THE

$2.50

AMERICAN ATHEIST
A Journal of Atheist News and Thought

(Vol. 24, NO.6) June, 1982

The Ominous Sptttrt

Religion in Government

AMERICAN ATHEISTS
is a non-profit, non-political,educational orgamzation, dedicated to the complete and absolute separation of state and church.
We accept the explanation of Thomas Jefferson that the "First Amendment" to the Constitution of the United States was
meant to create a "wall of separation" between state and church.
American Atheists are organized to stimulate and promote freedom of thought and inquiry concerning religious beliefs,
.creeds, dogmas, tenets, rituals and practices;
to collect and disseminate information, data and literature on all religions and promote a more thorough understanding
of them, their origins and histories;
to encourage the development and public acceptance of a human ethical system, stressing the mutual sympathy,
understanding and interdependence of all people and the corresponding responsibility of each individual in relation to
society;
to develop and propagate a culture 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;
to promote the study of the arts and sciences and of all problems affecting the maintenance, perpetuation and
enrichment of human (and other) life;
to engage in such social, educational, legal and cultural activity as willbe useful and beneficial to members of American
Atheists and to society as a whole.
Ath eism
.
may be d e fime d

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P.O.80x2117

,,'0

AUSTIN, TX78768-2117

Send $40lor one year's membership and you will receive our newsletters, 0 membership
card atld tf!tti/fcat~, -and tme year 01 AMER~CAN ATHEIST magazine.

as the mental attitude which

unreservedly accepts the
supremacy of reason and
aims at establishing a lifestyle and ethical outlook
verifiable by experience and
the scientific method, independent of all arbitrary assumptions of authority and
creeds.
Materialism declares that
the cosmos is devoid of
immanent conscious purpose; that it is governed by
its own inherent, immutable
and impersonal laws; that
there is no supernatural
interference in human life;
. that man - finding his
resources within himself can and must create his own
destiny. Materialism restores
. to man his dignity and his
intellectualintegrity.It teaches
that we must prize our life
on earth and strive always to
improve it. It holds that man
is capable of creating a
socialsystem based on reason
and justice. Materialism's
"faith" is in man and man's
abilityto transform the world
culture by his own efforts.
This is a commitment which
is in every essence lifeassertmg. It considers the struggle
for progress as a moral
obligation and impossible
without noble ideas that
Inspire man to bold creative
works. Materialism holds
that humankind's potential
for good and for an outreach
to more fulfilling cultural
development is, for all practical purposes, unlimited.

'" .-

(Vol. 24, No.6) June, 1982

ARTICLES

ON THE COVER

Pope Wojtyla in Fatima, Portugal Part 2

-Jean Yves Riviere

AMERICAN ATHEIS'T
Tht Ominous Sp,tt"

FEATURED COLUMNISTS
Tolerance and Intolerance - Jeff Frankel
Life and Death of a Star - G. Stanley Brown
Religion's Assault on Information and Learning
- Fred Woodworth

4
5
25

PICTORIAL REVIEW
Religion in Government

Convention .. Atheist Style!

NEWS
American Atheists Win a Big One

21

REGULAR FEATURES
Editorial: "Reds" - Jon Murray
Editor~in-Chief
Madalyn Murray O'Hair
Managing Editor
Jon G. Murray
Poetry
Robin Murray-O'Hair
Production Staff
Art Brenner
BillKight
Richard Smith
Gerald Tholen
Gloria Tholen
Non-Resident Staff
G. Stanley Brown
Jeff Frankel
Ignatz Sahula-Dycke
Fred Woodworth

Austin, Texas

The American Atheist magazine is published monthly at the Gustav Broukal American Atheist Press, 2210 Hancock Dr., Austin, TX 78756, and 1982 by Society of
Separationists, Inc., a non-profit, non-political, educational organization dedicated to
the complete and absolute separation of
state and church. Mailing address: P. O.
Box 2117, Austin, TX 78768-2117. A free
subscription is provided as an incident of
membership in the American Atheists organization. Subscriptions are available at
$25. for one year terms only. Manuscripts
submitted must be typed, double-spaced
and accompanied by a stamped. self-addressed envelope. The editors assume no
responsibility for un solicited manuscripts.
The American Atheist magazine
is indexed in
Monthly Periodical Index
ISSN: 0332-4310

June, 1982

On the one hand, our cover picture for

this month may be considered to be
technically in error. The word "spectre"
has two meanings. Religion in government may be described as anything but a
non-substantive, incorporeal apparition.
Fact is that religio-politicism is a truly
existing blight, not only in our nation's
capitol, but extending completely
through our governmental and political
system on down to our very doorsteps.
No social planning or electoral office
campaigning is free from its twisting
tentacles.
At no time in our history has religion so
thrust its ugly, biased self upon the
nation as it is now doing. So bad is the
situation that our most esteemed branch
of federal government, the Judicial
branch, is in immediate peril for its
continued existence. Our citizenry apparently is not aware of the awesomeness of Executive control without the
restraints provided by the Judicial
branch. So, in a sense, religion in government is no "spectre" - it is a monstrous
reality!
On the other hand, the word "spectre"
suggests a source of "terror or dread".
Terror, being a product of human awareness, can be ridden from the mind - if
people are so inclined. In this context our
cover is correct. People have only to
declare, through our electoral system,
that they will no longer tolerate this
incredible coalition. At that point the
misty intruder will be dispersed into the
realm of non-existence.
G. Tholen'

Page 1

EDITORIAL
Jon G. Murray

"Reds"
The Soviets know how to play geopolitics in a much more
sophisticated manner than does our national (so-to-speak)
"leaders." When it comes to the theopolitical field they are,
in many aspects, superb theological chess players. Having
built into its constitution a complete separation of state and
church, the nation has felt comfortable enough to permit
churches to function - knowing as it does that without
state tax exemption, state financial support, state favoritism, churches can only remain static and small.
Knowing full well that the christian religions are both used
and rewarded for being used by the United States in its
ideological confrontation
with the Soviets, that nation in
May pulled off its own black propaganda coup. The United
States is adept at black propaganda
and recognized the
ploy so that the White House stepped in to ask Billy
Graham not to go to Moscow to participate in a meeting of
several hundred of the "Clergy against Nuclear War." The
temptation of "carrying the words of jesus" to "Atheist
Russia" was too overpowering
to Graham in his basic
fanaticism and he eschewed the warning of the White
House.
Courteously received and having been shown that there
exist in the U.S.S.R. literally thousands of churches (albeit
small ones) Graham was enthused about "incipient religious freedom" in that nation. The news media of the United
States speaking to the ploy instead of the basic issue fell
upon the subsequent
words and reports of Graham in
regard to religion. That was NOT the name of the game.
What the Soviets were doing was reaching out for another
group of allies in respect to disarmament and the precluding
of a nuclear war. It was incidental whom that group
represented
as long as it could be enlisted on the side of
peace. What citizens of our nation do not understand is [1]
that Russia was decimated in the First World War and her
revolution immediately associated with that war and [2] that
she lost 20,000,000 people and several great cities in the
Second World War. The United States, bounded by two
oceans, knows nothing of the decimation of a war on its own
territory. No civilians, no cities of our nation have ever been
plain bombed, fire bombed or nuked. The magnitude of the
Russian lives lost has never been equalled in all of the
combined countries of the West in any war. Russia wants
and needs peace. Hence, she reaches out, if need be, to the'
utmost enemy, the clergy. And, she stages the outreach by
inviting a leader thereof into the heart of her nation:
Moscow. That is astute geopolitical and theopolitical moxie!
The United States cannot pull off the reverse by asking
Atheist leaders of the world to meet in Washington, D.C. to
discuss peace by asking a foreign Atheist leader to address
them. The United States is precluded from doing this
because it has set up "Atheism" as a real fundamental
enemy so inherently evil, allied with Satan, that the thought
of such rapport
is totally untenable
politically.
The
U.S.S.R., therefore, could and did play one-upman-ship
with elan.
Billy Graham, whose ignorance is surpassed only by his
Page 2

basic fanaticism, even after the event, could only see the
hope of a Graham crusade across the wild tundras of Russia
with himself as a Don Quixote of our era carrying "the
word." The spectacle is pitiful.
Meanwhile, back in the United States, Graham was
underfire by his colleagues, perhaps as much out of envy, as
out of Soviet hatred. The government was aghast.
Recent media reporting of the plans of the Republican
party for the November election indicates that a religious
issue is planned to dominate the domestic scene during that
autumnal imbroglio humorously known as the democratic
process of free elections. After surveying and resurveying,
the right -wing Republicans, now in possession of the nation,
have found that they have "overwhelming support," reported as being 65% of the nation, on one issue and one issue
only: return of prayer to the public schools. Reagan and his
cohorts are failing across the political front in all areas,
hence a tried-and-true
emotional issue is not only needed
but has been found.
The escalation of the issue started on two fronts. Within
days of Graham's return to the United States, his reports of
religious freedom in Russia were attacked from all quarters
and a campaign began in the press to show that Russia was
beginning an internal campaign to crush religion and
reinforce Atheism. This was a clear signal then for the
United States to begin an internal campaign to crush
Atheism and reinforce christianity in the United States.
Suddenly the old McCarthy issue of "All Atheists are
Communists"
was being resurrected,
while the President
himself opted for the return of prayer to the public schools.
In conjunction with the president's declaration, a test was
instituted to see how quickly a constitutional amendment
could be passed. That the place chosen was the state of
Tennessee
has particular significance in the plot. The
largest bible publishing house in the world is situated in
Nashville and it is orchestrating
an enormous campaign to
sell, in millions of copies, a book which will assault the
Murray-O'Hairs
and the American Atheist organization as
not only tools of communism, but as communists. Due to be
released in June, the building of the campaign is scheduled
to peak in November. That the charges are a tissue of lies
matters little or nothing: the F.C.C. phantom petition (see
Vol. 24, No.5, May, 1982 issue of the American Atheist, an

article titled "The Phantom Phenomenon, Christ-insanity

Strikes Again") has settled that to the benefit of the radical
right. Atheists in the United States may have their characters besmirched with impunity, public figures such as the
Murray-O'Hairs
being "fair game" in such an exercise. A
roman catholic priest, alleged to be the "Madalyn Murray
O'Hair" expert for that church, was placed on loan to
Tennessee (from his Massachusetts
base) to help effectuate
the legislative coup. A bill to return prayer to public schools
was introduced into the Tennessee congress on March 11th
and by April 6th it had passed both houses soon to be signed
by the governor: a three week romp. The handwriting is on
the wall.

June, 1982

American Atheists

United World Atheists

Jean-Yves Riviere

POPE WOJTYLA IN FATIMA PORTUGAL

Part Two - THE CHURCH FED UP WITH APPARITIONS
Since last month (April/82), there has appeared a new
place of pilgrimage in France. Its name is La T alaudiere and
it lies in the suburbs of Saint-Etienne (Loire), not very far
from La Sallette, the site of the "apparition" we described at
some length in Part One of this series.
As usual, things began with apparitions. These affected a
14year old girl named Blandine, not illiterate and apparently sound in mind, but for her "visions". Just a detail: her
family is a very pious one and she is very pious herself.
One first assumption can be made. There is undoubtedly
no clerical trick involved in this particular affair. It is a fact
long since acknowledged by psychiatrists that for a girl,
puberty and religious environment, possibly coupled with
an alcoholic heredity, are classical factors of troubles
assuming a visionary form. Moreover, the church has
nothing to gain in calling attention to such things as phony
miracles or apparitions just a few weeks before the trip of
Wojtyla's Circus to Fatima. As we have already seen in our
brief study about the affair of La Sallette, and as we are
going to see next again about Fatima, all the recent clerical
hoaxes have been disclosed by now.
This could be a good and sufficient reason for the
reluctance of the church concerning the apparitions of
virgin mary in La T alaudiere and the interdiction of every
sort of pilgrimage there emanating from the bishop of SaintEtienne himself.
But there is more to it. Among believers, there are a good
deal of educated people who do not agree with the junk of
the so-called miracles which, in their opinion, make the
catholic religion a laughing stock for not only Atheists, but
also most of the non-catholic christians. Besides, it is worth
noticing that never did the roman catholic church proclaim
the belief in miracles or apparitions compulsory (except for
those mentioned in the "holy" scriptures). Faith in such
matters is anyone's personal concern, even though the
miraculous character of the fact has been acknowledged by
the catholic hierarchy.
At any rate, the very presence of the catholic church's
leader in Fatima willserve to officialize the sanctity of these
locales and a comparison with the vulgar events in La
Talaudiere is likely to tarnish the oecumenical radiance of
Fatima as one of the most celebrated places of the whole of
christianity. That is why the priests have been upset by
those new apparitions that they had neither organized nor
even wished.
Now let us tell a word about the facts in La Talaudiere. As
soon as the rumors about Blandine and her apparitions
started to spread, excited pilgrimers hurried up by the
thousands to the young visionary's home where the holy
virgin, according to the girl, had appointed to her a Saturday
(April 17) as the date for a new apparition in the kitchen
garden. Blandine's home was a rather humble one, indeed.
It looked like a slum more than a palace. In short, it was by
no means a place to welcome the queen of heaven.
In the afternoon of April 17th, in spite of the episcopal
interdiction, a huge crowd had gathered in Blandine's
Austin, Texas

SATURDAY

NO MIRACLE

AT A LITTLE SPOT IN LOIRE

kitchen garden where a shanty shithouse and a statue of the

virgin mary were the only architectural ornaments to hail
the witness of the apparition. Among the pilgrims there
were not only the local natives but also lots of foreigners
(Belgians, Dutch, and so on), who had come by motorcoaches chartered for the spectacle. In the first ranks of the
spectators one could see plenty of cripples in their wheelchairs who recited prayers to virgin mary in order to be
healed and reporters armed with their cameras.
Of course, virgin mary never appeared. This can be easily
understood as a kitchen garden is no decent place for a
deity to show itself to its worshippers. So what do you think
the pilgrims did? They searched with their eyes where the
virgin could hide. And they suddenly realized there was only
one place where she could be found. Not on the ground, of
course, but high above their heads in the sky and, more
precisely, in the sun.
Thus, they began staring at the sun. After a few minutes
they saw its color change and then - oh wonder! - there
were two suns in the sky instead of just one. The sun was
dancing just like in Fatima sixty-five years ago.
But, luckily, some doctors who knew about Fatima had
foreseen the case. They had come in ambulances equipped
with loudspeakers through which they started warning the

June, 1982

SUNBURN

A LA TALAUDIERE

From viewers to non-viewers!

Page 3

crowd: "Take care", they said, "if you see the sun split into
two, this is no miracle, but a mirage. It means that your
retinas are being burnt. Then go to the hospital at once in
order to be treated".
This explains why many pilgrims who had come to La
Talaudiere with a good sight had become blind when they
left. A sort of topsy-turvy miracle, somehow. It also explains
why the church would have easily done without all this
publicity.
Asked about the reason why, according to her, the holy
virgin had missed their meeting, Blandine retorted that it
was on account of the presence of too many reporters and
the lack of faith of too many people. So also was her father's
opinion.
And now, here are some of the predictions virgin mary
has trusted the girl with:

1) "Paris will be destroyed before long, because it is

the place where the law about abortion has been
passed."
2) "The virgin of La Talaudiere will participate in the
rescue of Russia".
3) "There will be earthquakes wherever morals
become lax."
4) "Diseases will strike more and more often in the
godless schools".
(Quaintly reminiscent of the "predictions" of Fatima.)
Moreover still, according to Blandine, virgin mary wants
the catholic priests to wear cassocks again and say mass in
Latin as they formerly did. (This last item was perhaps
suggested to her through her parents by the integrist clergy,
of which they are fiery supporters.)
to be concluded next month

The Angry Young Atheist

Jeff Frankel

TOLERANCE AND INTOLERANCE

Tolerance is a nice word. It conjures up good images.
Tolerance would be a major factor in world peace. All
tolerance means is to allow each individual to do and believe
as he or she likes (as long as it harms no one else) without
offering opposition or ridicule. When you look at it logically,
Atheists and christians should be able to co-exist peacefully
side by side in much the same way those who like different
foods, different music, and different sports teams do. Allit is
is a difference of opinion and any mature person should be
able to tolerate an opinion different from his or her own.
Unfortunately, it just doesn't work that way when it
comes to religion. That's because most of the major world
religions either originated from or came to prominence as a
result of a political power struggle. In politics, a difference of
opinion is neither welcomed nor desired. Religion picked its
intolerance up from the politics behind it and took it to even
lower depths.
Christianity in America today is big business above all
else. It's nothing more than a commercial gambit with
preachers promoting christ in much the same way corporations sell their laxatives, suppositories, and toilet paper.
Naturally, in the business world competition from another
business is not a desired commodity. Just as General
Motors would shed no tears if Chrysler Corporation went
down for the count, the moguls of organized religion would
love to see American Atheists fallflat on their faces. But it's
not just we Atheists they'd love to see fail. We all know the
catholics would feel no remorse if the protestant church
collapsed, nor would the mormons care if the jehovah's
witnesses bit the bullet. In the business world there's only
room for one at the top, and a little thing like each of them
supposedly getting their inspiration and morality from the
same book can't be allowed to stand in the way.
Tolerance has never been a christian virtue. Of course,
when one reads the intolerance which is so common in the
hokey babble, it's easy to see why. Christian doctrine leaves
Page 4

little room for tolerance of nonbelievers or those who follow

other religions. Tolerance would indeed be a hindrance in
the narrow-minded religious opportunist's mind. In fact,
with all the power and prestige up for grabs it would be an
unaffordable weakness.
The best examples of christian intolerance in history are
the inquisition and the takeover of the Greco-Roman world
which initiated the Dark Ages. The best current example is
the moral majority. The precepts of the organization are
heavily based on intolerance. Intolerance towards anything
they disagree with, be it political issues like the Panama
Canal or "moral" issues such as abortion. I do not mean to
say that being opposed to the sale of the Canal or to
abortion means one is intolerant. But when someone
attempts to build up the canal issue as a moral one with
empty rhetoric to sway public opinion, or try to block the
nomination of a Supreme Court justice on the basis of a
biased analysis of the individual's voting record, then
intolerance is probably the nicest accusation you could level
at them.
In the name of christ unbelievers have been stoned to
death, as have been prostitutes and adulterers. Books have
been burned, as have people who were thought to be
witches or demons. Women, blacks, homosexuals, and (of
course) Atheists have been heavily persecuted (with the
blessings of god, naturally). This may sound like something
out of an unenlightened past, but it's not. It was only last
year that Santa Clara, California's moral majority spokesman Dean Wycoff recommended capital punishment for
homosexuals, and rev. Charles Mcilhenny of the first
orthodox presbyterian church of San Francisco proposed
stoning gays to death. Those record bigots Jim and Steve
Peters have made allusions towards violence against nonbelievers in their sermons. Look at the violence directed at
Dr. O'Hair over the years. Can you imagine the things these
warped religionists would do if they had the power to do as

June, 1982

American Atheists

the islamic fundamentalists who run the Iranian government do? I'd be shot before I could finish writing this (and
before you could finish it).
At this point one might accuse us Atheists of intolerance.
After all, we have taken the fight against christianity to court
on more than one occasion. But would anybody but the
hardest racist accuse the NAACP of intolerance for going
to court to preserve black rights? Never, to my knowledge,
has any American Atheist pursued any legal action which
would hinder anybody's religious liberty. Yet, many christians see nothing wrong with "blasphemy" laws and statutes
which prevent Atheists and agnostics from holding public
office. We Atheists have to acknowledge a god we don't
believe in every time we pass any U.S. currency. We must
pay higher taxes to make up for what the churches don't
pay, thus indirectly supporting a cause in which we don't
believe. We are expected to sit back and watch our
Constitution be dragged through the mud as the First
Amendment calling for the total separation of church and
state is violated time and time again. Christians are so quick
to scream "persecution" and gripe about having their rights
to believe as they choose violated. If they want to find out
what persecution and rights violations are all about, they
should become Atheists for just 24 hours. They'd develop a
different viewpoint, I'm sure.
I know of no action ever taken by any Atheist which could
be considered unjustly intolerant of religion. That is be-

cause no Atheist action.towards religion is unprovoked or

unwarranted. What has any Atheist ever done but state his .
or her disbelief? Anything further which the Atheist does is
based on the reaction by christians or other religionists
toward the Atheist stand. No actions taken toward Atheists
by christians in this country that I know of have been
provoked. To paraphrase John Lennon the Atheist is the
"nigger" of the theistic world.
I am not offended by someone being a christian. With
maturity one learns to tolerate what one considers to be
ignorance. What another individual believes (or doesn't
believe) neither "picks my pocket nor breaks my leg". Why
should any christian be offended by one who holds a
different philosophy? No logical reason exists. The only
, motivation behind such a reaction is ... (I don't need to say
it again).
As long as religion exists, so willintolerance. The two are
linked as closely as a toilet and a septic tank. A wise man
once said that those who don't learn history are destined to
repeat it. I, for one, would hate to think of the future of our
world being nothing but one continuing religious rerun. We
Atheists must each do our part to educate the masses in
regard to the true nature of christianity and other such
superstitions. Only when the world gets an equal look at
religion and Atheism can we expect to see a decrease in
religious influence - which would mean a decrease in
intolerance. Wouldn't it be nice?

Looking Up
G. Stanley Brown

THE LIFE AND DEATH

OF A STAR
In a previous paper (American Atheist, Vol. 24, No.1, p.
21) the scientific techniques for studying stellar evolution
were discussed. These included building mathematical
models of stars which can be compared with observations.
The initial collapse from a diffuse gas cloud into a spherical
star was described. Now we may proceed with a biography
of the changes in a star and description of a variety of
possible terminal situations.' The past decade of research
has revealed natural phenomena which would previously
have been relegated to science fiction.
Discussions of stellar evolution frequently make reference to the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram (see the
previous paper), that graph of stellar brightness versus
temperature. An oddity of this graph is that temperature
increases to the left and decreases to the right. Brightness
increases upward as would be expected. Mass, the amount
of material in a star is not plotted on an H-R diagram. But it
has a dominating effect on where a star willbe plotted on the
diagram and on the rate of evolution. Young stars lie on the
zero-age main sequence (ZAMS) with mass increasing from
lower right to upper left. All stars lie somewhere on the
ZAMS during the beginning of their stable life.
Since mass is so important to evolution, there should be a
real world check on how stellar mass is correlated with the
two quantities represented on the H-R diagram. True
Austin, Texas

brightness is obtained from apparent brightness and distance. Temperature is obtained from color, because blue
stars are hot, red stars are cool, in the world of stars. Stellar
mass can be known when two stars are observed revolving
around each other. Such pairing is common. By measuring
the orbital speed and separation of the stars we can
compute their mass. The mathematics for this is an
application of Kepler's third law, which was mentioned in
the third paper of this series (American Atheist, Vol. 23, No.
12, p. 9).

STELLAR BIRTH
A star may be large, having more than ten times the mass
of the sun, or it may be small, having as little as one-tenth the
mass of the sun. For any mass the early phases of existence
are the same. The star is an enormous blob of gas, faintly
glowing on the outside and hotter in its center than the
apparent surface of the sun. Its position can be plotted on
an H-R diagram on the right side about mid way up. With the
passage of time the star radiates more energy, becomes
smaller, and the internal temperature rises. This raises the
external temperature, so the star moves to the left on the
diagram.
Physics and mathematics are very adept at dealing with

June, 1982

Page 5

and a fusion of helium in the core begins. Beryllium and

large balls of gas. There is a principle which may be applied
to them, known as the VirialTheorem. It tells us that when a carbon are created with the release of more energy. This
accelerates the burning of hydrogen in the shell above. The
system of mutually gravitating particles contracts, the
core responds weakly to the increase in temperature
gravitational potential released will be split into two equal
halves. One half goes to radiant energy and the other half is because it is degenerate. The result is a burst of energy
generation known as the "helium flash." With this tremenused to raise the temperature of the particles. Thus a star
dous output of energy the core does expand, cool, and
which is contracting is getting very hot on the inside. The
temperature and density in the core of a new star grows far settle down to converting itself to carbon.
These prodigious increases in energy production are
in excess of any situation found on or in the earth. The star
continues to contract and get hotter and would continue ifa used to expand the part of the star between the core and
dramatic new phenomenon did not take place. But it does; it . top layers. Stellar radius increases. The enclosing top layers
are stretched, expanded, and cooled. Thus, the star
is fusion. Fusion is the merging of two atomic nuclei and
simultaneous release of energy. It occurs in the center of becomes redder. It moves up and to the right from the
ZAMS. It becomes a red giant. The most massive stars, on
stars.
the upper left in the H-R diagram, move first. Successively
Temperature, on the atomic scale, is-directly related to
the speed of atoms. At temperatures found in the center of lighter stars follow. Thus, there is a "peeling off" of the
ZAMS. The point where, on the diagram, the peeling off
the sun, protons move at a speed which would carry them
from Los Angeles to San Francisco in one second. Of occurs is a measure of the age of a cluster of stars.
Astronomers cannot observe the above happen. But
course, they do not move that far because of collisions with
they can measure the size, brightness, temperature, and
other protons and atomic nuclei. The identical positive
mass of stars. The calculations of the astronomers predict
electrical charges on these particles causes them to repel
all of the things they observe. Therefore, the astronomers
grazing collisions. But at such speeds there is sometimes a
believe that the ideas that go into their calculations are a
direct hit and the repulsion is overcome. The protons merge
good approximation of reality.
and a different kind of force, the nuclear force of attraction,
dominates to hold them together. Simultaneously a quanSTELLAR OLD AGE
tum of radiation is emitted. This is a new source of energy
which raises the temperature and pressure in the core of the
The process of fusing elements into heavier elements
star. It stops the collapse and the star settles down for a long
proceeds gradually with each element being created in
abundance before still heavier elements are built. This is
period of stability. The star will fuse hydrogen into helium
because nuclear particles carry a positive charge which is
and radiate the resulting energy away into space.
approximately proportional to their weight. Positive charges repel each other, in proportion to the strength of the
STELLAR MIDDLE AGE
charge. Hence, a greater weight means a greater repulsion
and a greater speed required to overcome it. A greater
What makes a difference among stars at this stage is their
speed requires a higher temperature. Stars with small mass
mass. The more massive stars have higher core temperaare unable to develop the internal temperature required to
tures so they can produce enough energy to prevent
build heavy elements. The sun willcreate a carbon core in 5
collapse. They also have higher surface temperatures and
billion years, but cannot go on to build heavier elements.
larger radii. Observations show this and extensive calculaMore massive stars can. They go through a series of flashes,
tions predict this. Stars spend the largest fraction of their
lives on or near the ZAMS, but not the same amount of each time adding a core of still heavier fusing atoms.
Meanwhile the outermost layer maintains the composition
time. The big ones burn up their hydrogen core fuel very
it had when the star first formed.
rapidly and proceed to new stages of development. MeanOne way to verify our understanding of stellar evolution is
while the small stars continue to cook. The sun has been
to find different clusters of stars and estimate whether they
doing it for 5 billion years.
are young or old, in cosmic time. Our decision must be
Evolution changes the chemical structure of a star.
based on plausible arguments involving measurable characWhereas it was initially homogeneous throughout, the
teristics. Fortunately our galaxy has many clusters of stars
generation of helium takes place primarily in the center. So
with diverse properties. Their age estimation rests on a
a core of helium grows, surrounded by a shell of fusing
scenario for the history of the entire galaxy.
hydrogen. The energy generated slowly makes its way up
Our galaxy is a flattened rotating whorl of stars and gas
through the star toward the surface. The energy radiated
and dust between the stars. Two major types of clusters are
from the upper layers of the star into space is equal to the
sen in our galaxy. They are known as (1) globular and (2)
energy created in the fusing shell.
galactic. The globular clusters are found primarily outside
Calculations reveal some interesting behavior in stellar
cores. The law of the Virial Theorem continues to apply; a the flattened part of the galaxy. The galactic clusters are
found in the flattened part amid the gas and dust. Globular
core will contract and get hotter and convert half of its
cluster stars have hydrogen and helium in their upper layers
gravitational potential energy into radiation. The contracand little else. Galactic cluster stars do have heavier
tion squeezes the electrons closer and closer to the atomic
elements. We know this because of spectroscopy (see your
nuclei so that the matter changes its properties. It is said to
encyclopedia).
become "electron degenerate" because of the high presAstronomers interpret these facts as follows. The atrnosure. It can no longer expand in proportion to an increase in
spheres of globular cluster stars contain the same elements
temperature. Thus, the core of the star loses its thermostat.
and proportions of elements the galaxy had when it was
Normally it would expand and cool when it gets too hot.
formed, perhaps 15 billion years ago. They are old. The
Now the temperature rises to one hundred million degrees
Page 6

June, 1982

American Atheists

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FIG.

galactic cluster stars show heavier elements. They are

young second generation stars formed in the fertile gas and
dust of the galactic plane. Their atmospheric heavy elements were created in the violent deaths of first generation
stars. These deaths are described in the next section.
The above interpretation is no more than a guess without
the aid of the computer and H-R diagrams of the two cluster
types. In Figure 1 we have an HR diagram of two very
young clusters. Most of the stars lie along the main
sequence. There are many hot bright young stars in the
upper left. The horizontal direction, labelled B-V, is the
color index, a measurable quantity directly correlated with
temperature. Figure 2 is the H-R diagram for a globular
cluster. It has many old evolved bright cool stars in the
upper right. The computer predicts the evolution of stars
from bright blue to bright red. It predicts the creation of
heavy elements, thrown out into space by massive stars. So
our guess is supported by computer models of the stars.

STELLAR DEATH
Evolution of stars becomes dramatic and spectacular for
the few that are massive. Their great central temperatures
synthesize heavier and heavier elements until an iron core is
created. At this point nuclear physics tells us of a change in
the routine. So far, when atoms combined, the result was an
atom with a mass less than the sum of the masses of the
contributors. The difference in the sum and result was
converted to radiant energy. But iron and heavier elements
work in opposite fashion. The heavy element is more
massive than the sum of the masses of its components.
Hence there is a tremendous absorption of energy. The iron
core devours its own energy and implodes. Electrons are
forced into protons and neutrons are created. The core of
the star becomes a neutron star.
Meanwhile the collapse of the surrounding shells releases
so much energy that a fire storm of element creation occurs
with a wholesale outpouring of energy. The result is a
catastrophic detonation. The star explodes. A supernova is
seen. All kinds of elements are created and blown out into
Austin, Texas

R.

S.lI/loge,

space. The space between the stars is enriched with

elements heavier than helium and thereby contains the
starting ingredients for later generations of stars and
planets and life. Thus, as Carl Sagan said in his Cosmos
series, "We are made of star stuff".

STELLAR FATE
After the explosion a neutron star remains and is seen in
nature as a pulsar. It pulses because the neutron star is
rotating and carrying an intense magnetic field with it.
Radiating particles are funneled into the field and produce a
beam of radiation which sweeps past the earth ifwe happen
to lie in the path of the beam. Each sweep is seen here as a
radio pulse. Sometimes there is also a visual pulse.
Ifa star is sufficiently massive, perhaps more than 50 solar
masses, the implosion of the iron core may compress it
beyond a point of no return. The material is packed in such
a small space that its own gravity becomes overwhelming. It
collapses so that nothing is left.but the gravitational field.
Near the source of the field gravity is so strong that nothing
can escape it, not even light. It is a black hole.
One may wonder how we could hope to detect something
which cannot send us information about itself. But the
gravitational field is there and if the black hole is in an orbit
about another star we may see an effect on or by the less
evolved star. Observations of a variable star in the constellation of Cygnus reveal Xrays coming from the same
direction. The rays could result from matter falling into the
black hole, converting gravitational potential energy into
radiant energy. The optical variability results from the
passage of the star in front of the black hole and vice versa.
Another hint that astrophysicists are on the right track
about stellar evolution involves chemical abundances. The
relative amounts of elements such as silicon, magnesium,
neon, oxygen, and carbon found in the earth and sun
matches that calculated in a star of 20 solar masses just
before detonation of the iron core.
Stars which are not massive enough to evolve to the
(Cont'd. on page 28)

June, 1982

Page 7

Convention ..Atheist Style!

TWELFTH NATIONAL CONVENTION

Very few things warm the heart as much as seing a group

of Atheist people enjoyably and openly staring down the
spectre of religio-politicism.
Not so long ago there was another spectre looming on the
horizons of human free thought. We called it "closet
Atheism". The fight to free Atheists from their own fear of
reprisal by fanatical fundamentalism has been a long and
tedious one. Now we know - and have thoroughly
demonstrated to the world - that such a "fearsome"
spectre, like all spectres, has no real substance. It is simply a
myth; a figment of fearful imagination that can easily be
blown away by the light of human intelligence.
However, our work is not done. There still remain those
who have not shined that light of courage into the dark,
fright-filledcorners of their own minds. We look for the day
when all Atheists discover that pleasureful moment when
they, too, can rid themselves of the burden of hiding their
real identity. This is the goal of American Atheists; this
should be the goal of every American.
We have had many very rewarding conventions. The
Washington DC meeting will be remembered as the most
rewarding of all! Look closely at the photo section which
comprises the next 12 pages of this issue of American
Atheists. There you will see the happy faces of militant
Atheists who have have "had enough" of religious insanity.
By contrast now, the religio-political ingrates, who thought
they held the upper hand, must begin to contemplate
"closets" of their own. They willalways lack the courage to
deal with large groups of determined, intelligent citizens.
That is not their game. They can only create illusions of
"small numbers" and "limited resistance" when dealing with,
obstacles that bar their ability to manipulate the "American
image" that they pretend actually exists. What awesome
shield of pseudo-respectability will they use when they
know that their godism armor is a sieve through which open
public ire can easily pour?
Many of the faces in the pictures you will immediately
recognize. They are your neighbors and your friends. They
are simply Atheist people who, like you, have yearned to
finally show their deep resentment for the years they spent
being too timid to step forward. No more! Now they are
suddenly gladiators for true freedom. There exists a
closeness between them now that bonds them now together in a way that other personal interests can never separate.
Page 8

OF AMERICAN ATHEISTS

Whites, blacks, male, female, heterosexual, homosexual

-all are now fused by the catalyst of defiant Atheism. Some
were apprehensive; some were militant; some were veteran
"non-believers"; some were new recruits. They all shared
the same sweetness of victory over former intellectual
repression. Let some nutty godist approach any of them
now!
Our only regret is that all American Atheist members
were not able to attend the Convention. We know that
many of you would have liked to, but, were unable to for
various reasons - legitimate reasons. As you can see by
the photos, "closetism" is not now, nor has ever truely
been, a legitimate reason for not revealing your true self to
America and to the world. We look forward to the time
when we can watch the pleasant expressions that you see in
our pictures flow across the faces of eveo) Atheist in this
nation.
Allin all, the entire event went delightfully smoothly. Our
speakers (all from our American Atheist speaker pool) were
received with much interest by an eager audience. Our
outings were a triumph! The media's juvenile attempt to
provoke a desired "confrontation between christian good
guys and Atheist bad guys" was a resounding flop! America
was able to view a reportedly expected "throng of thousands" of christian counterdemonstrators stand quietly in
the bodies of only about 25 ignorant "souls". Meanwhile, at
every turn we were politely received and respectfully
treated. A very positive image of American Atheism has
been permanently stamped on the very gates of our
government. We intend now to see those gates opened to
Atheism as they should always have been.
If you have been a closet Atheist, I suppose that some
might say that your "reserved attitude" may indeed be a
demonstration of human conscience, a generous respect
for other concepts. We say, as always, that if in fact you
have such a conscience, it is time to put it to the task of
being a part of the guidelines of the national community.
Those "other concepts" must be divested of bigotry and
hypocrisy once and for all. Be a part of your own community
and, at the same time, a part of your own self.
We'll see you at the next American Atheist convention!!
P.S. We are grateful to Mr. Peter Greenfield of Ann Arbor,
Michigan for most of the fine photos of the Convention
events. His shots were extremely well done. Thanks Pete.

June, 1982

'American Atheists

A religious nut is cornere~ by a policeman actually

doing his job.

We did it!

Feels good doesn't it, Merrill Holste

Will you go to heaven now, Richard Smith

and Art Brenner?

We wonder if Ronald
Reagan isn't saying that
. - -_ .. in private?

Hi, Nancy Cook

Austin, Texas

June, 1982

Page 9

Minerva Massen -

Gregory Fahy -

Chapter Director of the Year

Happy Birthday Madalyn and Tom (Jefferson)

Dominic Florio Page 10

Atheist of the Year

PhD.

Frank Zindler -

G. Stanley Brown June, 1982

PhD.

PhD.
American Atheists

Larry McHoliand

among others

Jon Murray among others

Which church does this go to?

John Massen against the arms race
All of them.

Pat Voswinkel leads the way

Dr. O'Hair introducing John Massen

Austin, Texas

June, 1982

Page 11

A beautiful sight to behold!'

The fun begins

A moment's pause to pose

Atheists gather at the Thomas J.efferson Memorial

Ron Lindsay -

Come on. Let's celebrate.

Page 12

June, 1982

Attorney

American Atheists

"It's not quite like they say it is in here".

Jon Murray and Shirly Nelson

(Jefferson Memorial)

Tucson contingent and Pat Cook join

Dr. Q'Hair and Gerald Tholen

The eyes begin to moisten.

Atheists getting even more education

Austin, Texas

Ted Kayes June, 1982

glad to be Atheist
Page 13

Standing up for your mind is the beginning

"Where do you get the courage to do this?"

of wisdom

A proud Atheis

They didn't teach us that in school.

A time to be serious

Detroit Chapter of American Atheists

Page 14

Noel Scott - Washington,

Director and host of the
June, 1982

DC Chapter
convention

A word of strategy Jl

.American Atheists

Does that say "Christians don't know

what they're my thing"?

They can't put us down.

roud Atheist

pter of American Atheists

Gloria Tholen registers a conventioneer.

Gerald Tholen honors Ingersoll

f strategy perhaps?
Austin, Texas

Henry Schmuck and "Professor"

Via
June, 1982

You hit the nail on the head.

Page 15

The voices of reason make their presence known

Ellen Johnson and Robert Hawisher

Atheists at lnqersoll's graye with Washington

Atheists have more fun!

Monument in back.

Step right up.

Page 16

Dr. O'Hair June, 1982

"We can do it if we try."

American Atheists

We should do this more often!

Jon Garth Murray in conversation

Robin Murray O'Hair

John Marthaler

G. Stanley Brown and Barbara Sowder

Austin, Texas

If christiana could only see themselves

June, 1982

Page 17

Ingersoll with his successors

(Most of) Henry Schmuck & Silvia Berger

Ann Brenner
Arnold Via

Everett Allie - South Florida Chapter

Director getting a go-ahead

Henry Webber and company

Page 18

. June, 1982

American Atheists

John Crump -

Kyrin Alves -

Atheist Composer of the Year

Barbara Sowder -

Browsing in the Book Room

PhD.

Jon Murray - Most Hated (by christians)

Atheist of the Year
Austin, Texas

Chapter Worker of the Year

Paul Tirmenstein June, 1982

Pioneer Atheist
Page 19

The picket continues

We recognize Percy Prestenbach and Mady Karns

Bill Talley and Pat Cook

We don't preach the end of the world.

Kyle McHoliand proves you don't have to be old to

be wise.
Page 20

Sexual oppression can never end without Atheism.

June, 1982

American Atheists

American Atheists Win A Big One

Maybe, or We Think, or What Happened, Ma?
The telephone began to ring at The American Atheist
Center about 1:30 P.M. on May 12th and it did not let up
until The Center closed that night. The remark of the
Associated Press reporter was typical, "Well, I see you
finally won one. What do you think of the Fifth Circuit's
decision on your case?"
The reports of the wire services were that Madalyn
Murray O'Hair had won the right to sue the State of Texas.
Since that made no sense at all, it was necessary to try to
contact the court. There, the usual pass- the-telephone
routine was encountered, with the "Opinion Clerk" in a
tremulous voice finally affirming that a decision had been
handed down and that Atheists and an Atheist organization
did have "standing to sue." At this point, it was The
American Atheist Center which scotched the news reports,
telling all the radio and television stations that the results of
the case were not known - "don't call us; we'll call you."
What was at issue was the fate of a legal fight which was
mounted first in October, 1978 and which has been
dragging through the federal court systems in Texas and
the South for over almost four years. Article I, Section 4 of
the Constitution of Texas provides that one may not hold
either office or public trust unless one has a belief in a
supreme being. The provision eliminates both Atheist and
agnostic from entry into the state system even as an
employee since applications for employment are mandated
by this constititutional provision to include the question to
applicants, "Do you believe in a Supreme Being?" The issue
was particularly sticky in Texas since another part of the
constitution, Article 1, Section 29 held that the Texas Billof
Rights was inviolable and could never be changed. The
offensive exclusion of Atheists and agnostics was in the Bill
of Rights.
The personnel at The Center waited with bated breath
for the actual decision to arrive, which it did - by priority
mail- on May 15th. No one, however, was prepared for the
little mindedness, the meanness, the pettiness, the bigoted
- almost hysterical-language,
the vindictive attitude, the
grudging giving of what legal points were forced upon the
court. The Fifth Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, in New
Orleans, in all 23 of its justices who had set, en banque in
this case, are indicted now and in history for the spectacle of
the mental poverty, the lilliputian approach and the hostile
spirit of the decision. The fact that 15 out of 23 justices were
reluctantly forced to give points to Atheist litigants is
apparent. Five other justices were bitter in recrimination
against those justices who had seen some merit in the
Atheist claims, and three others - gagging on their words
- concurred in part and dissented in part from the opinion.
Of course, the en banque hearing had been held in early
September, 1981, but the decision had been withheld until
mid-May, 1982
What did it say? (1) Atheists have standing to sue. Since
harm can be done to individual values of an abstract or
esoteric nature and to rights existing solely by virture of
Austin, Texas

statute or Constitution, Atheists may sue to protect those

rights. (2) An Atheist organization has standing to sue to
seek redress for violations of its members rights. (3) It is not
proper for a federal court to abstain from giving a judgment
on a matter to which federal law reaches. The case was in
the Court of Appeals because a lower federal court had
insisted that the matter of the Texas State Constitution had
to be resolved by Texas courts and not by a federal court.
In this instance, the Court of Appeals told that judge that he
was in error.
Viewing all of these issues, the court said that the lower
court decision was "affirmed in part, reversed in part, and
remanded." This simply means that a number of the issues
in the case were concluded, as above, but those which were
not, needed to be taken up again by the lower court.
The decision is confused, characterized by meanness of
spirit, smallness of mind and carries an over all tone of
hostility and spite, with special asides and swipes taken at
Atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair whenever possible. It
begins by reciting that the gravamen of the complaint before
it is whether Article 1, Section 4 of the constitution of Texas
(which requires belief in the existence of a supreme being to
hold office or public trust) violated the civil rights of
Madalyn O'Hair and the American Atheist organization
both by its existence and its application. The court then, in
fantasia, states that "They allege direct injury as members
of a religious minority ... " Anyone reading this magazine,
being a member of the organization, attending any functions of the same or being privy to any of its stands knows
that neither the Murray-O'Hairs nor the organization would
ever plead in any court that they belonged to a religion.
Non-plused the court went on to answer three questions it
posed to itself: (1) Does O'Hair have standing to challenge
the constitutionality of Article 1, Section 4; (2) does
American Atheists have such standing; (3) even if they had
standing should the lower federal court have refrained from
reaching the merits of the question?
The reluctance with which the answer "yes" was given to
the first questions is apparent in the long decision. The
court goes into an extensive dicussion of allegations of
Madalyn O'Hair, uiz (1) that the constitutional provision
interferes with her fundamental right to vote; (2) prevents
her from receiving a fair trial in a pending criminal case (her
arrest when she refused to pray at Austin City Council); and
(3) caused her to be excluded from jury service. Unfortunately Dr. O'Hair did not allege (1) in the case at all. The
court again went off into fantasy. However, on issue (2) it
held that the inability to have either judge or jury selected
randomly without reference to religious ideas was a direct
and palpabale injury, causally related to the Texas constitutional provisions. And, in issue (3) that exclusion from jury
service of Dr. O'Hair did cause her to be aggrieved.
Reviewing the three matters again, the court then concluded that the American Atheist organization also had a
right to raise these issues on behalf of all of its members.

June, 1982

Page 21

Moving on to whether or not the lower court should have

abstained from resolving the issue, the court found that
Article I, Section 4 did present a straightforward issue of
federal constitutional law and that the federal district court
should have ruled on it. The court saw that this section
affected the choosing of judges who might be called upon to
preside in trials where Atheists were involved and that
hence the lower court should have decided the issue.
However, when looking at juries, the court concluded that it
was nowhere evident in Texas that jurors held "offices of
public trust." This is particularly pernicious since Dr.
O'Hair in one of her briefs to the court had pointed out that
Rule 226a of the Texas Rules of Court Procedure had
specifically held the jurors to be officers of the court. The
court was very careful in its discussions of the issues all
through the entire decision to avoid mention of the First
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. In
concluding remarks the judges stated:
"... we emphasize that our decision is a narrow one that
does not reach the merits of any claim raised by appellants." That is to say - that when all was said and done they
refused to look at Article I, Section 4 of the Texas
constitution. They went on: "We do not intimate any
opinion as to whether either appellant has been
deprived of any constitutional
right or has been
injured in any manner. That decision must be made by
the district court after further proceedings."
Three
dissenting judges were furious. They proposed "...
a
tenable construction of Article 1, Section 4 which would
avoid the federal constitutional question. .. "That interpretation followed: "The majority asserts that the language oj
section 4 {'acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being')
unambiguously excluded Atheists from public office in
Texas and that 'there is no room in which the state courts
could maneuver to obviate the necessity of constitutional
adjudication.' We disagree. Section 4 is ambiguous and one
of its two interpretations conforms to the First Amendment. The quoted language may readily be interpreted to
specify only that one who acknowledges the existence of a
supreme being shall not be excluded from office on account
of his religious sentiments, with no provision one way or the
other for one who does not so acknowledge. This, indeed,
is the literal meaning of the words; the exclusion of those
who do not acknowledge a supreme being is a mere
inference from the language of section 4. Just as the
statement, 'No person shall be ejected from the library,
,provided he is quiet,' does not necessarily imply that"one
who is not quiet will be ejected, so section 4 does not
necessarily imply that one who does not acknowledge the
existence of a Supreme Being shall not hold office on that
account.
"We recognize that the literal interpretation of section 4
is not its natural meaning, and may not be its intended
meaning. But the question is not whether the suggested
interpretation is 'correct,' but rather whether it is sufficiently tenable to require construction by a state court. It is,
because if Texas courts had the opportunity to interpret
seation 4, they would seek to interpret it so as to be
constitutional ... even if a state law is unconstitutional on
its face, Texas courts will seek to construe it so as to be
constitutional ... Thus, there is no question but that section
4 is sufficiently ambiguous that a Texas court might
construe it so as to be constitutional. Therefore, the district
Page 22

court correctly declined to exercise its jurisdiction."

Five justices went further, they saw the talk of due
process and equal protection to an Atheist as "disturbing
talk indeed ... It is disturbing because it may suggest that
the district court is supposed to correct 'a system that
excludes Atheists' by striking down the system - officers,
judges and all."
Of course, this decision was rendered in New Orleans,
Louisiana, where the Fifth Federal Circuit Court of Appeals
sits. It involves the Texas state constitution. The cost to the
taxpayers of the State of Texas to fight this suit for four
years has been significant. Some of the most reactionary
forces in our country are based in Texas, the current
governor being an example. The idea of this decision is to
force another two years of litigation in a hostile federal
district court in Austin, Texas.
Yet, Patricia Voswinkel, Director of the Charlotte, North
Carolina Chapter of American Atheists quickly went into
and out of a federal district court in her city and won a
consent decree from the governor and attorney general of
her state on a similar provision in North Carolina's constitution. Harold Church, Director of the Tennessee Chapter of
American Atheists quickly went into and out of a federal
district court in Nashville and won a consent decree from
the governor and attorney general of his state on a similar
provision in Tennessee's constitution. The hostility in
Texas has much to do with the personalities involved. The
leading Atheist family and the leading Atheist organization
of the world is Texas based. If the courts can stonewall the
rights of these Atheists, it can stop the growth and spread of
Atheism.
But, the victory is significant. Atheists do have standing
to sue. An Atheist organization now has standing to sue for
injury done to its members. And, a federal district court
judge has had an error marked against him, publicly.
American Atheists and Madalyn Murray O'Hair willgo back
to that federal district court in Austin, Texas, and they will
take however many years are necessary until the offensive
prohibition against Atheists (and agnostics) in positions of
public trust or in office has been removed from the Texas
constitution.
Meantime, this decision starts the death knell for the case
against Madalyn O'Hair begun when she refused to pray in
Austin City Council. Charged with "disturbing a public
meeting" for refusing to pray, Dr. O'Hair has been in and
out of court in Austin, in New Orleans, in Washington, D.C.
since 1977 fighting that case - particularly pointing out that
she is in a courtroom situation where judge, jury, bailiff,and
clerk are all required to acknowledge a belief in a supreme
being to hold their positions. It may take time, but in this
case also, American Atheists and Dr. O'Hair will stay in
court until their position is vindicated.
Isn't it time you helped in the fight too?

Our Demand:

June, 1982

Equal Justice for Atheists

American Atheists

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF TENN~SSEE
NASHVILLE DIVISION

*
*

HAROLD CHURCH, JUANITA

TRAMMELL, and SOCIETY OF
SEPARAT-IONISTS, INC.,
d/b/a AMERICAN ATHEISTS,

*
*
*

*
*

Plaintiff,

*
*

v.

Civil
No. 81-3643-N

LAMAR ALEXANDER, Governor

of Tennessee, and WILLIAM
M. LEECH, JR., Attorney
General of Tennessee,

*
*

;~il!)llnl

r . ~ -~., r

*
*

Defendants.

-*

~:oo

_r~

V/~=~'

'/ , /.:;'1;1
Jrl"-

?
;LJ-,IJ..K Z-

Harold

Church

~'~

JUDGMENT

The plaintiffs
challenge Article
violative

in this declaratory

IX S 2 of the Tennessee Constitution

of the Establishment

as being

Clause and the Free Exercise of

Religion Clause of the First Amendment

Constitution

judgment action

to the United States

as applied to the states through the Fourteenth

Amendment.
Article

IX S 2 provides:

"No person who denies the

being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments,

hold any office in the civil department

shall

of this State."

This issue has been decided in the plaintiffs'

in Torcaso v. Watkins,

favor

367 U.S. 488, 81 S.Ct. 1680, 6 L.Ed.2d 982

(1961)

With the consent of the partie.,

ORDERED, ADJUDGED
Constitution
Amendments

it ia therefore hereby

and DECREED that Article IX 5 2 of the Tennesaee

is unconstitutional

under the First and Fourteenth

to the United States Constitution.

All court costs are

taxed to the plaintiffs by consent of all parties hereto.

Each

party will bear its own other costs, including attorney's fees.
APPROVED AS TO FORM AND CONTENT: ,

6LLl~.~1r.4.
Attorney

Attorney

General

--

-.,

Enter this

---,2~2__

day of

, 1982.

for Plaintiffs

Austin, Texas
June, 1982
Page 23

!
I

UNITED STATES
WESTERN

DISTRICT

DISTRICT

COURT

OF NORTH CAROLINA

CHARLOTTE DIVISION
Civil Action File No. CC 78-0351
SOCIETY OF SEPARATIONISTS,
and PATRICIA VOSWINKEL,
Plaintiffs

INC.

)
)
)

F, lED
CHARLOTTE.

vs

APR. 41919

JAMES B. HUNT, JR., Governor of

North Carolina, and RUFUS L.
EDMISTEN, Attorney General of
North Carolina, .
Defendants
Plaintiffs,

stitutional

}
)
)
)
)

in this action,

Article VI, Section

us.

seek declaratory

Article

cites

dated January

of the decisions

disqualifies

qualifies

the opinion

that

28, 1972, wherein

The answer

General

it is stated,

8 of the North Carolina

Court,

Patricio
Vos",inkel

of North

"In the light

the portion

Constitution,

of

which dis-

for office any person who shall deny the being of Almighty

God, violates

the First Amendment

and cannot be used to disqualify

qualified."

Plaintiffs

~OW, THEREFORE,
ORDERED,

ADJUDGED

Carolina

Constitution

disqualifies

by consent

from office who is otherwise

have therefore

with the consent

agreed to the

VI, Section

it is hereby
8 of the North

as to that portion which

any person otherwise

God.

of all parties

of the parties,

that Article

is unconstitutional

for office,

Charlotte,

a person

and

AND DECREED

the being of Almighty

of the United State. Constitution

and Defendants

entry of this judgment,

Dated at

(ovitT
N.C.

for office

God".

of the Attorney

of the United States Supreme

VI, Section

judgment

i.)F

8 of the North 'Carolina Const.itution is uncon-

"any person who shall deny the being of Almighty

Carolina

DISTRI(T

W(\; "'ST.

and void as to that part which

of the Defendants

N.C.

JUDGMENT

qualified

who shall deny

All costs of Court are taxed to Plaintiffs

hereto.

N. C., this

4I'f:A,

a,.~.

, 1979.

AGREED AS TO FORM AND CONTENT:

6ames B. McMillan
United States District
Governor
Attorney

Page

of North Carolina and

General of North Carolina

Patricia

Judge

Voswinkel

24

\,
)

June, 1982

Am

.
encan Ath .

elsts

Fifth Column
F red Woodworth

RELIGION'S ASSAULT ON
INFORMATION AND LEARNING
IN ANCIENT AND HISTORIC TIMES
Everybody is familiar with efforts carried out by religious
censors to hamper the furtherance of opinions contrary to
their own. Modern history - or, let us say, the description
of events since the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution
- is seen to contain almost countless episodes of bookburnings, prohibitions, and all kinds of strife caused by the
religious-authoritarian imposition placed on free-minded
persons.
Nevertheless, it is still possible, for some reason, to hear
these assaults on books, authors, ideas, and readers be
trivialized to the status of isolated incidents, divorced from
any necessary connection with religion. In fact, history of
the Middle Ages and earlier now regularly portrays monasteries of the catholic church as having been preservers of
learning in a world gone hostile to it; and the role played by
this and other religions in creating the Dark Ages is
forgotten. It is as ifthe assassin who spares a single member
of a household, is suddenly hailed as a saver of life.
Moreover, the average adherent to anyone of today's
religious creeds not only does not see himself as the latest
recruit to an army whose long-standing tradition is hostility
to free knowledge, such persons are often quite unaware of
the very ancient link between their churches and the
practice of forcible suppression.
The fight against, and for, freedom of the press including freedom to read, possess, buy, distribute, print or
originate books - began long before there ever was any
press; that is, centuries prior to the actual invention of
mechanical printing. The development of moveable type
during the middle of the fifteenth century followed the
earlier introduction of presses and printing from carved
wood-blocks, but books themselves had been produced, of
course, as entirely hand-written volumes, back to the dawn
of writing itself. Early on, religion evinced a particular
interest in this written language that could state an individual's knowledge or reasoning long after the author had
vanished. Ideas of the wrong person would, unregulated,
live on and affect unknown numbers of thinkers to come.
Given the opportunity to choose and ponder unimpeded, a
reader might well arrive at conclusions which would disrupt
the fine balance that kept priests and kings in their
privileged positions. Heresy, from a Greek word meaning
choice, became the prime target of attack by censors. As
Richard de Bury, speaking in the early 1300's, said of books:
"These are teachers, whose instructions are unaccompanied with blows or harsh words; who demand neither food
nor wages: you visit them, they are alert; if you want them,
they hide not themselves; should you mistake their meaning, they complain not; nor ridicule your ignorance, be it
ever so gross". Non-authoritarian teachers these - and
dangerous for it - indeed.
By the year 410, Rome had twenty nine public libraries.
Major collections of ancient manuscripts existed in other
centers of civilization, but as darkness - religion-caused
Austin, Texas

darkness - fell with the passing centuries, much of the

legacy from earlier ages was blotted out in a general wreck
of the written word. In 640 Alexandria was captured from
the Greeks, and its conquering general enumerated treasures of the city that included five hundred thousand scrolls
and other books, the product of seven centuries. When he
addressed an inquiry to the ruling caliph Omar concerning
the disposition of these books, the caliph is said to have
answered, "If these books contain anything against the
book of god (the koran), they ought to be suppressed; but if
they contain nothing contrary to it they are stillsuperfluous.
I command you to destroy them all". Supposedly the vast
library was dissipated by being burnt as fuel to heat the
baths, a method of consumption that required six months.
By the year 741, the library at Constantinople had also
been destroyed (by order of emperor Leo III).By 800 a high
proportion of rulers of every kind, including the famous
Charlemagne, were completely unacquainted with literature and totally illiterate. The pope of those times was
compelled to issue laws allowing the ordaining of priests and
bishops even ifthey could not read enough to chant psalms.
In some countries, such as Spain, the destruction of
literature took such a drastic turn that several monasteries
and ecclesiastical offices were forced to share copies of
religious works - rather a far cry from the picture now
painted of these institutions as citadels of learning and
librarianism holding out against a barbaric world. As the
catholic church continued to spearhead the attack on
ancient knowledge, pope Gregory VII, in the mid-eleventh
century, tried to destroy the works of all "heathen" authors
of antiquity; and it is said that he burned, among others,
more than a hundred copies of Livy's History - in a time
when even the reproduction of a single volume by hand
might occupy months. Gregory's Dictates of Hildebrand
stated that no book was to be deemed canonical without his
authority. The crowning achievement of this religionist
(who is looked upon with respect today by catholics) was to
commit to the flames the entire library of the Palatine apollo,
an order promulgated to "confine the attention" of the
clergy to "the holy scriptures". According to Gregory, all
that was not holy was profane.
Meanwhile, an unexpected by-product of the assault on
learning was the falling-offof trade and knowledge of things
related to books, such as the making of paper. In 1120, a
monk appointed to transcribe, at the behest of the convent
of St. Edmond's Bury, an illuminated copy of the bible was
unable to find any paper or parchment in the whole of
England. From such a scarcity arose the practice of erasing
old books in order to reuse the paper or parchment for
"new" works which were invariably religious. Curiously
enough, such a shameful use to which the ancient authors'
products were put is now regarded with actual pride by
religious apologists who point, for instance, to the 1907
re-discovery of the lost work of Archimedes, On the

June, 1982

Page 25

Method (a scientific treatise by possibly the greatest man of

ancient times), as an instance in which monkish erasure
"preserved" a manuscript: no mention is made of the
annihilation of it in the first place to make it serve as a slate
for liturgical, valueless, religious nonsense. Known as
Codices Rescripti, or Codices Palimpsesti, the recycled
book pages from the past were erased by such methods as
scraping or boiling, or even by bleaching with quicklime. In
some of the happier instances, writing that had merely
faded from age was hastily sponged over, so that it can, to a
degree, be restored today, but this is an operation of
retrieval that would by no means have been necessary but
for the literary vandalism of religious zealots. And in our
time the monasteries are portrayed as diligent preservers of
knowledge during the Dark Ages, whereas the monks were
assiduously replacing the thoughts of some of the finest
minds of the pre-christian world with silly missals and
biblical rhymes.
Even insofar as religious books themselves were concerned - such books being on the very lowest rung of the
ladder of literature - the claim of the church to a posture of
intellectual preserver is utterly false. In actuality, the very
bible was kept only in the hands of religious officials and
monks, and common people were prevented from owning
it. In the mid-1200's, king James I of Spain ordered that
possession of a bible in the common tongue should make a
person guilty of a high crime, for which the penalty was to be
burned to death. Similar laws in other countries, particularly England, created endless suffering amongst the misguided who at times came to think that reading the
supposed "word of god" was a high and noble activity.
Trapped between the .outrageous censorship of priestly
rulers and the ignorant, hysterical devotion to a completely
false creed and lunatic body of writing, many innocent and
uncomprehending victims met agonizing tortures and
death, not only in what is called the inquisition, but in a
galaxy of similar intolerant churchly persecutions. And of
course, ifonly to possess or read a bible was such a terrible
offense, reading one of the "profane" (i.e. non-christian)
authors was even worse.
Heretics .,', those guilty of heresy, or free choice of what
to believe, rather than obedience in thinking - were tried in
the times of Henry IV in a "spiritual court", and obstinacy of
belief resulted in a condemned person's being burned to
death in an elevated place within sight of the people.

ASSAULTS ON THE PRESS

It was within such a milieu that mechanical printing
methods first arose. When production from carved wood
blocks first began to be done, around the year 1422, subject
matter tended to be fanatically conservative and chosen
with paranoiac care. This early printing, which could have
ushered in the Industrial Age several hundred years before
its time, was put to the use instead of making playing cards
or Latin liturgical works. Even after the invention of
moveable type by Gutenberg, around 1436, books were
printed with a suspicious eye on the whimsy of religious
authority. Not surprisingly, practically all the early products
of true printing cater deferentially to what is imagined to be
the desires of a god-obsessed and certainly cruel and
powerful leadership class that had the ability and inclination
to draw-and-quarter a printer at the least provocation. How
Page 26

potentially powerful this new technology was is shown by

the fact that by 1468 the price of books had fallen more than
80%. As a result, the first typographers met strenuous
opposition from scribes who continued, in the monasteries,
to handwrite books. A tactic used by some of these monks
to liquidate the competing printers was the familiar branding as heretics or sorcerers. In France in about 1470, on
instigation of the copyists, parliament ordered all books and
impressions of the new printers to be confiscated, a decree
that only was overturned by Louis XI; and in many other
instances as well, agents of the printing press were harassed
and intimidated by the now-denominated "preservers of
learning".
As in so many other instances, what religion first
condemns, it later takes and uses; and after the outcry of
the monks died away there began to be enacted laws
making printed books subject to censorship. By 1480 books
were appearing with printed approbations, or licenses, on
the front pages, showing that powers of religious authority
allowed them to exist. In 1484 the inquisition was formally
established in Spain by John de Torquemada, a dominican
monk. He is said to have prosecuted over 80,000 persons,
punishing victims by fire, in order not to shed blood, which
his religious order supposedly forbade. As the quintessential catholic organization, the inquisition is unsurpassed,
and its brutal methods continued without being stopped by
conscience or doctrine of the religious. Vigorously upholding censorship, pope Alexander VI, in 1501 published an
edict saying that, "Having been informed that by means of
the said art (printing), many books and treatises ...containing...pernicious doctrines, even hostile to the christian
religion, have been printed, and being desirous without
further delay to put a stop to this detestable evil, we by the
authority of the apostolic chamber strictly forbid all printers ...under pain of excommunication and fine...to print
hereafter any books, treatises or writings until they have
consulted on this subject".
Excommunication isn't the same as being burned at the
stake, although that penalty was still held in reserve for
serious offenses, but in a country ruled by the church it was
no light matter. When king Robert was excommunicated
for marrying his cousin, only two faithful servants, supposedly, remained in his service, and it is said that any article he
touched was passed through a fire by them before it could
have contact with other people. Excommunication meant
immediate financial ruin, social ostracism, total abandonment, inability to earn a living, and even starvation.
As inquisitorial indexes formed in different countries, a
plethora of censoring officials was often unable to decide to
judge any work completely free of contamination, lest this
total recommendation perhaps condemn them, and as a
result works were sometimes given provisional approval till
such time as someone else might find them objectionable
from the inquisitorial point of view. Thus, all literature and
products of the press were under a gloomy cloud of doubt
and fearfulness. In 1515, under pope Leo X, the 10th session
of the council of lateran ordered that no book should be
printed unless it had been examined by "the vicar of his
holiness". In such an atmosphere a man of learning had to
be brave indeed. With the example of Giordano Bruno
before him (who was burned at the stake in 1600), Galileo
muttered a disavowal of his astronomical theories and was
sent to prison in his old age, while his wife, in the catholic

June, 1982

American Atheists

printer Thomas Bassandyne was found guilty of issuing

confessional, was persuaded to bring forward his manu"ane lewd song" entitled Welcome Fortunes. In 1579 an
scripts so that the church could destroy those unfit to be
known to the world. Cornelius Agrippa, who died in 1534, author, publisher and printer were simultaneously convichad to leave his practice as a physician and go into exile ted and sentenced by ecclesiastical authority to have their
right hands cut off. Regulations followed hard arid fast
after having performed simple experiments in physical
science. Jerome Cardan, a mathematician, was branded a throughout 1583, 1584, 1588, and 1637, when another
author was condemned to have his ears cut off by the
magician. Albert de Groot, a mechanic who is said to have
church. In this last year new laws proposed to reduce the
constructed a machine that emitted vocal-like sounds,
suffered a somewhat different injury when Thomas Aqui- number of publishers, so as to be able to control them
nas, who saw the machine, was so horrified by it that he better. The dreary pageant continued: 1647, 1648 (an act
suppressing plays), and 1649. Driven by religion, laws were
smashed it on the spot, thus wiping out thirty years' work.
made involving licensing, confiscation of property, definiToday, Aquinas is revered by the credulous and the
tions of propriety, and every conceivable aspect of literary
religious, and de Groot is forgotten.
or scientific phraseology, discourse, or method.
Descartes, who was accused of Atheism, narrowly
escaped being burned at Utrecht. Harvey, who taught the
CONCLUSION
theory of the circulation of the blood, was ridiculed by
ancestors, equally certain and smug, of the moral majority,
who today ridicule the "theory" of evolution.
This list of events and dates, horrifying to the reasonable
In 1522 the edict of Nuremberg ordered that printers
person, could be multiplied many times and still not exhaust
"should print no new things." (!) Thus, the real criminal, the the supply of atrocities committed by the terrible alliance of
church, persecuted the innocent and deprived humanity of religion and power. The person who claims, in the face of all
the benefits of innovation and progress.
this, that the acts oLtoday's religious censors and bookAs time passed, the power and censoriousness of the burners are isolated occurences, is an exceedingly poor
religious continued to be felt. In 1547 an act excluded trade
student of history. Nothing in principle separates today's
in foreign books and strictly regulated where printing "moralistic" religious fanatic from the one of the middle
presses could be kept. In 1549 an act against "diabolical" ages, and the existence of an organization such as the
books consigned to flames many on astronomy and other
"moral majority" is no aberration in the history of religion,
sciences. 1551 saw parliament under queen Mary pass an but the general rule. Today we see the tendency to rewrite
order imposing further censorship that prevented printers
history by making the Dark Ages the fault of "somebody
from reproducing anything at all unless first examined by else", and the christian churches representing themselves
some "wise and discreit persons" - namely, religious as pillars of intellectualism during those times. But then, as
authorities. In 1553 Michael Servetus, a doctor of medicine,
now, they were no such thing. They were the very real
was burned to death by a slow fire by the catholic church, .enemies of the people, curtaining down a darkness that they
and not long after, one Petrus Manzolius, a writer who came
would like to bring on again, obsessed with superstitious
and fallacious concepts; lacking a real understanding of
to the attention of authorities on account of his sarcastic
remarks about the pope, was condemned and would have right and wrong; unable to see evolvement of a free human
been burned also, but it was found that he died before the society without fear and extreme jealousy being their
religious authorities could reach him. They therefore had to constant reaction. To them, belief in things that have no
be satisfied with digging up his body from its grave and existence whatsoever supercedes recognition of a true
burning it.
paradise on earth that could be built ifthey would only cease
Printing was practiced for the first time in Russia in 1564, their harmful efforts. And in this way, what is real suffers for
but religious bigotry soon stopped the press, and nothing
that which is not and cannot be.
else appeared in that country for thirty-two years. Also in
1564, at the council of Trent, pope Pius IV oversaw a listing
"They act as men in ecstasies have done Striving their cloudy visions to declare.
of books that had been prohibited, and added more
regulations governing the judgment of such issuances. In
Till they have lost the notions which they had,
England, more ordinances followed in 1566; and in 1568
And want but few degrees of being mad."

------

Austin, Texas

June, 1982

Page 27

JD)llAlcAWcA
JD)llAILc'[j'[](]~oA1rlHIlEll1r

1rlHllEll1r

Tucson, Arizona
Sacramento, California
San Francisco, California
Denver, Colorado
Ft. lauderdale, Florida
Tampa/Mr. Petersburg, Fla
Atlanta, Georgia
Chicago, Illinois
Indianapolis, Indiana
lexington, Kentucky
Boston, Massachusetts
Dallas, Texas

(602)
(916)
(415)
(303)
(305)
(813)
(404)
(312)
(812)
(606)
(617)
(214)

CHAPTERS
623-3861
989-3170
974-1750
692-9395
384-8923
577-7154
577-7344
772-8822
425-1949
278-8333
969-2682
690-5327

Tucson, Arizona
THE LIFE AND DEATH
OF A STAR

OF AMERICAN

ATHEISTS

Detroit, Michigan
Mr. louis, Missouri
Northern New Jersey
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Schenectady, New York
Charlotte, North Carolina
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Portland, Oregon
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Houston, Texas
Salt lake City, Utah
Northern Virginia

(512)
(313)
(314)
(201)
(505)
(518)
(704)
(405)
(503)
(412)
(713)
(801)
(703)

458-5731
721-6630
771-8894
777-0766
884-7630
346-1479
568-5346
677-4141
287-6461
734-0509
664-7678
364-4939
370-5255

(602) 623 3861

(Cont'd. from page 7)

supernova stage are calculated to convert most of their

hydrogen to helium and create a carbon core if they are
massive enough. But electron degeneracy willprevent them
from collapsing further and feeding on their gravitational
potential energy. Hence, they become small dense stars
which are slowly fading out. These are known as white
dwarfs and many are observable. Measurements of their
mass and radius agree with model calculations.
So the ultimate fates of stars are white dwarf, neutron
star, black hole, in order of increasing mass. All three
contain densities of matter far in excess of any matter in the
solar system. They pose delightful problems for astrophysi-

cists. Whereas the first two stars are understood, the black
hole creates a whole new field of research in physics. At this
time our understanding of matter which has crushed itself
so completely is poor. We can begin our study with general
relativity (see American Atheist Vol. 23, No. 11, p. 20)
because we are dealing with a strong gravitational field. But
Einstein's equations cannot cope with the center of a black
hole. A Nobel prize is waiting for the person who can
explain such a strange place. His or her work will also
contribute to our understanding of the first second of time
of our expanding universe. Super densities are thought to
have existed then just as they do in black holes now. The
researchers have a lot of exciting work ahead of them.

NOTICE

It's the ~o~ptl !

Many of you have written to ask what happened to the

Letters to the Editor section, the Atheist Masters section,
the Roots of Atheism section, the American Atheist Radio
Series, the poetry, the legal education series among other
former regular features of the magazine. We at the American Atheist Center have agonized ourselves for some time
over their absence.
Those of you who are veteran subscribers willremember
18 months ago when the magazine suffered a financial
setback and was reduced from 40 pages/month to 20
pages/month. Since that time we have been gradually
recovering the space that we used to have. First, we were
able to increase the content a year ago to 24 pages. Then,
we were able to increase it again to 28 pages a half year ago.
We have been doing this while printing the magazine inhouse, thus increasing the burden on our printer and staff at
the same time that we make ourselves more independent.
We now have the most competent in-house printer that
we have ever had, and so our productive capacity is soon to
improve. You may have noticed that the cover has already
improved considerably in the last several months. Therefore, we expect to return the popular features that you have
all missed as soon as we are able. In the meantime we ask
you to bear with us, and ifyou have any material which you
think worthy of putting in the magazine, we strongly
encourage you to submit it and we will give it due
consideration.
- Editor

Children came home from sunday school. Mother

wanted to know what they had learned.
A boy who was oldest began, "Oh, she was telling us
how moses led the Israelites across the Red Sea, how
he called the Air Force to give them cover and how he
gave an order for the Army to build a pontoon bridge
in a hurry so they could go over.
Mother listened and then said, "That was not the
way she told you the story . Tell us how she told you."
The boy, not hesitating, looked up and said, "If I told
you how she read it from the bible, you would never
believe it."

Page 28

Bertha Goodall
IF YOV ARE GA Y AND ATHEIST
PLEASE CONTACT:
Gay Atheists League of America
P.O. Box 14142
San Francisco, CA 94114
Membership: $15.00/year
($10.00/year for students and senior citizens)
Send to the same address for subscriptions to the GALA
Review. Subscriptions $10.00/year; $11.50/year in Canada
and PUAS; elsewhere $12.50/year.

June, 1982

American Atheists

SOMEONE IS LYING !
Perhaps you can help to identify who the culprit(s) is (or are). We have been told repeatedly by our esteemed military and political leaders that
Russia has far greater nuclear superiority than do we! Let's examine this claim for a moment. Many organizations have published the numerical
strength of nuclear devices for both the U.S. and the U .S.S.R. Figures, on occasion, conflict slightly in that Russia "has greater numbers" but that
"ours are more sophisticated" - or vice versa. In fact, so much military rhetoric is used in explanations - depending on the source - that the
average person is left with only a puzzled look and little understanding of the real situation.
What is important is that total efficiency in any given context (destruction of civilization in this instance) is always expressed as 100%efficiency.
Now that's simple to understand, isn't it? In other words 102%,or 150%, or even 2000% is a nonsense term if we know that 100%efficiency will
destroy EVERYTHING that there is to destroy!
Now it has been known for some time that both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. have 100%nuclear destructive capabilities - not only in terms of
destroying each other but in destroying the total of allcivilization (including even a final riddance of roaches)! Using a Simplemathematical process
we can then surmise that if the total nuclear capability of the U.S.S.R. is 100%and the total capability of the U.S. is 100%,then both are equal in
strength! Right?
However, Caspar Weinberger ("Defense" Secretary) and David Jones (Head of Joint Chiefs of Staff) still seem a little confused. Using
expressions like nuclear "momentum" and "superior edge" they continue to imply that Russia can destroy civilization several times over. I don't
know how this claim affects you, but it leaves me a little bit bothered that two such dummies are in control. I don't worry so much about being
incinerated a second, third or fourth time nearly as much as I do the FIRST time. Once you have been barbecued who really cares what happens to
the ashes?
Knowing this about two of our esteemed leaders I begin to be intrigued by their incredible fairy tale press interviews. (I like to study primitive
emotionalism first hand). In a recent interview in Washington* the question was asked of Caspar Weinberger that if, in fact, the Russians had a
"superior edge", would he want to trade our nuclear arsenal for theirs. His reply was quote "I would not want to take over the Soviet arsenal. We
have the capability to take away their superiority and that's what we are trying to do". Keep in mind that only moments earlier he had alluded to
"Russia's superior edge". Keep also in mind our simple arithmetic which assures us that 100%destructive capability is exactly that - 100%.Mr.
Jones stated that he would not want to "swap" either but still he personally is involved with the idea of the construction of additional weaponry.
To some people their statements may seem confusing and a bit perplexing. But, to a person of normal intelligence, one thing rings through quite
clearly and quite understandably - they are both LIARS.
Gerald Tholen

redress of grievances . AMENDMENT

I Congress shall make

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"THE PRUDENT ARE SILENT;

THE MULTITUDES BELIEVE;
AND THE RELIGIOUS TRIUMPH."

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From The Diegesis (1829)

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