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AMERICAN ATHEIST
A Journal of Atheist News and Thought
Understanding religious violence
2nd Quarter 2018 and oppression is crucial to
Vol. 56, No. 2
curbing the human suffering
ISSN 0516-9623 (Print)
ISSN 1935-8369 (Online) it causes. On page 18, a clinical
psychologist specializing in the
treatment of combat-related
post-traumatic stress disorder
explains why religion may be
used to encourage the worst—
rather than the best—in human
nature.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Pamela Whissel
PWhissel@Atheists.org
LAYOUT and GRAPHICS EDITOR
Rick Wingrove
RWingrove@Atheists.org
COPY EDITOR
Karen Reilly In This Issue
RESEARCH ASSISTANT
Anthony J. Crincoli 4 Addressing the Rumors | Pamela Whissel
PROOFREADERS
Gil Gaudia
6 A Secular Grief Observed | Becky Garrison
Shelley Gaudia
Den Jackson 12 Bart Ehrman: The Passion of the Professor | Natasha Stoynoff
AMERICAN ATHEIST PRESS
MANAGING EDITOR 16 Barren and Batty Mitzvahs | Ross Rosenfeld
Frank R. Zindler
Editor@Atheists.org 18 COVER STORY: God the Dominant Ape | Hector A. Garcia
PUBLISHED BY
American Atheists, Inc. 26 BOOK EXCERPT: Time is Irreverent | Marty Essen
Mailing Address:
225 Cristiani St. 30 NOTABLE BOOKS: Four New Atheist Titles
Cranford, NJ 07016
Phone: 908.276.7300
FAX: 908.276.7402
31 Why I Am an Atheist | James A. Haught
www.Atheists.org
46 JOB POSTING: President of American Atheists
©2018 AMERICAN ATHEISTS INC.
All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole
or in part without written permission is
prohibited. American Atheist is indexed in
the Alternative Press Index.

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2ND QUARTER 2018 AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 3

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Addressing the Rumors
S ince the last issue of this magazine, American Atheists has
entered a significant phase of transition, which was made
public on Tuesday, April 10 with the announcement that the
Board of Directors had unanimously voted on Sunday, April 8 to
place President David Silverman on paid leave while it conducted
an investigation of an internal complaint regarding violations
of administrative policies. The board acted in accordance with
American Atheists’ bylaws in order to investigate the complaint,
which had been brought to them on Saturday, April 7.
The public announcement was posted on our website
(Atheists.org), our Facebook page, and our Twitter feed. We also
sent the announcement to everyone who has opted to receive
communications from us by email.
Shortly after the announcement was released, the board
members received additional information from two women
individually accusing him of sexual misconduct.
On Thursday, April 12, the board unanimously voted to terminate
his contract. On the following day, Friday, April 13, we released
another announcement in the same way as the first one.
Later on Friday, Buzzfeed News released a story about the
termination. The article quotes the women, one of whom allowed
the use of her full name. In response to the story, American
Atheists amended the April 13 announcement to include a
statement about the article.
In addition to my role as editor-in-chief of this magazine, I
am also American Atheists’ membership director, and it’s in this
capacity that I have had contact, either in writing or on the phone,
with every member and supporter who has reached out to us with
questions, comments, and concerns. These conversations have left
me with the impression that most people heard our news indirectly
from blog posts, social media communities, the Buzzfeed article,
or word of mouth. Therefore, it’s probably helpful to reproduce
the official statements here:
Monday, April 9: On the evening of Saturday, April 7, 2018,
the American Atheists Board of Directors received a complaint
regarding David Silverman, the president of American Atheists.
The board takes very seriously the concerns expressed and, in
accordance with organization policies, the board has placed Mr.
Silverman on paid leave while an independent investigation is
conducted. Mr. Silverman has pledged his full cooperation of the
investigation.
The board, led by Chair Neal Cary and Vice President Kathleen
Johnson, will fulfill the duties of the president while Mr. Silverman
is on leave. National Program Director Nick Fish will oversee the
day-to-day operations of the organization.
While Mr. Silverman is on leave, American Atheists will
continue our work protecting the separation of religion and
government, elevating the voices of atheists in our nation’s public
discourse, and supporting our members and atheist communities
across the country.
4 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org
We are committed to transparency and openness about
this process and will release more information as it becomes
available.
Friday, April 13: Last night, the American Atheists Board
of Directors voted to terminate David Silverman as president of
American Atheists. Board Chair Neal Cary and Vice President
Kathleen Johnson will continue to fulfill the duties of the president
while National Program Director Nick Fish oversees the day-to-day
operations of the organization.
On April 10, 2018, the Board of Directors placed President
David Silverman on leave pending a review of allegations
brought to the board’s attention. Today’s announcement is
based on these findings, and the board intends to cooperate with
any future investigations.
American Atheists is committed to creating and maintaining
an environment that is safe and welcoming to all. Based on the
allegations made, and the evidence presented, the board believes it
is prudent and necessary to reaffirm that commitment and move
forward with new leadership.
The staff of American Atheists will continue our mission to
advocate for the absolute separation of religion from government,
to elevate the profile of atheism in public discourse, and to build and
strengthen communities that fully represent the growing number
of atheists in America. We thank our members, supporters, and
volunteers for their dedication and support of our mission.
Note: After American Atheists announced the termination
of Mr. Silverman, a Buzzfeed news article was posted detailing
additional allegations of misconduct. In response, National
Program Director Nick Fish released the following statement:
“We take our obligation to create safe and welcoming
communities for our staff, volunteers, members, and supporters
very seriously. We have zero tolerance for the type of behavior
alleged in these accounts. We will continue to demand the
highest standards and accountability from our leaders, staff,
and volunteers.”
It’s only natural that this news surprised everyone. For nearly
eight years, David Silverman’s leadership as president elevated the
profile of American Atheists, and through his firebrand activism, he
became a popular author, speaker, and public figure who inspired
countless Americans to come out of the closet and be openly
atheist.
His immediate predecessor, Dr. Ed Buckner, who served as
president from 2008 to 2010, was appointed volunteer interim
executive director on April 30. In this capacity, he is providing
advice to the board and guidance and support to the full-time staff
while the board conducts its search for new leadership.
Because I have ongoing conversations with our members and
the general public, and because Ed (he prefers “Ed” in all but
the most formal circumstances) has leadership responsibilities
2ND QUARTER 2018
now, he wanted to hear the questions I’ve been asked so that he
could answer them to the best of his ability and then discuss his
current role at American Atheists.
Q: The board’s initial announcement mentions “a complaint”
but provides no description. Did it include any allegations of
sexual misconduct?
A: No. The first complaint alleged violations of American
Atheists’ policies, including allegations of undisclosed conflicts
of interest, as well as breaches of confidentiality and staff
management guidelines. It’s important to know that the first
complaint was received before the two individuals brought their
allegations to the board.
Q: That initial announcement also mentions an “independent
investigation.” Will those results be made public?
A: The investigation is now complete, but on the advice of our
legal counsel, details cannot be shared because it’s a personnel
matter, and in standard practices of employment, the reasons for
a termination must remain confidential. I can tell you that the
investigator was an outside attorney with expertise in conducting
internal reviews of this nature, and that the results corroborated
the board’s decision.
For American Atheists in the near term, and well into the
future, the most important result of that investigation was the
recommendations regarding policies and actions the board
should undertake moving forward, and the board will carefully
consider all recommendations.
Q: The board announced, in the following order, that David
Silverman was suspended, that an investigation was launched,
that his contract was terminated, and that the investigation was
not yet complete. Why did the board decide to terminate his
contract before the investigation was finished?
A: The investigation was a result of the allegations made in the
first complaint, which relate only to conflicts of interest and
failure to adhere to organizational policy. The additional alleged
sexual misconduct was not a subject of the investigation. The
termination decision was made before the investigation was
complete because enough information was already in hand, and
the board had lost confidence in his leadership.
Q: For a lot of people, David Silverman and American Atheists
were one and the same. Does the board fully appreciate what
it’s losing?
A: David Silverman is a creative, dynamic man who is effective
at attracting media attention and using it well. But, as one board
member remarked to me, “He was not who we thought he was.”
It is worth noting that the decision regarding the termination
was made without dissent from any board member, which
means it was made by a very diverse group of atheists (go to
Atheists.org/About/Board to read their profiles), all with a
well-developed sense of fairness and a good understanding of
how to evaluate information.
American Atheists has a long and powerful legacy, a talented
2ND QUARTER 2018
staff, and a dedicated network of members, supporters, and
volunteers. The organization has never been and will never be
about one leader. It is about our mission to advocate for the
absolute separation of religion from government, to elevate
the profile of atheism in public discourse, and to build and
strengthen communities that fully represent the growing
number of atheists in America.
Q: What are your hopes for the future of American Atheists?
A: My strongest hope is that we will preserve and protect this vital
organization until the board hires a new trustworthy, creative,
dynamic, media-savvy leader. Because the board is charged with
acting in the best interests of the organization, choosing a leader
is arguably its most important function. I will have no vote and no
active role in that selection, and I want none.
But I know what I do want: an unabashed atheist with enough
activist experience to know that the leader is important, but
not as important as the people who comprise the membership.
Someone who can make things happen in the short term but who
can also see many years down the road. Someone who can lead
by inspiring and respecting all members of the staff and all our
dedicated volunteers. Someone we can point to with pride when
talking to theists. Someone who understands that a key part of
good leadership is to work to develop new leadership. Someone
who will enhance our status and our strength while respecting the
rules of our organization and the norms of civility.
Q: Are you interested in returning as the next president?
A: I took on this role because I am a committed atheist, a life
member, and a longtime and strong supporter of American
Atheists. I’m proud to contribute again, but I will definitely not
be applying for the job. I’m only an interim this time around, and
an unpaid one by my own choice, because I am not the dynamic,
powerful leader we must have right now. I fervently hope, for the
sake of the movement, but also for my own, that the board will
find us that new leader swiftly.
We—the members, staff, and board—must look forward
because there is still much work to do to earn the respect
atheists deserve and to protect the rights that are ours. Threats
to the separation of religion and government emerge daily,
and many of them are serious. Mindless bigotry, based on oft-
repeated hogwash equating religiosity with morality, continues
apace in many communities. We cannot let up, and I’m proud
to say that the day-to-day operations at American Atheists have
continued during this time without so much as a brief pause.
I am confident that, given the sterling qualities of our current
staff and board, we will advance, and we will thrive. But we can
only do it with the help and dedication of our leadership, staff,
volunteers, members, and supporters.
Pamela Whissel
Editor-in-Chief
PWhissel@Atheists.org
AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 5
 A Secular Grief Observed
by Becky Garrison

Seattle, October 2016: Gary and me at his final class

I f you’ve ever laughed while watching the original cast of

Saturday Night Live, or several members of the casts that
followed, then you’ve been delighted by performers who cut
their teeth at The Groundlings, the legendary improvisational
comedy company founded by my dear friend, Gary Austin,
whose extraordinary talent for teaching, coaching, and guidance
launched the careers of numerous comics who are now
household names. The list includes Melissa McCarthy, Jimmy
Fallon, Kathy Griffin, Will Ferrell, Lisa Kudrow, Craig T. Nelson,
Maya Rudolph, Julia Sweeney, Kristen Wiig, Phil Hartman, Jan
Hooks, Cheryl Hines, Will Forte, Jon Lovitz, Ana Gasteyer,
Taran Killam, Chris Parnell, and Cheri Oteri.
Paul Rubens is another alum, and there would be no Pee
Wee Herman if it weren’t for Gary Austin. That iconic grey suit
that Rubens dons to embody Pee Wee’s dorky, childish persona
hung in Gary’s closet long before it ever made its way to Pee
Wee’s Playhouse. It was the outfit Gary would wear on that rare
occasion when he had a formal job interview. It also served as
the costume he’d wear when auditioning for a nerdy character.
On all other days, he wore a Stetson hat, white cowboy boots, a
cowboy shirt, and blue jeans.
The suit made its way to The Groundlings when Gary led
an exercise where the students assembled a set of clothes and
assumed a character shaped by the outfit. Rubens needed

A foray into Yale Divinity School to find

my spiritual purpose left me with more
questions than answers.
6 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2018
 Paul Rubens needed something to wear,
so Gary lent him his suit, and Pee Wee
Herman was born.
something to wear, so Gary lent him his suit, and Pee Wee
Herman was born. of being me. Then he taught me the importance of “bombing”
At a memorial service for Gary, who died on April Fools’
Day 2017, Rubens talked about how that simple moment in
class changed his life. Such was the essence of Gary, whose
horse-whisperer moves guided herds of artists to discover each
of their singular voices. Gary changed my life as well. When I
met him in 1996, I was a budding religion satirist based in New
York City. Two years earlier, I had sold my first article to The
Wittenburg Door, (spelled differently than the city of Wittenberg,
Germany), the nation’s only religious satire magazine, where I
would eventually become the senior contributing editor.
As the oldest child of a debauched Episcopal priest and
college professor and an Earth mother, who both died from
their addictions when I was a teenager, I had a religious
upbringing that was unconventional, to say the least. A foray
into Yale Divinity School to find my spiritual purpose left me
with more questions than answers. But once I entered The Door,
I discovered my satirical voice and learned I was much better
suited to serve the church as a critic on the outside than as a
devotional drone working within it.
When I connected with Gary, I was looking for a teacher who
could help me to physicalize my words by getting me out of my
head and into my body. My work was witty, but something was
lacking both in my writing and in my personal life. I still called
myself a Christian, though by then, my attendance at a few
different Episcopal churches was no longer a quest to connect
to the tenets of the faith. Rather, I kept trying to reconnect to
the social-justice dynamics of the Gospel that my late father
pursued until his alcoholism overran his idealism. But nothing
seemed to be connecting.
Given my family history, I felt (and still feel) relieved to have
missed the period of Gary’s life when his alcoholism, replete with
a narcissistic streak, raged so badly that he alienated many people,
both personally and professionally. The man I met was tender
toward all animals—especially those in need of rescuing—his
students, and his second wife Wenndy MacKenzie, who became
my voice teacher.
Gary took away my intellectual safety nets that I thought I
needed to rely on to make my work witty and wise. He taught
Cancer killed my collaborator, and
no Disneyesque hocus-pocus will be
reconnecting us in some heavenly realm.
2ND QUARTER 2018
me to let go of being cool so I could get to the vulnerable place
when I had to venture into the unknown without a safety net.
Through him, I learned how to stay on my breath, write on
my feet, and go. I learned from Gary that when my top priority is
for my work to make sense, I will end up with boring, predictable
“sense”. But when I take a risk and follow my intuition—even if it
feels like nonsense—the audience will make connections to my
words that I didn’t know exist.
One of the greatest lessons was to observe how his one-man
show, Church, took shape. In it, Gary recounted tales of growing
up in the Nazarene Church in Texas. By seeing him tell his truth,
I learned how to reconfigure my critique of religion through the
art of storytelling.
Under Gary’s guidance, my work evolved from jokey, top-
ten lists to satire that exposes the underbelly of the institutional
church that caused both of us, and so many others, to walk
away. The more truth I uncovered, the less I knew, and the less
I believed. Like Gary, I could feel myself moving away from
calling myself a Christian into embracing the truth that I am an
apophatic agnostic Anglican. I don’t have all the answers, but I
will continue to ask questions while embracing the mysteries
of life. I keep “Anglican” in my identity as a vestige from my
childhood. I still connect to the rituals like walking a labyrinth
or—very infrequently—partaking of the Eucharist, even though
these acts no longer carry any Jesus-y sensations for me.
In 2014, I moved from the Northeast to Portland, Oregon.
I had left organized religion by then and was finding my way in
the sacred sexuality and spirituality of the Celtic ethos inspired
by the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest. While I found my
unique voice with Gary during my New York City days, in the
Pacific Northwest I found a culture that speaks to my evolving
sense of who I am. I could finally come into my own, free from
the religion that had defined me as a “Christian author.”
Every few months, I was able to spend time with Gary
by trekking up to Seattle whenever he was in town from Los
Angeles to hold classes. But just as my faith had evolved, so did
my relationship with Gary as we approached our work with a
real urgency. Gary had been diagnosed with a blood cancer that
could be treated but not cured, so he became well aware that
AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 7
 I don’t have all the answers, but I
will continue to ask questions while
embracing the mysteries of life.
every moment of his limited time had to count. In the past, he reconnecting us in some heavenly realm.
might have worked with uncommitted students since his income While I was writing this, I talked to Wenndy, Gary’s widow,
came from teaching, but after his diagnosis, if you weren’t there who told me she’s now taken over teaching Gary’s students.
to work, he wouldn’t take you on. She isn’t him, obviously, and no supernatural intervention will
Our most heated arguments came about during this time. I bring him to me through her coaching. I don’t have delusions
had approached him about a project to write a book of stories about keeping Gary beside me like a cardboard character in
my grandfather would tell me about his coaching football in some cheesy song, though I do feel his presence when I listen
the Pacific during World War II and coaching the U.S. Olympic to his 2014 album The Traveler. But I now know that through
Wrestling Team at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. But while I saw his widow, and our memories of him, his spirit will always be
Grandpa’s stories as a compelling, unique angle on World War II present in my work.
history, Gary only saw a sports-obsessed jock oblivious
to the world around him, and racist and sexist to boot.
As this was not the Grandpa I knew, I fought back.
Finally, we came up with a structure that let
Grandpa’s stories sing. We set the scene in 1994, during
the last Christmas I spent with Grandpa, who was
ninety years old and ailing. With Gary’s characteristic
kindness, he helped me unearth the real reason I
listened so intently to Grandpa’s tales that Christmas.
I was trying to form a bond with my ailing grandfather,
one in which I could connect with this member of the
Greatest Generation beyond his larger-than-life stories.
When I completed the first chapter, I shared it at a
staged reading of student works, where Gary smiled as
I spoke. I knew then that we had found the format that
worked, and I looked forward to future readings, with
Gary by my side, as I continued to write.
By the time I was ready to send him the fourth
chapter in March 2017, he was in the ICU. He had been
hospitalized intermittently since 2014, so I thought
he’d be out soon after what was just another short
blip in his productivity. But cancer killed my creative
collaborator on April 1, 2017, and when I found out,
I didn’t quite know how I would go on with my life
without him in it. For months, every time I tried to pick
up Grandpa’s project, my body ached. Then, in July
2017, his Seattle family, both in law and of choice, held
a memorial where I shared a tribute to Gary. As I stood
there, I knew I had to get back to finish the project we
started together, even though the pain of mourning Coaching days during World War II. Grandpa is on the right.
was as deep inside me as the marrow in my bones. (Image courtesy of the Hawaii War Records Depository)
And it still is. But also embedded in my bones are
the twenty-one years of memories and the wisdom of
my mentor, collaborator, and friend. So, I have returned
to the last project we started together, and I continue to soldier Sports Stories by Roy B. Clogston (1905-1995) As Told to His Granddaughter
on without ever hearing him sing his country songs or tell yet Becky Garrison is available on Kindle at Amazon. You can follow Becky’s
another animal tale, and no Disneyesque hocus-pocus will be travels via Twitter and Instagram @Becky_Garrison.

8 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2018

 Israel-Palestine Holy War

Two peoples claim this “holy” land.

They crave it more than peace.
Each side thinks God supports its stand,
So strife will never cease.

—Felicia Nimue Ackerman

2ND QUARTER 2018 AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 9

 ADVERTISEMENT
JESUS
THE LOVING – JUST – MERCIFUL – AND FORGIVING JESUS
IS THE JESUS PEOPLE LOVE AND WORSHIP
UNTIL ATHEISTS CONFRONT THIS FACT
THEY ARE FAILING MILLIONS OF INTELLIGENT PEOPLE
WHO WILL NOT LEARN THE TRUTH WITHOUT HELP
It is the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount, the Jesus who
forgives his crucifiers, the Jesus who will not allow a single
hair on the heads of innocent children to be harmed, who is
loved — the Jesus in the flower garden and of countless beau-
tiful and affecting hymns.
There is no intellectual argument which can begin to
cope with this powerful fact for the millions—but still only
a fraction—of intelligent people who do not and will not read
or hear our brilliant philosophic, historical, and scientific rea-
sons why the whole story is man-made.
We should, for a change, try critiquing the religion on its own
terms, and present the demonstrable scriptural and creedal
facts in a way that, for some, will generate such moral disso-
nance that it will open them to learn more, while delivering a
never-heard-before moral rebuke to the rest. And we have it!
The theologians have armed us with dogmas and creeds
which make our case a logical certainty: These are:
1. God’s attributes as defined by virtually all, if not all,
Christian denominations and sects: He is unchanging, all-
powerful, needs nothing, knows everything, past, present,
future, and even possible; he a loving, just, merciful, and
forgiving Father, who cares for us, and always hears our
prayers. In every respect he is perfect.
2. The Holy Bible—Both Roman Catholic and the Protes-
tant denominations with the vast majority of adherents,
declare it to be true and without error. The Catholic Church
states: "For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the
apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical, the books
of the Old and New Testaments, whole an entire, with all
their parts, on the ground they have God as their author
and have been handed on as such entirely." (Catechism of
the Roman Catholic Church—The Profession of Faith—
105, page 31)
3. The Holy Trinity Doctrine, which making Jesus ONE
with the “Lord” of the Old Testament, always and forever.
With these as our authorities, our logical certainty is also
an irreconcilable disaster by the moral standards of the
Sermon on the Mount.
By the standards of our civilization, nothing could be so
fundamentally unjust and reprehensible as punishing the
innocent for the conduct of others, as God did to the descen-
dents of Adam and Eve.
10 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org
BUT THIS WAS ONLY GOD’S SECOND SIN. WE RARELY
HEAR OF HIS FIRST AND GREATEST SIN, THE ONE
EASIEST TO EXPLAIN, IMPOSSIBLE TO DENY, AND AS
DIFFICULT TO DEFEND AS A SQUARED-CIRCLE.
It occurred BEFORE THE BEGINNING, before anything
could be blamed on man. There, he created human beings
out of their innocent nothingness, KNOWING he would later
send most of them to Hell to suffer forever—never to die and
never to receive mercy or forgiveness! [Jesus said ‘many’ to ‘a
lake of fire’ and only a ‘few’ saved.]
Where is the forgiveness in being forever damned? This
must be denounced as the moral abomination it is, as Robert
Ingersoll did so brilliantly.
The young, naturally open to new ways of thinking, and
always highly sensitive to issues of justice and fairness, can
be expected to be especially responsive to this undeniable and
very simple argument. They are already our richest and
largest source for new recruits.
After God’s first and second sins, dozens more of morally
indefensible deeds fill the Bible. And thanks to the Trinity
Doctrine, they are all incontestably the doings of gentle Jesus:
ONE with God always! And thanks to God being, in the words
of the Catholic Catechism, “the author of the Old and New Tes-
taments, in all its parts, whole and entire”, Christians can only
defend them by reversing the meaning of words.
HOW MANY CHRISTIANS REALLY UNDERSTAND THAT
THE TRINITY DOCTRINE MAKES JESUS RESPONSIBLE FOR
ALL THE ATROCITIES RECORDED OF GOD IN THE OLD
TESTAMENT, GENOCIDE AS WELL AS SINGLE CRIMES?
From the Old Testament:
• God/Jesus ordered, “… kill every male among the little
ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying
with him. But all the young girls who have not known man
by lying with him, keep for yourselves.” (Numbers 31:17-18)
• God/Jesus was so insanely enraged that he struck
Uzzah dead for touching the Ark, when God knew Uzzah
was only trying to keep it from falling. (2 Samuel 6:1-7)
From the New Testament:
• We first learn of the greatest of all evil, eternal punish-
ment in Hell. Jesus said the way to Hell was broad and
‘many’ would take it, while ‘few’ would be saved. No
2ND QUARTER 2018
 ADVERTISEMENT
exaggeration, considering that one is damned for not loving
and believing in Jesus as savior—about 70% of all alive in
this world!
• God/Jesus caused the cold blooded murder of Ana-
nias, and three hours later, of his widow, Sapphira, for the
trivial offense of withholding some of their own property,
previously promised, to the commune “Saint” Peter had
established (Acts 5:1-11)
SO WHERE IS THE “HEART” POWER IN ALL THIS?
These examples show that the murders of infants and
other innocents, rape, genocide, mayhem and destruction,
including animals, detailed in the Old Testament, were all the
works of Jesus-God.
ANGER IS THE NATURAL REACTION WHEN IT FINALLY
REGISTERS, THAT YOU HAVE BEEN CHEATED,
DEFRAUDED, AND SWINDLED!
Of course, this is not a silver bullet. What is? But I suggest
it is the only arrow in the atheist arsenal which can possibly
counter the emotional appeal of the loving Jesus, whose allure
is compounded exponentially by his promise of a happy life
forever in heaven. If it is a new and fresh case, that alone
argues for its use.
It can only be expected to work on those already on the
weakest end of the faith curve. In addition to the young
mentioned above, others include, LGBTQ and their families,
unmarried couples and divorcees, who resent being told they
are living in sin and don’t believe it.
In addition, it can reinforce the “nones”—those answer-
ing surveys as having no religion—and other doubters, with
better more reasons why they are right.
These arguments will put us on the moral high ground,
force Christians onto the defensive, and humiliate them
with the task of defending the indefensible.
IT IS SO SIMPLE: GOD HAD INFINITE OPTIONS
AND INFINITE POWER. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE THAT HE
COULD BE A LOVING-JUST-MERCIFUL-FORGIVING
FATHER WHO CARES FOR US, AND DAMN ANYONE
TO SUFFER FOREVER.
In this very year I have taken this case to the 300,000
claimed readers of the South Bend Tribune, home of Notre
Dame University, in the form of advertisements to be deliv-
ered every Sunday for 14 straight weeks, in 6 full pages and
the rest at least half pages. CORRECTION! They were on this
schedule, approved by the paper, when after printing 9,
they refused to print 1, and within days, cancelled the
remaining 4, with no explanation! You can download
these—see below.
Paid by fellowfeather@gmail.com. Comments pro or con will be answered.
2ND QUARTER 2018
Why did I undertake this Quixotic task, and why in South
Bend, Indiana? I retired 26 years ago after running two of
the largest direct marketing firms in the country. Our job for
dozens of national companies and non-profits, was to write
copy, using print media, to persuade people in the mass mar-
ket to buy something, donate, join, sign a petition, buy a foreign
trip, ask for more information, and more. Our results were
measured exactly.
I was absolutely confident that the methods used in that
work would be effective to sell these ideas. Also, I wanted to
make a public statement and leave a permanent record in the
public domain. I did NOT do it as the best way to reach our tar-
get market. That will probably be in social media about which
I know nothing—except that these messages will work, be-
cause human nature has not changed. But I must leave that to
others. I chose the South Bend Tribune because I ran ads like
these with them about three years ago, and they agreed to run
one every Sunday for 14 weeks, and, finally, because I could
afford it.
Should not the atheist community do something to
counter the multi-billion dollar Templeton Fund? Endlessly
reinforcing ourselves does nothing to educate the masses. Just
a couple of million dollars a year to fund an ongoing Research
& Development, educational effort would be a giant step for-
ward. Programs can start small and evolve. Aren’t there rich
atheists too?
Do you agree:
1. That at the very least, the secular community should
add these simple and lethal arguments to our arsenal, and
aggressively look for opportunities to deploy them in talks,
debates, and writings?
2. That our organizations should be doing more to reach
those in the masses who are already most likely to be
receptive to the all the reasons the Christian religion is man-
made and even evil?
Please email me at fellowfeather@gmail.com.
DOWNLOAD
These ads may be easily accessed and downloaded
at www.theingersolltimes.com. It will be in a tab titled,
The Infamous South Bend Atheist Ads.
AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 11
Bart Ehrman:
The Passion of the Professor
by Natasha Stoynoff

B ible scholar Bart Ehrman may be an atheist, but

there’s nothing like a scrap of ancient papyrus with a
few words from Chapter 18 of the Gospel of John scrawled
in Greek to give this historian the fervor of a come-to-
Jesus moment.
“It’s the oldest fragment of any book of the New Testament that we have,” Ehrman
explained of the credit-card-sized parchment he once had the opportunity to examine
at the John Rylands University Library in Manchester, England. “I’d known about it for
thirty years. I sat there for an hour, staring at it in its glass enclosure. It was thrilling.”
Early Christian writings, what they mean, and who wrote them has been the focus of his
thirty-plus-year career. But Ehrman, who is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of
Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, wasn’t always an
atheist. He became a born-again Christian as a teen.
His subsequent schooling at the Moody Bible Institute, Wheaton College, and Princeton
Theological Seminary was the springboard to a personal journey that took him from
fundamentalism, to liberal Christianity, and then atheism. This baffled his family, who
became born again thanks to Ehrman, who served as a pastor after graduating from the
seminary. “They’re still evangelical Christian,” he says, “and they wonder what happened
to me!”
The truth happened—that’s what. The purpose of this unlikely journey was twofold:
To find historical authenticity and accuracy in early Christian scriptures, and to inspire
his religious studies students—first at Rutgers University, then at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill since 1988—to look beyond the doctrine they’ve been taught
and think for themselves.
“I'm a firm believer in knowing what you believe and why you believe it,” says Ehrman,
who gets hundreds of emails every day from both admirers and critics of his work.
He has authored thirty books, five of them New York Times bestsellers and none of
them for the religiously faint of heart. Topics include: how Jesus the man became God,
the Bible’s contradictory explanations as to why God allows suffering, forgeries in the
Bible, lost scriptures, and questioning the very existence of Jesus.
His latest book, The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the

12 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2018

World, examines why and how Christianity conquered the Roman Empire. (Spoiler alert:
Convince the pagans that the Christian god was more powerful than their gods).
“Gods have been worshipped for millennia,” he said. “Gods could provide what people
couldn’t provide for themselves. A human can’t guarantee rain, or that the livestock all
reproduce, or that the crops grow, or that a woman survives childbirth. You can’t control
those, but the gods can.”
While his aim is not to de-convert anyone, it sometimes happens by default. The
Teaching Company’s Great Courses series offers many lectures of his. About six years
ago, I picked up several of his audio lectures and began with his talk on the historical Jesus.
After just one listen during a loop around the Central Park reservoir, the deed was done,
and I was no longer a theist. As I chatted with Ehrman over the phone for this interview, I
learned that I’m not alone.

Do any of your students ever start questioning their
religious faith in class?
Some put up huge barriers and put their fingers in their
ears and start humming loudly because they don’t want to
hear what I’m saying. Others become far more thoughtful,
and they eventually ask, “What do I really think?” It happens
all the time.
I imagine them having emotional, tear-filled revelations
and outbursts in the middle of your lectures.
Nope [laughing]. I approach the topics with a good sense
of humor. Students realize that I’m not trying to trash them or
destroy anything. I’m just trying to get them to think. Rather
than falling apart, they become more thoughtful. That’s the
key for me.
I have students all over the map. I have students who are
atheists. I have students who are Jewish. I have students who are
liberal Christians. I have students who are very conservative
Christians. I have far more conservative Christians than
anything else because I teach in the Bible Belt. I’m not
interested in de-converting them or getting them to change
their views, but I am interested in them being intelligent about
their religious views. If you’re not a knowledgeable Christian,
then you’re an ignorant Christian, and ignorant Christians are
really dangerous.
You’re famous for the quiz you give on the first class of
every semester to see how much students—especially the
theists—actually know about Christianity and the New
Testament.
Every time, somebody says that [Saint] Paul’s last name is
“of Tarsus.”
And Jesus’ last name is Christ!
They kind of laugh about that, but you can tell that some
of them are laughing sheepishly, like, “Oh, I guess that isn’t
right, is it?” These kids grew up in church, so you’d think
they’d know something about the Bible. My students have a
far greater commitment to the Bible than knowledge about
it, and they realize that pretty quickly in class, too, and are
surprised by it.
One of your audio lectures was the tipping point for
my atheism. You talk about Mary and Joseph going to
Bethlehem for the census, and you then point out there was
no census!
Everybody knew that Jesus came from Nazareth. But to
fulfill Old Testament prophecy, he needs to have been born
in Bethlehem somehow. So you come up with a census. The
question is whether somebody sat down and plotted it out and
said, “I think I’ll make this up,” or if it happened as a rumor—
somebody just tells a story, and somebody else tells the story,
and after a while nobody knows where it came from. In either
event, the census did not happen. I just had this very discussion
in my undergraduate class, and I could see the light bulbs over
the head of one of my students.
But it wasn’t about facts when you became a born-again
Christian around age fifteen.
In the beginning it was emotional. But I did become
convinced that you could argue for the rationality of
Evangelical Christianity, for the rationality that there really is
a God, that Jesus really is his son, and you could demonstrate
that Jesus rose from the dead, and that the Bible is inherent
revelation from God.

I’ve gained a lot by becoming an atheist, but I’ve

also lost a lot, and there’s no reason to deny that.
2ND QUARTER 2018 AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 13
 My students have a far greater commitment to
the Bible than knowledge about it.
So I’m having an emotional experience of Christianity at You usually say “agnostic” when you’re interviewed.
this time, but I was also on my high school debate team, so Most people probably think that agnostic and atheist are
I was into evidence as well and arguing cases and trying to two degrees of the same thing. In this view, agnostics are
prove things. Once I understood that evidence really matters, atheists who just refuse to admit it, so they’re kind of wimpy
I started recognizing the counter-evidence. I ended up atheists—that’s how atheists tend to view agnostics. And
leaving Evangelical Christianity when I realized the evidence agnostics tend to think that atheists are just arrogant agnostics.
just isn’t there. I think that they’re
describing two different
It was the problem of phenomena. Agnosticism deals
suffering that finally put with knowledge. If somebody
the final nail in the coffin says, “Do you know whether
for you. there’s a superior being in
I was teaching a class at the universe?” I’d say, “No.
Rutgers University in the How the hell would I know?”
mid-1980s on the problem Atheism deals with what
of suffering in the Bible. you believe. So, if somebody
That’s when I really started asks me, “Do you believe in a
thinking about it seriously. superior being?” the answer
I’d thought about it my is, “No, not at all.” I consider
whole life in some ways, but myself an agnostic with respect
the real questioning started to knowledge, but an atheist
then, and from there it was with respect to belief.
a domino effect. Things
started falling, and then the Am I correct that most
faith itself fell. Christians don’t realize they
were considered some of the
Even though it was a first “atheists”?
gradual, thoughtful The first Christians were
process for you, was it still called “atheists” because they
difficult? didn’t subscribe to the belief
It was terribly painful. in multiple gods. Everybody
It took me years to get over else in the world, apart from
it because my conservative, Jews, believed in lots of gods.
Evangelical faith was the There were gods of the state.
very core of my being. Every city had their gods.
I wasn’t someone who Every family had their gods.
became a Christian in order Every mountain had a god.
to attend church once a Every stream, every forest.
week and not think about Everything had a god, and
it otherwise. My entire life was built around my Christian Christians either denied they existed, or they said that those
faith. I went to a fundamentalist Bible school. I was involved gods were evil demons. So they were literally without the
in Christian ministry. I was trying to convert people. I was gods, and that’s what “atheist” meant.
teaching Bible studies. I was leading prayer groups. When it
disappeared, I felt the foundations of my existence shaken. For In your new book, The Triumph of Christianity, you explain
me, it was a very big deal indeed. I feel like I’ve gained a lot how and why Christianity was able to succeed and dominate
by becoming an atheist, but I’ve also lost a lot, and there’s no other religions. You begin by showing a lot of compassion for
reason, in my mind, to deny that. the believers of the other religions that “failed.”
A lot of friends who are colleagues and scholars in my
That’s the first time I’ve heard you call yourself an atheist. field questioned the book’s title because it sounds like I’m

14 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2018

 The people who conducted the Inquisition
thought that Jesus was speaking to them, too.
celebrating Christianity’s triumph as a good thing. I’m not
saying that it was necessarily a good thing, and I’m also not
saying it’s necessarily a bad thing. Every time one group
wins, another group, or lots of groups, lose. The triumph of
Christianity led to a large number of losses.
I begin the book by recalling that in 2015, ISIS destroyed
the glorious ancient temple of Bel in the city of Palmyra,
Syria. And then I point out that the first known destruction
of a temple in Palmyra happened in the fourth century, when
Christian fanatics wiped out the temple of Allat because they
opposed paganism. When that happened, the pagans lost a lot
of art, they lost a lot of literature, they lost a lot of architecture.
As I say in the book, “I do not want to undervalue the
enormous benefits derived from the triumph of Christianity.
Christians and non-Christians can surely agree that the cultural
glories we have inherited from the Christian tradition—the art,
music, literature, and philosophy—justify our gratitude and
awe. But every triumph is also a defeat, and the ecstasies of those
who prevail are matched by the agonies of those who lose.” We
have to be mindful about the gains and the losses.
The stories of these two temples are so similar, it’s startling.
Fanatics are fanatics.
To me, it seems that the triumph of Christianity was like
a math equation with all the right components. In other
words, another religion could have triumphed had it been
the one to combine the right ingredients.
Christianity was the only evangelistic religion in the
ancient world. Other religions had no desire to convert you
because they all were both polytheistic and welcoming. If
you wanted to worship their god, you could without giving
up your other gods. If you wanted to start worshiping Apollo,
then you would just start worshiping Apollo. You wouldn’t
have to stop worshiping Zeus or Athena or anyone else you
happened to be worshiping.
Christians, on the other hand, wanted converts. The
Christians were also exclusivist. If you accepted their God,
then you couldn’t worship the others. Judaism was the only
other exclusivist religion, but they didn’t go out and try to win
converts. Jews didn’t care whether you became a Jew. They just
wanted to be left alone to be Jews.
The threat of eternal damnation if a Christian did worship
other gods also contributed to the triumph.
Right. Christians said, “You need to convert, you can’t
worship the other gods, and if you don’t worship our God,
you’re going to hell forever.” Christianity is the only religion
saying these things, and there wasn’t any competition. As
2ND QUARTER 2018
soon as Christians converted a person, it took that person
away from the pagan religions, so paganism eventually
disappeared.
Did Christianity also triumph because people and society
were ready to progress to a more compassionate way of
thinking and living?
It’s an interesting thought. Of course, it’s hard to evaluate
what’s really going on in people’s minds, but it is true that the
Roman Empire had an ideology of dominance. The powerful
are supposed to dominate the weak. It was perfectly fine for
a powerful nation, a powerful empire, or a powerful town,
to destroy their neighbors and enslave them. There was no
ethical problem with that. There’s also no problem with men
dominating women because men are more powerful, so they’re
supposed to dominate women.
But the Christian ideology was not dominance, it was love
and compassion. Men and women in the church are supposed
to be equal. Slaves and masters in the church are supposed to
be equal, so you shouldn’t assert your power over someone
else. It’s a very different ideology. Whether that was attractive
to people or not, I don’t know. It’s attractive to most of us today,
but that’s the ideology we’ve inherited.
What about the persecution of the Christians? It’s not as
extensive as we’ve been led to believe. Is hiding in the
catacombs completely made up?
The Christians were not hiding out in the catacombs in fear
of their emperor killing them. That’s just a legend.
And yet, so many believe this is true.
It’s amazing what some Christians believe.
If you could go back in time, what would you ask Jesus?
If I could have one evening with Jesus, I would like it to
be during his last week in Jerusalem. I would like to find out
who he thinks he is, and what he thinks is going to happen in
the future.
Something like, “What are your intentions, young man?”
Exactly. I don’t think he came to be crucified. I have a
very clear view of who I think Jesus was, and it’s a view that’s
different from what most people in our society think, but it’s a
view that a lot of scholars have had for a long time, and I’d like
to know whether it’s correct.
I’d also like to talk to some of his followers after his death.
What did they think, why did they think it, and why did they
believe he rose from the dead? I’d love to know how many
people actually claimed to have seen him.
Continued on page 37
AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 15
Barren and Batty Mitzvahs
by Ross Rosenfeld
O ne of the kids I tutor struggles with both
math and science, so he needs all the help and
practice he can get. Yet, strangely enough, his parents force
him to spend several hours a week studying neither math
nor science, but Narnia. That’s right, Narnia, as in The Lion,
the Witch, and the Wardrobe. And it doesn’t stop with the
C.S. Lewis books. He must familiarize himself with all the
fanzines, the invented back-stories, the fictional names and
dates, and he must be able to speak Narnian so that he can
communicate with the lion Aslan.
Okay, it’s not Narnia he’s forced to study, but it is something
just as implausible: Judaism. Since early childhood, he’s been
“learning” all the “facts” and “dates” associated with the Jewish
heroes who never actually existed. He’s learned that the Red
Sea was parted by Moses, even though it wasn’t. He’s learned
the history of Passover, when that wily character, God, decided
to screw with the Egyptians just for his own entertainment. He
learned how the Jews—for some reason—spent forty years in
the desert, even though God (supposedly the most powerful
force in the universe) was their good buddy and should’ve been
Many parents who force their kids
to attend Hebrew school don’t really
believe in any god themselves.
16 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org
able to at least draw them a map.
Unlike Narnian, Hebrew is a real language. But the kids
I work with who go to Hebrew school don’t learn to read or
speak it. No, they learn to sound out Hebrew, not understand
it, because they take those lessons for one reason only: their
bar or bat mitzvah, where they’ll wholeheartedly pledge
themselves to the magic man in the sky. And they have no
choice. You see, if they don’t, he might become angry with
them, and...well...who knows what he’ll do? Destroy a city?
Make them miss the final shot in the big game? They don’t
know what will happen, but they do know it will be bad, so
they go to Hebrew school in order to perform the magic ritual
that will make them, at thirteen (an age when Mom still drives
them to soccer practice), a grown man or woman.
They attend Hebrew school for at least two hours a week
for several years. It’s an awful lot of study time to waste on
things that never happened. And it’s not just time, it’s money,
too. Lots of it! There’s the cost of the Hebrew school tuition,
the cost of the service in the temple, and, of course, the cost
of the big party.
2ND QUARTER 2018
 Walk in to some of these parties, and you’d
think we were honoring the Apollo astronauts.
Here’s the strangest thing of all: Many parents who force
their kids to attend Hebrew school and force them to cram for
their bar or bat mitzvahs and insist on having a grand party to
celebrate it all don’t really believe in any god themselves! A lot of
them know it’s hogwash, nonsense, absolute rubbish. But they
have to keep up with the Joneses (or, in this case perhaps, the
Cohens or the Rosenblums), and throw a tremendous party
in order to show their devotion to a simple Jewish life devoted
to God.
It’s true that people also spend ridiculous sums at other
events, like weddings. But a wedding makes sense in a way: it’s
the celebration of two people choosing to commit their lives
to one another and perhaps start a family together. But a bar
mitzvah is dedicated to a kid who’s all of thirteen and hasn’t even
accomplished the goal of completing middle school. Yet walk in
to some of these parties, and you’d think we were honoring the
Apollo astronauts. Douglas MacArthur got less fanfare.
At the entrance of one party I attended, giant gold letters
about twelve feet in the air spelled out the kid’s name. Huge
posters of his picture also towered over us everywhere like Zeus
from Mount Olympus watching us from above. Another party,
which took place at a Ferrari dealership, featured a marching
band—as if the Ferrari dealership weren’t loud enough. I’ve seen
dancers with disco balls for heads and drinks served by ladies
Jesus and Mo
2ND QUARTER 2018
who looked like they stepped out of a Stanley Kubrick film.
These aren’t even parties, really. They’re Roman triumphs
dedicated to adolescents. Richard Branson hosts less ridiculous
affairs. Mentions of God, of course, are nowhere to be found
because the only one being worshipped is the kid. I’m amazed
that the parents never seem to grasp the incredible irony of
spending the morning in temple hearing about the importance
of humility and devotion to God, then spending the evening
guzzling martinis as they watch videos dedicated to the
greatness of a thirteen-year-old who’s flunking math.
If you really want your kid to help others—to perform
mitzvahs, as my old tribe says—then make sure they learn
about math and science and history, rather than forcing them
to “learn” hocus-pocus that won’t do anything for anyone.
They must have real knowledge in order to be good servants
of humanity. And humanity needs as many good servants as
possible because, I’m sorry to inform you, gods don’t actually
exist. Which means your kid isn’t one, either.
Ross Rosenfeld is an educator and historian who has written for the
Daily News, The Hill, Newsday, Newsweek.com, and numerous others.
His latest book is History and Hamilton: A Critical Analysis of the Lin-
Manuel Miranda and Ron Chernow Broadway Show. He is a member of
Long Island Atheists, an American Atheists Local Partner.
© JesusAndMo.net
AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 17
Cover Story

God the Dominant Ape

Understanding religious violence and oppression requires a careful look
at how we have projected our own psychology onto our vision of the
sacred.

R eligion, especially its oppressive and violent tendencies, is rooted in

the deep evolutionary past. There are unmistakable parallels between the
features of primate societies and human religious rituals, and Dr. Hector
Garcia, a clinical psychologist who specializes in the treatment of combat-
related post-traumatic stress disorder, lays out these connections in Alpha
God: The Psychology of Religious Violence and Oppression. His incisive
analysis goes a long way toward explaining the historic and ongoing
violence committed in the name of religion. The following is an excerpt
adapted for this magazine.
What is God? Many would say that God is love, or God is and male, and his portrayal demands reckoning. Scripture
beauty. For others, God is an immaterial being, the creator of depicts this god as one who rains fury upon his enemies and
the universe. God has been described as compassionate and slaughters the unfaithful. It also shows him policing the sex
merciful, as the ultimate moral authority, or the ultimate source lives of his subordinates and obsessing over sexual fidelity.
of goodness in the world. The pious draw from this vision of God Extremists, drunk on this vision, steer airplanes into buildings
a sense of awe, purpose, hope, and empathy. From this vision, or obliterate themselves in crowded marketplaces. They foment
masses of people around the world convene around a shared sexual shame and engage in genital mutilation, acid attacks, and
sense of wonder, appreciation, and unity, and they cultivate so-called honor killings. They start inquisitions and witch hunts,
between one another an environment of kindness, generosity, religious wars, and religious conquests. They seize ideological
and support. This vision of God is indisputable, insofar as it control and breed superstition, ignorance, and prejudice. And
forms the phenomenology of the religious worship of God. they also seek to enforce a prohibition against questioning God,
But there is another vision of God that is just as real. The leaving such inhumanities unexamined, sometimes for fear of
majority of the world’s believers worship a god that is fearsome the treatments just described.

18 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2018

 Men of power have historically conflated
themselves with God in order to secure more power.
Critically, we now live in an age in which religions clash with
women’s rights as gender equality strains against its margins, in
which theocratic regimes are gaining control of nuclear arms,
and in which dangerous fundamentalism is increasingly taking
hold around the world. This is a crucial moment for us to force
the wedge of inquiry, if only to better understand the means by
which religion may be used to encourage what is worst—rather
than what is best—in human nature.
We may begin by questioning whether there is something
common to the perpetrators of the kinds of violence and
oppression listed above. The seemingly obvious answer is that
these acts are almost exclusively committed by men. In the rare
instances where they are committed by women or children, the
acts are almost always influenced or coerced by men. This is an
important starting point. Since another common root to these
acts is purported religiosity, a second key question becomes, is
there something common to the vision of God behind them?
Here we arrive at the crux of the matter: the common vision is
that of God as man.
I argue here that God was created in the image of man. This
argument is not new. Thinkers have made this connection since at
least the time of the ancient Greeks. However, there are good reasons
not only to emphasize that God was created in the image of man,
rather than the other way around, but also to study the dominance
characteristics portrayed in God—most notably because men of
power have historically conflated themselves with God in order
to secure more power and have used this power to enact further
violence and oppression. This pattern has emerged again and again
across religious history as men have summoned divine legitimacy
to justify their worst impulses. God himself is frequently portrayed
as engaging in violent acts, thus serving to validate the destructive
actions of the powerful.
This is most evident among the Abrahamic religions ( Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam), whose scriptures all too frequently depict
a despotic male god. The Abrahamic God is the most widely
worshipped man-based god, with followers comprising over fifty
percent of the world’s religious practitioners. And certainly a
tyrannical God is not unique to the Abrahamic traditions; many
(even polytheistic) religions around the world have dominant male
gods who go around behaving like dominant male humans. limited ourselves by the gods we created.
To understand such a god, we must first understand the minds
of men, for it is these minds that think up ways to oppress and kill.
Arguably the best way to understand the ultimate basis for male
violence and oppression is through the evolutionary sciences.
Such disciplines reveal the ancient underlying motivations for
violence and oppression, molded as they were by the process of
natural selection. The patterns of behavior for such motivations
were passed on by our primate ancestors and are easily evidenced
in living nonhuman primates, our closest living relatives.
Despite his upright stance, his clothes, and his sometimes good
table manners, man rarely surpasses his most primal impulses.
Accordingly, men often seek out dominance in the manner of male
2ND QUARTER 2018
apes, using violence to obtain evolutionary rewards such as food,
territory, and sex. Humankind may have managed to create things
like tools, weapons, and religions, but we remain one species of
great ape that emigrated from Africa.
This can be difficult for many people to hear because as humans
we have a tendency to think of ourselves as unique and to hold
ourselves above other species. But we have DNA like all other life
forms—which ultimately shapes our brains and influences the
manner in which we think—and we share as much as ninety-nine
percent of our DNA with nonhuman primates. And like other
animals, we are organic beings that live, eat, reproduce, and die.
As such, we require things like food, sex, and territory to fulfill our
organismic destinies. None of this should be surprising.
However, it may be surprising to realize that while the god
of the Abrahamic religions has powers that humans do not, he
remains unnecessarily preoccupied with what are ultimately
very human, and very ape-like, concerns. God is portrayed as
being omnipotent (possessing infinite power), omniscient
(having infinite knowledge), omnipresent (present everywhere),
immaterial (without bodily form), and eternal, meaning that he
never dies. This raises the question—Why should such a god
concern himself with such pedestrian pursuits as food, sex, and
territory? Why demand food as a sacrificial offering or order the
conquest of biblical lands if he has no need of either to survive and
can create worlds by simply speaking them into being?
The answer is that God is an alpha male, a dominant ape. In
other words, depictions of the Abrahamic god, and of male gods
from religions around the world, reflect the essential concerns of
our primate evolutionary past—namely securing and maintaining
power, and using that power to exercise control over material and
reproductive resources. Understanding God therefore requires
an understanding of man’s evolved legacy within primate social
hierarchies; and understanding religious violence and oppression
requires taking a careful look at how thoroughly we have projected
our own psychology onto our vision of the sacred.
Our evolutionary drives have limited the reach for goodness
in religions because they—like our religions—evolved in a
savage world where survival was tenuous, and where aggression
promoted survival. Human potential is so vast, but we may have
For those who may take offense at my premise, it may also be
worth mentioning that I am not claiming that your god really is
a dominant ape. In fact, I am arguing that in reality there is no
supernatural being, or any kind of superordinate consciousness,
out there that resembles men or apes, in neither form nor behavior.
My own opinion is that if there is a higher power (and I have yet
to see evidence that there is) it certainly doesn’t resemble any of
the obvious, simplistic, and species-centric characterizations that
have been widely proposed throughout the history of religion.
Rather, such characterizations arise from our evolved
psychology, which is strongly dedicated toward navigating
interactions with other humans, particularly those with power—
AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 19
 The bellicose ancient cradle of civilization
was not a cradle of gender equality.
an ancient task that remains critical for our present-day survival.
If I am right, then the deviant sides of God really implicate our
own conceptual limitations and have little to bear on that “higher
power,” however defined.
Better understanding religious violence and oppression is
so crucial to curbing the human suffering it causes, that the risk
of asking provocative questions must be taken. To this end, we
require a better understanding of what instinctive drives we, as
creatures of biology, bring to religious belief and practice, for it is
these drives that are ultimately behind every form of violence and
oppression.
Dominance Defined
In order to take a more evolutionarily informed look at God,
it is worth taking a bit of time to clarify a few terms and basic
evolutionary ideas. First of all, what is dominance? And what does
it mean to primates such as humans?
All great-ape species have male dominance hierarchies and
there is a relative lack of female dominance hierarchies among
the great apes. Males, with the notable exception of bonobos,
typically dominate females. Dominance status is often associated
with greater male violence; dominant chimpanzees, for example,
show agonistic displays more often, start aggressive interactions
more often, escalate aggression more often, and win aggressive
interactions more often than their lower- ranking counterparts.
Humans, like other primates, for the greater part live in
hierarchical societies. While the degree to which human societies
are rank-stratified varies across cultures, there is rank structure
even in relatively more egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies. Rank
has important implications for behavior.
In their article “The Evolution of Prestige,” published in the
journal Evolution and Human Behavior (2001), anthropologists
Joseph Henrich and Francisco Gil-White emphasize that high
status involves a system of rewards in which males receive
“preferential reproductive access to females, food, and spaces,
as well as a disproportionate amount of grooming from others.”
They also note an important characteristic of human hierarchies,
which is that rank status may be maintained through either
“dominance (force or force threat)” or through “prestige (freely
conferred deference).”
In dominance hierarchies, status is reinforced with aggression
and fear, and the lower-ranking typically avert eye contact,
yield space, groom their superiors, and make other submissive
gestures. Prestige, as described by the authors, is characterized
by the relative absence of fear and is maintained by high-ranking
individuals demonstrating merit, skill, wisdom, or persuasiveness.
Rather than averting eye contact and seeking greater distance,
The deviant sides of God implicate our own
conceptual limitations.
20 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org
lower-ranking individuals seek eye contact and proximity with
prestigious individuals—often in order to gain valued information.
In illustrating the difference between dominance and prestige, the
authors evocatively offer the great paraplegic physicist Stephen
Hawking as the exemplar of pure prestige, and the high-school
bully as the exemplar of pure dominance.
One can argue that the Abrahamic god, and perhaps particularly
the figure of Jesus Christ in the Christian New Testament, also
makes use of prestige as a strategy for achieving status; however,
the Abrahamic god’s use of dominance is robust, and the use of
fear to maintain rank is widely documented. This dominance has
four main components:
1. Intimidation: Dominant males use dominance displays
to intimate greater size, whereas lower-ranking members
demonstrate submission by intimating smaller size (e.g., shrinking
down), averting eyes, or communicating emotions such as fear
and humility (as opposed to anger and pride).
2. Territorial acquisition: Dominant males often control
territory, which I define not only as tracts of earth but also as the
control of resources within specific geographic boundaries. These
resources have key implications for males’ evolutionary fitness,
most importantly food and females, both of which dominant
males commandeer upon winning territory.
3. Sexual control: Following evolutionary drives, dominant
males often monopolize sexual access to females. They will mate-
guard and show great rage and sexual jealousy when their sexual
claims are challenged. They often spend great energy attempting
to stave off the sexual ambitions of their male rivals.
4. Violence: Dominant males will enact violence to establish
and maintain rank status, and the resources associated with it.
Sometimes this involves killing.
To begin to understand how such appetite-driven tactics
might have become associated with our notion of the divine, it
helps to understand how combative much of human history has
been. Perhaps nowhere is that history more poignant than in the
Middle East during the biblical age, when the turbulent forces of
humanity were forging the identity of the Abrahamic god that
we have today. In the history outlined below we may also begin
to understand what the meteoric spread of a dominant male
god owes to his intuitive appeal, particularly for primates whose
minds, by way of biological evolution, come predisposed to fear,
to submit to, and to follow dominant males.
2ND QUARTER 2018
Top photo: Nikolai Yezhov (far right) was a commissioner under Josef Stalin (second from right). After Yezhov fell out of favor
and was executed, Stalin had him removed from all historical records, including pictures (bottom photo). This tactic dates back
millennia. When Pharoah Amenhotep IV ascended the throne of Egypt, the priests of the reigning god Amun held considerable
political influence. To collapse this power structure, Amenhotep “deposed” Amun, replaced him with the god Aten, ordered all
images of Amun destroyed, and forced anyone with the name Amun to change it.

2ND QUARTER 2018 AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 21

 Even polytheistic religions around the world have
dominant male gods who go around behaving
like dominant male humans.
How a Dominant Male God Rises to Power
History reveals in striking form how men have historically
conflated themselves with God as a means to amplify power, and
how male gods rise to totalitarian rule in the manner of men—
through violence and killing. With a critical read of history, we
are also able to account for the Abrahamic god’s domineering
temperament, which he appears to have inherited from effective
warlords of the biblical age.
A number of scholars, perhaps most notably Robert Wright,
have traced the evolution of god concepts and religious practices
as humans moved from hunter-gatherer societies to chiefdoms and
eventually to nation-states. They illuminate an intriguing history,
within which flows a rather complex confluence of cultural,
political, militaristic, and psychological forces, all shaping the
countenance of God (or gods). While my book’s main focus is on
the evolutionary angle, I am obliged to give some attention to this
history, for it illustrates the thunderous path toward monotheism
in the Middle East that brought us the Abrahamic religions and
does much to shed light on the evolving need for dominant male
gods. In doing so, I favor the structure and interpretation of this
history as told by Wright in his 2009 book The Evolution of God.
Wright begins his account by outlining five categories of
supernatural beings seen consistently across groups of hunter-
gatherers, designed largely to explain the natural world:
1. elemental spirits (e.g., inanimate phenomena, such as
wind, moon, stars, with personality and soul),
2. natural phenomena controlled by supernatural beings
(e.g., a personified deity who controls the wind),
3. organic spirits (e.g., coyote spirits, tree spirits),
4. ancestral spirits, and, importantly,
5. high gods (which Wright describes as “a god that is in
some vague sense more important than other supernatural
beings and is often a creator god”).
All of these classes involve human projections. Now, because
we evolved in ranked societies, the natural extension is that
our projections are ranked socially. Even in early religions we
can observe male dominance behaviors in conceptions of god,
particularly “high gods.” For example, the Native American
Klamath tribe’s sun god, Kmukamtch, was jealous of his son,
Aishish, and spent a great deal of energy trying to seduce Aishish’s
wives. Gaona, the dominant god of the !Kung San of Africa, raped
his son’s wife and ate two of his brothers-in-law. Both sexual
acquisitiveness and mate competition are dominance behaviors
Human potential is so vast, but we may have
limited ourselves by the gods we created.
22 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org
common among male primates.
Historical scholars, including Wright, argue that as people
moved from nomadic bands of hunter-gatherers into larger agrarian
societies, their religious needs changed to reflect a new lifestyle.
With larger populations, the roles of gods began to reflect social
concerns rather than the forces of nature. Notably, gods began to
more actively regulate social interactions and punish breaches of
morality and cooperation. Wright argues that hunter-gatherers, who
lived in small, close-knit societies, had little need for gods to oversee
in-group processes; these societies were small and transparent
enough to be regulated from within.
As societies grew into larger chiefdoms, gods became “the
guardians of political power, supervisors of economic performance,
and supporters of social norms that let unprecedentedly large
numbers of people live together.” For example, the Tongan gods of
Polynesia were said to punish theft with shark attacks. In chiefdoms,
dominant men often possessed divine authority, or were walking
gods on earth. Breaking the chief ’s laws became the same as
breaking the laws of God.
As populations grew to state levels, the power of the gods
grew commensurately with the power needed to regulate greater
masses of people. Similarly, the tasks of the gods became more
specialized, reflecting the growing complexity of social order and
greater division of labor. As states began to subsume ethnically
diverse bands of people, there was a need not only for regulating
in-group behavior but also for regulating interactions between
states. As diverse peoples and their gods came into contact,
political leaders began to create rules reflecting international
law, steeped always in religious belief—in this era, religion,
law, and politics were inextricable. In order to foster trade and
commerce, and simply through sustained contact, many states
either incorporated the gods of their trading partners or at the
very least tolerated them.
Thus many early religions in the Middle East remained
polytheistic. But even here, under relatively peaceable coexistence
with other gods, dominant male gods set to the male-typical
business of establishing territory.
International-relations theorist Adam Watson writes in The
Evolution of International Society (1992) that in third-millennium
B.C.E. Mesopotamia, “Enlil, the king of all the lands and the father
of all the gods, marked out a boundary for the god of Lagash and
the god of Umma by his decree. The king of Kish measured it
out in accordance with the word of the god of legal settlements,
and erected a stone boundary marker there.” The territoriality
of male gods began to take on greater proportions, following the
2ND QUARTER 2018
 To understand such a god, we must first
understand the minds of men, for it is these minds
that think up ways to oppress and kill.
evolutionary dictates of the powerful men who represented them,
a line that was often intentionally obfuscated. For example, when
the king of Umma violated Enlil’s decree, he was “punished by the
army of Lagash (or as the historical record has it, by the god of
Lagash through the army of Lagash).”
And so the needs of gods began to transform to include
transnational territories and codes of behavior for larger and
larger masses of people.
Gods moved toward monotheism alongside high-ranking
men who were increasingly able to consolidate entire populations
under autocratic rule. One example
comes from Babylon, an important
enemy of ancient Israel, where the
Abrahamic god was born. Hammurabi,
a Babylonian king in the early second
millennium, championed the god
Marduk and utilized Marduk’s image to
materialize his own political ambitions.
Hammurabi, credited with creating
one of the first legal codes, was sure
to emphasize that his law-making
capacities were divinely authorized by
the gods Anu and Enlil. The two gods,
according to Hammurabi’s code, then
promoted Marduk to supremacy and
assigned him “dominion over earthly
man.” Marduk’s image was steeped
in references to mate-competition—
he was a glorious, sexually potent,
dominant male god (described as
having the heart of a kettle drum and
the penis of a snake that produced
golden sperm, for example).
With the lines blurred between god
and man, more specifically between
Hammurabi and Marduk’s supremacy, the way was greased for
Hammurabi’s dominion of all Mesopotamia. Though Hammurabi
died before this was realized, Babylon ultimately managed to defeat
Mesopotamia, and Marduk became the head of the pantheon of
gods across the subsumed territories, either by subordinating the
resident gods of the conquered or by sequestering their functions.
For instance, Adad, who was once the god of rain, became the
“Marduk of rain.” Nabu, who was once the god of accounting,
changed into “Marduk of accounting.” But still, this was an example
of monolatry, rather than monotheism—meaning that one god
Men have summoned divine legitimacy to justify
their worst impulses.
2ND QUARTER 2018
ruled over other gods in the pantheon, rather than that one god
was the only god in all existence. Like a pantheon of bureaucrats,
there were many other gods during this period of ancient Babylon,
each performing different functions; in the ninth century B.C.E., a
census turned up around sixty-five thousand gods.
With the identities of male leaders and male gods so intertwined,
one could understand the motivation to consolidate divine
identities—doing so could prove a fast-track to consolidating
power, whereas leaving a host of other gods in position had the
potential to confuse (and ultimately dilute) the king’s power
structure. But again, it should be
recognized that dominant male gods
are the creations of men (rather than
women) specifically. The bellicose
ancient cradle of civilization was not a
cradle of gender equality. Powerful men
wrote the doctrine, designed the laws,
and set the special relationships with
their gods. The historical uses for these
gods were the male-typical pursuits
of territory and power, following an
ancient legacy of male primate behavior.
The meshing of gods and kings may
have also dissuaded rebellion, or as
historian Will Durant remarked, “All
the glamor of the supernatural hedged
about the throne, and made rebellion a
colossal impiety which risked not only
the neck but the soul.”
Other gods have assumed
monolatristic, if not virtual
monotheistic, positions. One example
comes from Egypt, another important
enemy of ancient Israel. The Egyptian
god Amun came to dominate the
pantheon of Egyptian gods, a position gained by a series of
successful Egyptian military campaigns that Amun symbolically
spearheaded. Amun became known as the “king of gods,” the
“prince of princes.” He became an ultimate god, the greatest of
transcendent deities of Egyptian religious history, and his priests
amassed great political and economic power from riches won in
military campaigns. As Wright tells it, when Pharaoh Amenhotep
IV inherited the throne upon the death of his father, he may have
had good reasons to feel threatened by a god with such power.
It wasn’t long before Amenhotep deposed Amun and put Aten
AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 23
 God remains unnecessarily preoccupied with what are
ultimately very human, and very ape-like, concerns.
(a sun god) in his place, and then declared himself Aten’s son. was violence conducted up close and personal, where you made eye
Aten eventually became the creator of the world. In the story contact with your attacker before he physically hacked you to pieces
of Amenhotep and Aten we can see not only human power and (with dull bronze and later iron weapons), killed your entire family,
territoriality exercised through the gods, but also human jealousy. and burned your city to the ground. Unless you possessed great
Under Amenhotep, any person named Amun was forced to change power, or allied yourself with someone who did, you were subject
his or her name. to raids or conquests of these kinds. Lesser states often paid tribute
Similarly, any depiction of Amun was erased from existence, to more powerful kingdoms for protection lest they be annihilated.
from wherever it appeared. Though Aten symbolically embodied Powerful men appointed male gods as their generals, and success in
both the masculine and feminine, this level of possessiveness is battle (or in genocide) was often attributed to the gods. Of course,
traceable to the behaviors of despotic men. Joseph Stalin, for this is not the only epoch of human history in which agonies of
example, used similar tactics when he assumed control of Russia this kind occurred, but as great populations began to emerge in the
and had the images of men fallen from favor erased from history cradle of civilization, there was a corresponding growth of the scale
books, currency, and political sculptures; he had most of these of warfare.
men exterminated altogether. It is worth noting that this business It is not difficult to understand how, in environments marred
of marking over the territorial markers of one’s rivals is known to by warfare and existential uncertainty, the religions of a people
would reflect a need for a fearsome, protector
male god. Likely these gods reflected the warlord
kings of those epochs, who performed the same
function for their people—men who rose up
and took arms against invading enemies, or who
invaded enemies for their resources. Further,
ancient Israel was at a distinct disadvantage
because it was situated between two superpowers
of its time, Assyria and Egypt, and was often
subject to slavery and slaughter between the two.
Forming alliances with one or the other was not
much of an option, as Wright describes it, because
for “a small state wedged between two great
powers, ‘alliance’ often amounts to vassalage.”
Moreover, kings in this region were not only
taxed with aggressive encounters from outside
groups—they were also required to maintain a
stable in-group hierarchy, which often necessitated
Hector Garcia speaks at TED Talks Live - War and Peace. You can see his talk, aggression. Sectarian groups within a nation’s
"We train soldiers for war. Let's train them to come home too," at TED.com. borders could weaken the entire state, rendering it
(Photo courtesy of Ryan Lash/TED) less effective at coordinating common goals such
as defense. More often than not, these fissions
primates and proliferated among the gods of the biblical age. were headed by their own dominant male leaders (and their
The ancient Israelites, too, were at first polytheistic. Yahweh godheads), who could handicap the force of a nation with petty
was a god that emerged from a pantheon of other gods and was squabbling. But fiercely dominant male leaders had the power
initially neither monotheistic nor possessing of many of the to punish factionalism and to cement alliances. Israel’s strategic
transcendent qualities he later came to embody. There are many and size disadvantages made the need for in-group cohesion all
references to other gods in the Bible, and in the history of Israel, the more urgent. As always, the men who shouldered the task of
before monotheism took hold. fusing in-group schisms did so at the level of humans and gods
It is important to understand the geopolitical environment of simultaneously.
the ancient Middle East when the first Abrahamic religion, Judaism, Within a history of blood-loss and slavery, a series of powerful
and its monotheistic god, Yahweh, were gestating. Conquest kings in Israel began addressing the need for a more powerful god.
involving the slaughter of entire cities was not uncommon. This In around 640 B.C.E., King Josiah assumed the throne of Israel

24 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2018

 Why should God concern himself with such
pedestrian pursuits as food, sex, and territory?
and began to consolidate power under Yahweh, simultaneously
removing traces of other gods. Deities of the region—for
example, Astarte, Chemosh, Milcom, and Baal—mostly syncretic
gods formed from centuries of cultural merging, were deemed
abominations. All altars, idols, and other religious accoutrements
of the gods were destroyed, along with their temple priests.
According to the Bible, Josiah “slaughtered on the altars all the
priests of the high places who were there, and burned bones on
them” (2 Kings 23:20). Scripture began to police dissent as means
to ensure consolidation. Of Josiah, the Bible reads, “Anyone who
does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name,
I myself will hold accountable. But any prophet who speaks in the
name of other gods, or presumes to speak in my name a word that
I have not yet commanded that prophet to speak, that prophet
shall die” (Deuteronomy 18:19-20).
Similarly, if anyone dared to suggest worshipping other gods, that
person should be killed, “even if it is your brother, your father’s son,
your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most
intimate friend” (Deuteronomy 13:6-9). And if you came across an
Israeli town worshipping other gods, “you must certainly put to the
sword all who live in that town. Destroy it completely, both its people
and its livestock. Gather all the plunder of the town into the middle
of the public square and completely burn the town and all its plunder
as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It is to remain a ruin
forever, never to be rebuilt” (Deuteronomy 13:15-16).
This strategy of intolerance was a design of Josiah’s ambitions
to expand the Israeli empire, first by uniting southern and northern
Israel under one god. Though Josiah’s prescriptions for nonbelievers
were brutal, such was the tenor of this merciless age. For instance,
later when King Zedekiah of Judah rebelled against the Babylonians,
King Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem, burned it to the ground,
and killed Zedekiah’s son in front of him, gouged out Zedekiah’s
eyes, and took the greater part of the city into Babylon as slaves.
Knowing the importance of the godhead (perhaps even believing it),
Nebuchadnezzar was sure to destroy Yahweh’s temple.
Israel, like other states of the region (for instance, when Israel
subjugated the Moabites), also suffered through many years of
conquest and slavery—it served, for example, King Cushan-
Rishathaim of Aram-Naharaim for eight years, and King Eglon of Moab
for eighteen years. The Israelites were also exiled and held in captivity
for nearly fifty years after being conquered by the Babylonians during
the fifth century B.C.E. (a conquest the Babylonians saw as evidence
of the supremacy of their god Marduk).
Wright goes so far as to argue that this stint in exile was the
most profound in Judaic history and an important catalyst in
the development of monotheism—for just as national religion
can unite a people, so can national trauma. From their trials and
humiliations, the Israelites began transforming God to a redeemer,
2ND QUARTER 2018
and eventually solidified Yahweh’s singular divinity. The concept
began evolving from roughly, “You shall have no other gods before
me” to “There are no other gods.”
The Israelites began developing what has been described as
retribution theology. From this age of suffering comes a litany of
redresses that Yahweh begins to extract from the oppressors of Israel,
in the fashion of dominant human lords of the ancient Middle East.
Yahweh proclaims in the book of Isaiah, “I will make your oppressors
eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as
with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the Lord your Savior,
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob” (49:26). For Israel’s
enemies, Yahweh promises fearsome retribution:
Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your
feet, rejoicing with all the malice of your heart against the land
of Israel, therefore I will stretch out my hand against you and
give you as plunder to the nations. I will cut you off from the
nations and exterminate you from the countries. I will destroy
you, and you will know that I am the Lord (Ezekiel 25:6-7).
The list of retributive threatening goes on and exemplifies the
need for a warrior god to protect and avenge his people against
their subjugators. In a political environment run by strongmen,
one needs a god based on strongman psychology, one equipped
for maneuvering within the dominance hierarchies of men. My
intention in reviewing this history is to show the context in which
the three great monotheistic religions arose. Notably they arose
from an explosion of population density in the Middle East, where
merciless slaughter at the hands of men encouraged the people to
turn to strong, warlike leaders (to protect against the other men of a
similar bent), and to gods who were similarly fearsome.
Many of the patterns outlined in this history have occurred
before, repeating for millions of years across the savage, primeval
landscapes of our primate ancestors. As in ancient Mesopotamia, the
savannas and rainforests of Africa have witnessed dominant males
leading bloody incursions, capturing territories, killing in-group
males, and protecting against outsider males assembled ominously at
the border. Humans are unique in having created supernatural agents
that perform these functions alongside their mortal counterparts.
The religio-cultural contexts in which dominant male gods arise are
rooted in our biological heritage.
Hector Garcia, Psy.D., is a clinical psychologist who specializes in the
treatment of combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder. He is also
an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University
of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. You can read his
Psychology Today columns, see his TED Talk, and listen to his interviews
at Hector-Garcia.com.
AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 25
Book Excerpt
Time is Irreverent - an atheist science-fiction novel
by Marty Essen

W hen the Krichards, a species

of time-travel specialists from
forty light years away, learn of United
States President Handley’s game of dodge
the mushroom cloud, they race to Earth
to investigate. For them, preventing
Earth’s annihilation is a worthwhile
endeavor, but they will only proceed if
the human they deem best qualified to
represent Earth agrees to travel back to
the year 31 A.D. and alter the events of
the past. Instead of a brilliant scientist or
an elite athlete, they select Marty Mann,
a mildly successful travel writer, whose
only superpower is not taking life too
seriously.
What could possibly go wrong?
The following excerpt is from the
chapter “Nellie Gets Stoned.” The
Krichards in the story go by Chrissie
and Tina because their real names
are impossible for people on Earth to
pronounce. Humans Marty Mann and heterosexual and Nellie is a lesbian.
Nellie Dixon are best friends. They We join the story in Galilee, where
met when Marty traveled from the year Marty and Nellie have just been
2020 to 2056, where Nellie is living in transported to 31 A.D. Through implants
a theocracy, Jesus is the Official God of in their heads, they communicate
the United States of America, women and with Chrissie and Tina, who remain
minorities have no rights, and being gay on their spaceship and observe the
or lesbian is illegal. Their close friendship action on Earth via a robotic house fly
is a complicated one because Marty is accompanying the humans.
26 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2018
 Whoosh!
Everything went white.
Everything went bright.
“Ow!” I shouted, shielding my eyes. “Chrissie, do we have
any historically accurate sunglasses hidden in our pockets?”
“Sorry. You’ll have to wait a while. Sunglasses won’t be
invented for at least another thousand years.”
“Maybe that’s the problem. People during biblical times
were running around half-blind. Let’s tell them that if they
wear sunglasses, they’ll be just as powerful as the sun god.
We’ll give them a few thousand pairs in return for promising
to treat women as equals and never, ever starting another war.
They’d go for it in a second.”
Chrissie ignored my comment and asked, “How are you
doing, Nellie?”
“It’s going to take a while to get used to having voices
in my head. Other than that, I’m ready to kick some
misogynistic ass.”
I peeked around some boulders before saying, “Chrissie,
we’re going to go check out the area. I see a few people milling
about, so we may not be able to respond if you or Tina say
anything to us.”
“Understood.”
Nellie and I walked ahead about fifty feet and climbed
onto a large rock that sat atop a cluster of even larger ones.
The hilly area was full of boulders framed by dry, scraggly
trees. The potato pulpit was about sixty feet in front of us,
and anyone who stood up there to preach would face away
from us. It was a perfect forum for public speaking because in
front of the potato-shaped rock was a wide, flat area strewn
with pebbles, sand, and grass. People could sit there in relative
comfort. Off to the sides were more boulders that onlookers
could lean against or sit on, and behind the potato pulpit was a
shallow pit that shielded the backstage area from view. Finally,
off to the right, someone had stacked numerous large rocks to
create steps to the top of the pulpit.
I whispered to Nellie. “We should hang out here and
observe for a while.”
“I was going to say the same thing.”
Our rock was just wide enough for both of us to sit on with
our legs hanging over the edge. Nellie pointed. “That man
approaching from between those trees over there looks like
the preacher we saw on Tina’s monitor.”
“I think you’re right, and his entourage is right behind
him.”
Nellie chuckled. “They called them disciples back then.”
“Same difference.”
One of the men was leading a donkey saddled with a set
Tell them Marty Mann and Nellie Dixon will return
with more amazing non-miracles in three days.
2ND QUARTER 2018
of baskets and what looked like a primitive crutch lashed
between them. He led the animal to the backstage area,
removed the crutch, and unloaded the baskets.
The preacher gathered his entourage backstage. Although
we were too far away to hear any words, he was obviously
giving everyone instructions. Soon, all but three of the people
dispersed, including a man carrying the crutch as if it were a
briefcase. The preacher and the man with the donkey stayed
behind, along with a woman who was carefully applying
brown clay to her face from a ceramic pot she had pulled from
one of the baskets.
“Tina, Chrissie,” I whispered, “are you watching this?”
“See the fly that just landed on your knee?” Tina asked.
“Yes.”
“Don’t slap it.”
Nellie covered her mouth to repress a laugh. Then, talking
through her fingers said, “Keep that away from us. Swatting
flies is pure instinct for me.”
The fly took off and hovered several feet away.
“Is that better?”
“A few more feet,” Nellie said. “I can still hear the wings.
It’s giving me the creeps.”
“Okay, now that we know you can see what we see,” I said,
“what do you think?”
“I think the preacher is a flimflam man,” Chrissie said.
“I agree. And for us to pull this off, we’re going to have to
out-con the con man.”
“Or out-god the god,” Tina said. “That’s why I gave you the
butane lighter the first time we tried this.”
“We’ve seen this before with religious leaders on other
planets,” Chrissie added. “Which is why you must not
underestimate your competition. The most pious-looking
person could slit your throat in a second.”
Nellie pointed at the gathering crowd. “This place is going
to fill up fast.”
“It’s almost show time. Chrissie, Tina, unless you see
something from your housefly view that we absolutely have
to know about, please stay out of our heads. We need to
concentrate. Nellie, I’m glad you don’t have a shy bone in your
body. Let’s be over-the-top on this and play off each other.”
“Hey, I’m the only one here who is truly born again. What
do I have to be bashful about?”
When the stream of spectators slowed, the preacher made
his final preparations backstage. While he was doing that,
Nellie and I descended from our rock and worked our way
into the crowd. When I realized that I couldn’t understand
what anyone was saying, I said, “Psst. Tina, I don’t think my
implant is working. All I hear is gibberish.”
AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 27
 He grabbed the man’s crutch and threw it into the
backstage area, so he could reuse the prop later.
“That’s because I haven’t activated the vocal translator
function yet. Once I do, any words you say in English will
come out in Aramaic. Since you don’t have a hind brain, the
process will tax the Broca’s area of your single brain. If you
talk too much, your speech may become temporarily slurred.”
“How much is too much?”
“We don’t know. You and Nellie are the first humans we’ve
tried this on.”
Nellie and I looked at each other. I smiled nervously, and
she comically dropped the lower lip on the right side of her
face.
“Okay, we’re ready,” I said.
“Activating now.”
Suddenly, the clutter of Aramaic voices around us became
a clutter of English voices.
“Can you understand me, Nellie?”
“Yes. Can you understand me?”
“Yes. But it’s weird. I’m hearing English while your lips
are speaking Aramaic. Have you ever watched a foreign film
dubbed into English?”
“Sure.”
“That’s exactly what this is like. We’ll have to be careful
and remember that we can’t read each other’s lips.”
We sat off to the side as the show began. Whether or not
we were watching the actual Sermon on the Mount, I can’t
say. Even if it was the real thing, the words couldn’t possibly
match any Bible since primitive writing techniques wouldn’t
allow for someone to blend into the crowd with a reporter’s
notebook to record the words. Also, at least fifty years would
pass between the time of the sermon and the writing of the
Gospel of Matthew.
One thing that did strike me, however, was that the
preacher introduced himself as Yeshua. Many historians
believe that Yeshua is the true Hebrew name for Jesus. If those
historians are correct, perhaps I was indeed looking at the
man we had hoped to find. Then again, Yeshua was a common
name at the time.
No matter what, I had to chuckle to myself at how closely
the proceedings resembled tent revival services in modern
times. After the sermon, it was time for the miracles. First
up was the man with the crutch. Workers made a big show of
helping him up the steps. Then after Yeshua looked up to the
heavens and shouted a prayer, he grabbed the man’s crutch
and threw it into the backstage area, so he could reuse the
Fortunately, she wasn’t seriously hurt, and just as
fortunately, no one in the crowd knew what Nellie meant
when she flipped them off.
28 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org
prop later. To conclude the illusion, the injury-faking actor
took a few steps before crying out, “I’ve been healed!” and
bounding around on the pulpit.
More healings followed, including the woman who had
covered her face with clay, claiming to have leprosy, and a
man from the entourage, claiming to be blind. Others taken
directly from the audience had ailments that were not visible.
Yeshua declared most of those people possessed by demons,
which he—after much showmanship—exorcised from their
bodies.
The service concluded with Yeshua announcing that
he’d be back in three days for another sermon and more
healings. In the meantime, he needed donations to continue
God’s work. As men walked through the audience, collecting
whatever people brought to give, I nodded to Nellie, and the
two of us bounded up onto the stage.
I looked out over the audience and yelled, “Yeshua has
deceived you! The man with the crutch wasn’t really injured.
I saw him walking just fine before the sermon. I also saw the
woman apply clay to her face to trick you into believing she
had leprosy.” I reached down and picked up a glob of clay that
Yeshua had tossed on the pulpit during the mock healing and
squeezed it through my fingers.
The crowd roared in anger as Yeshua and his entourage
slinked away.
“That’s right!” Nellie yelled. “He’s—”
“Woman!” the audience bellowed.
Nellie and I looked at each other in confusion.
She tried again. “The demons—”
“Woman!” they roared. This time several in the crowd
pelted the pulpit with stones, one of which caught Nellie in
the shoulder. Fortunately, she wasn’t seriously hurt, and just
as fortunately, no one in the crowd knew what Nellie meant
when she flipped them off.
Chrissie entered our brains. “Marty, Nellie, in A.D.
31 it wasn’t proper for a woman to speak to men like that,
especially in public.”
I reached into a hidden pocket, grabbed my butane lighter,
flicked it on, and turned the flame all the way up. “My name is
Marty Mann! I can instantly make fire and hold it in my hand,
yet I am not a god. The woman next to me is Nellie Dixon,
and she is not my wife. In fact, she is not any man’s property,
nor will she ever be. The next time she speaks, you will show
her respect. You will not yell at her. You will not throw stones
2ND QUARTER 2018
 Let’s tell them that if they wear sunglasses, they’ll be
just as powerful as the sun god.
at her. If you do, you will regret it.” I nodded for Nellie to
continue.
“We are here today bec—”
“Woman! Woman! Woman!”
I calmly pulled an oversized firecracker out of my pocket,
handed it to Nellie, and lit it. She lobbed it at a man who was
just about to pitch a stone.
The man smiled, thinking Nellie had made a weak, girlie
throw. Then it exploded!
The firecracker didn’t hurt anyone, nor had we wanted
it to. The noise was all we were after. Nellie glared down at
the man, who was now cowering behind others in the crowd.
“When I speak, you will show me just as much respect as you
show a man, or the next one goes down your tunic!”
The man, his face full of fear, bowed his head and moved
off to the side.
“Now, I know everyone has already had a long day,” I
said, “so we won’t keep you here much longer. We have two
messages for you today. First, don’t be fooled by miracles.
Everything Yeshua did up here was a sham. No one was
actually healed, and demons do not exist.” I leaned in close to
Nellie’s ear and whispered, “Women.”
She nodded and picked up where I left off. “Second,
women are not inferior to men, and you should never consider
them ritually unclean. Would anyone like to challenge me on
that?”
A man moved through the crowd to approach the pulpit.
Nellie held out her hand, and I placed another firecracker
in it.
The man, his eyes wide, retreated as quickly as he could.
“Wise move,” Nellie hissed.
“Come back here in three days and bring everyone you
know. Tell them Marty Mann and Nellie Dixon will do
something amazing. Something that is real. Not just a trick.”
Nellie’s scowl transformed into a bright smile. “Until then,
how about a group picture?” She pulled a digital camera out of
a hidden pocket and snapped one from the pulpit. No one, of
course, had any idea what she had done, so she hurried down
the steps to show the image on the screen to those closest to the
pulpit. When they still didn’t understand, she started taking
individual photographs. At first, people were fearful of the
images, but eventually, after a little patient coaxing, they grew
braver. Before long, both men and women were pointing and
howling in laughter, thrilled to see themselves on the screen.
As Nellie worked the crowd, making sure she took
everyone’s picture, I stayed close, making sure she stayed safe.
I also pulled up anyone who tried to kneel or bow to us, each
time saying, “We’re not gods. We’re just showing you what
humans can accomplish on their own.”
The crowd stayed for hours and even grew in size as word
2ND QUARTER 2018
spread. When Nellie noticed that the camera battery was
running low, she started requiring people to pose in small
groups. In all, she took more than seven hundred shots.
By the time the photo shoot ended, we had our own
entourage. Somehow, we had to figure out how to ditch
them, so we could communicate with Tina and Chrissie
without looking like we were out of our minds. Walking
away or saying we had to go home didn’t work because they
followed us like adoring groupies. We finally achieved success
by giving them all jobs in our promotions department and
reframing what we had already asked the crowd to do.
“Go to every village within walking distance and spread
the good news,” I said.
“Tell them Marty Mann and Nellie Dixon will return with
more amazing non-miracles in three days,” Nellie added.
Once we were sure we were alone, we returned to the
potato pulpit.
“Scotty, beam us up,” I said.
“Who’s Scotty?” Tina asked.
“Never mind. It’s just something from an old TV series
that goes through my head every time you suck me back up to
the ship. I think we’re done here for now, but as you obviously
heard, we need to come back to the same place in three Earth
days.”
“We can send you there directly, and you’ll arrive in
seconds, or you can come back to the ship, get a good night’s
sleep, and go back in the morning.”
I looked at Nellie, and she pointed skyward. “I hate to
whine, but I’ve just mingled with hundreds of people on a
planet where antiperspirants and deodorants have yet to be
invented.” Her voice slowed, and she began to slur. “I would
really like to take a long, . . . hot shhhowweer.”
“Get into position. I’ll have you back on the ship in an
instant.”
Nellie and I embraced.
Whoosh!
Everything went white.
Everything went aah, civilization!
Marty Essen began his career as a features writer for Gig Magazine. His
first book, Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents,
won six national awards, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune named it
a Top Ten Green Book. His second book, Endangered Edens: Exploring
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto
Rico, won four national awards. He is also a popular college speaker
who has performed a stage version of Cool Creatures, Hot Planet on
hundreds of campuses in forty-five states. His website is MartyEssen.
com and he blogs at Marty-Essen.com. Time is Irreverent will soon be
available as an audio book.
AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 29
Notable Books
Emancipation of a Black Atheist
by D.K. Evans, Ph.D., 168 pages, Pitchstone
Great journeys
often start with a single
question. For D.K.
Evans, a newly married
professional in the
Christian-dominated
South, that question
was, “Why do I believe
in God?” It led him to
a years-long search to
better understand the
nature of religion and
faith, particularly as
it applies to the Black
community. In addition
to immersing himself
in the works of John
Henrik Clarke, Yosef-
Ben Jochannan, Hubert
Harrison, and John G. Jackson, he spoke with other Black
individuals who had also come to question their core religious
beliefs. He calls on everyone, especially those in the Black
community who rely on blind faith, to question their own beliefs.
The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the
Classical World
by Catherine Nixey, 315 pages, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
For centuries,
Christianity’s conquest
of the West has generally
been considered a
triumph. But this
“victory” entailed an
orgy of destruction in
which Jesus’ followers
attacked and suppressed
classical culture, helping
to pitch Western
civilization into a
thousand-year-long
decline. Just one percent
of Latin literature would
survive the purge;
countless antiquities,
artworks, and ancient
traditions were lost
forever. The evidence
of early Christians’ campaigns of terror has been hiding in plain
sight in the palimpsests and shattered statutes proudly displayed
in churches and museums the world over. Author Catherine
Nixey resurrects this lost history, offering a wrenching account
of the rise of Christianity and its terrible cost.
30 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org
Atheists in American Politics: Social Movement Organizing
from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Centuries
by Richard J. Meagher, Ph.D., 162 pages, Rowman & Littlefield
One of the first
works to take atheism
seriously as a social
movement, this book
highlights key moments
within the political
history of American
atheism dating back
to the late 1800s. A
number of intertwining
factors are often
necessary to enable a
movement to “take off ”
in American politics,
and Meagher, who is
an associate professor
of political science
at Randolph-Macon
College, explains how
advances in technology and new political opportunities
have helped atheists finally gain at least some measure of
legitimacy in American politics. Professor Meagher’s research
included several visits to the American Atheists’ Charles
E. Stevens Library and Archives, which he mentions in his
acknowledgements.
Secularism: Politics, Religion, and Freedom
by Andrew Copson, 153 pages, Oxford University Press
While it is the best
way to hold together
diverse societies,
secularism is under
threat around the world.
Religious states like those
in the Arab world have
always been in conflict
with insurgent secularists,
but republics such as
today’s India and France
are now facing challenges
from the resurgence of
religious identity politics.
Author Andrew Copson
is the chief executive of
the British Humanist
Association. In this
book, he tells the story
of secularism, taking in momentous episodes in world history
such as the great transition of Europe from religious orthodoxy to
pluralism, the global struggle for human rights and democracy, and
the origins of modernity.
2ND QUARTER 2018
Why I Am an Atheist
by James A. Haught
I am an atheist because honesty requires it.
I was born in 1932 in a little Appalachian farm town with
no electricity or paved streets. It was the Bible Belt, but
my parents never went to church. They sent me briefly to
rural Sunday schools, because that’s what all children in my
town did. I remember laboriously trying to pray as a first-
grader, but quickly abandoned it. Even then, it seemed like a
pointless effort. I don’t think my Sunday-school attendance
lasted past second grade.
There were only thirteen students in my high school class.
After graduation, I moved to Charleston, West Virginia, and
landed a newspaper job at the Charleston Daily Mail, thanks
to my great-aunt, Jane Folden. She was a proofreader and
got me hired as an apprentice printer on Linotype machines
in the old-style hot lead print shop. However, I thought it
would impress girls if I was a news reporter, so I worked
without pay in the newsroom on my days off from the print
shop. Soon after, our rival, The Charleston Gazette, gave me
a reporter job. In the newsroom, I found myself surrounded
by bright newsmen who were worldly cynics eager for
trustworthy knowledge. They sneered at the stupidity of
hillbilly preachers.
Some reporters recruited me into a Great Books course at
our public library, where we debated the world classics. I was
amazed by the dialogues of Socrates and other philosophy
treatises which showed that the finest minds throughout
history had struggled to fathom a purpose of life, if any.
That newspaper became my university.
My city editor was a brilliant, witty iconoclast in the
mold of H.L. Mencken, the famed curmudgeon of the The
Baltimore Sun. He laughed at pomposity, especially that of
backwoods religion. One day I asked him, “You’re right that
all this Bible-thumping is nonsense, but what is true? Why
are we here? Why does the universe exist? Is there a meaning
to life? What answer can an honest person give?”
He eyed me sharply and said, “You can say, ‘I don’t know.’”
Bingo. That rang a bell in my head that hasn’t stopped
since. I became convinced that the only honest approach is to
admit bafflement. I saw that it’s dishonest to claim to know
supernatural things that nobody can know. It’s untruthful
2ND QUARTER 2018
Digging through files at the Gazette in the 1970s
to say you’re certain of gods, devils, heavens, hells, angels,
demons, miracles, messiahs, prophecies, and other church
dogmas when not a shred of real evidence exists.
In the 1950s, I joined the Charleston Unitarian Universalist
congregation, which consisted mostly of Ph.D. chemists and
Ph.D. college professors. It was largely an atheist assembly,
which appealed to me. Once, a Unitarian friend told me I’m
an agnostic, not an atheist, because I didn’t have an ultimate
answer to the question of God’s existence.
I disagreed and rephrased the issue: “Do you think an
invisible spirit rules the universe, listening to your thoughts,
and will burn you forever because of them?” He replied, “Of
course not.” So I said, “You see, we’re both atheists.” After
consideration, he agreed.
In the second chapter of Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell
to Arms, some military officers taunt their unit’s naïve,
young chaplain. “All thinking men are atheists,” a major tells
him. To me, that’s a reliable maxim. Since Ancient Greece,
intelligent seekers have concluded that the supernatural
claims of religion are hokum. Today’s skeptical thinkers can
be proud to be part of this record of honest doubt.
James A. Haught has been at the paper (now The Charleston Gazette-Mail)
since 1951, except for a few months in 1959 when he was press aide to
Senator Robert Byrd. He still works full time as editor emeritus.
AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 31
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 Questioning Your Faith &
Looking For Answers? Errata

In the Q1 2018 print edition, “God is

a Slave Owner’s Best Friend” includes
text from a different article. Please
disregard the paragraph preceding
the block quote on page 24.

In “Our Growing Secular

Demographic,” the Public Religion
Research Institute was incorrectly
identified as the Public Religious
Research Institute.

Follow a former FBI Special Agent on his Our apologies to the authors and
journey of doubt, scholarly examination readers.
of Catholic doctrine and his exit from the
Church after seven decades of allegiance.

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5 1/28/2018 Christianity Needs Salvation Urgently! Full
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7 2/11/2018 Indictment and Exoneration of Jesus Christ - Ingersoll 1/2
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9 2/25/2018 Infamy of Infamies - Ingersoll 1/2
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Bart Ehrman - Continued from page 15
Those twenty years after he was crucified are so murky.
Very murky. We don’t have a single Christian writing for
the next twenty years.
Maybe they were so upset over losing their leader that they
had to find a way for it to make sense.
That’s plausible. Their severe loss may have led to their
having visions.
In your book Jesus Before the Gospels: How the Earliest
Christians Remembered, Changed, and Invented Their Stories
of the Savior, you point out that such visions are common,
even today.
A lot of people have visions of deceased loved ones. People
seeing their grandmother in their bedroom two weeks after
she died is very common. Religious figures like the Blessed
Virgin Mary show up all the time.
Christianity may have triumphed, but where will it be in
fifty or one hundred years? Will it still be around?
The most unsettling trend is that the growing churches
tend to be the Evangelical ones, which have a very conservative
theology and a very conservative social agenda. The churches
that are losing numbers hand-over-fist are the liberal ones
2ND QUARTER 2018
that are more open and affirming, with more concern about
poverty, women’s rights, and gay rights. It’s a scary moment for
Christianity right now because if that trend continues, the two
billion Christians in the world will all have a very conservative
social agenda.
Trump supporters.
Yeah, Trump supporters. Him a righteous man.
I’ve heard some of his supporters say, “God chose him to
save us.”
Unbelievable.
Did you hear what reality-actress and former White House
staffer Omarosa Manigault said about Vice President Mike
Pence? He thinks Jesus tells him what to say and do. He
literally hears his voice.
Scary. The people who conducted the Inquisition thought
that Jesus was speaking to them, too.
Natasha Stoynoff is an award-winning journalist and New York Times
bestselling author. She lives in Manhattan and is working on her
second screenplay.
AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 37
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Zach Bos Assistants
ZBos@Atheists.org Clarksville: Patrick Horst
PHorst@Atheists.org
MINNESOTA
August Berkshire Murfreesboro:
ABerkshire@Atheists.org Gayle Jordan
GJordan@Atheists.org
MISSISSIPPI
Assistant TEXAS
Gulfport: Sarah Worrell Vicki Gettman
Sarah.Worrell@Atheists.org VGettman@Atheists.org
Tracey Benefield
TBenefield@Atheists.org
Tyler: Peggy Downing
PDowning@Athests.org
UTAH
Dan Ellis
DEllis@Atheists.org
VIRGINIA/D.C.
Larry Mendoza
LMendoza@Atheists.org
Assistants
Charlottesville:
Silvia Park
SPark@Atheists.org
Chester: Curtis Smith
CSmith@Atheists.org
Newport News:
Aiden Barnes
ABarnes@Atheists.org
Reston: Eric Herrman
EHerrman@Atheists.org
Sterling: Eric Santiago
ESantiago@Atheists.org
WEST VIRGINIA
Jim Spence
JSpence@Atheists.org
WASHINGTON
Bart Meltzer
BMeltzer@Atheists.org
Assistant
Tacoma/Olympia:
Daniel Bennett
DFBennett@Atheists.org

GEORGIA MISSOURI Assistants

Scott Savage Assistant Dallas: Nathaniel Walters
SSavage@Atheists.org Springfield: Eric Wells NWalters@Atheists.org
EWells@Atheists.org

38 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2018

THANK YOU, LIFE MEMBERS!
Since the last issue of this magazine, ten members of American Atheists increased their commitment by becoming Life
Members or by upgrading their Life Memberships to Silver or Gold. Thanks to the following for their continued support
to further promote our shared goals and values:

LIFE SILVER GOLD PLATINUM

Karen Dempsey Christopher Clarke
Michael Easterday Ken LeBlanc
Nancy J. Lacey Lee Tannenbaum
Matthew Sypherd This level includes free
admission for life to our
annual convention.
Cherie Ohlsson
This level includes two free
admissions for life to our
annual convention.
Kenneth Bronstein
William Wiener, Jr.
This level includes four free
admissions for life to our
annual convention.

Stand with us by making an investment in the future of American Atheists, and become a Life Member today.
Call 908-276-7300 x102, email Pamela Whissel at PWhissel@Atheists.org, or visit Atheists.org/Life-Membership.

From Amazon reviews:

“Wish I could afford to buy 100 copies and pass them all
out through my fundamentalist family.”

“It's so clear and straightforward, and it presents the

information in such a readable and compelling way, that
I could recommend this book to anyone.”

“This book should be read by everyone interested in the

history, philosophy, morality, and/or logic of faith.”

“Ought to be required reading in all comparative

religions courses.”

Order your copy of Seeing through Christianity today!

Available through online booksellers.

2ND QUARTER 2018 AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 39

AFFILIATES AND LOCAL PARTNERS
State Group Name City Site
LOCAL PARTNERS
FL FLASH - Florida Atheists and Secular Humanists Boca/Miami/Davie http://www.godlessflorida.com
GA Atlanta Freethought Society Atlanta http://atlantafreethought.org
IA Iowa Atheists & Freethinkers Des Moines http://www.meetup.com/Iowa-Atheists-and-Freethinkers
KY Tri-State Freethinkers (KY, IN, OH) Union http://www.meetup.com/Tri-State-Freethinkers/
MN Minnesota Atheists Minneapolis http://mnatheists.org
NE Lincoln Atheists Lincoln http://www.lincolnatheists.org
NY Long Island Atheists Lynbrook LIAtheists.org
OK Atheist Community of Tulsa Tulsa http://www.ACTOK.org
PA PA Non-Believers York http://www.panonbelievers.org
TX Metroplex Atheists Arlington http://www.metroplexatheists.org
UT Atheists of Utah Salt Lake City atheistsofutah.org
AFFILIATES
AK Alaskan Atheists Anchorage http://www.meetup.com/AlaskanAtheists/

AL Auburn Atheists & Agnostics Auburn http://www.facebook.com/groups/auburnatheistsandagnostics/

AL Birmingham Atheists Meetup Birmingham http://www.meetup.com/atheists-132

AL Marshall County Atheists & Agnostics Marshall http://www.themcaa.org

AL Montgomery Area Freethought Association Montgomery http://www.montgomeryfreethought.org

AL North Alabama Freethought Association Huntsville http://www.meetup.com/thenafa

AL UA Alabama Atheists and Agnostics Tuscaloosa http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2234029305

AL UAH Non-Theists Huntsville http://www.facebook.com/uahnontheists

AL West Alabama Freethought Association Tuscaloosa http://www.meetup.com/westalabamafreethought

AR Arkansas Society of Freethinkers Little Rock http://www.ARFreethinkers.org

AR ArkLaTex Freethinkers, Atheists, Agnostics & Humanists Texarkana http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=128265161357

AR Southwest Arkansas Atheist Community Nashville http://goo.gl/K2koj

AZ Reason Riders Glendale Reasonriders.com

AZ Tucson Atheists Tucson http://www.meetup.com/Tucson-Atheists/

CA-N Atheist Advocates of San Francisco San Francisco http://atheistadvocatesofsanfrancisco.com/

CA-N Atheist Community of San Jose San Jose Sanjoseatheists.org

CA-N Humanist Community in Silicon Valley San Jose www.humanists.org

CA-N Atheists and Other Freethinkers Sacramento http://aofonline.org

CA-N Central Valley Alliance of Atheists and Skeptics Fresno http://www.cvaas.org

CA-N Contra Costa Atheists & Freethinkers Pleasant Hill http://www.meetup.com/Contra-Costa-Atheists-and-Freethinkers/

CA-N East Bay Atheists Oakland http://www.eastbayatheists.org

CA-N San Francisco Atheists San Francisco http://www.sfatheists.com

CA-N Santa Cruz Atheists Santa Cruz http://santacruzatheists.org

CA-N Rosmoor Atheists Walnut Creek http://goo.gl/K2koj

CA-S Atheist Coalition of San Diego San Diego http://www.atheistcoalition.org

CA-S Humanist Fellowship of San Diego San Diego http://goo.gl/K2koj

CA-S Atheist Society of Kern Bakersfield http://goo.gl/K2koj

CA-S Backyard Skeptics Villa Park http://www.backyardskeptics.com

CA-S Humanist Society of Santa Barbara Santa Barbara http://www.santabarbarahumanists.org

CA-S New Atheists of East County Jamul http://www.meetup.com/New-Atheists-of-East-County/

CA-S Orange County Atheists Orange http://www.ocatheists.com

CA-S Riverside Atheists and Free Thinkers (RAFT) Riverside http://RiversideAtheists.org

40 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2018

CO Atheists and Freethinkers of Denver Denver http://athofden.tripod.com

CO Boulder Atheists Boulder http://www.boulderatheists.org

CO Metro State Atheists Denver http://metrostateatheists.wordpress.com

CO Pikes Peak Atheists Colorado Springs http://goo.gl/K2koj

CO Western Colorado Atheists & Freethinkers Grand Junction http://westerncoloradoatheists.org

CT Atheist Humanist Society of CT and RI Norwich http://atheisthumanist.org

CT Connecticut Valley Atheists South Windsor http://www.cvatheists.org

DC American University Rationalists and Atheists Washington http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34367344446

DC Washington Area Secular Humanists Washington http://www.wash.org

FL Atheists of Florida Tampa http://goo.gl/K2koj

FL Central Florida Secular Alliance Dunnellon http://cfsecularalliance.weebly.com

FL Florida Atheists, Critical Thinkers & Skeptics Longwood/Orlando http://www.meetup.com/Critical

FL Gator Freethought (UF) Gainesville http://www.gatorfreethought.com/

FL Ocala Atheists Ocala http://www.meetup.com/Ocala-Atheists/

FL Sarasota-Manatee Atheists & Secular Humanists (SMASH) Nokomis http://goo.gl/K2koj

FL Secular Student Association at Univ. of Central FL Orlando http://ssaucf.com

FL Humanist Community of the Space Coast Satellite Beach http://goo.gl/K2koj

FL St. Petersburg Atheists St. Petersburg http://www.meetup.com/atheists-209

FL Tallahassee Atheists Tallahassee http://www.tallahasseeatheists.com/

FL Treasure Coast Atheists Stuart http://www.meetup.com/atheists-600

FL Williston Atheists Morriston http://goo.gl/K2koj

GA Albany Georgia Atheists Albany http://www.albanygeorgiaatheists.com/

GA Gainesville Atheists Gainesville http://goo.gl/K2koj

GA Atlanta Freethought Society Atlanta http://www.atlantafreethought.org

GA Black Nonbelievers of Atlanta Atlanta http://www.blacknonbelievers.org

GA Fayette Freethought Society Peachtree City http://www.meetup.com/Fayette-Freethought-Society

GA Atheists United, Kennesaw State Univ Kennesaw http://goo.gl/K2koj

GA Kennesaw State U. Student Coalition for Inquiry Kennesaw http://www.facebook.com/ksusci

GA Macon Atheists & Secular Humanists Macon http://www.meetup.com/georgiamash/

IA Atheists United for a Rational America Iowa City http://rationalamerica.com

IA Iowa Atheists & Freethinkers Des Moines http://www.meetup.com/Iowa-Atheists-and-Freethinkers

IL Chicagoland Freethinkers Chicago http://www.meetup.com/chicago-freethought/

IL The Chicago Freethought Project Chicago http://www.facebook.com/thechicagofreethoughtproject

IL IL/WI Stateline Atheists Society Rockford http://www.meetup.com/statelineatheists

IL IWU Atheist, Agnostics, and Non-Religious Bloomington http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5558627959

IL The Secular Segment Mt. Vernon http://www.secularsegment.com

KS Secular Latino Alliance Kansas City Secularlatinos.weebly.com

KS U of K Society of Open-Minded Atheists & Agnostics Lawrence http://www.kusoma.org

KY Humanist Forum of Central Kentucky Lexington http://www.facebook.com/groups/kyhumanists/

KY Lexington Atheists Lexington http://www.meetup.com/The-Lexington-Atheists-Meetup-Group

KY Louisville Atheists and Freethinkers Louisville http://www.louisvilleatheists.com/

KY Secular Student Alliance, Morehad State University Morehead Facebook.com/msussa

LA New Orleans Secular Humanist Association New Orleans http://nosha.org

MA Atheists of Greater Lowell Lowell http://www.meetup.com/lowellatheists

MA Boston Atheists Boston http://bostonatheists.org

MD Freethinkers Union at McDaniel College Westminster <none>

2ND QUARTER 2018 AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 41

AFFILIATES AND LOCAL PARTNERS
MD Secular Student Alliance, Frostburg State University Frostburg Secularstudents.org/frostburg

MD Maryland Freethinkers Annapolis http://www.mdfreethinkers.com

ME Maine Atheists and Humanists Waterville http://goo.gl/K2koj

MI Atheists @ Oakland University Rochester http://www.facebook.com/AtheistsAtOU

MI Atheists, Skeptics, & Humanists Assn, N. Michigan U. Marquette http://goo.gl/K2koj

MI Michigan Atheists Detroit http://michiganatheists.org

MI Mid-Michigan Atheists & Humanists Lansing http://www.mmah.org

MN Atheists for Human Rights Minneapolis http://atheistsforhumanrights.org

MN Campus Atheists Skeptics & Humanists Minneapolis http://cashumn.org

MO Black Freethinkers of Kansas City Kansas City http://www.meetup.com/Black-FreeThinkers-of-KC/

MO Columbia Atheists Columbia http://www.meetup.com/The-Columbia-Atheists-Meetup-Group

MO Joplin Freethinkers Joplin http://www.joplinfreethinkers.org

MO Kansas City Atheist Coalition Kansas City http://www.kcatheists.org

MO MU Skeptics, Atheists, Secular Humanists & Agnostics Columbia http://muSASHA.org

MO O’Fallon Freethinkers O’Fallon http://www.meetup.com/OFallon-Freethinkers

MO Rationalist Society of St. Louis St. Louis http://www.rssl.org

MO Secular Student Alliance @ UCMO Warrensburg http://www.centralskeptics.org

MO Springfield Freethinkers Springfield http://www.meetup.com/SpringfieldFreethinkers

MO Springfield Skeptics Springfield http://goo.gl/K2koj

MO St. Joseph Skeptics St. Joseph http://stjosephskeptics.org

MO We Are Atheism Grandview http://goo.gl/K2koj

MS Humanist Ethical Atheist Rational Thought Society Biloxi http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/HeartsOfTheSouth

MS Great Southern Humanist Society Biloxi http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/southernatheist

MS Mississippi Humanist Association Jackson Mshumanists.org

NC A-News Raleigh http://www.apartmentJ.com

NC Charlotte Atheists & Agnostics Charlotte http://www.charlotteatheists.com

NC Hickory Humanist Alliance Claremont http://goo.gl/K2koj

NC MASH Ft. Bragg Fayetteville http://www.mashfortbragg.org

NC Sandhills Secular Society Hope Mills http://goo.gl/K2koj

NC WNC Humanists Fairview http://www.wnchumanists.org

ND Red River Freethinkers Fargo http://redriverfreethinkers.org

NE Omaha Atheists Omaha http://omahaatheists.org/

NJ Camden County Humanists Blackwood http://goo.gl/K2koj

NJ New Jersey Humanist Network Somerville http://njhn.org/

NJ Secular Student Alliance @ Montclair State Univ. Montclair http://secularstudents.org/montclair

NJ South Jersey Humanists Oceanville http://goo.gl/K2koj

NJ William Paterson Univ. Secular Student Alliance Pompton Lakes https://www.facebook.com/SSA.WPUNJ

NM Roswatheists Roswell http://www.meetup.com/Roswatheists

NM Atheist Community of Santa Fe Santa Fe http://goo.gl/K2koj

NV Reno Freethinkers Reno http://www.RenoFreethinkers.org

NY Freethinkers of Upstate New York Syracuse http://www.funygroup.org

NY Gotham Atheists New York https://www.meetup.com/GothamAtheists/

NY Hudson Valley Humanists Saugerties http://hudsonvalley.humanists.net

NY Long Island Atheists East Setauket Meetup.com/li-atheists

NY New York City Atheists New York http://nyc-atheists.org

NY Ward Melville High School Secular Student Alliance East Setauket http://goo.gl/K2koj

42 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2018

 NY Westchester Atheists Chappaqua http://www.meetup.com/atheists-504

OH Free Inquiry Group Cincinnati http://www.gofigger.org

OH Freethought Dayton Dayton http://www.meetup.com/freethoughtdayton

OH Humanist Community of Central Ohio Columbus http://www.hcco.org

OH Mid-Ohio Atheists Mansfield http://midohioatheists.org

OK Atheist Community of Tulsa Tulsa http://www.ACTOK.org

OK Oklahoma Atheists Oklahoma City http://www.oklahomaatheists.com

PA NEPA Freethought Society Wilkes-Barre http://www.nepafreethought.org

SC Piedmont Humanists Greenville http://www.PiedmontHumanists.org

SC Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry Charleston http://www.lowcountryhumanists.org

SC Upstate Atheists Boiling Springs http://goo.gl/K2koj

TN Memphis Atheists Memphis http://goo.gl/K2koj

TN Memphis Freethought Alliance Memphis http://memphisfreethought.com

TN Nashville Secular Life Nashville http://www.meetup.com/secularlife

TN Rationalists of East Tennessee Knoxville http://www.rationalists.org

TX Atheist Community of Austin Austin http://atheist-community.org

TX Corpus Christi Atheists Corpus Christi http://www.meetup.com/CCAtheists

TX Denton Atheists Denton http://www.meetup.com/The-Denton-Atheists-Meetup-Group

TX El Paso Atheists El Paso http://www.elpasoatheists.com

TX Freethinkers Association of Central Texas San Antonio http://FreethinkersACT.org

TX Golden Triangle Freethinkers Beaumont http://goldentrianglefreethinkers.org

TX Houston Atheists Houston Meetup.com/Houston-atheists

TX Kingwood Humble Atascocita Atheists Atascocita http://www.kha-atheists.org/

TX Lubbock Atheists Lubbock http://www.meetup.com/atheists-496

TX Secular Humanist Society of East Texas Nacagdoches http://goo.gl/K2koj

TX UNT Freethought Alliance Denton http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7647566521

TX Wise Free Thinkers and Skeptics Wise http://www.meetup.com/Wise-Free-Thinkers-and-Skeptics

UT Salt Lake Valley Atheists Salt Lake City http://nowscape.com/a

VA Beltway Atheists Leesburg http://www.meetup.com/Beltway-Atheists-Inc

VA NOVA Atheists Leesburg http://www.meetup.com/NOVA-Atheists

VT Atheists of Rutland Vermont Rutland http://www.atheistsofrutlandvt.com/

WA Seattle Atheists Seattle http://www.seattleatheists.org

WA Tri-City Freethinkers Pasco http://www.tricityfreethinkers.org

WI Southeast Wisconsin FreeThinkers Milwaukee http://swiftnow.org

WV Kanawha Valley Atheists and Agnostics Charleston http://goo.gl/K2koj

WV Mountain State Freethinkers Martinsville http://www.meetup.com/Mountain-State-Freethinkers

WV Morgantown Atheists Morgantown http://www.morgantownatheists.com

WY Wyoming Atheists Facebook.com/groups/wyomingatheists

US Atheist Nexus http://www.atheistnexus.org

US Black Atheists of America http://www.blackatheistsofamerica.org

US Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers http://www.militaryatheistsorg

Intl Southeast Asia Freethought Association

Intl Ateístas de Puerto Rico San Juan http://goo.gl/K2koj

Intl Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society http://www.patas.co

2ND QUARTER 2018 AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 43

AIMS AND PURPOSES
A merican Atheists, Inc. is a nonprofit, nonpolitical, educational organization dedicated to the complete
and absolute separation of state and church, accepting 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 is 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 their histories;

• To advocate, labor for, and promote in all lawful ways the complete and absolute separation of state and church;

• To act as a ‘watchdog’ to challenge any attempted breach of the wall of separation between state and church;

• To advocate, labor for, and promote in all lawful ways the establishment and maintenance of a thoroughly
secular system of education available to all;
• 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
individual in relation to society;

• To develop and propagate a social philosophy in which humankind is central and must itself 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; and
• To engage in such social, educational, legal, and cultural activity as will be useful and beneficial to the members
of American Atheists and to society as a whole.

Definitions:
Atheism is the comprehensive world view of persons who are free from theism and have freed themselves of
supernatural beliefs altogether. It is predicated on ancient Greek Materialism.

Atheism involves the mental attitude that unreservedly accepts the supremacy of reason and aims at establishing
a life-style 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 humankind,
finding the resources within themselves, can and must create their own destiny. It teaches that we must prize our life
on earth and strive always to improve it. It holds that human beings are capable of creating a social system based on
reason and justice. Materialism’s ‘faith’ is in humankind and their ability to transform the world culture by their own
efforts. This is a commitment that is, in its very essence, life-asserting. It considers the struggle for progress as a moral
obligation that is impossible without noble ideas that inspire us to bold, creative works.

Materialism holds that our potential for good and more fulfilling cultural development is, for all practical purposes,
unlimited.

44 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2018

AMERICAN ATHEISTS
AMERICAN MEMBERSHIP
ATHEISTS FORM
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2ND QUARTER 2018 AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org | 45
American Atheists Job Posting
Position
President

Reporting Relationship
Board of Directors

Status
Full time, exempt

Position Overview
The President of American Atheists provides visionary leadership, stewardship, and a
powerful influential voice for atheists. In collaboration with the Board of Directors and
senior staff, the President will develop and oversee the implementation of programs and
strategies to continue our mission to advocate for the absolute separation of religion
from government, to elevate the profile of atheism in public discourse, and to build and
strengthen communities that fully represent the growing number of atheists in America.

Responsibilities
• Provide visionary and inspirational strategic leadership to cultivate a robust,
creative, responsive, and welcoming environment for staff, affiliates, volunteers,
members, donors, and coalition partners.
• Serve as primary spokesperson for the organization actively promoting our mission
through motivational speaking engagements and all forms of media.
• Identify and develop opportunities for advocacy through coalition building, creative
media campaigns, and other direct actions.
• Oversee the long-term financial stability and growth of the organization and set
priorities to support the needs of the programs and staff.
• Develop a strong and transparent working relationship with the Board of
Directors and ensure open communication about the measurement of financial,
programmatic, and donor engagement information against stated goals.
• Identify opportunities for program funding by cultivating, stewarding, soliciting,
and maintaining a portfolio of major donors.
• Expand the influence of American Atheists.

46 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2018

Preferred Qualifications
• At least five years of management experience, either in the non-profit, for-profit, or
public sector.
• Extensive knowledge of and commitment to the separation of religion from
government and a personal investment in the mission of American Atheists.
• Outstanding communication skills, including extensive experience as an outgoing
and high profile spokesperson; demonstrated ability to communicate effectively
and persuasively, both orally and in writing, to articulate the priorities, programs,
and mission of American Atheists; and experience in both traditional media (print,
television, radio, etc.) and digital media.
• Proven success as a relationship builder and fundraiser; demonstrated experience
and capacity to raise funds from major donors and secure gifts in the six-figure
range.
• Excellent coalition building skills with an ability to work effectively with a variety of
internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong commitment to the professional development of staff; successful track
record of recruiting and retaining a diverse team.
• Demonstrated ability with budget and financial management.

Compensation
Salary will be commensurate with experience. Additional benefits include paid sick,
holiday, and vacation days; 401(k) with employer match, health insurance and dental
insurance.

Location
This position can be based anywhere and will require significant travel.

Deadline for Submissions

July 7, 2018

To Apply
Please send your resume and cover letter to: PresidentSearch@Atheists.org.

American Atheists is an equal opportunity employer. It is the policy of American Atheists to provide equal
employment opportunity to all persons, regardless of age, race, religion, national origin, sex, sexual
orientation, gender identity or expression, political affiliations, marital status, non-disqualifying physical or
mental disability, or on the basis of personal favoritism or other non-merit factors, except where otherwise
provided by law.
American Atheist iPhone and iPad App

Available on iTunes