american atheist magazine summer 2004

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Summer 200

5.9

A JOURNAL OF ATHEIST NEWS AND THOUGHT

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is a nonprofit , nonpolitical, educa-tional organization dedicated to thecomplete and absolute separation ofstate and church, accepting the expla-nation of Thomas Jefferson that theFirst Amendment to the Constitut ionof the United States was meant tocreate a wall of separation betweenstate and church.

American Atheists is organized• to stimulate and promote free-

dom of thought and inquiry concern-

ing religious beliefs, creeds , dogmas,tenets , rituals , and practices;

• to collect and disseminate infor-mation , data , and literature on allreligions and promote a more thor-ough understanding ofthem , their ori-gins , and their histories ;

• to advocate, labor for, and pro-mote in all lawful ways the completeand absolute separation of state andchurch;

• to act as a watch dog to chal-lenge any attempted breach of thewall of separatrion between state andchurch ;

• to advocate , labor for, and pro-mote in all lawful ways the establish-ment and maintenance of a thor-oughly secular system of educationavailable to all;

American Atheists Inc.

• to encourage the developmentand public acceptance of a humaneethical system stressing the mutualsympathy, understanding, and inter-dependence of all people and the cor -responding responsibility of each indi-vidual in relation to society ;

• to develop and propagate asocial philosophy in which humankindis central and must itself be thesource of strength, progress, and ide-als for the well -being and happiness of

humanity ;• to promote the study of the arts

and sciences and of all problemsaffecting the maintenance, perpetua-tion , and enrichment of human (andother ) life ; and

• to engage in such social , educa-tional , legal , and cultural activity aswill be useful and beneficial to mem-bers of American Atheists and to soci-ety as a whole .

Atheism is the Weltanschauung(comprehensive conception of theworld) of persons who are free fromtheism - i.e., free from religion. It ispredicated on ancient GreekMaterialism.

Atheism involves the mental atti-tude which unreservedly accepts thesupremacy of reason and aims atestablishing a life-style and ethical

outlook verifiable b y experience andthe scientific method, independ ent ofall arbitrary assumptions of auth orityand creeds. An Atheist is free of beliefin supernatural entities of all ki nd s .

Materialism declares that the cos -mos is devoid of immanent co nsciouspurpose; that it is governed b y its owninherent , immutable, and im personallaws ; that there is no sup ernaturalinterference in human life; thathumankind - finding their resources

within themselves - can an d must cre-ate their own destin y . Materi a lismrestores dignity and intellectualintegrit y to humanit y. I t teache s thatwe must prize our life o n earth andstrive always to imp ro ve it . It hold sthat humans a re capable of creating asocial system based on re ason and jus-tice . Materiali sm 's fait h is inhumankind and thei r abil ity to trans-form the world culture b y t h eir ownefforts . Th is is a commitment w h ic h isin its very essence life-a sse rt in g. It

conside rs the struggle fo r p rogre ss asa moral obligation that i s impo ss ibl ewithout noble ideas that inspi re u s tobold , creative works. Mat e ria lis mholds that our potential for good andmore fulfilling cultural developmentis, for all practical purposes , unlimited.

American Atheists Inc., Membership Categories

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3/56

American AtheistA Journal of Atheist News and Thought

Cove r art: Am erican Ath e ists'P resi d e nt Ell en Johnson annou n c esth e in au g u ration of th e Godl essAm e rican s Political ActionCo mm itte e ( GAMPAC ) a t the 30 thco n ve n tion of American A thei s ts .Photo gra ph by Frank R . Z ind ler

EDITOR'S DESK 3Frank R. ZindlerPrayer of Allegiance to Continue

Americ a n Atheists ThirtiethNational Convention 6

A s h or t re port of the e x ci te m en t a ndst im ul ati n g eve nt s tha t fill ed th e 20 0 4co n vent ion o f A m erican At h e ist s in Sa nDi ego . In a t radition b e gun b y t h eM u rray- O 'H airs , the f es ti v it ies w ereo b se rve d on an E as te r w ee k end .

Volume 42, No.3

Parsippany, New Jersey

Address by Ellen Johnson 9

The pre sident ofAm er ic an A the is tsInc. announc es th e fo rmati o n of GAM-PA C ( th e Godl ess Am eri ca n s P o liticalAction Commi ttee ), a n out gr owth ofGAMOW (th e Godl ess Am ericansM a rch On Wa shingt on), and r ecount sthe 1874 Nin e D em an d s of Lib era li sm to chart a futu re cour se for Atheistsand other Godl e ss Am eri cans .

Noah's Second Flood: 13Frank R. ZindlerIn a flood o f p o li tica l an d re li g iou s

disi nform atio n t h at is being releas ed b y

re li g iou s a nd c or p orate m edi a t h at a rea lli ed with re li g ion-p romot in g fo rces,A th e ists and sc ientists h ave to und er -s tand th e S ec ond L aw ofT h er mod y nam ic s if th ey wa nt t ruth tobe h eard .

Why I Am Not a Hindu 21Aroup ChatterjeeTh e a uthor of Mother Teresa: The

Fin al Verdict we ig h s in on th e re ligiono f Hindui sm and o th er iss u es.

Atheists Engaging the Pol iticalProcess: Opposing and SupportingLegislation 23

Eddie TabashA check -list of thin gs to do in order to

oppose or support l eg is la tio n .

Electoral Activism II 24Douglas CampbellTh e fo rm er Gr ee n P ar ty candidate

fo r g o v ernor of Michi ga n thumbn a il sth e 7 nation a ll y reco gniz ed politicalpar tie s and ex pl a in s wh a t Athe is tsmu st do if th ey w ould run for public

office .

Stephen Crane: The Black Badge ofUnbelief 28

Gary SloanTh e author of Th e R ed Badg e of

C ou rage w as a lm ost illu s io nl es s.Discarding th e pl a titud es o f faith , h eadopted a stoic e thic of cou ra g e, perse -ve rance , and unflinching hone sty.

Summer 2004

Summer 2004

Reverend Me 3Steve AltesAn A th e ist b ecom es a mini s ter -

alon g w ith h is Ficus and BuickS k y lar k .

The Judas Horse: Not es Toward a nEcological Understand ing of Dyinga Christian Death 3

Maximilian WernerAn ecolo gic al pe rsp ective o n th e a ll -

too -b rie f c andle s we call hum an lives.

REVIEWS 3A thei sm , N a turall y

A review of David Ell er 's NaturalAtheism, a book F ran k Zin d le r sa y s i sth e mos t impo rta n t t itle AmericanA the ist Press h as publi sh ed since thed ea th o f th e Murr ay -O'Hai r fami ly.

MYTURN 42God the Ultimate Conspirac y

Theo ryJay Werbinox Taylor

When Jehovah Leave s Hi s Ca lli n gCard 43

Martin EdmundsA Ca n ad ia n At h eist 's res p onse to

being 'propos itione d ' by a wit lessJe h ova h 's W itness .

TALKINGBACK 4

LETTERSWho's an Atheist?

Nick Witte

5

Founders Understood Wisdom ofLeaving God Out of Government

Mark Thomas

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Am ericanAtheist

Volume 42 Number 3EDITOR I MANAGING EDITO R

Frank R . Zi ndl erASSOCIATE E DI TOR

Ann E . Zin d lerCONTR IB UTING EDIT OR

Conrad F . GoeringerBUSI N ESS MANAGER

Ellen Johnson

The American Atheist is published byAmerican Atheist Press four times ayear, in December, March, June, andSeptember.

Printed in the USA , © 2004 by AmericanAtheist Press. All rights reserved .R eproduction in whole or in part withoutwritten permission is prohibited.

ISSN : 0516 -9623.

Mailing address : P .O .Box5733Parsippany , NJ 07054-6733 .Voice :908 -276 -7300FAX : 908-276 -7402.E -mail : [email protected]

For information on electronic access toAmerican Atheist Press publications, con -sult: http://www .atheists.org

ftp.atheists.org/pub/

The World-Wide-Web edition of

American Atheist can be accessed at:http://www.americanatheist.org

Ameri c an Atheist is indexed in AlternativeP ress Index .

Manuscripts submitted must be typed ,double-spaced , and accompanied by astamped , self -addressed envelop e . Docu-ments ma y be submitted on computer diskalso , but print copies should be includedwi th disks. A copy of American AtheistWrit e rs ' Guidelines is available uponrequest . The editor assumes no responsi-bility for unsolicitedmanuscripts .

Am erican Atheist Press publishes avariety of Atheist, Agnostic, andFr eethought material . A catalog isavailable for $1 .00.

Subscriptions to the American Atheistmagazine are $20 for four issues ($25outside the U .S .).Gift subscriptions are$16 for four issues ($21 outside theU .S.) .The library and institutional dis-count is 50percent . Sustaining subscrip -tions are $50 for 4 issues

Page 2

M embership App lica tio n fo rAmerican Atheists Inc .

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This is to certi fy that I am in agreement with the aims , purposes, and the d e fi -nitions given by American Atheists inside the front cover.I consider myself to be anA -theist (i.e ., non-theist), and I have, therefore, a particular interest in the separ a-tion of state and church and the efforts of American Atheists Inc . on behalf of th atprinciple.

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Upon your acceptance into membership, you will receive a handsomemembership card and your initial copy of the American Atheist Newsletter . Youwill be notified of all national and regional meet ings and activities, and you willreceive the special members' codes with which to benefit from discounts offeredfrom businesses participating as American Atheists Savings Partners.

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Summer 2004 American Atheist


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Editor s Desk

: j ; r a y c ror g llc g ia n c c ~ o io n tT

he Supreme Court of theUnited States has ruled thatAtheist Michael Newdow 's

brilliant victory over the prayer ofallegiance to the flag in a court ofappeal is null and void - on theground that he did not have stand-ing to sue. This means that publicschool children all over the countrywill once again have to suffer theinsult of ceremonial deism andendure the ritualized religiousassaults of zealous authorities .Fortunately, the court did not ruleon the merits of the case, and so ithas not spoken one way or the otheron the constitutionality of theprayer of allegiance. No precidenthas been set ... yet.

It is not easy to be an Atheist inAmerica, and it often is not pleas-ant. Everywhere we turn, we get themessage ''Youare not wanted here.

In 'the year of our Lord ' 1955 ,

the motto IN GOD WE TRUSTwas inscribed on all the money wehandle - even currency with theimages of Infidels such as AbrahamLincoln, Thomas Jefferson, andSusan B . Anthony has been thussanctified . The currency has effacedthe free-thinking character of thepersons honored. My own objectionto the motto ended my twenty-yearcareer as a teacher.

In 1956 the national motto IN

GOD WE TRUST was adopted andtrumpeted everywhere. There is amovement to plaster this patentl yfalse proposition above the porticoesof all public buildings and on thewalls ofevery schoolroom .

Even before these two breacheswere made in the wall of separationbetween state and church - in 1954

Frank R. Zindler


- the pledge of allegiance to the flagof the United states had beenaltered so that today, when we areasked to pledge allegiance to theAmerican flag , we are requiredeither to say a prayer to a being weknow to be imaginary, or risk beingrejected as being un-American andun-patriotic .

When George Bush I was cam -paigning in Chicago for the presi-dency, American Atheist Pressreporter Rob Sherman asked himwhat he would do for the Atheistpopulation . of our country. Bush'sanswer was difficult to understand,and Rob followed up with the ques-tion , But surely , you are not ques-tioning the patriotism or citizenshipofAtheist Americans?

Bush replied, No , I don't thinkAtheists should be considered patri-ots or citizens - this is ONENATION UNDER GOD . You may

recognize that as a quote from thepledge.

All three religious violations ofAmerica's secular constitution werecommitted during the Cold War ofthe '50s, and all three wereintended to insult and disen-franchise Atheist Americans.Atheism was equated to Commu-nism. Again and again, AtheistAmericans were told to Go back toRussia.

The history of how the pledgewas changed shows there was adeliberate attempt to denigrate,marginalize, and disenfranchiseAtheists .

The Knights of Columbus inNew York City - arch -enemies offreethought , secular government,and the liberties guaranteed by theFirst Amendment - first added under God on April 22, 1951, andstarted a campaign to get all

Summer 2004

Knights of Columbus to do it. Thiswas accomplished on Augu st 21,1952 . Then they started a camp aignto get the President and Cong ress tomake it a law or at lea s t a resolu-tion . Then the Americ a n Legionpicked up the religiou s fever. (Likethe Boy Scouts, they still do notallow Atheists to be memb e rs .)

Supposedly, the word s UN DERGOD were a quotation f rom Lin-coln 's Gettysburg Add re ss. A s youcan see from the accomp any ing fac-simile of an autograph of theaddress, Lincoln did n o t use thos ewords.There is also a secon d g o dl essautograph of the add ress in exis -tence . It appear s th e wor d s wereadded by Lincoln 's se c reta ry , whoadvised the unpopular p resid en t toappease his religious critic s w h owere appall ed by his l ack o fChristian beliefs.

As can be seen from the

Congressional Record of theperiod, the Prayer of Allegiancewas intended from the begin-ning to be an attack on Atheismand Atheists. Pres . Dwight D .Eisenhower, approving the sacral-ization of the pledge said:

In this w ay we are reaffirmin gthe transcendence of religious faithin America 's heritage and future; inthis way we shall constantlystrengthen tho se spiritual weapon swhich forever will be our countr y'smost powerful resource in peac eand war.

In one sentence, Eisenhowerdenied the crucial importance ofheretics in America's history. Wherewould we be without Ethan Allen ,Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson ,Ulysses S. Grant , and AbrahamLincoln?

Page 3


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Eisenhower also said,

From this day forward, the m il -lions of our school childre n w il ldaily pro c laim in every city andtown, every vi llage and rural school -house , the ded ication of our nat ionan d o ur peop le to the Almight y - apat ri otic oath AND A PUBLICP RAYER . .. . Over the globe millionsha v e been deadened in mind andsoul by a mate r ia listic philosophy oflife ... .

Eisenhowe r did not care ifamong the millions coerced intoprayer there might be Atheists .They were not Americans worthcounting . Eisenhower got this ideafr om a sermon he had heard - thetex t of which was published in the

Congre ssional Record, would youb e lieve? Th e se rmon was preachedb y George Doche rty on 7 Feb 1954and it galvanized the president andmembers of Congress to tur n thep ledge into a sacrament .

Acco rding to Do che rty,

There w as someth ing m issingin th is pledge , and that which wasmi ssi ng was the characteristic andd ef in itiv e facto in the American wayof l ife . Indeed , apart from the men -tion ofth e phrase, the United StatesofAm erica , this could be a pledge ofan y r epubl ic . In fact, I cou ld hearthe little Muscovites repeat a simi -lar pledge to their hammer-and -s ickl e flag in Moscow w ith equa lsole m nity, fo r Russia is also arepub lic th at c lai ms to have ov er -thrown the ty ran n y o f kings h ip .

In respo n se to possible objec-tions fr o m Atheists, the m inist e rdecl ar ed an atheistic Amer icanis a contradiction in terms.P ure a theists , according to Dochert y ,a re little more than spi ritua l para -s ite s .

A more focused a ttack aga instAth ei st Americans can scarce ly beimagi n ed , yet Docherty 's words wererepeated wh en the pledge resolutionw as taken up severa l days later inCongress. Said Rep. Rabaut, inres tating his initial proposal , H .JRes. 243 ,

Page 4

You may argue from dawn todusk about differi n g politic a l, e co -nomic, an d social syste ms , bu t thefu ndame n tal iss ue w hich is theun br id ge abl e g ap b e tween Am ericaan d C o m m u n ist R uss ia is a b elie f inAlm ighty Go d . F ro m t he root ofathei sm stem s th e ev il weed ofcomm u nis m and its branches o fmaterialism an d p o litical di c ta -torship. Un less we are w ill in g toaf fi rm our belie f in the existence ofGod and His creator -creatu re r e la-tion to man, we drop man himself tothe sig n if icance of a grain of sandand op en the floodgates to tyrannyand oppression .

That is the same sort of reason-ing that had caused seven states toinclude impediments to Athe ists intheir state constitutions . Three ofthese are sti ll in force: Arkansas ,Pennsylvania , and South Carolina.

To apprec iate how Atheists feltwhen all this was go ing on - andstill feel as we continue to suffer theinsult of attempted disenfranchise -men t - imagine how a Jew mig h tfeel if the pledge h ad been chan g edto read:

I p ledge allegiance to the flag,ofthe United States ofAmerica, and

to the repub li c for which it stands,one nation, indivis ibl e , with l ibertyand justice for Gentiles.

This would exclude Jews inex actly the same way that the cur -rent p ledge excludes Atheists .v 'I'hepresent pledge trans lates quite pre-cisely into w ith liberty and justicefor be lievers, o r with liberty andjustice for all except athe ists.

It should be noted that Be llamy,

the orig inal autho r of the pledge,wanted to in c lude equality alongw ith liberty and justic e, but he knewthat wou ld not fly. How could oneimagine women and b lacks o n anequa l bas is with wh ite men? To thisday , equality has not made its wayinto the pledge - but an imaginarycha racter has

Forcing Atheist children to hearthis litany every d ay is nothing lessthan coercive brainwashing. Child-ren who don't say the pledge are

Summer 200 4

viewe d b y teach ers a n d st u den ts as not o n e of us - i.e., true Ameri -ca n s. T h is is a n injury .

It is fr eq u ently arg u ed tha tadding under God to the pled gedoes not respect an establishment ofreligion. This flies in the face of th egrammar that frames the wording of

the First Amendment .The intention of the writer s of

the First Amendment is clear fro mthe grammar of its phra sing : Congress shall make no lawrespecting an establi shment of reli-gion...

Please note, the phrase doesNOT read: respecting an e s tablish-ment ofA relig ion. ..

The lack of the in definitearticle shows the wr ite rs intend-

ed to prohibit not only th e establish -ment of a particula r sect , butintended to prohibit t he eleva-tion of religion in gen eral abovesecular philosophies o r n on-rel igion.

It is a pity that l o g ic has nobearing upon such p oliticallycharged issues as the p ledge ques-tion. To an Atheist it is self-evidentthat the flag cannot stand forsomething that does not exi s t. 'Onenation under God ' i s a n on-e xi sten t

entity.To pledge a lleg ianc e t o a n on -

exis tent being i s a s s illy a s pl edgin git la the formula of humo rist M a ttGroening ( Li fe in He ll ):

I plead alig n m ent to the fl ak esof the unt itled snak es o f a merrycow , And to the R epubl icans, forwhich they scam, one nac h o , unde r-pants, with lico r ice and jugs of win efor owls .

I pledge allegiance to myFlag and the Republic forwhich it stands, onenation, indivisible, w ithliberty and justice for all .

-Francis Bellamy, in theSeptember 8, 1892 issue

of The Youth's Companion.

American Atheist


7/56

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In 1954, when an actof Congress added thew ords o ne natio nunder G od to th eP ledge of Allegianceto th e F lag, L inc oln 'sGettysburg Addressw as th e alleged so urcefor the phrase, N o n ation under G odw ording is to be foundin th is au to grap h,however.

arsippany, New Jersey Summer 2004 Page 5


8/56


9/56

Debra Olson by Ed Gauci

The talk sessions were brokenup with a musical interlude fromAtheist Rapper Charlie Checker,

who performed four selections fromhis CD Fearless Weirdo . A free copyof the CD was given to every audi-ence member. Three of the foursongs he performed contained lyricsabout Atheism . Charlie's CD can befound at


10/56

Aroup Chatterjee spoke abouthis critically acclaimed book, TheFinal Verdict. It was a fascinatinglook into the truth behind the care-fully crafted image and inventeddeeds of the woman known asMother Teresa .

Conrad Goeringer gave a com -

pelling talk about the subject of hisrelentless pursuit into the life of thefamous 30s and 40s-era actress andA the ist Franc es Farmer .

We announced this year's win-ne r ofthe American Atheist Scholar-ships. The winning applicants arerequired to be entering or in collegeand have a minimum grade pointaverage of 2.5, but more importan tlythey are judged on act ivism .American Atheists is an activist

group and while some are cont ent tosit and talk , we understand thatsometimes, in order to be heard, weneed to stand and shout. This meansbeing defeated, and then fightingsome more. As many of you know ,this is a difficult task .

And so the sc h olarship appli-c ants are chosen pr imarily on theseaspec ts of activism . Did they bouncebac k f rom def eat , onl y to be victor i-ous in a subsequent battle? Did they

p u t a face on their activism, so peo-ple could s e e that the person behindthe keyboard was a normal, likable ,and downright sensible person? Theanswer is yes, to both.

This year 's winner of the $1000Gay and Lesb ian Atheist Scholar-ship is Ms Amanda Poole. Th isyear's main $2000 scholarship win-ner is Ms Jenny Belle Werness.American Atheists matches thescholarship awards .

Eddie Tabash gave the audiencesome practical information onAtheists Engaging The Political

Process : How to Effectively Supportand Oppose Legislation.

The last session of the conven -tion was devoted to a rousing debatebetween Dr Susan Blackmore andDr James Polichak on the issue ofwhether or not ideas are self -repli-cating . It is argued that memes areentities which seem to exist for their

own survival, much the same wayPageS

Eddie Tabash by Ed Gauci

that genes operate. Unfortunately,we forgot to tell the audience whywe were having this debate. It isargued that religion is spread byway of memes and we wanted tohave that issue discussed. A fewpeople were wondering why onearth we were discussing memes at

Dr James Polichak byFRZ

the convention. Religion was thereason why.

Saturday night began with theLife and Legacy Members dinner. Ifyou are a life member of AmericanAtheists or if you have been a mem -ber for fifteen years or more weinvite you to join us for a dinner inyour honor .

Afterwards we invited everyoneto come and watch a movie. Thisyear it was Inherit The Wind withSpencer Tracy, Frederick March andGene Kelly.It was our answer to ThePassion Of The Christ. Incidentally,The Passion was bumped from first

Summer 2004

place at the box office by Hell Boy .Inherit The Wind was made in 1960and it was about the infamou sScopes Trial . In 1960, Inherit Th eWind had a weak showing at the b oxoffice because religious fundame n -talists promised to oppose it and soUn ited Artists, which released the

film, scaled back on the ir market ingefforts.

On Sunday, after the meetin gsof American Atheists Affiliat es andthe Military Association of Ath eistsand Freethinkers , we concluded theconvention by going on th e SanDiego Harbor Excu rsion Cru ise andbrunch. The brunch cruis es haveturned out to be a popular fe ature ofthe conventions and a lovel y way foreveryone to relax , talk , a n d say

goodby to friends new an d old untilthe next year.

We look forward to seeing ournew and old friends a t next year'sconvention on March 2 5, 2 6, and 27

Dr Susan Blackmore by FRZ

Mother TeresaThe Final Verdict

by Aroup Chatterjee.1 -- ----- The truth

Mother Teresa

about thehag ofCalcutta.

The' nl~ ~rdict

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American Atheist


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AddressBy Ellen Johnsonat the

American Atheists 30th National Conventio nSan Diego C alifornia. April 9 2004

Thank you Dave Kong . We are

very proud of all the work youand all the other Atheist

activists are doing here IIICalifornia .

Good morning everyone . I'd liketo give you a sort of state of theunion speech today. We are comingup on my ten-year anniversary aspresident of American Atheists. Sohow are we doing and where are wegoing?

Asyou know , this is our thirtieth

annual national convention. WhenMadalyn Murray O'Hair organizedthe first Convention of AmericanAtheists , it was held on July 24-26,in 1970 and it was just seven shortyears after her victory in the hard-fought Murra y u. Curlett case thathelped to remove mandatory prayerand Bible verse recitation from ourtaxpayer -supported public schools .She made no bones about the factthat she was an Atheist. Indeed, her

Parsippany , New Jersey

blatant, open, and very public posi -tion as an Atheist gained her manyenemies, including those within theloose network ofgroups and publica -tions that argued for the separationof church and state. And worse thanbeing an Atheist - she was awoman

She organized that first conven-tion on behalf of a small, marginal-ized segment of the American popu-lation who had the strength of char-acter , tenacity , and the intellectualfortitude and commitment to princi-ple to identify themselves openly asAtheists . She and those early con -ventions provided the desperately

needed contact, and the cama-raderie for those Atheists back then.

All of this came back to me lastmonth during a couple ofimportantevents in Washington, DC.

The first was our press confer -ence which was carried on the C-SPAN network, to announce thelaunching of the Godles s AmericansPolitical Action Committee (GAM-PAC). It was a momentous and sig-nificant time . Two years before , we

had spearheaded the Godl e ssAmericans March On Washington(GAMOW) that brought over 3 ,000Atheists and other nonbelievers toour nation 's capital . Every othercause group in American culturehad marched down that Mall justlike we did - the blacks, the gays ,and the women - and now it was ourturn.

We delivered a message thatAmerican Atheists has been empha -

Summer 2004

sizing for years. We told o u r fellowAtheists , and everyone els e listening- that it was time for th is movementto take the next ste p in politicalactivism and organizat ion. It was along-overdue mes sage .

So last month we fu lfilled ourpromise. Supporter s o f this messagejoined with vo lunt eers from Ameri-can Atheists to laun ch the GodlessAmericans Political Action Com-mittee . A bit over a week la ter near ly200 of us were rall y in g o n th e stepsof the United States Supr eme CourtBuilding in support of Dr Mi ch ae lNewdow and his c a se t o remo ve thewords under God from ou r Pl e d ge

ofAllegiance.That rall y, perhaps more so than

the GAMOWand the l a unch of theGAMPAC or any of these conven-tions , demonstrated how far wehave come as a movement. Thinkabout it Compare that day to th eday when Madalyn Murray wasphotographed walking down thesteps ofthe Supreme Court Buildingwith Jon and Bill Murray in tow .She had won her case, and the photo

of her and her son s became emblem-atic, in a way, of the Atheist move-ment - or at least American Atheists- for the next three decades.

There was no rally that da ywhen the decision in Murray u .Curlett, which had been combinedwith the Abington Township u.Schempp case, was handed down .There were plenty of reporters andphotographers there , but no supportlike we showed for Dr . Newdow even

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after she had won It must havebeen a very lonely time for them.

Well , I thought: how things havechanged since then There we werein Washington, DC, and there wereprobably as many of us as therewere Christians supporting the reli-gionized Pledge of Allegiance . Wechanted , we gave speeches, andthere was an electricity in the air. Iand a lot of people whom we invitedfrom a very wide range of organiza-tions spoke at that rally. And alongwith the usual encouragement andexpressions of support for Dr New-dow and the need for a secular,inclusive Pledge was somethingelse: expressions of cooperation, anda realization that issues count. Herewere hundreds of Atheists doing

something that did not and probablycould not have occurred on that dayin 1963 when Madalyn O'Hair stoodon those same steps in front of thatsame building . Things have certainlychanged a lot since 1963

We are stronger; we are bolder;we are smarter ; and we are deter-mined to have 'our place at the table'when it comes to the discussion ofour civil rights and our agenda for afree and secular America

And there's something else . Ihad to make another trip to Wash -ington DC , this time to appear onthe C-SPAN program WashingtonJournal . Now, this says somethingabout how far we have come. Everyyear, American Atheists sends outdozens of FAXes commenting onnews or events. Sometimes, themedia 'bite' and we get a lot of press.I, along with our CommunicationsDirector Dave Silverman or some of

our State and Regional Directors,spend a good deal of time givinginterviews . and fielding questions onthe innumerable talk programs wedo. We get a fair amount of air timeon the Fox Network, as you know.But Washington Journal is differ-ent ; being on Washington Journal islike saying we've arrived This ismainstream, it's serious program -ming, it's truly 'fair and balanced'programming, and it isn't the

riotous foiling that you see on a lotPage 10

of other news programs. It's presti -gious and, most important of all , it 'sa statement of where this organiza-tion is going. That was probably themost important interview I haveever given.

Now I'd like to read you some-thing, and this is both a bit of histo-ry and an object lesson for our pres-ent and our future. It is a list knownas The Nine Demands of Liberalism ,and it reads:

The Nine Demands OfLiberalism

(1) We demand that churches andother ecclesiastical property shall nolonger be exempt from taxation.

(2) We demand that the employmentof Chaplains in Congress, in theLegislatures, in the navy and mili-tia, and in prisons, asylums, and allother institutions supported by pub-lic money shall be discontinued.

(3) We demand that all public appro-priations for educational and chari-table institutions of a sectariancharacter shall cease.

(4) We demand that all religiousservices now sustained by the gov -ernment shall be abolished; andespecially that the use of the Biblein the public schools, whether osten-sibly as a text-book or avowedly as abook of religious worship, shall beprohibited.

(5) We demand that the appoint-ment by the President of the UnitedStates or by the governors of the

various states , of all religious festi -vals and fasts shall wholly cease .

(6 ) We demand that the judicial oathin the courts and in all other depart-ments of the government shall beabolished, and that simply affirma-tion under the pains and penaltiesof perjury shall be established in itsstead.

(7)We demand that all laws directly

or indirectly enforcing the obser-Summer 2004

vance of Sunday as the Sabbathshall be repealed.

(8 ) We demand that all laws lookin gto the enforcement of Christian morality shall be abrogated andthat all laws shall be conformed t othe requirements ofnatural moral ity,equal rights, and impartial libert y .

(9) We demand that not only in th eConstitution of the United Sta tesand of the several states, but also i nthe practical administration of th esame, no privileges or advantag esshall be conceded to Christianit y orany other special religion; that ou rentire political system shall b efounded and administered o n apurely secular basis; and that w h a t-

ever changes shall prove nece ss aryto this end shall be consisten tly ,unflinchingly, and promptly m a d e .

The remarkable thing ab o u tthese Nine Demands i s that th eyappeared , not in 1974 but in 1 87 4 .What does that tell us? It tell s u sthat the culture wars over th e role ofreligion in American society ha v ebeen taking place for a very , v er ylong time, and they are likely to con-

tinue . We do have our work cut outfor us.

This list was put together by agroup known as the Free ReligiousAssociation which was a Free-thought umbrella group of its time.Organizations like the NationalLiberal League decided to endorsethe idea of the Nine Demands. Theuse of the term 'liberal' here refersto the classic liberals of that era whosought to restrict the absolute pow-

ers of both the state and the churchin order to have more emphasis onhuman rights .

The Nine Demands of Liber-alism are over one hundred andtwenty-five years old. But there 's astory to this, too. Madalyn O'Hair

- spent an enormous amount of timeand effort during her life, as did herson Jon and her granddaughterRobin, compiling and researchingthe history of American nonbe-

lievers and movements. And sheAmerican Atheist


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once commented that these move -ments fell not from external attacks ,but from divisiveness from within .She saw this during her own life -time. She saw groups fall apart fromthe petty and selfish motives of afew persons . It's a cautionary talemy friends .

The Nine Demand s of Liber-ali sm are as relevant toda y as theywere in 1874 , maybe even more so .Thi s is more than a historicalcuriosit y though - it's a potentialcampaign platform . A campaignplatform. Are you getting where Iam going with this?

The Atheists in America havebeen debating and arguing withreligious people for decades, evencenturies . We have written books ,published tracts, staged public con-frontation s , all operating on the the-ory that what we need to do i s con-vert these people to our way ofthinking. Entire organizat ions arededicated to this. There are Atheistswho can quote the Bible with moreskill than their religious counter-parts. Now I 'm not criticizing anygroup s who do this . But I am sug-gesting that we need to se riouslyrethink our priorities.

We need to start fixing ou rattention on vital political issuesthat affect all ofus , empha s izing ourid e ntity as Atheists in conjunctionwith our demand for full civil rights,a place at th e table, and e quit y inth e political arena. We want mean-ingful input in the discussion andformulation of public polic y regard-ing First Amendment issue s.

I want to elect out-of-the-closetAtheists to public office . If religion

has become a credential for elec-tability, patriotism and personalwholesomeness , then I want us run-ning openly , and proclaiming ourAtheism, our humanity-centeredethics , our secular social agendawith equal enthusiasm.

I want the major political par -ties to listen up and pay attentionto what WE have to say. We havenever advocated violating anyone 'scivil liberties advance our agenda. I

don't want to muzzle Jerry Falwell,


or Pat Robertson, or Ralph Reed -well maybe just drown them out alittle . We will continue to work with-in the system . And slowly we aremaking our way into the system.

Another goal I want to seereached is for us to be playing in thesame league as the big advocacygroups like the NRA , the AFL -CIO,and even the National Council ofChurches. I 'm thinking of all thosecommittees and advocacy groupsthat Ralph Reed and others like himhave organized , and you see theirads on TV and in major newspapers,and that is wh ere American Atheistsis g oing to b e going and I hope youwill join us as we do .

American Atheists has alwaysbeen a full-service organization. It isimportant to be that. We 're stillgoing to have debates, we 'r e going tohold fast to being an educationalresource and an intell e ctual advo -cate and defender for Atheism . Butover the last several years, we haveshifted our priorities a bit . It doesn'tmake any sense to have the bestarguments, to have the most knowl-edge about a rcane subjects , to knowmore than our religious counter -parts might know - and probably touse the faculty of reason a bit moreas well - if you don 't do anythingwith all of this. I want to take prin-ciples like the Nine Demands ofLiberalism and make them a reality .

You know, I've been to debatesand discussions about the usual top-ics - and again, no disrespect to any-one involved in this - but I 've beento these events. It's the usual topicsand the usual arguments , and theAtheist or Evolutionist or Scientist

usually wins, and I've noticed howcomfortable it all is, especially for our side . It's a warm and fuzzyfeeling, that we've once against van-quished intellectual Neanderthalsand bested those Bible -bearingrhetorical opponents. And that 'sfine , but it's also dangerous. It hasbred complacency in our ranks . Ithas resulted in a kind of gridlockwhere the wider goal of changingthe world seems to be frozen in time,

postponed until that mythical utopi-

Summer 2004

an point where everyone will sup-posedly agree with what we h ave tos ay.

We like to convert th e theist.Yes, we do proselytize. That is whatAtheists love to do . Yet, in th e spansof time that it takes to co nvert onetheist or ten or fifty thei sts, thepolitically organized re ligiousgroups are passing legisl a tion at thestate and federal level s that willtake your rights, take your money,and give special right s an d protec-tions to the religious.

Every Atheist organ iz ation inAmerica is small, ev eryone. Theissue isn't converting more theists;it's getting the Ath eists to getinvolved more, to ca re more, to joinu s more.

There are a bou t thirty millionnonreligiou s p eo pl e in this country.That is mo re th an a statistic - it 's apotential v oting b lock, a potentialbase to mobiliz e. Gi ve me a fractionof them, and I g ua rantee you thatwe'll be makin g the N ine Demandsof Liberalism a r ea lity .

Noone kn ows b et ter than I dothat the bu s in ess of b ri n ging aboutsocial change d o e sn 't come wit h anOwner 's M a nual . You ha ve to write

y ou r own as y ou go a lo n g . Yo u h aveto learn the f ew lesson s as bes t youc a n of thos e who cam e b efore . A n dy ou know, n o n e of those pe rs o n s o rgroups did it perfectly . Th ey wer edivided over what to ca ll them-selves, how radical or restra inedthey should be , how they should pr oceed. 'Negro ' lea ders just a f e w y ear sago were terrified of the term'Black .' It w a s too milit a nt. Ga ysargued over what to call themsel v e s.

When women held thei r gran dmarch in Washington for suffrag ethey argued vehemently amongstthemselves over whether to includemen , and women of color . Soundfamiliar? We 're recycling a lot ofthose arguments today in our ownranks .

Well one thing I can tell y ouAfter doing the Washington Journalprogram, after GAMPAC , after theGAMOW , the word Athei s t is no

longer in the closet of American

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Noah's SecondFlood

Religious Domination in the Mediaand theGreat D isinformation Inundation

A lecture given by Frank R . Zindl er at the 30th Nat ional Convention ofAmericanAtheists at San Diego , California, on April 9, 2004 .

A :uerica is being inundated bya veritable flood of disinfor-ation. There are two main

sources for the disinformation thatis suffocating us - political and reli-gious . Politics gives us the frame ofreference for the classical definitionof the term in the dictionary : Delib -erately false information leaked bya government as to confuse anothernation's intelligence operations.Religion, on the other hand, wouldappear to have been the inventor ofthe technique and the perfecter ofits practice .

First, let us consider the politi-cal sources . Most prominently wehave governmental agencies andofficials . As one might expect, wehave the disinforrnation chu rnedout by the Department of Defense,the White House, press secretariesfor everyone important enough tohave one, and the ubiquitous butever unlocatable sources from which'leaks' emerge. The disinformationemerging from this source these

days differs from the dictionary def-inition in a frightening way: insteadof being confected to confuse theintelligence operations of anothercountry, the new political disinfor-mation is designed to confuse andconfound the intelligence of theAmerican public. The other coun-tries already know what is going on;only the voting American publicmust not know the truth .


Political organizations also pro-duce disinformation - the Commu-nists , Fascists, Republicans, andDemocrats all engage in disinforma-tion to varying degrees . So-calledthink -tanks such as the HeritageFoundation and the Discovery Insti-tute with its Center for the Renewalof Sc ience and Culture have becomeextremely adroit in the art of decep-tion.

Foreign lobbies also figureprominently as sources of politicaldisinformation . The Israeli lobby iswithout question the most effectiveof all political sources of disinforma-tion. No American medium dares tochallenge or question the Zionistspin on news from the Near East.Israel's ethnic cleansing is neverportrayed as the racist reality thatit is, no matter how blatant or out-rageous that nation's actions mightbe. The Vatican lobby too isimmensely effective in shapingAmerica's foreign policy concerningpopulation control and has been

shockingly powerful in shuttingdown America's research on stemcells, cloning, and population con-trol . The Vatican lobby, of all thesources I shall discuss today, may bethe most serious threat to our ownhealth and well-being. It is time forus to abolish the post of AmericanAmbassador to the Vatican andwithdraw our recognition of theVatican as a sovereign state. It is

Summer 2004

the headquarters of a multinationa lbusiness - an int ernational igno-rance industry, n ot a sovereignnation . If the Vatic an is to retain itsstatus as a nat ion , then al l its cardi-nals, bishops, and p riests should beforced to registe r as foreign agentsand surrender thei r U .S . citizenship.

Advertising -D r ivenCorporate Me dia

The main p rob lem with themedia today is not th at th e y are 'lib-eral' or 'con ser v ativ e' o r ev e n 'right-wing .' The problem is tha t mo st o fthe media are owned by large corp o -rations (including churches, as wi ththe Mormon church in th e moun ta instates) or are themselves large cor-porations. Their owners or ultimatecontrollers are so closely all ied togovernment and religion that themedia no longer can be conside redto be an independent 'FourthEstate . ' The framers of the Fi rstAmendment provided for freedom of

the press, intending that this wouldallow for further checks and ba l-ances of power - the press consti-tuting a so-called Fourth Es tate th a twould be a counterweight to thethree constitutional branches ofgovernment.

Unfortunately, this no longer isan actuality . The media have gonefrom depending upon subscribers todepending upon advert isers for

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financial support. Indeed, in thecase of the broadcast media, it isalmost impossible to imagine howthis can be otherwise. Those of youwho value your FM classical musicstations know how hard it is to keepadvertising-free stations on the air.You also may have the feeling that

the only radio worth hearing is lis-tener-supported. The rest of radio isa wasteland of which I shall saymore shortly.

pollution, those companies cannotmake a big enough profit to pay youradvertising fees. So help to keep inoffice the polluting politicians whokeep in operation the pollutingindustries that pay the filthy lucreon which you have come to depend.The connection between environ-

mental pollution and media pollu-tion seems obvious enough.

In addition to this, you need topublish material that is conducive

unholy symbiosis between businessand religion.

The Marriage Of Businessand Religion

We must suppose it has been amatch made in heaven. The symbio-

sis of business and religion has pro-duced a juggernaut of disinforma-tion that has trampled and subduedall three branches of government -

The connection between environmental pollution andmedia pollution seems obvious enough.

As a result of the shift fromdependence on subscribers to depen -dence on advertisers, the majorpressure felt by the media comesnotfrom the public but from the eco-nomic imperatives of their advertis -ers. Advertisers, ultimately, are theones who will determine what newswill be reported - as well as thereportorial tone to be employed.

Advertisers don't want contro-versy. They need uncritical con-

sumers, and of course they don'twant information critical of theirproducts . Advertisers pay (1) fornews that is favorable to the politi-cians who give them their taxbreaks and ease controls on theirindustrial operations and (2) fornews supportive of religion andmorality.'

If you are managing a print orbroadcast medium, you must consid-er if a given piece of news will be

considered controversial by youradvertisers . Youdon't want to offendthe sources of your paycheck.Broadcast or print what your adver-tisers are paying you to publish.Let's see if we can do a puff pieceabout politicians who are involvedin the subversion of the EPA orresearch on global warming and itsconnections to industrial exhaustgases - without giving a hint oftheir complicity in this sabotage .

You must understand that withoutPage 14

to religion and morality. This ishelpful to a capitalistic, exploitiveeconomy.Why is this?

Pressure From and OnAdvertisers

I have already indicated thatadvertisers don't want news criticalof -their puppets in government.Obviously, Bush -Buddy Industriessuch as Halliburton et al. don't want

anti -Cheney news to get out . Themilitary-industrial complex doesn'twant publication of news hostile toits enablers in the government.However, we have so far consideredonly pressure from advertisers.There is also pressure on advertis-ers. Industries that pay for advertis-

and has all but finalized its flatte n-ing of the Fourth Estate as we ll.

Religious Sources ofDisinformation

Let's look now at the relig ioussources of disinformation. Th eseinclude the clergy,the churches , th ereligious broadcast and print media ,religious films and videos, theInternet, the faith-based public dis-

services which our Evangelist- in-Chief has created to nullify the FirstAmendment, and of course themoney with which even Atheists areforced to be complicit in spreadingthe most galling falsehood of all -the oxymoronic claim that evenAtheists trust in a god .

fAS with ordinary parasites th:clergy produce m

r no usable product or service. Even so they control the largest fraction of our economy anddwarf even the multinational corporations.

Clergyng can be boycotted by churches ifthe churches think that advertisingis supporting antireligious orimmoral programming. At the sametime, advertisers depend uponchurches to keep consumers credu-lous and uncritical . Thus arises an

Summer 2004

We begin our tour of theTheocratic Plutocracy of Disin-formatia with an investigation of itsrulers and management caste - theclergy. In most cities, the Yellow

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Pages have a separate listing forclergy. Here's the beginning of thelisting for Columbus, Ohio. It is per -haps an unintended irony that onthe same page that we find ads forcleaners, we find ads for the guyswho will take you to the cleaners ifyou let them. Youmay note that the

display ad for The Richard ValentineMinistries - which is closed Sat. &Sun. and All observed holidays - isnot 100 % disinformation. The notethat Love Offerings [are] acceptedis absolutely true .

Columbus, Ohio, has 646 clergylisted in the Yellow Pages, but thisclearly is only a fraction of the actu-al number, as we shall see. It seemsa pity that the Yellow Pages list thepeople who will help you to unlearn

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sorts are always acceptable .) Theclergy constitute a completely para -sitic class of society - sort of likethe drones in a hive of bees,although there is one important dif-ference. Although most drone beesare in fact as useless as clergy, atleast one of them does perform an

important function - fertilizing avirgin queen bee and engendering anew colony . (Although clergy haveoften been known to mate with vir -gins, they usually are of the wrongsex and the unions are infertile.) Aswith ordinary parasites, the clergyproduce no usable product or serv-ice. Even so, they control the largestfraction of our economy and dwarfeven the multinational corporations.

everything you ever learned andwill stultify your powers of reason,but they don't list teachers - thepeople who at least in theory aresupposed to teach you genuine factsabout the world and methods ofinquiry . Why aren't teachers listedin the Yellow Pages? Think aboutthat for a moment. Does that tellyou something about the type ofsociety we are? Does that give you ahint as to what the real operationalvalues of our culture are?

Although most clergy 'work' onlyseveral days per week to generatetheir quota of disinformation , theydo need energy to do it. (Money isconvertible into power, and it is theclergy's preferred source of energy- although Love Offerings of all


Churches

If clergy can be considered therulers and CEOs of Disinformatia ,the churches can be thought of asbeing both the regional govern -ments and heavy industry of that

theocratic plutocracy. Churches tooare major advertisers in the YellowPages and take up far more pagesthan the clergy listing. Religiousschools also depend upon the YellowPages to recruit customers . Whileclergy are the source of disinforma-tion, religious schools are a crucialvehicle for the dissemination of thatdisinformation - seeding noxiousweeds instead of trees of knowledgeinto fertile neuronal fields at an age

Summer 2004

when developing brains are p ecu -liarly susceptible to imprint ing . Amajor task of churches and churchschools is to eradicate the k nowl-edge learned in real schools .Knowledge is strength; st re n gthleads to independence; ind epend-ence leads to questioning o f priest-

hoods. We can't have kids p eekingbehind the curtain of the W izard ofOz, can we now?

There are Yellow Pages l ist -ings for 1150 church es forColumbus , Ohio, and an on -l inedirectory indicates th a t th ere are2000 churches alto get h er inFranklin County , most o f which isoccupied and domin ated byColumbus. (Interestin g ly , the on -line source indicate s th at some62 .4 % of the county's c iti zens are unclaimed with resp ect to c h urchmembership .)

With so many chu rc h es tryi n g toundo the accompli shm ent s of theschools, how strong is t he competi -tion? How many schools a re t h e re togenerate real knowledg e a n d criticalmodes of thought ? Alto ge th er, t h ereare 530 sc hool s f o r GreaterColumbus , ofwhich 136 a re o b v iou slyreligious. Thus, the odd s a ga in streality are formidable . Th ere areabout 400 actual schools but ne a rly2000 churches . That i s, th e re arefive churches working to undo learn-ing for every school in which there i sa finite chance that learning mayoccur.

What Churches Do

Why are the churches so impor-tant? What do they do? Not only dothe churches control local media , in

many cases they own local mediaand thus are unopposed in disin-forming the local faithful . They areimmensely important as censors ofthe public schools and effectivelyhave blocked the teaching of evolu-tionary science in all fifty states .They see to it that no effective AIDSor birth -control education can takeplace, and they prevent objectiveteaching of American history . Theydetermine what literature will not

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be read in English classes and whatbooks will never circulate in publicschool libraries.

Churches play a powerful partin censorship of the national media.Remember the Catholic 'Legion ofDecen c y '? The movie industry still

replacements for every organ inyour body - including parts of thebrain. Perfecting this techniquewould be tantamount to achievingpractical immortality . When anypart of your body begins to fail, youcan simply replace it with a physio-

stitions dance on the grave ofknowl-edge of Native Americans.

It should be noted , however, th atthe Amerindians are not the on lythreat to the integrity of archaeo lo-gy and anthropology . The Morm onChurch is d eveloping a major pr es-

A major task of churches and church schools is to eradicate the knowledg elearned in real schools. Knowledge is strength; strength leads to ind ependence; independence leads to questioning of priesthoods.

hasn 't recovered from the harmdone by that arm of the RomanCathol ic church. The heavy hand ofthe cinema censors exerts pressureon n etwork te levision also. Do you

eve r see a program portraying ap riest as a pederast or other sort ofvillain? Do you ever see a faith-heal-ing te levangelist exposed as a fraudon TV? Do you ever see even a fic-tional portrayal of such a thing?

Radio, thanks to religion, ha sbecome as empty of substantive con-tent as a wind tunnel, a barrenw asteland where no significantthought can take root or grow , andan echo-chamber where clerical

voices ca n ass a ult you in your home,in your car, or at your p icnic on th ebeach . The airwaves have swolleninto a tidal wave of disinformation- a radioinundation that engulfseveryone from the planetary surfaceto the orbit of the moon .

But the churches do even more .They are the major impediment toscient if ic research in general and toscience education in particular. Ihave already noted the role of reli-

gion in squelching research on stemcells and c loning, but have notexp lained why this is so important .Th is research is crucial to ourunderstanding of the physiology ofaging and ou r ultimate developmentof methods to control and reversesenescence. In the shorter term,therapeutic cloning, involvingnuclear transfer from ordinary cellsof the body into embryonic stemcells, should be able to produce

Page 16

logically rejuvenated substituteReligion thus is shortening the lifeexpectancy of all of us.

The present ban on cloning andstem cell research is very much like

the church's ban on dissection of thehuman body up to early moderntimes . That bit of Catholic stupefac-tion held back medical research formany centur ies. Had it not been forthe Catho lic Church, we would havehad a cure for cancer at least a hun-dred years ago. Today,when anyonedies of cancer, you should blame thepopes.

Of course, increased life expec-tanc ies would exacerbate an already

critical p roblem of overpopulation .There are already more people thanour planet can support on an on-going basis . The carrying capacity ofSpace-Ship Earth has been exceed-ed . But why is this? The role of theCatholic church in blocking contra-ceptive and abortion programsthroughout the world is too noto r i-ous to require further comment .

Not only big religion is harmfulto the progress of science , however .

Even such seemingly innocuouscults as the Native American reli-gions have become downright toxicdue to their practical shutdown ofthe sciences of North Americana rchaeology and anthropology .Because of the Amerindians' pecu-liar creation myths, many importantskeletal finds have had to be 'repa-triated' for ritual burial before alldesirable studies and tests could becarried out . Nat ive American super -

Summer 2004

ence in Mexico and Central Americaat sites of archaeological impor-tance, and it is not yet c lear howmuch harm they will be a ble to do toarchaeological studies th at almost

daily are giving the lie t o Mormonclaims about ancient Am erica andits i n habitants .

To me, the most al arming thingabout this disinform a ti on inunda-tion is that I see it drownin g out andoverpowering the v oice s of scientificdiscovery - voice s tha t tell ofimportant discove ries , voi c es thatfalsify religious cla ims o f a ll kinds .Real know ledge abou t c lon in greduces to absurdity R om a n

Catholic notions about souls a ndspirits, just as learning the physica lrealities of human anato m y e arli e rfals ified (or at leas t mad e ridicu-lous) that church's teach ing aboutresurrection and bodily immortalit y.

No day goes by without the pub -lication of new evidence and under -standing of evolution . It is no exag-geration at all to say that the realityof human evolution is now as wellestablished as is the sphericity of

the earth. Yet for everyone of thesedocumented advances in knowledge ,there are at least a thousand rel i-gious books, tracts, videos, CDs,DVDs,movies , magazines, seminars ,parochial school courses, and cler i-cal voices shouting loudly that allthis knowledge is false, fraudulent,and flawed. There is a colossal sig-nal-to-noise ratio problem here, ofwhich more anon.

American Atheist


19/56

Pat Robertson Jerry FalwellSwaggart Catholics Holy Rollers anduncounted others can spew out more dis-information in thirty minutes than I coulddebunk in thirty years.

Churches Do It In the Lobby

Christian Scientists* and vari-ous other cults that eschew scientif-ic medicine are still allowed to prac-tice child sacrifice - killing theirkids with prayer over-do se. Zioni s tsare able to carry out atrocities of all

sorts without fear ofAmerica failingto veto any UN reso-lution that might con-demn their actions . Inmany parts of ourcountr y, you can't buya glass of wine withyour Sunday dinnerin a restaurant.Hardly any usefulresearch can be doneon aborted fetuses

and no useful medicalapplication of their tissues is per-mitted. The US Conference ofCatholic Bishops, the SouthernBaptist Convention , the Mormons,The Christian Scientists , PatRobertson , Jerry Falwell , and - fo rall I know - Jews for Je sus - areshaping America's domestic and for-eign policies. How are all thesethings possible in a nation that upuntil recent years was preem inent

in the world for scientific progres sand had at least some moral stand -ing?

Well-funded lobbying, that 'show .

* In Ohio , when I and a host of other groupsand individual s last tried to abolish thelegal ex emption in the child-welfare lawthat allows religiou s parent s to withholdmedical care for th e ir children , our effortswere trumped by a mob of Chr istianScientists who intimidated the legislatureinto ke eping thei r special exemption .Among the Christian Scientist s who testi-fied was a Mrs . Smucker , th e queen of th ejell y industry. It is hard to estimate howmuch money Smucker 's contributes to theMother Church in Boston , and even hard-er to tell how much support they providefor pliant politicians . Smucker 's, whichalready controls Jifpeanut butt e r, recentlybought out International Multifoods Corp .which includes Pillsbur y, Hungry Jack ,and oth e r food brand s. Smuck e r 's also con-trols Canadian Robin Hood flour andBick's pickles . Combined sales now are

expected to exceed $2.3 billion .


Not all these groups are neces-sarily registered as lobbyists, andlegality has little to do with thedeals that are cut in the lobbies andtheir over-flow conference areasthat lookjust like golf courses, coun-try clubs, and duck-blinds. It is inthe privacy of the lobby,beneath the

radar of our constitution-defense

force, that churches twist arms andgrease palms. Churches do theirtrysting in lobbies, where their rap-ine is most likely to result in viableoffspring - bastard children who 'sparentage is never really a secretbut never acknowledged publicly.

Religion On the Air

The most fertile sources ofdisin-

formation are, without doubt , thereligious broadcasters, who reachmillions of Americans daily withtheir deceptions and mendacitiesand wield immense authority inother countries as well . PatRobertson , Jerry Falwell , JimmySwaggart, Catholics, Holy Rollers ,and uncounted others can spew outmore disinformation in thirty min-utes than I could debunk in thirtyyears.

I have already noted that radiois supersaturated with superstition.This affects me so much I can hardlytalk about it . There are at least sev-enty Catholic stations and morethan 1,500 Protestant stations -not including the thousands of reli-gious programs that obtain broad-cast time on ordinary commercialstations . Every year when Ann and Itry to take a vacation some placewithin driving distance, our travel is

ruined by radio preachers who occupy

Summer 2004

the points on the dial where cla ssi-cal music stations ought t o be.Practically the entire AM a n d FMspectra are polluted with pret ernat-ural preposterosities. Only w ith CDscan we have music in the car formost of our travel time.

Cable TV too ha s been

besmirched by Belial and onesearches mo stl y invain for edu ca tional

Jimmy programs . Cable-access TV , w h ere youcan view Th e AtheistVi e wpoint in selectregions ofth e country,is ever yw he re sostuffed wit h religiouswoomp an d woozythat th ere is almost

no room le ft for non-fiction programm ing .

It is almo s t i mposs ib le tobelieve, but non e thel ess it is tr u ethere are religiou s bro a d cas te rs whoare still raising fund s by s p readingthe fraudulent claim tha t Ma d alynMurray O'Hair i s tr yi n g to ge t t h eirprograms barred from the air wavesby means of a petition to th e F CCMadal y n has been dead no w fornearly nine y ear s, yet thi s c laim st il

keeps the faith-dolla rs a nd s il veshekels rolling into man y a bro a dcaster's coffers. Weneed y our finan-cial support to help us fight thiwicked woman and keep this m inistry on the air.

This is all the more shockinwhen one reflect s that even wh eMadalyn was alive she had nothingto do with the phantom phenome-non of the FCC petition that soughtto ban religious broadcast ing .

Despite the petition being a total fic-tion , religious broadc a sters propagated the lie , goading literall y millions of people to deluge the F Cwith letters of protest and to unloada largess of 'love offerings' into thepost office boxes of many an ElmerGantry .

Religion In Print

The Moonies have their Wash-

ington Times, the ChristianPage 1


20/56

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Scientists have their Christian

Science Monitor, and the Catholicshave an impressive number ofnews-papers, journals, and popular maga-zines. Despite the high reputation ofthe Monitor, don't look for any sci-ence in it - at least not any newsabout diseases or medicine. Its bal-anced reporting on political mattersis counterbalanced by all the impor-tant news you won't find in itspages.

In addition to periodicals, reli -

gious books are major players in thepublishing game. In my articleDisinforming the Faithful, (Winter

2003-2004) I devote considerablespace to a discussion of religiousbooks and focus on a particular cat-alog,the so-called CBD Catalog, putout by the Christian BookDistributors.

You may notice the book adver-tisedjust to the left of center: A ManOf Faith: The Spiritual Journey Of

George W Bush. You may be able tosee the background staining of thecentral part ofthe page. Not only didI find this ad nauseating, my calicocat Phloebe barfed up a hairball onit before I could get it scanned tomake this slide. I tried to explain toher that the book wasn't about JohnAshcroft , the ailurophobe who sendsthe Secret Service ahead to clearcalico devil-cats from all intendedvenues for his preaching, but she

thought the distinction unnecessary.

Page 18

~, :

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Religion, Religion Everywhere

Nor anyone Can Think

Religious disinformation iseverywhere . We have religious filmsand videos ofevery level of sophisti-cation. We have Mel Gibson's ThePassion Of The Christ and we havethe zillion-dollar Left Behind seriesof films by Tim LaHaye. We havevideos belched out by the InstituteFor Creation Research right here inSan Diego . Then there are the

Answers In Genesis videos. All thesecan show you that the earth is lessthan ten thousand years old andthat men - and perhaps women -coexisted with dinosaurs.

On the History and DiscoveryChannels we can see pseudodocu -mentaries 'documenting' Noah'sFlood, the Shroud of Turin, the res -urrection of Jesus of Nazareth, andgoDonly knows what else.

The Universe Is Going To Hell

Even if you don't believe in Hell,you know it is true that the world isgoing to it In fact , not just our worldis going to Hell , the whole universeis headed there. 'Hell,' you see , is theheat -death of the universe. The uni-verse is expanding and, as a conse-quence, energ y is being scatteredand lost. Order is being replaced bydisorder, and signals are being

swamped by noise . All of these facts

Summer 2004

are explained by the SecondLaw of Thermodynamics, whichany creationist with a grade-school education can expoundupon with great authority. I fearthat I won 't be able to go into asmuch detail as a creationis twould, and we'll have to runthrough this all very quickly .But don 't worry, this won 't be ontomorrow's quiz.

The Second Law is mani-fested in many daily acti v it ie sWhenever we try to convert oneform of energy into another , acertain amount of energy is lost- usually as heat. Thus, in thisroom right now, we are convert-ing electrical energy into light

energy in the projector that i s beam -ing images from my slides to thescreen before you. The projector i squite warm to the touch , becaus ethe electricity is generating h eat a swell as light. Whenever we convertchemical energy into ener g y o fmotion, as when we burn gasoline inour automobile engines , heat is gen-erated also.

The energy that thus is lost i smeasured by a quantit y calledentropy . Entropy can also be consid-ered to be a measure of the random-ness of distribution of matter andenergy in a system and as theamount of energy no longer avail-able to do work. While there arenooks and crannies of the universewhere entropy is decreasing andorderliness is increasing , overall theentropy of the universe is increas-ing. The universe as a whole is run-ning down.

Information and Entropy

Intuitively, we may expect thatthere would be a relationshipbetween information and entropy.Roughly, we may suppose that sys-tems that are high in informationcontent will be low in entropy , andthat high-entropy systems will below in information content . I notedthat there are little nooks and cran-nies of the universe where order and

information content are increasing,

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in seem ing o pp osition to the SecondLaw. How is this possible?

It tu rn s o u t that both t h e orderand t h e i n formatio n content of asystem can be increased under cer-tain condit ions if energy be expend -ed. Consi d er the growth of aseedling plant. I t is able to grow insize and complexity by capturingthe energy of sunlight and using itto synthesize a ll the chemicals need-ed for life. As I have noted , however ,whenever energy is converted fromone form to another, some energy islost into the environment. Thus , asthe plant grows and decreases inentropy content , the entropy of itsenvironment increases in compensa -tion.

Consider the brains of co llegestudents . When all goes accor d ing toplan , the information content ofthose brains increases steadily overa period of four years . Increa se ininformation requires an expenditur eofenergy,you will recall . Where doesthat energy come from? In simplestterms , the energy comes - or goes -in the form of money. Money hasvalue, remember, simply because itcan be exchanged for energy in someform or other.

Okay,so it is possible to fight theSecond Law, provided we canexpend enough energy under theright conditions. But there is stillone more aspect of the Second Lawwe must consider as we analyze theproblem of disinformation. To fightdisinformation, we need not only tocreate information, we need to trans -mit it to specific recipients in ourworld. Transmission of information -containing signals, however, is

impeded by a manifestation ofentropy known as noise. Mathematic-ally, noise can be seen to be relatedto entropy, although the two termsare not exact synonyms.

The most alarming aspect of thereligious disinformation floodingour sensory world, from my perspec -tive, is its ability to drown out thesignals of science, art, and reason.Homely examples are the jammingof c lassica l m u sic stations by hyper -


en ergetic re lig ious b roa d casters andthe barrage of c rea tio n ist p ro p agan -d a th a t ef fect ive ly si len ces evol ut ionedu cation altogether. Int ui tive lyagai n , we may consi d er disinforma -tion to be related to noise, a lbeitnoise ofa hi gher level of abstraction.Disinformat ion is entropy disguisedas information.

Ou r S ig na l- to -N oiseRatio P roblem

As we ponder what to d o aboutthe disinformation inundation, wemust consider the fact that we arereally d ealing with the old broadcastengineering problem of signal-to-noise ratios . It turns out that youdon't have to be a thermodynamicistto un d erstand what you have to do.If you want to transmit your signal- get your message delivered to yourrecipient - when noise levels arehigh, you need to boost your signal .You need to make it louder, moreenergetic , more c lear , and moresharply defined. Common sense aswell as theoretical physics tells youthat energy will be needed to boostyour signal, and that the two mostcommon forms of energy will be

needed in large quantity: money andhuman effort .

The Price Of Truth

It bears repeating : signals car -rying truth take energy and costmoney. They require human effort .This is why there have always beenmore believers than thinkers inevery human society : believingtakes less energy than critical

thinking. Faith is y et another mani -festation of entropy.

What must we do to stem theflood of disinformation? On thehighest level , the answer is obvious .We must strengthen the signal ofsecularism and science , and wemust reduce the noise of theism andantiscientism.

How can we do this? We canstart by going to Washington to t'row da bums out That measura -

S um mer 2004

b ly wi ll reduce noise levels . W e musttake heart in the knowled ge thatwell -orga n ize d sma ll group s canoverpower di sorganized largergroups and take heed of the factth at effective intercommun icationw ith like-minded other g rou ps isneede d to coordinate action s. Wem u st d evelop med ia contac ts thatcan help facilitate the transm issionofour message . We must de ve lop ourown media presence.

O u r Own Media Presence

We m u st develop ou r p resencein the media both directl y a nd ind i-rectly. We must saturat e Letters toEditors pages with our info rm at ionand o p inions. We must ge t jo b s in

the media ourselve s - we m u stinfiltrate We mu st d o a ll possib le todo media interviews and g et on talk -shows - either a s featu re d g u estsor as call-in g a dfl ies. We m u stexpand our cable-ac cess T V p res-ence into all available ma rk e ts. Wemust get in on the ground flo or withthe newly develop ed m e dium ofsatellite radio . We must continu e tostrengthen our Int er net p res en ce,not only b y expanding ou r o wn

Atheist Web-sites , but by fight ingcensorship filtering of Int e rn etusage at librarie s and school s.(From time to time I receive repo rtsthat the American Atheist Web-sit e is blocked b ythe same filters that bar acce ss tokiddieporn and mass -murdere rWeb -pages.) We have to expand ourown advertising, both commercialand non -commercial .

Save Public Education

We must help elect good peopleto school boards. We must sniff outand expose creationist 'stealth can-didates ' who are determined to give'equal time' to Intelligent Designdisinformation. We must activel yoppose every intrusion of religioninto p u blic schools. We must get our-selves elected to school boards.

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WWW .G AMPA C.ORG

The Godless A m ericans PoliticalAction Committee (GAMPAC ) is themo st important thing to happen foro rg an ized Atheism sinc e the found-ing o f th e Tru th S e ek e r in 1873 andth e fo undin g of American Athei s ts

in 1963. Photograph in your mindthe e -dr e ss for their Web- s it e:-cwww.ga mpac .org». That is themo st important link you will ev e rencounter . GAMPAC is an ent itycompletely separate from AmericanAthe ists Inc., but we as individ u alsar e cooperating wit h i t in every waythat is legal . On the G A MPACWeb -site you can - and must - monitorthe 'act ion alerts .' You m u st writeever y letter and send every FAX

or e -mail that you can whenrequested to do so . By concert edand ,con si stent act ion , we canapp ear to be large in number sand stron g in inf luence .R e m embe r, the squeak y wheelg et s t he gr ease

Mo st of u s have more tim eth an m on ey , and it is rea ssuringto rem ind our selves that labo r-int en s iv e e ffort can often be asub stitute for large amount s of

mon ey . In addition to respondin gact ive ly to GAMPAC actional er ts, w e must place Atheistb oo k s a nd periodicals in a ca -demic and public libraries . Wemu st che ck library collection sreg u larl y to see that Athe is tm a ter ia ls h a ve not been stol enor re ti re d . We mu st dialog wi thlibraria n s to be sure our ma teri -als are see n to be both nece ss a ryan d d esi rab le a ddition s to th ei rco ll ec ti o n s .

What Is At Stake?

It s impl y is no exaggera tionto say th a t se cular civiliz a tio nit self i s a t s take at thi s momen tin Am er ic a' s political and cu ltur-a l hi s tory. Th e choice is d emoc-rac y o r theocracy . We maychoose to return to the DarkAges and Inquisi tions or step

Page 20

forwar d in to a new Age of Reasonthat w ill il lumi nate the li ves o f me nand women who for all practica lpur p oses wil l be biologica lly im -mortal .

The a lternat ive to physical im-mortal ity that looms larger everyday is, of course , the extinction of

Homo sapi e n s at the hands of Homoc r e d ens - 'th inking man ' versus'believing man.' Of co u rse , this is ametaphor. The stark reality thatfaces us i s the extinct ion ofhumanityitself as a result of overpopulatio n ,environmental po ll ution, g lobalwarmi ng, catastrophic decrease i nthe ca rrying capacity of our pla n e t,and n uc lear war .

Wh o Shall Sa v e U s?

As Atheists yo u realize that ifthere is going to be a savior who w illpull the fat out of the fire and saveus from the curse of religion it willnot b e Jes us . No, the sa v ior to co meis not Jesus. The savior to c ome

mu st b e YOu . You are the one s whow ill have to sacrifice tim e andmone y t o save the world. In fac t, youn ee d to s a ve the world in o r d e r tosav e y our se lve s. What sup e rfi ciallymay look like a ltr u istic sac rificesare rea lly actions i n your o w n bestself-interest .

T ime isn' t ju s t ru nning out.Time is up

Y O UKN O W, NoW T~AT YoU Mt:NTIONIT I J4AVe .SUN CARRYING TAe.SE:/30YS FOR SO /....ON~ T1~frT r C.AN T

R~Me . MS£ R W RY .•.

Summer 2004 American Atheist


23/56

Iec am ea n Ath e ist at th e age of

twel v e. I brought m y se lf u p aHindu until that age, pa re nt ed

b y a St a lin is t father and a vag u e lyHindu mothe r. One day I suddenl ysaw the li g ht as it were a n d didn 'trenew my little clay doll S araswa ti(the comely goddess of l ear ni ng)which had shattered . Thank full y m yfa the r didn 't attempt to forceAthei sm down my throat or el se I 'dnow b e a sa ffron-clad Hindu fan ati c .

I g rew up in the charming c it y ofCalcutt a ( renamed Kolkat a la sty ear b y its Marxi s t ruler s). Lif e wasgo od and la ng uid in Indi a in t h e1960 s, b e fo re t h e s udden p o pul a tio nbur st an d th e der a ile d ch ao s t h atno w s ig nifi es t he countr y. M u c h ofth e in frast ructur e left by th e B ritis hwa s s till in place ; bu ses and tramsal w ays h a d se ats ex cep t for t h reehou rs in th e da y. And th e co rp ora -tion sp raye d the street s da ily with agi ga ntic ho se -p ip e to r edu ce dust.(Th e cessa tion of this singl e act isconsid ere d b y most el d er lyC al cuttans a s the bigges t factor inb rin g in g on th e city 's decline .)

I n ev er saw any corp ses inC a lcutta 's s tr ee ts . (My parent s d id ,br iefl y, durin g t he g ruesome f am in eof th e imm e diat e post-war pe rio d. ) Ine ver saw lep ers sw arming a rou nd

lIttoup Cbattenjee

in the city 's s tre e ts; when I wrotem y book I went back and located asmall numbe r of l ep e rs who begfrom Western e rs .

I wrote my book thr o ugh a lot ofanguish - a lon g s tor y I wanted thetruth about Moth er T to be known. Ifelt molested b y M o th er T e re sa andWe stern m e di a for their c onstantdenigration of Ca lcutt a. I f e lt m yance stor s' memor y ( proud Calcut-ta n s who wheeled a nd d e aled withth e East India Comp any) had beend es ecrated b y the world at large .

While wr it in g th e bo ok and afterits publication , I rea liz e d how th eci ty's calumn y is du e not p rima ril yto W estern and Va tican propa g anda ,bu t to Indian s t h emse lves . In iti a ll y Iwas s urpri se d t o meet res ista n ce inm y e ffort s to ex po se T eresa, but soonit a ll fe ll into pl ace. I was to ld , oftenby m y relati ves, t h at it was d anger-o u s to tak e up aga ins t a 'w hi te lad y'wi th such imp orta n t 'conn ections '.F ol low ing the book 's public a tion, thesh a bby-gente e l Sta tes man, one ofth e city 's majo r English dailies,declared me p e r so na n o n grata , fordaring to expos e th e w hit e ' Mother '.

I have realiz ed that th e millen-nia of domination o f Indians b yin v ader s is th e res ult of Hindu cow-a rdic e, corrup tio n , a nd c apitul at ion.

Aroup Chatterjee i s m ost fa mou s fo rhi s e xpo se of 'the h ag o f Ca lcu tta ,' theNobel Priz e -w innin g Alb an ia n nunknown throughout th e w o rld as Moth e rT eres a . H is book , Mot h e r T e r es a: Th eF inal V e rdict , is av ailabl e f romAme ric an Athei s t Pr es s and sells for$14.99. (Product # 5901 )

Parsippany, New Jersey Summer 2004

W es ter ne rs, after th e fil m Gandhi ,ha ve a romantic idea o f the Indianfreedom stru g gl e . It is n ot generallyknown th a t even at the height ofthefr ee dom-mo v ement , o n ly a minorityo f Indian s wanted the British toleave . Th e heinous massacre atJa li a nw all aba g h in April 1919 wasord e red b y t h e British generalD wyer a ll rig ht , bu t the people whofired v oll eys after volleys of shotsinto sw arm s o f women and children(4 00 w e re ki lled ) were all Indians ,mo s tl y Hi n du s. T hey were only toopl ea se d an d proud to have servedthei r w h ite m aster. I cannot seeAr a b s ( I d o not mean Muslim Arabso n ly) doi ng t h e same.

A sig n ifica n t proportion (possi-b ly a m ajority) of upper and middle-class Indians would like to be ruledby the British agai n . Their desire isn ot so m u ch to se e or d er return toth e n atio n , as to h ave the pleasureto serve sa h ib s .

In d ia is th e on ly nation in thewor ld w h e re y ou could be expelledfrom y o ur sc h o ol for ta lki n g in yourm o th er to n g u e. Mo st of the 'topsch oo ls' in th e c ount ry a re governedb y th e Ca thol ic c hu rc h th roughth e ir var io u s or der s. Parents -H indu s, a lm ost a ll of them - payex orb itant fees to t h ese sc h ools but

d o no t ca ll th e s h o ts. C h ildren areforce d to atte nd Bi b le sessions in them orning. P are n ts gr um ble a bit buta ccept t ha t it is no t a ll that ba d tolearn a b o u t th e re ligio n ofthe (supe-rior) sa h ib s. Nobod y wo uld dream ofcomplainin g a s y ou ju st cannotup se t the sa h ib s ( alth o u g h the c u r-ren t miss io n ari es run ning t h eschools ar e indigenou s C h ris tia n s,but p are nt s a re afraid of th e ir ' con -necti o ns ') . The Gita or th e V ed as are

Page 21


24/56

not t aught. An y mention of theKoran would caus e a rebellionamon gs t the normally docile p a r-ent s - I s lam ( and Muslims ) are g en-e rall y a bhor re d b y Hindus . It i s fin eto at tend d ai ly Bi bl e cl asses whenonly 2 % o f Ind ia n s are C h ris tia n sbut loat h some to k n ow a n yt h ing

about M u slim In dia ns (a bo ut 15 % ofthe pop u la tion) .

Thankfu lly I di d not go to a 'topmissionary school' but I attended an'E ngli sh medium school' where Iwas ta u g h t ta les of Jo hnn yApplesee d and a Britis h r ab b it-hunter ca ll ed Ja ck Po o k . I w a s alsota u ght a condense d biograp hy ofAbraham Lincoln . I recited a poemabout one Timothy Boon, whobought a blue balloon. I knew noth-

ing of the excellent ta les ofPanchatantra, at least from school . Iwas taught nothing about the nationI was growing up in. I had n ot heardabout Dr Ambedkar , the tirelesscampaigner against the Hindu castesystem - he later became B u ddhist .I was not taught the Vedantas, someof the world's greatest phi losophica ltexts. I came to know about Buddhaand Asoka through the March ofTime , a book written by a sahib .

Recently when I was in Calcutta, Icame across the city's British deputyhigh commissioner (a career diplo-mat ) giv ing a talk on the Puranas,ancient Hindu texts. I had justabout heard of the Puranas, andknew nothing about them .

I 'd have very likely rejectedHinduism earlier if I had beentaught ancient Hindu texts, but it isimperative that children be taughtabout their own country and theirown people. It is also likely that Iwould have developed some degreeof respect for it, especia ll y theabstract and philosophical aspectsofit.

I t can be arg ued th at t h e mis-s ion ary -sch o ol go ing In d ia ns a re atin y mi norit y a nd th a t the vastm ajo rity do not eve n spe ak En g li sho r e ven a ttend school s , bu t it is t hetin y minority tha t rules - the y ge tthe job s and make the rule s.

Page 22

Thing s are wor se now than the yw ere in the 1960 s. I can count andsay my tables in Bengali; no

american atheist magazine summer 2004

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