
supposed the Holy Sepulchre had been discovered.
The old cave was cleared of rubbish and the most
magnificent church in the world erected over it.

Helena, "Augusta",
Constantine's
aged mother,
visited Palestine and built a church at Bethlehem
and another on the Mount of Olives. Her likeness was
impressed on golden coins. Meanwhile, Constantine
decided to abolish the pagan religions at Constantinople and to build Christian churches there and in
Necomedia. At his command the pagan temples and
statuary were everywhere destroyed. Heresies from
the Christian religion were cursed and condemned.
Pagans were deprived of their right to hold meetings
and their houses of prayer were taken from them and
bestowed on the new Christian, Catholic, churches.
Their books were ordered, by Constantine,
to be
sought out and destroyed. Meanwhile, Constantine
had his likeness represented on golden coins, with the
eyes uplifted, in the attitude of prayer.
In the beginning of his reign, Constantine had
claimed Apollo, the sun-god, as his patron, and even
after becoming a Christian he stamped Apollo's
image on one side of his coin, and the initials of
Christ on the other. During this period, the earlier
fathers of the Christian church observed the first day
of the week as a day of rejoicing and triumph,
because Christ, on that day, triumphed
over the
grave, and initiated the resurrection. They did not
wholly cease from labor, but observed the old Sabbath as a day of rest. The first day of the week was,
by them, called the "Lord's Day."
In A.D. 321, Emperor Constantine "enjoined all
the subjects of the Roman empire to observe the
Lord's Day as a day ofrest." He called the day, "Dies
Solis", that is, the Day of the Sun, or Sun's day.
"This day," he said, "should be regarded as a special
occasion for prayer." And he gave his soldiers the
following form of prayer to use: "We acknowledge
thee the only God; we own thee as our King, and
implore thy succor."
In the thirtieth year of his reign, having founded
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, he wished to
dedicate it in a becoming manner; and therefore he
directed that the bishops who had assembled at the
Synod of Tyre in Phoenicai, should be conveyed from
there to Jerusalem, as soon as they were ready to go.
Most of them went to attend the dedication. It was
the second greatest synod of bishops that had ever
assembled. That at the Council of Nicaea had been
the first and the greatest. Christianity was coming
into being. There were present prelates from all the
Roman provinces in Europe, Asia and Africa.
Constantine continued to build churches and even
to compose religious discourses until he was about
sixty-three years old, after having reigned as emperor
for thirty-five years. He then fell sick, desired the
bishop where he was (in Nicomedia) to baptize him.
He put on white robes, thrust away the purple robes

OCTOBER,

---

1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST

- 27

of empire, made some noble bequests and died on

May 22nd, in the year 337.
We have his written words that Providence rules
all things, that justice is ever done, that men received
here what they merit. In his own life he murdered the
father of this second wife. He also murdered his wife,
Fausta (by suffocation in a boiling hot bath), his
half-sister, his son Crispus, his sister's son, age then
eleven, and assorted political foes.
Constantine was peculiar in his dress, looks and
manners. In his later days he had a red complexion
and somewhat bloated appearance. His neck was
thick; his voice soft and gentle; his eyes bright. But
the spear of the soldier was ever in his hand, and a
helmet on his head, studded with jewels and .bound
round with Oriental diadem. He took much care of
his hair, at the last wearing wigs of various colors.
His beard was shorn. His wit was crisp and dry. He
had a gluttonous appetite.
He believed that sovereigns were instruments to
carry o~ the affairs of the world, so they might
imitate the Heavenly King, and make laws for
nations, slay their subjects at pleasure - as the laws
of nature do - wield the sword and fire, take every
kind of vengeance against their foes. Whatever god allowed to be successful, bore the stamp of his approval, inasmuch as it would not have been permitted
for the Emperor to do had it not been right in the
eyes of god.
Before the year 313, Constantine had been a man
of no religion. When he first met with Christianity
he regarded other religions to be true and useful to
mankind. However, he was persuaded to permit
only Christianity in his kingdom and he abolished
the ancient religion of the Romans and ordered the
pulling down of the Pagan temples. He abolished
sacrificing to the old gods, and their representation in
statuary.
The Roman Catholic Church recognizes twenty
General Councils, the first in A.D. 50, the second in
A.D. 325 at Nicaea, and the last in 1870. But there
was no general council held in the year 50, according
to the best authorities, so that the Council of Nicaea,
called by the Emperor Constantine, was unquestionably the first that was ever convened.
The Council was convened at the city of Nicaea, in
the Roman province of Bithynia, a country of Asia,
lying between the Propontis and the Black Sea, in
the twentieth year of the reign of Constantine the
Great and in the six hundred and thirty-sixth year
from the commencement of Alexander the Great's
reign. The transactions of the Council are related by
the ancients in a partial, imperfect, and disjointed
manner. We are certain of the year, 325, by our

calendar, but we do not know if it convened on the

20th of Mayor not, and whether it terminated on the
25th of August or not.
No complete collection of the transactions of this
Council survives. The only means of obtaining knowledge of the course of proceedings is to take the accounts given by those reporters of the different
parties who were present and form our own conclusion from a comparison of them.
Why was the Council convened? Following some
deaths of major politicians, Constantine had enacted
laws prohibiting sacrifices to idols and commanding
Christian churches to be erected. He appointed believers in Christianity to be governors of the
provinces, ordered that honor should be shown to
the priests, and threatened with death those who
dared to insult them. Christianity was smiling and
prosperous while the pagan churches were in disgrace
and ruin.
But, an argument was going on in the Christian
Church. The argument was concerned with the nature
of Jesus Christ. The orthodox believed that Christ
was god and that his generation was from eternity, so that he was co-equal with 'God' the father,
made of the same stuff, that is of "identical essence"
with the father. Arius, a presbyter of the Alexandrian
Church led a faction which also believed that Christ
was god, but which held that Jesus Christ had a beginning somewhere, created by the power of 'God' the
father.
Constantine was distressed that the church should
have troubles. He therefore dispatched the bishop
of Cordova (Hosius) to Alexandria with letters,
hoping to reconcile the disputants. He did not succeed in this, so he proceeded to summon the Council
of Nicaea. He commanded that the bishops and those
connected with them, should be mounted on the
asses, mules, and horses belonging to the public and
brought to Nicaea. When all those capable of enduring the fatigue of the journey had arrived, the
Emperor Constantine himself went there. He arranged
that all their wants (housing, food, clothing, servants) should be liberally supplied. Three hundred
and eighteen bishops were assembled. Of those who
assembled, many made claims as to apostolic gifts.
For instance, James, the bishop of Antioch, had he said - the power to raise the dead and to restore
them to life. However, when Constantine died, James
did not raise him.
There is not a complete compilation of the names of the bishops present and it is believed that such a
list was not in existence. We do have 69 names, however, and know some allegations concerned with perhaps twenty of those names. Auxanon, for instance,

OCTOBER, 1917/AMERICAN

ATHEIST

- 28

was a boy bishop. Eustathius delivered the opening

oration before the Emperor Constantine. Nicholas
of Myra allegedly was there. He is the same as our
current Santa Claus. He was not one who signed any
decrees, and although the legends connect him with
the Council it is really doubtful that he was present.
Spyridon of Cyprus was there. He was a shepherd as
well as a bishop and brought his flock with him to
the Council, tending them part time.
Most of the bishops were Greeks. As to the exact
number, the best authorities
differ considerably.
The figures range from 250 to 318. We are not certain as to who actually presided.
There appears to have been a radical right wing, an
orthodox which occupied a middle ground and then
the Arian faction. There is no reference to the language spoken, but the bishop of the Spaniards was
there, the bishop of the Celts, the Roman representatives, speaking Latin, and the Greeks.
Seats were arranged in a row on either side of the
middle hall of the palace, and the Emperor appeared,
after all was assembled, to be seated in a low chair,
allegedly made of gold.
There is a false tradition handed down to us that
this great first Council of the Christian bishops
decreed what books of the Bible should be held to
be canonical, that is - acceptable. But other councils
passed such decrees. The two councils which voted
on what books to retain in the Bible and what books
to be thrown out were the Synod of Laodicea held
about 363 and the Synod at Hippo, in Africa, about
the year 393. The Canons enacted in these two
Synods are still extant. The 60th Canon of the Synod
of Laodicea held which books were sacred and the
36th Canon of the Synod at Hippo did likewise.

The Council of Nicaea assigned the first Sunday

after the fourteenth
moon following the vernal
equinox for celebration of Passover.
Of course, discontent with the decisions of the
Council soon began to appear. Subsequent synods
and councils were necessarily called, concerned with
that discontent.
But, the Arian controversy over the nature of Jesus
Christ filled most of the time of this council at Nicaea
and resulted in the expulsion of Arius and some of
the bishops adhering to his doctrines. Next week,
I want to get into this schism in that first church and
look, generally, at the doctrines which issued from
it.
What is of major importance to remember, however, is that this was Christianity at its birth. This was
the time when it was put together. It did not flow
from the lips and the heart of Jesus Christ, or of Paul,
but rather from the deliberate political negotiations
of assembled
leaders (uneducated,
of uncertain
leadership and scholastic capabilities) of the religion,
attempting to make a cohesive body of doctrine and
dogma to be sold to their flocks.

This informational broadcast is brought to you as a

public service by American Atheists, a non-profit,
non-political, tax-exempt, educational organization
dedicated to the complete and absolute separation of
state and church. This series of American Atheist
Radio programs is continued through listener generosity. American Atheists predicates its philosophy on
materialism. For more information write P. O. Box
2117, Austin, Texas. That zip is 78768.
I will be with you again, next week, same day of
the week, same time, same station. Until then, I do
thank you for listening-goodbye for now.

3t

THE BIBLE HANDBOOK FOR ATHEISTS

Edited by Foote and Ball
A New American Atheist Press Book

Originally published in England in 1888, The Bible Handbook was in its 10th
edition in that country in 1953. For the first time an American edition is available.
Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair has written the forward for this first American
edition published by American Atheist Press. The Bible Handbook for Atheists is a
must for every Atheist's library. It is a complete guide to the total absurdity of the
old and new testament.
Paperback,

176 pages

"

$3.95

Send $3.95 for each copy of

The Bible Handbook for A theists
Make check or money order payable to:
AMERICAN ATHEISTS, P. O. Box 2117, Austin, Texas 78768
(Texas state residents add 5% sales tax.)

OCTOBER,

1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST

- 29

FREEDOM
UNDER SIEGE
Organized religion is working to destroy your
freedom. It strives to influence your elected representatives and to write the laws under which you
live, to regulate your children's schools and dictate
what is taught there, to censor your entertainment
and choose what you and your neighbor can see
and read, and to determine for all women the right
to control their lives and their bodies. And it is
your money that makes this tyranny possible. The
churches have their billions invested in profitmaking enterprises; and their wealth grows daily
from gifts, grants, rents, interest, capital gains and
government subsidies. They are now financial
giants, no longer dependent upon their parishioners
for support. What they count on is their freedom
from taxes. The church's billions are accumulated
at your expense.
Shocking? Perhaps. But it is only a small part of
the fascinating mountain of evidence gathered in
FREEDOM UNDER SIEGE by attorney Dr.
Madalyn Murray O'Hair and her researchersas part
of their ongoing fight to preserve the First
Amendment guarantee of the separation of state
and church - a guarantee of not just freedom of
religion but freedom from religion.
Official government and church figures prove that churches haveastheir membership only a minority
of our citizens. This book shows the continuing pressuresthat this minority exerts on the lives of the
majority of Americans.
Dr. O'Hair deals with politics, not religion; with separation of state and church, not Atheism. This
report shows how your treasured liberties are slowly being eroded as the churches increase their power
over every aspect of American life, limiting your freedom of choice and even your accessto information regarding those choices.

At last, the
truth revealed
about organized
religion -

A book by

Dr. Madalyn MurrayO'Hair

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Please send me [ 1 copy (lesl of FREEDOM UNDER SIEGE, at $8.95 (includes!
postage and handlinq). I am enclosing $
, check or money order made:
payable to: AMERICAN ATHEISTS, P. O. Box 2117, Austin, Texas 78768. Or:
charge to my:
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OCTOBER, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 30

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FREEDOM UNDER SIEGE

dares to focus on the facts
about this growing threat - a
threat that our politicians and
the press, radio and television
have been unwilling
to confront.

HERE'S TO ATHEISTS
Here's to A theists, the smartest of all.
For religious bunk they do not fall.

No matter how hard, believers may try,

They never do taste their pie in the sky.

Believers say we must be saved,

They look to the sky, and rant and rave.

The holy ghost inseminated Mary,

Swallow that one, and you'll believe in the tooth fairy.

All religions were made to fool me and you.

Be it Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox Jew.

An apple caused the first sin you hear Christians say,

But it was a green pair that wanted to play.

Religion has hurt our wonderful nation,

It's made us victims of a regimented subjugation.

Believe in Mary and the holy ghost,

This, they tell you, knocks the devil off the post.

People say the moonies are hurting young minds,

Yet believers take their children, and cover their eyes with
blinds.

Recite our father, and also hail Mary.

In this way they know your brains they can bury.
Speak to him up above, you hear them purr
Yet they don't know whether he is it, him or her.

Religions will do their greatest bit

To fill our minds full of mental bullsh-t.

Priests wear robes, their followers bow to,

Though they are single, they tell married couples how to.

Preachers will cure, both you and me,

All they want, is our money belt, you see.

From the center of earth, to outer space.

Searching for heaven or hell, they have found neither place.

Clergymen receive the greatest delight,

When they poison our minds, with religious blight.

-JAMES M. BOWERS
CONTEMPLATION
When great horned mountains bare their teeth and growl,
When sunlight beams resemble eagles on the prowl,
When clouds in gathering fold and keep the light,
And skies bend low to taste the human might.
When souls in rapture stop to contemplate.
And dogs in lust think it wise to wait.
When death is accepted as merciful oblivion
And the grave is known as painless heaven.
When lust is thanked for life, not without prayer,
And birth is accepted as a miracle, none rarer.
When brains and brawn, mingle in the blood,
And seers make their seeing understood.
Then worlds will toil and use their might,

To capture all earth's treasure as their right.

Their joys will mingle in the night,
And men in wonder turn to face the light,
Of human wills and human skills.
When praying people close their mouth and see,
That the greatest sin of all is poverty.
Then bells will ring in ragged human frames,
And man won't be tormented by their shames.
For greedy prayers can't ever feed the land,
Material things must always touch the hand.
But then there is no god I say,
But I thank the creators whatever they are,
And push the sun away.

-LUCILLE

WESTMORELAND

FROM WHENCE WE CAME

Ten million years man stands erect
His mind - still on its knees
And he can't fathom matters deep
Nor other things he sees

Yet through the endless time before

Gods manifested there
From what could gods derive themselves
If all of space was bare?

How foolish all this talk becomes

When once we finally know .
The elements that make up stars
Make tiny seed pods grow

He looks at stars and wonders when

Their mammoth births occurred
And just can't seem to understand
It's just his view that's blurred

If elements did not exist

To conjure up these ghosts
Then all the stars in all of space
Were born of barren hosts

No host was needed then I find

And we would all be fools
To thank these holy creators
Instead of molecules

For what he sees was always there

Although in different ways
Their elements remain the same
Throughout time's endless days

The particles that give us life

From fish to man to weed
All packaged in one tiny case
We know in life as seed

There is no other answer now

As science has its day
And myth, and lore, and fairy tale
Must slowly fade away

Great creators man claims to know

Yet never reasons why
His gods' creation came about
- To live and never die

Can one creator claim both skills

In ways we'd understand
How could we think that stars and seeds
Were fashioned by one hand

So let us rise from bended knees

- Change our creator's name
To small but mighty molecule
To god from when we came.
-GERALD

THOLEN

OCTOBER, 1977/AMERICAN ATHEIST - 31

(Breathing Is Not Living, continued from page 19.)

choice. But where is the choice for the individual

who wants to die?
To control one's death is as much of a battle
against religious forces as is the battle to control
one's life. The "god's will" crew are there; they do
not want us to use compassion or scientific knowledge to control our deaths anymore than they
want us to use them to control our lives. That
people should be able to die on their own terms,
at an appointed time, somehow threatens religion.
If you remove fear, then the need for religion is
gone.
Most adults do not fear dying; they fear dying
by degrees, in great pain. Death with dignity, the
knowledge that if one chooses to do so, one may
end life "clean, whole, comfortable, at an expected
time," would do much to remove the unnecessary
fear of dying from the world.
$
(Arguments for Abortion, continued from page 26.)

or to allow the use of the hospital facilities for the

purpose of performing a sterilization procedure or
removing a human embryo or fetus." "A physician or ... any employee of a hospital ... shall not
be required to participate in such medical procedure." This in effect, can prevent abortions and is
unconstituional. Wisconsin Statute 940.04 on
abortion is unconstitutional, restrictive and oppres-

~~.

(Letters to The Editor, continued from page 3.)

'Agnosticism':
Charles Bradlaugh was the first militant Atheist
in the history of Western civilization. He was
elected to the British parliament six times, and
each time that body refused to seat him because he
was an Atheist - and because he would not swear
his allegiance to Queen and country, so help
him 'God'. Everyone in England knew Bradlaugh
and his fight and he raised the issue of Atheism to
every person in public life as he sought allies.
The intellectual community contained, at the
time, Sir Thomas Huxley, and he coined the word
"Agnostic" in 1869 to keep from aligning himself
with the hard pressed Bradlaugh. The word 'gnosis'
is the Greek for 'knowledge'. In words of Greek
derivation the prefix 'a' is a privative, that is - it
gives the word a negative sense. Literally it means
"against knowledge" or "negating knowledge".
Huxley in his letters to the literate community
pointed out that he did not feel that salvation
could be attained through knowledge.
We don't know what 'salvation' is. But we do

OCTOBER,

1977/AMERICAN

ATHEIST

- 32

know that Huxley referred to the New Testament

Biblical story of Acts 17:23 wherein Paul visited
Athens and admonished the people for a statue
he found there. He said, " ... as I passed by and
beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this
inscription 'to the unknown God' ... "
Huxley held that there was a 'god' and this was
implicit in his definition of Agnosticism. He said
two things which are quite different:
"1. God is - and God is unknown.
2. God is - and God is unknowable."
Agnosticism is very close to the religious dogma
that the ways of god are unfathomable, that
human reason is fallible, and that man requires a
different, non-scientific, path to the truth-such as
faith. Agnostic followers are always allies of the
church. The false notion that the world is unknowable, undermines science and reinforces theology.
It inclines man to faith and induces men to trust
religious doctrines. The church does not anathema-.
tize the agnostic and even the Roman Catholic
Church will accept the agnostic in its fold.
Popularly, the word has been corrupted just as
the words Atheist and Epicurian have been corrupted "'0 mean to the man in the street "I don't
know whether there is a god or not". But an inspection of that sentence leads one into accepting
the logic of Huxley above.
The Atheist position is that the traditionalist
historical concepts of god are quite falacious and
that {he notion of some 'super power' is not now
susceptible of proof by existing scientific methods
or by the accumulation of knowledge presently
accessible to man. Therefore the Atheists live as
if there is no god, no efficacy in prayer, and no
life after death. We are free from theism. We bet
everything on this as being accurate. The Agnostic
is gutless and prefers to keep one safe foot in the
god camp.
Editor

The above editorial

answer to 'Agnosticism'
is available for distribution. Printed on both sides of a
4W' x 6" card in bold face type, it sells for five cents
each plus 25 cents postage. Or, order 50 for $1.00
and we'll pay the postage.
Order the 'Agnosticism' card from:
AMERICAN ATHEIST PRESS
P. O. Box 2117, Austin, Texas 78768

THE AMERICAN ATHEIST 'PATCH'

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THE AMERICAN ATHEIST

KEY RING FOR MEMBERS
As the patch, this embroidered item was manufactured exclusively for members of American Atheists.
The words "Member American Atheists" is embroidered on
one side. The symbol of the association is in gold thread on the
opposite side. The key ring will hold ten to twelve keys.
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