Vol. 33, No.

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A Journal of Atheist News and Thought

(
a

[Alheisl,
philnnlhropisl,
labor reformer

American Atheists, Inc.

and public acceptance of a human tions of authority and creeds.
Materialism declares that the cosethical system stressing the mutual
sympathy, understanding, and inter- mos is devoid of immanent conscious
dependence of all people and the purpose; that it is governed by its
corresponding responsibility of each own inherent, immutable, and impersonal laws; that there is no superindividual in relation to society;
to develop and propagate a social natural interference in human life;
philosophy in which man is the cen- that man - finding his resources
tral figure, who alone must be the within himself - can and must cresource of strength, progress, and ate his own destiny. Materialism reAmerican Atheists, Ine. is orga- ideals for the well-being and happi- stores to man his dignity and his intellectual integrity. It teaches that we
nized to stimulate and promote free- ness of humanity;
to promote the study of the arts must prize our life on earth and
dom of thought and inquiry concerning religious beliefs, creeds, dogmas, and sciences and of all problems af- strive always to improve it. It holds
fecting the maintenance, perpetua- that man is capable of creating a
tenets; rituals, and practices;
to 'collect and disseminate infor- tion, and enrichment of human (and social system based on reason and
justice. Materialism's "faith" is in
mation, data, and literature on all other) life;
to engage in such social, educa- man and man's ability to transform
religions.and promote a more thorough understanding of them, their tional, legal, and cultural activity as the world culture by his own efforts.
origins, .and their histories;
willbe useful and beneficial to mem- This is a commitment which is in its
to advocate, labor for, and pro- bers of American Atheists, Inc. and very essence life-asserting. It considers the struggle for progress as a
mote in all lawful ways the complete to society as a whole.
moral obligation and impossible
and absolute separation of state and
Atheism may be defined as the without noble ideas that inspire man
church;
to advocate, labor for, and pro- mental attitude which unreservedly to bold, creative works. Materialism
mote in all lawful ways the establish- accepts the supremacy of reason holds that humankind's potential for
ment and maintenance of a thor- and aims at establishing a life-style good and for an outreach to more
oughly secular system of education and ethical outlook verifiable by ex- fulfillingcultural development is, for
perience and the scientific method, all practical purposes, unlimited.
available to all;
independent of all arbitrary assumpto encourage the development
is a nonprofit, nonpolitical, educational organization dedicated to the
complete and absolute separation of
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American Atheist

Vol. 33, No.6

A Journal of Atheist News and Thought

American Atheist
mmmI
IJWHl

Editor's Desk
R. Murray-O'Hair

Ask AA

32

Is it fact or is it fiction? Atheists respond to the taunt that "America is a

Christian nation."

How Atheists and Atheism fare in a

religious world is the subject of a
reader's queries.

Director's Briefcase
Jon G. Murray

Cover art and design by

Greg Anderson.

Talking Back

The federal government intervenes

to protect law-breakers as the rest of
the nation asks itself if antiabortion
activists are practicing "Civil Disobedience or Civic Terrorism?"

Jojo's Waterloo
Mary Gray

15

35

Can science be the handmaiden

of
orthodox Christianity? Does it serve
to prove the validity of the Bible? In
Part III of a series, Mr. Zindler rebuts
a recent work claiming to prove that
it does. Simply put, he finds that all
attempts at "Apologizing for Christianity" fail.

When an Atheist's sons are told by a

Christian neighbor that baptism is a
necessary part of life, explanations
are in order.

Roots of Atheism
Madalyn O'Hair

The Probing Mind

Frank R. Zindler

Poetry

42

American Atheist Radio Series

Madalyn O'Hair

43

18

"Robert Owen: Atheist, Philanthropist, Labor Reformer" pioneered a

wealth of changes which bettered the
lives of working men and women.

Masters of Atheism
Robert Owen

26

The three greatest

evils to affect
humankind are identified by a factory
owner in the "Declaration of Mental
Independence."
Issued on July 4,
1826, it is a resounding call to abandon
religion and its evils.
Austin, Texas

Vol. 33, No.6

"The Ten Commandments"

serve as a
useful guide to primitive superstitions,
not to human ethics.

Letters to the Editor

46

Classified Ads

48
Page 1

Allerican Atheist
Editor
R. Murray-O'Hair
Editor Emeritus
Dr. Madalyn O'Hair
Managing Editor
Jon G. Murray
Poetry
Angeline Bennett
Non-Resident Staff
Margaret Bhatty
Victoria Branden
Merrill Hoiete
Arthur Frederick Ide
John G. Jackson
Frank R. Zindler
The American Atheist is published by American Atheist Press.
Copyright 1991by American Atheist Press.
All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole
or in part without written permission is
prohibited. ISSN: 0332-4310.
Mailing address: P. O. Box 140195, Austin,
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Telephone: (512) 458-1244. FAX: (512) 4679525.
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Manuscripts submitted must be typed,
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and accompanied by a
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available upon request. The editors assume
no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts.
The American Atheist Press publishes a variety of Atheist, agnostic, and freethought
material. A catalog is available for $l.00.
All Christian Bible quotations are from the
King James Version, unless otherwise
noted.
This magazine is printed on recycled paper.
The American Atheist is given free of
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Atheist alone are $25 for twelve issues
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American Atheists, Inc., P. O. Box 140195, Austin, TX 78714-0195

Vol. 33, No.6

American Atheist

Editor's Desk

Living with Atheism

n many ways, it is much easier to be
an Atheist than to be religious. We
have no reality-defying dogmas to
believe, no contradictory doctrines to
which we subscribe. To use just a few examples from the Christian religion, we
need not surrender our reason to accept
that mumbled words transform wafer
and wine into the flesh and blood of a
particular individual two thousand years
dead or that an instance of illicitappleeating long ago causes each of us to be
stained with "sin," whatever that is.
In other ways, however, it is very difficult to be an Atheist - at least in a religion-dominated culture. Any individual
in our society who desires to become a
Christian (and few make that choice,
rather most are indoctrinated into that
religion) has a range of support systems
on which to depend. In the United
States, in every neighborhood there is
at least one facilitywith a paid staff committed to telling one exactly how to be
a Christian; such outlets, of course, are
known as churches. The shelves of libraries both public and private groan
with volumes of material which would
instruct one in the nuances of being a
Christian. Finding a believer from whom
to solicit advice in the details of surrendering one's lifeto Christ, as they like to
say, is as easy as walking out one's front
door. The rituals of Christianity have, indeed, been so wellincorporated into our
public life that one only need attend a
city council meeting to learn a Christian
prayer or two. Over a thousand years of
Christian literature has been preserved,
so that one can easily find Christian
opinions on every topic under the sun
(and even on the sun itself). Poetry and
fiction, self-help manuals and history
written from a distinctly Christian perspective abound in bookstores. Ifall else
fails the aspiring Christian, a family
member can be found to advise on the
behaviors necessary to this belief.
The Atheist in the United States has

R. Murray-O'Hair
Austin,Texas

no such web of support. Our literature

One such person is the subject of this
is the submerged victim of thousands of issue's "Roots of Atheism." Christians
years of censorship; our fellows are may make missionaries their saints, but
firmly hidden in the closet, so well have freethinker Robert Owen had much
they been taught the rewards of discrim- more practical advice to give the downination. The typical Atheist must be self- trodden masses of his time than how to
educated on the modes, methods, and transform wine into blood. This nineconsequences of living without religion teenth-century iconoclast used his perbecause he will find no mentor in this sonal wealth to create a functioning
Christian-dominated society.
utopia in which the children of laborers
One of the most difficult aspects of might grow up with a full belly, a clean
developing an Atheist life-style in this home, and a decent education. He
practical vacuum of information on sought to give the workers themselves
materialism is the rearing of children. better working conditions, shorter work
The expectation in our society is that days, and better pay. And, using reason
one willinvolve a religious institution in instead of belief as a guide, he was able
the enculturation of one's child, even if to do this while still making a profit for
one is only nominally religious. If one himself and his family to enjoy.
bucks the entire culture, there is the difIt is one thing, however, to create one
ficulty of explaining to a youngster who tiny corner of hope and decency in the
has been reared free from religion why world; it is another to try to create the
others would choose to believe things optimum living conditions for all human
that even a child would understand are beings. Robert Owen was not about to
not true.
leave the latter task to wishful thinking
That difficulty is at the center of a - or to prayer. He spent his lifepro mot short story in this issue. In "Jojo's
ing the reforms which when later adoptWaterloo," two Atheist children learn ed in the industrialized West would
about the ritual of baptism from a neigh- transform the factory workers from debor's child. It is up to their mother to ex- graded slaves to individuals with educaplain that adults can say untrue things tion and the leisure to use it. He chameven when they do not mean to deceive. pioned marriage law reforms, prison reThough the account is fiction, I think forms, educational reforms (that is, prothat every Atheist parent - or aspiring viding education to those other than the
parent - will take some consolation
wealthy), women's suffrage, and wage
from this portrayal of how to handle a reforms.
child's first encounter with religion.
But above all he championed a reform
Both children and adults like to have of religion - which in his view meant
role models in specific fields of endeav- dismantling it, as he outlined in a speech
or. Sadly, Atheists young and old are reprinted in this issue's "Masters of
more often than not deprived of this Atheism." Given in 1826, just fifty years
comfort. Nonbelievers have been large- after our American Revolution, the lecly erased from history books except as ture is starkly daring. Few admired "revillains. When their contributions to our formers" of our own day would be brave
world are too great to ignore altogether,
enough to be as frank as Owen was, yet
historians are still able to overlook their in his day in his own nation the stocks
Atheism, sometimes going so far as to were still the blasphemer's reward.
place a rosy Christian veneer on the
Owen is as fine a role model as one
most iconoclastic thinkers. It is the task would want for an adult or a child. It is
of the American Atheist to right this up to our generation of Atheists to enwrong, so that the deeds of freethinkers,
sure that the histories of such individAtheists, and other doubters are appro- uals is not lost to future generations. ~
priately credited and appreciated.
Vol. 33, No.6

Page 3

Ask A.A.

Mooning Moses
Is there someone on your staff who
could answer two questions for me,
please?
1. What were the names of the two
thieves that were supposedly crucified
with J.e. on the cross?
2. I have heard in one of the Testaments that god displayed his ass or
backside.
Your answer will be appreciated. I
need it in my small silent war I wage in
this area.
Harry Haynes
South Carolina
The thieves were unnamed in the
New Testament stories. Writers, throughout the ages, have come up with names,
but these simply are of the writers'
choosing. One such name that comes
up often is Barnabas.
Since the entire narrative is fiction, it
really does not matter, does it?
The language you are looking for
about god mooning Moses is found in
Exod. 33:23: "And I will take away mine
hand and thou shalt see my back parts:
but my face shall not be seen. " In older
versions of the Bible the language is less
delicate.

Hostility toward Atheists

In "Letters to the Editor," readers give

their opinions, ideas, and information.
But in "Ask A.A.," American Atheists
answers questions regarding its
policies, positions, and customs, as
well as queries of factual and historical
situations. Please address your
questions to "Ask A.A.," P. O. Box
140195, Austin, TX 78714-0195.

Page 4

At some time I read in American

Atheist that libraries would be pleased
to have your magazine. This may have
been in "Letters to the Editor." My experience: Several years ago when I discovered American Atheist at the main
library here, I counted the religious magazines on the display rack and told the
librarian I didn't like having to get American Atheist out of a box in the back and
asked that a copy be placed on the rack.
This was done, but I was then told
that this was only a gift subscription and
was sent to the library's assistant director to ask for renewal. I didn't expect the
complete up-and-down look of contempt she gave me (not in a librarian),
but she did order it.
Vol. 33, No.6

Each month the magazine on the rack

was ripped, and as the librarian told me
a man was responsible, I assumed she
knew who it was and no effort was being
made to stop him. When even the nametag was ripped from the rack, the magazine was never put out again. I was told
that "no one ever asks for it anyway."
More recently I got the fact that
American Atheist exists printed on the
letters page of our paper. Letters from
Atheists are printed every once in
awhile, so I think our paper would print
a column by you.
Would you please make it clear regarding states/oaths. Are there any
states left where you still can't get by the
oath and serve as juror or hold public
office? I would like to see a survey made
of Atheists regarding jury duty. After
selection, how many are allowed to sit?
I have heard of one male in this area who
has made it.
Even in California there are definite
reactions when you stand (always alone)
for the affirmation - after having to ask
for it. I think even you might laugh to see
the stunned expressions on the faces of
the attorneys, and I won't deny that it's
a thrill after the trouble I've had with
religion.
I've been called to jury service twice
in the past year, the first times I've ever
been able to answer a summons, and
I've seen the flaws aside from the reactions to Atheism. I was removed from
five jury seats, once, perhaps, with reason (the attorney thought), as I've been
a crime victim.
One prosecutor questioned my affirmation and another threw it at me to the
point of harassment. I did hear an attorney tell the jurors in one courtroom that
they didn't want an "alien" among them.
Both sides toot for an open-minded and
unbiased juror, yet two women who
didn't want to speak to me after learning I was an Atheist were kept on juries
after I was excused from them. Aside
from these two women, I did not get the
impression that my being different
would make any difference to the averAmerican Atheist

For over a decade, the American Atheist

magazine has been a staple in many public library as this older photograph
shows.

age juror when it came time to vote on

a verdict had I been kept on a jury, as
these attorneys may think. The prosecutor who kept pounding me on having
stood alone almost puked when Iasked
him how he knew there wasn't another
Atheist sitting out there.
Betty Delaney
California
We know that many libraries have
librarians who are hostile to Atheism.
We have scores of reports of refusals to
place the American Atheist magazine
on the racks with current issues of
other magazines. Often the American
Atheist magazines are stolen so they
will not be available.
American Atheists simply needs the
help of local members to check with the
libraries in their neighborhoods and to
see that the magazine is being received
and put on.display. If necessary speak
to the chief librarian. In the particular instance you cite here, it would be good
to ask the librarian why she does not
speak to the man she knows is responsible for mutilating the American Atheist. In allfairness, she should be asked,
would she permit his continuance of
that act if the object of his destruction
was a religious magazine?
In regard to a column in a newspaper: a number of writers, not the
least of whom is Dr. O'Hair, have contacted newspapers which regularly run
religious columns and asked if Atheist
columns could be submitted. The replies
have generally been quite hostile. We
have even approached syndicated column companies and had the same kind
of reply. All we can do is wait for a year
or two and then try again. American
Atheists has been doing this for at least
twenty years and the result is: we win
some, we lose some. But, at least, we
make the newspapers know we are
here.
We anticipate further activity on the
jury oath case in which Robin MurrayO'Hair was jailed. The treatment you
Austin, Texas

have received is quite typical. But we do

have the test case involving Ms. MurrayO'Hair and you will be informed of the
developments in that.

them divided. Igive money to any new

sect that comes to the door - the more
sects there are the less power any sect
will have. The Romans called it "divide
and conquer."

Who's dividing whom?

Icontribute to the local Chapter and
order books from you, but Ican't get up
enough interest to really "join" the organization. Ijust don't think it is worth the
effort.
Ido have two questions:
1. Why don't you sell copies of Tom
Paine's book The Age of Reason? Reading it at age sixteen convinced me that
religion was nonsense. Once a person
reads Paine's book, there is no reason
for any other Atheist literature. Paine
says it all.
2. Why do you attempt to fight something as illogical as religion with logic.
The facts are that the great mass of people really "want" something to believe
in. As Voltaire put it, "if god did not exist
it would be necessary to invent him."
The fact that the Soviet Union has been
unable to do away with religion after
some seventy-five years of propaganda
is proof of my thesis. Hofer's book The
Will to Believe discusses this problem in
great detail.
Iagree with your efforts to keep the
religious kooks from running the countryon the basis of their particular holy
book. The best way to do that is to keep
Vol. 33, No.6

Stuart A. Hoenig
Arizona
We don't sell Thomas Paine's book
The Age of Reason because it was written by Paine, a deist, to be used by the
religious against Atheists. It reinforces
the god idea at every level while attacking the errors in the Bible. An error-free
Bible would, of course, be a boon for
both the deist and the theist.
Atheists are sometimes not so sophisticated as yet to be able to tellfriend
from foe. Hofer, for example, was also
a very religious man.
In your own instance, you mistakenly
give funding to "new cults" thinking that
the number of interpretations of JudeoChristianity in the field will weaken its
grasp on the nation. All that those diverse cults manage is to give everyone
some reason to remain locked into the
hopelessness of religion.
American Atheists is of the considered opinion that enlightened selfinterest will be a better guide to every
person than is the mere acceptance, by
indoctrination, of the irrational value
systems of religion. ~
Page 5

From the pen of

John G. Jackson
Inuesti9ations

of history

from an Atheist perspectiue

Ages of Gold and Silver

Did Christianity raise our species from savagery
to civilization? Christian leaders claim that their religion has always been a civilizing force: that minorities owe their freedoms to the church, that monasteries saved ancient literature from the barbarian
hordes, that our greatest political ideals have their
roots in the Bible. But, as John G. Jackson demonstrates, those claims fall far short of the truth.
In Ages of Gold and Silver, Jackson examines the
origins of civilization with special emphasis on the
long-ignored contributions of non-Whites. He did not
set out to write an anti-Christian book, but found it
impossible to write a history of society without drawing attention to the distortion and concealment of facts by historians to bolster Christian claims.
331 pages. Paperback. Stock #5201. $14.95.

Christianity Before Christ

Did Christianity start with a Jew named Jesus?
Not at all, as John G. Jackson demonstrates in
Christianity before Christ. The elements of the
Christian religion existed long before Jesus is said to
have lived. For thousands of years before, crucified
saviors born of virgins were worshipped. Almost
every detail of the Christian myth was lifted from
the tales of the lives of other messiahs. The conclusion? There is no more reason to believe in Jesus
than trust in Adonis, Attis, Mithra, or Krishna.
238 pages. Paperback. Stock #5200. $9.00.

CHRISllA.NITY

Before
CHRIST

G. Jackson

Black Reconstruction in South Carolina

In

So-u-t-h-C-a-r-o-lin-a-

John G. Jackson

Born in 1907, John G. Jackson has

been involved in the Atheist movement and in Black studies for over
half a century. In that course of
time, his works on the origins of
Christian mythology have become a
staple of Atheist literature.
Jackson's education began at the
City College of New York. Later he
studied African history under Dr.
Willis N. Huggins and Arthur A.
Schomburg. He himself has taught
and lectured at Rutgers University,
the University of New York, and
Northeastern Illinois University.

Hubert Henry Harrison:

The Black Socrates
Black Atheist Hubert Henry Harrison (1883-1927) was a tireless fighter
for mental freedom, and his lectures in
New York City drew thousands.
8 pages. Stapled. Stock #5205. $1.50.

Pagan Origins
of the Christ Myth
by John

Black
Reconstruction

John G. Jackson

History texts often gloss over the Reconstruction,

leaving one with an impression that after the Civil
War, the governments of Southern states were overrun by incompetent Blacks and carpetbaggers.
In this booklet, John G. Jackson dispels that myth.
He carefully looks at South Carolina's Reconstruction
and finds that Blacks at that time used their offices
to make priceless contributions. He notes their eloquence and their devotion to their state, and contrasts that to the treatment they and South Carolina
received at the hands of the old Southern guard.
64 pages. Stapled. Stock #5202. $5.00.

John G. Jackson traces two of the

basic doctrines of Christianity to their
origins in older religions. The historicity of Jesus Christ is also scanned
and revealed to be a composite of older
stories of savior gods.
32 pages. Stapled. Stock #5204. $4.00.
Prices do not include postage and handling.
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Available from:

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Director's Briefcase

Civil disobedience
or civic terrorism?

[+J

ver the years in which I have

been writing for the American
Atheist, I have consciously bypassed a couple of major issues. One of
those has been any theme having to do
with the political, social, and historical
events which are constantly unfolding in
the area we refer to as the Middle East.
There are many Atheists in this country
who are supporters of the political state
of Israel. As an Atheist I find this extremely hard to swallow. How any Atheist can support a theocracy is beyond
my imagination. However strange I find
it, some persons have rationalized
staunch support for the Jewish state to
fit within the scope of their Atheism.
There has also been the quarrel over
whether or not Judaism is a "race" or a
"religion." My firm position is that there
is no such thing as a Jewish "race," and
that one can only be reared in the Jewish religion. This position has garnered
me more than a littlehate mail. Itherefore
generally avoid the issue.
Another issue from which I have
shied away publicly is the controversy
over abortion. I have met thousands of
individual Atheists in my career in the
Atheist movement, and they seem to be
as divided as possible on the abortion issue. Some are vehement supporters of
a woman's right to choose with regard
to abortion, and others would do almost
anything, including working side by side
with religionists, to stop an abortion. I
have a hard time reconciling in my own
mind the wide variety of Atheist opinions on this topic. It seems to me that an
Atheist should be willingto accept that
a woman has the inherent right to a
medical procedure which results in the
termination of a pregnancy.
After all, isn't that what an abortion is,
a medical procedure? Having an abortion is not much different from having
your wisdom teeth removed or losing
your gallbladder. Any surgery can have
its complications and side effects, but
basically we are talking about minor outpatient surgery.
While a student at the University of
,

Traditionally the
government .has
opposed acts of civil
disobedience. But now
the Justice Department
is defending the right of
anti-abortion protesters
to break the law and to
use increasingly
disruptive means of
impeding clinics'
offering abortion
.
services.

A graduate of the University of Texas

at Austin and a second-generation
Atheist, Mr. Murray is a proponent of
"aggressive Atheism." He is an
anchorman on the "American Atheist
Forum" and the president of American
Atheists.

Jon G. Murray

Vol. 33, No.6

Texas, I stirred up a hornet's nest of controversy when I wrote what I thought

was an innocuous letter to the student
newspaper. In it I said that I could not
understand all the hubbub over abortions because it was obvious that the
fetus was just a parasite feeding off the
mother's body, and as such the "host"
had the right to shed that parasite at any
time. Well, the controversy raged in the
letters section of the student paper for
weeks. Now that I am older, and presumably wiser, I cannot see any reason
for changing my mind on that issue.

Denying our animal nature

I think that the primary reason that
the issue of access to the abortion procedure is so emotionally charged is that
the entire debate is based on the premise that people are special creations
above the animal world. People are animals. We are primates. Like it or not, reproduction is a biological function and
not some sort of magic. We are also
mammals, and as such the female of our
species has heat periods (estrous cycles)
in conjunction with ovulation cycles.
The recognition of our animal nature,
particularly with regard to the estrous
cycles of the female, has been the single
most taboo subject in our culture since
its seizure by Christianity. Even the
medical community is afraid to mention
the word estrous out loud because this
would confirm our position as animals
rather than as a special creation. The
most highly educated medical specialist
willargue the point that human females
are the single exception to the Mammalia
class and do not have estrous cycles.
When a medical procedure involves a
process - reproduction - around
which the most powerful taboos of our
species have been formed, one can anticipate a violent reaction. The single
most sensitive subject that can be
broached between humans is sexuality.
The physical nature of the penis and
vagina and what one mayor may not
choose to do with them has been the
most touchy subject in human experiPage 7

All I want is the law

changed.
I want babies to live.
It won't be easy,

though, because
ence. Religion owes its very foundations
to human sexuality. It was born as a control mechanism aimed at human
sexuality.

An issue for women,

not for men
The other problem with the abortion
procedure is that really, fundamentally,
it only concerns women. Men should
have no say whatsoever about whether
or not any women can have access to an
abortion. A man cannot conceive a
child, carry it for nine months, and give
birth. The male is at best only a sperm
donor and nothing more. Once fertilization has taken place, the woman must
nurture the embryo, the fetus, and
eventually the child. Between fertilization (conception) and birth, the male is
simply out of the picture, biologically
speaking. Yet men have always had a
passion for controlling that gestation
process, a process in which they are not
involved and with which they cannot
identify because nothing in their existence even comes close to the female
experience of carrying a child to term.
After conception, a woman has the
entire burden of the pregnancy. Therefore it is up to her and only her as to
whether she wants to continue to term
or to end the pregnancy as she may see
fit.
Male legislators, judges, administrators, physicians, and particularly clergy
get into the act of trying to tell women
how to cope with a pregnancy and to lay
down rules about getting pregnant, being pregnant, or ending a pregnancy.
Only women should be allowed to pass
any laws or make any rules on the abortion issue. No man has ever had an abortion or ever will.
Also, like it or not, guys, the female
dominates the sex game. In almost
every species this is true in that it is the
female who determines when the sex
act willtake place as determined by the
estrous cycle. This is particularly so
among primates. When a female is in
heat, she presents herself to stimulate
Page 8

Satan is all around us.

- David Spear
San Francisco resident who in
participated in Operation
Rescue's "Summer of Mercy"
the male to have intercourse. When the
female is not in heat, the male could care
less about her and willseek out another
female who is in heat. Humans are not
magically, by some religious mumbo
jumbo, exempt from this process. The
male of our species has never been able
to get over two things: first, that the
female biologically dictates when the
sex act should take place; and second,
that the female can literally produce an
offspring from conception to birth. Men
have sought to symbolically reverse
these two facts using both social and
theological mechanisms. Despite their
best efforts, biologically, the female is
still in control sexually.
Abortion is, then, a religious issue. It
is just another attempt by the male to
control a female process (gestation) in
which he has really very little to do outside of being its starter. Even that role is
at the instigation of the female.

A problem more fundamental

and more pressing
The real issue on which our species
should concentrate is birth control. It is
only a matter of time before the population of this planet will exceed its ability
to sustain that many animals. Birth control education and techniques are of primary importance and abortion is secondary. If conception can be prevented,
then there is no need for abortion. The
number of abortions could be drastically reduced by more effective and more
widely used birth control techniques. It
is principally because primarily religious
forces have been against the dissemination of birth control information that
abortion is being used by some women
as a birth control method.
Vol. 33, No.6

Operation Rescue
Now that I have all that theory off my
chest, I can move on to the reason for
this article. I started out by saying that
there were two subjects which I had
avoided in this journal, one of those being abortion. So why did I change my
mind? I decided that I had to put my two
cents worth into the arena of controversy over abortion when I read about and
watched the antics of a group called
"Operation Rescue." That was the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's
back." I want to examine the siege of the
city of Wichita, Kansas, by the Operation
Rescue group between July 15 and August 25, 1991. This was the event that
demonstrated to me that I should begin
to speak my mind on the issue.
Wichita, Kansas, is a city of about
300,000. It is located almost in the geographical center of the United States.
The people of that community are supposed to represent mainstream "American" values, whatever those are. The
population of the United States is now
so diverse that I doubt any city can be
dubbed "typical" or "all-American."
However, it was for the effect (media
and psychological) that the Operation
Rescue group chose a medium-sized
city in "America's heartland."
Let us examine the Operation Rescue
group. The purpose of the group is to
attempt to stop abortion clinics from
performing the abortion medical procedure on competent adult women who
come of their own volition to those clinics. Those who are in absolute ideological opposition to abortion feel that if
they cannot control women through the
psychological terror of the church, peer
pressure, community pressure, or
through the courts or the legislature,
they are justified in using direct physical
means. As a result, the Operation Rescue group, in order to "rescue" unborn
infants, has adopted the method of
blocking the entrances to abortion clinics with their own bodies in an act of
mass passive civil disobedience. Those
loyal to the group are willing to be reAmerican Atheist

peatedly subject to arrest and incarceration. Some followers even travel from
place to place and are arrested in more
than one city (or state), as semi-professional abortion protesters who go on
road tours. In fact, Operation Rescue
now boasts more than 50,000 arrests of
its supporters in the past four years
during operations in which it is claimed
to have "saved" more than 660 babies.
That works out to about seventy-five
and three-quarters of a person arrested
for every baby "saved."
It was back in 1986 that the concept
of "Rescues" was initiated when seven
people locked themselves inside the
Southern Tier Women's Center in Binghamton, New York. Subsequent to that
initial foray into lawlessness, the group
moved on to Cherry Hill, New Jersey,
with the same tactics and then to New
York City and Philadelphia.
Allof these early violations of the personal and property rights of clinics, their
owners, operators, and patients were
mostly local in scope. The Operation
Rescue group first gained national attention at the 1988Democratic National
Convention in Atlanta, Georgia, where
twelve hundred persons were arrested.
After the protests at that convention,
Operation Rescue did not really surface
again until November of 1990 in Washington,D.C.

The thwarted ambitions of

Randall Terry
The founder of Operation Rescue is
Randall Terry. Mr. Terry is a onetime
used car salesman and his hometown is
Binghamton, New York, where the first
abortion clinic blockade was staged.
Randall Terry is now thirty-two. He was
a high school honors student and was,
ironically enough, reared in a family of
feminists. Terry's mother has three sisters, all of whom are outspoken feminists. All four sisters had unplanned
pregnancies as unwed teens, and Terry
is the result of one such pregnancy. Two
of Terry's aunts went through with their
pregnancies, but one paid for a thenAustin, Texas

[My goal is] to eliminate

child-killing from the
culture and to work for
cultural reformation
based upon biblical
principles and laws.
- Randall Terry
Founder
Operation Rescue

illegal abortion (the Roe u. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion was not rendered until 1973 and
Terry was born in 1959).
Randall Terry left home at sixteen to
become a rock star, not an atypical adolescent aspiration. Needless to say, his
dream did not come true. When he
came home in defeat, he shut himself up
in his room with the Bible and came
down two days later proclaiming himself
a messenger for Christ. So Operation
Rescue's founder is not a professional
and certainly not formally medically
educated.
Terry's present first lieutenant in
Operation Rescue is Patrick Mahoney, a
radio talk show host in Boca Raton,
Florida. The other key Operation Rescue leaders are its executive director,
Keith Tucci of South Carolina, and Joe
Slovenec, a minister from Cleveland,
Ohio.

Summer of Mercy
The Operation Rescue crusade staged
in Wichita, Kansas, was called the
"Summer of Mercy" campaign. As I
have already mentioned, looking for a
sympathetic audience and a congregation to whom to preach, Operation Rescue leaders decided to take their campaign to Wichita which represented
"America's heartland." Kansas was also
a symbolic stage for such protests because Kansas legalized abortions in
1969,four years prior to Roe u. Wade. In
one way, Operation Rescue's choice of
Wichita as a protest site worked in its
favor because in Wichita the presence
of pro-choice demonstrators was almost
Vol. 33, No.6

nil. In Los Angeles, for example, more

people showed up to protest against the
Operation Rescue people than came to
join them. Not so in Wichita, where
Operation Rescue pretty much had the
stage to itself.
.Wichita was also chosen because one
abortion clinic there offers abortions in
the last trimester. There are three clinics in the city: Women's Health Care
Services, Wichita Family Planning Inc.,
and Wichita Women's Center.
The primary target of the "Summer of
Mercy" campaign was the Women's
Health Care Services clinic run by Dr.
George R. Tiller. Dr. Tiller is forty-nine,
a family physician, and a former Navy
flight surgeon who has been performing
abortions for seventeen years.
Women from all fifty states and Canada come to his clinic. The Women's
Health Care Services clinic performs
two thousand abortions a year but only
very few, perhaps ten to twelve each
year, are third trimester procedures.
Some 35 percent of the abortions at Dr.
Tiller's clinic are performed in the second trimester of pregnancy.
Hundreds of Operation Rescue followers showed up in front of Dr. Tiller's
clinic to sit at the clinic doorway to block
women from entering while they read
Scripture out loud. Some of the protesters flung themselves under cars trying
to enter clinic property. Two protesters
even crawled under Dr. Tiller's van at its
entrance into the clinic driveway. The
demonstrators lined both sides of Kellogg Street outside Dr. Tiller's clinic with
signs bearing such slogans as "Babies
Killed Here" and "Tiller's Slaughter
House." Almost a quarter of Wichita's
police force had to be assigned the duty
of providing access to the clinic. The
confrontation resulted in more than
1,600 arrests in just over a week in late
July 1991. Sometimes as many as forty
police officers, assisted by officers
mounted on horseback, had to be utilized to keep the clinic doors open. Even
then some protesters slipped through
by crawling beneath the officers.
Page 9

The effects on clinic operation were

understandably grave. At times the clinic staff had to work thirty-six-hour shifts
because they were trapped inside by
protesters. Some of the clinic physicians had to perform abortions in the
predawn hours in order. to avoid disruption.

Enforcing Roe v. Wade

Then the federal district court in
Wichita got into the act when U.S. District Judge Patrick E Kelly tried to enforce Roe v. Wade (1973 S.Ct.). Judge
Kellyis sixty-three years old and was appointed to the bench by President Carter in June of 1980.
Judge Kelly issued an order on July
23, 1991, against Operation Rescue
which prohibited the Operation and its
followers from blocking access to clinics
and physically harassing staff and patients, or encouraging others to do so.
The order, however, only covered two
out of three Wichita clinics, Wichita
Family Planning Inc. and Women's
Health Care Services, which had sued
the protesters. Judge Kellyalso ordered
Operation Rescue to post a $100,000
bond for possible damages if damages
were proven by the clinics.
In issuing that order against Operation Rescue, District Judge Kelly relied
on the Civil Rights Act of 1871.That act
did not speak of protecting only AfricanAmericans, or protecting only against
acts of the Ku Klux Klan. The act talked
in broad terms about the need to redress
the grievances of individuals against private vigilantes who conspire to deprive
people of equal rights. The U.S. Congress of 1871felt compelled to create the
opportunity for an individual's right of
action to prosecute civilrights violations
by private parties because local law enforcement did not ensure adequate protection of federal civil rights.
The abortion clinic owners sued
Operation Rescue directly, under the
enabling provisions of the Civil Rights
Act of 1871,for depriving their patients
of their civil rights by blocking the enPage 10

The abortion battle

is not going to be
decided in the trendy
urban centers.
It will be decided
street by street,
town by town,
village by village.
Wichita is the
heartland of America.
In capsule form,
Wichita embodies what
we will see in the next
three to four years.
- Patrick Mahoney
Presbyterian minister
and Operation Rescue
spokesman

trances to the clinics. The clinic owners

also argued that local law enforcement
was not providing adequate protection
for those rights. The Wichita police, for
example, allowed the protesters to use
every possible delaying tactic following
arrest and then released them after the
payment of only a $25.00 fine each. City
and state officials also were supportive
of the Operation Rescue effort. Mayor
Bob Knight of Wichita and Governor
Joan Finney of Kansas, both abortion
opponents, spoke to an Operation Rescue rally. In fact, the city council in
Wichita defeated an ordinance to make
abortion illegal by only one vote. That
council vote was spurred on by the state
attorney general's opinion that municipalities in Kansas could legally enact
abortion legislation more restrictive
than the state law.

Justice and the mob

Based on the fact that Judge Kelly
had relied on the Civil Rights Act of 1871
in issuing his injunction, the U.S. Justice
Department, encouraged by the Bush
Vol. 33, No.6

administration, intervened in the case

against Operation Rescue. The Justice
Department joined motions by Operation Rescue's counsel to stay Judge
Kelly's preliminary injunction of July 23.
In granting Lee Thompson, the U.S.
Attorney for Kansas, permission to join
the case, Judge Kelly remarked, "I am
disgusted by this move by the United
States." Judge Kelly characterized the
Justice Department's intervention in
the case as a political move; I heartily
concur.
The Justice Department argued that
women are not covered under the Civil
Rights Act of 1871,and it filed a brief in
the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for
the Tenth Circuit in Denver supporting
Operation Rescue's appeal of Kelly's
injunction.

Abortion not just for women?

Through the Justice Department, the
Bush administration contends that the
act does not apply to women and that it
is limited to race-based discrimination. It
also contends that even ifthe act is construed to apply to women, abortion is
simply not a gender-based characteristic. That absurd argument, as rendered
by former Chief Justice Rehnquist some
twenty years ago, was based on the
illogicthat the world is composed of two
kinds of people: pregnant people and
non-pregnant people. Because women
are in both groups, he concluded that
the ability to become pregnant cannot
be gender-based. How about that one
for some judicial doublethink?
The Justice Department also argued
that women were nonpersons in 1871
because Congress did not approve
woman suffrage until 1919and the Nineteenth Amendment! was not ratified by
the states until August 18, 1920. (On

"The right of citizens of the United States

to vote shall not be denied or abridged by
the United States or by any State on account
of sex" (Amendment XIX, Constitution of
the United States).
American Atheist

February 27, 1922, the Supreme Court

of the United States unanimously upheld
the woman suffrage amendment in its
first post-ratification court challenge.}
Therefore the act only spoke to the
rights of Black males. Thus, the Justice
Department argued, the right that
women now seek to enforce had not
yet, in 1871,been explicitly recognized.
It also pointed out that in 1871abortion
was not illegal.
With regard to the pro-choice movement's stratagem of using the Civil
Rights Act of 1871against pro-life demonstrators, the United States Court of
Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld
the use of the 1871act in such abortion
protest cases. The Supreme Court had
declined to review that ruling. Additionally,a case involving an Alexandria, Virginia,clinic(Bray v. Alexandria Women's
Clinic), with a judge's injunction based
on the 1871act, is under consideration
by the Supreme Court.
The Justice Department also claimed
that Judge Kelly's specific requirements
for enforcement of his order intruded on
the U.S. Marshal Service's prerogative
of deciding how to enforce court orders.
Finally the Justice Department made
the state's rights point, revived by the
Reagan administration and carried on
by Bush appointees, that this dispute
belongs in state and local courts. It
views the dispute as a "jurisdictional
problem" of whether or not a federal
judge should be allowed to take control
of the situation.

Promising to obey the law

Despite the fact that the Bush administration saw fit to have the U.S. Justice
Department intervene, Randall Terry
was jailed by Judge Kellyfor not heeding
his order (of July 23) to stop blocking
clinics. Terry spent a week in jail for contempt of court; he was jailed because he
promised to rejoin the protest if freed.
Judge Kelly became angry with him in
court after his initial arrest, shaking his
finger from the bench and saying, "The
order of this court willbe complied with
Austin, Texas

It is clear that these

people will stop at
nothing to impose their
views on others.
These are scary people.
This is a bleary-eyed
zealotry.
It's hard to believe
we're living in the
United States of
America.
These women are being
subjected to tyranny
and terrorism.
- Kate Michelman
President
National Abortion Rights
Action League

without apology and without delay."

Judge Kelly also told Terry that he was
not going to try to reason with him over
the abortion issue. Terry was finally released only after assuring the judge he
would not resume blocking clinics, but
he added the disclaimer that "I can only
speak for myself as an individual."

Cost to the taxpayers

There were from 1600to 2665 arrests
in all during the various clinic sieges in
Wichita, depending on which media
source one chooses to believe. The city
of Wichita spent over $400,000 for
police to keep clinics open. There are no
figures available from the media on what
the federal marshals moved in by Judge
Kelly cost the taxpayers.
At one point 81 members of the clergy
were among those arrested at Wichita
FamilyPlanning Inc. The clergy members
were part of a group of 321 demonstrators arrested on trespassing charges.
Most of the clergy arrested were Roman
Catholic or evangelical. Bishop Eugene
Gerber of the Roman Catholic diocese
Vol. 33, No.6

of Wichita was also present at that demonstration but was not arrested.

"There will be bloodshed

in the streets"
Judge Kelly appeared on national
television on August 6 and 7 on the CBS
"Morning News" program and on "Nightline" to publicly justify his orders against
the clinic blockaders. "It's an inordinate
event for a judge to go public," said
Judge Kelly,
I went public with it for the reason
I wanted to talk to my community
and to tell the U.S. Attorney that
there will be bloodshed in the
streets of this city if I am forced to
remove the marshals."
On August 10 teenagers and children
as young as ages two to ten were used
by their parents to lay down in front of
cars to block women entering clinics. In
response, Judge Kelly sentenced a
thirty-three-year-old man from Wichita
to one year's imprisonment for directing
children to lie down in front of vehicles,
but he lifted the sentence when the man
promised to obey the anti-blockade
order. Only one man actually received a
four-month term for contempt of court
for taking a leadership role and directing
protesters to block a car in front of a
clinic. In the case of seven other arrested
protesters, Judge Kelly found that they
had been stopped by the federal marshals before they blocked access to the
clinic, and therefore there was not sufficient evidence to support a contempt
charge against them. Two of those
seven protesters were Roman Catholic
priests.
During the contempt hearing of the
thirty-three-year-old who had directed
children to block access to a clinic,
Judge Kelly berated Eugene Gerber,
bishop of the Wichita diocese, for refusing to tell priests and nuns to stop block2New York Times, August 9, 1991.
Page 11

ing entrances to clinics. "I hear nothing

from this Bishop saying, 'Stop this madness'. Of all the people in this city who
ought to respond, it's him," Judge Kelly
said. The remarks came after a nun was
called as a defense witness during the
hearing. "What we have here is the
essence of what occurs when lawlessness is unchecked," said the judge at the
conclusion of the nun's testimony. Bishop Gerber was not in the courtroom at
the time of the hearing. In a statement
to the press after learning of Judge
Kelly's remarks, Bishop Gerber said,
1can stress that civildisobedience
is not part of the church's effort to
restore the right of life to unborn
children, but I must stop at the
threshold of the actual decision. I
must stop at the threshold of the
conscience.t
Then on August 11, Operation Rescue switched its forces to the Wichita
Women's Center, a clinic not covered
by Judge Kelly's order. This resulted in
the arrests of seventy-six people who
blocked the center's back door.
Meanwhile, President Bush was on
vacation in Kennebunkport, Maine, and
chose to steer clear of any personal involvement in the dispute in Wichita.
When approached by the media, the
White House press secretary said that
the Justice Department intervention in
the district judge's upholding of the right
of access of the clinics was handled
"routinely" and did not involve the president.
On August 18, President Bush declined
to meet personally with Randall Terry
and the Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, who
had travelled to Kennebunkport
in
hopes that the president would speak
out against sentences which had been
imposed on Wichita protesters.

3New York Times, August 14, 1991, sec. A,

p. 16 and the Pittsburgh Press, August 14,
1991, sec. A, p. 9.
Page 12

We feel this entire city

is under siege.
We have anarchy.
It's a horrible feeling.
It's a dangerous
situation. Where is the
line ever going to be
drawn in the name of
freedom of speech?
- Peggy Jarman
Spokesperson
Women's Health Care Services

Death threats for a judge

Back in Wichita, Judge Kellyreceived
death threats on the answering machine
at his home. An abortion protester was
arrested for confronting Judge Kelly
outside his home after that confrontation led to a shoving match between the
protester and the judge. Due to the
demonstration against him, Judge Kelly
was forced to quit going to mass at his
parish Roman Catholic church.

Operation Rescue moves on

After wreaking weeks of havoc and
costing the taxpayers on city, county,
state, and federal levels hundreds of
thousands of dollars, on Sunday, August
25, Operation Rescue leaders finally decided to leave Wichita and pass the protest baton on to local groups.
A coalition of twenty-five local organizations formed called "Hope for the
Heartland" to carryon the fight against
abortions in Wichita. In the wake of the
massive disruption that the Operation
Rescue siege of clinics caused to the
city, a survey by the Wichita Eagle and
local television stations reported that 78
percent of those polled disapproved of
Operation Rescue's tactics. Only 22
percent supported the protesters. A 52
percent majority felt that Wichita's
image had been damaged.
Other facts also need to be pointed
out here. Operation Rescue participants are from all over the country.
Vol. 33, No.6

Many travel from city to city and state to

state to block clinics. Many have also
been jailed in several cities along a route
of protests. The vast majority of the protesters are White, and some 30 percent
are retired. The Wichita Plaza Hotel in
downtown Wichita halved room rates
for a block of forty rooms for protesters
to share four to a room. Several local
churches turned their basements into
dormitories.
On the same day that its leaders
passed the protest baton on to local
groups, Operation Rescue held a fourhour "Hope in the Heartland" rally at
Cessna Stadium on the Wichita State
University campus with televangelist
Pat Robertson as the keynote speaker.
A crowd estimated at 30,000 attended in
blistering 100 heat. On the same Sunday, Wichita FamilyPlanning Inc. opened
unexpectedly and in a final act about
one hundred protesters converged on
it, with fifty-six ensuing arrests.
On August 31, Judge Kelly issued an
order that Operation Rescue leaders
Randall Terry, Michael McMonagle (of
Philadelphia), Patrick Mahoney, Keith
Tucci, and Joe Slovenec were to leave
Wichita and that they would be arrested
if they returned.

One last attack

In the wake of the "Summer of Mercy"
campaign, Operation Rescue's national
leadership left the Wichita area after announcing planned lawsuits against Dr.
Tiller of the Wichita Family Planning
Clinic. Those actions willallege that Dr.
Tiller is not properly licensed to operate
the incinerator he uses to dispose of
fetal remains and that he violates the law
by not issuing death certificates for
third-term abortions he performs when
the fetus weighs more than 310 grams,4
as required by state law. Even as they
were run out of town by a federal judge,
the Operation Rescue leadership threatened what had been their primary target
4There are 454 grams in 1 pound.
American Atheist

clinic with more legal expenses and

harassment.
Allalong the way I have been appalled
at the actions of Operation Rescue and
like groups all around the country. A
group of individuals blockaded a family
planning clinic right here in Austin,
Texas, where the American Atheist
General Headquarters is located. Scores
were arrested.

The merit of civil disobedience

As a member of a minority group and
a civil rights activist, I understand the
need for civil disobedience at certain
times and places where it may be required to join an issue which needs to be
litigated. I have participated in such
actions, for example remaining seated in
a federal court when the judge enters
and the bailiffadmonishes all spectators
to rise. Ihave remained seated in such
instances when the court was opened
with a religious cry. My sister refused to
be sworn with a god-oath for jury service here in the state of Texas and was
found in contempt of court for that action; she hoped to force a legal review of
the statutory oaths required of jurors in
Texas. I acknowledge the value of civil
disobedience when used as a means of
forcing a reluctant judiciary to review a
civil rights issue. But civil disobedience
in the Gandhi tradition is one thing;
using one's body to deny another his or
her right to a medical procedure of
which you disapprove is quite another.
To my way of thinking, individuals
who participate in the blocking of abortion clinics and/or family planning outlets are bigoted and narrow-minded. I
see little difference between abortion
clinic blockers and those crowds who
tried to stop Black children from entering all-White public schools in the 1950s
and 1960s. If a person's religious indoctrination drives her to the conclusion
that abortion is murder, fine, then she
can opt not to have the procedure done
to herself. But such persons have no
right, despite their opinions, to attempt
to stop others from utilizing a medical
Austin, Texas

We will not rest until

every baby in the
United States is safe in
his mother's womb.
And we will not rest
until this land we love
so much
is once again truly
one nation under God.
- Pat Robertson
addressing the "Hope for the
Heartland Rally" in Wichita

service. I do not personally approve of

the practice of tattooing, but I would not
use my body to block the entrance of a
local tattoo parlor so that others who
wanted to be tattooed could not partake
of the service.
Imust also say that Ido not think that
abortion should be used as a birth control method. The first responsibility of
family planning establishments should
be to offer counseling and education on
birth control methodology and to be dispensaries for birth control technology. I
would welcome required classes in birth
control in all public schools, including
video demonstrations of birth control
methods. I know that abortion has been
used and will be used by some individuals as a birth control method, but at the
same time I feel that such usage could
be greatly reduced through a more
aggressive birth control education campaign. It is just such a campaign that the
organized churches stand to prevent.
Every effort that any church expends to
cut back birth control education or
methods' dissemination pushes one
more woman toward the desire for an
abortion to end an unwanted pregnancy.
It is the very position of organized religion with regard to the issue of birth
control education which is responsible
for the current rate of usage of the
abortion procedure which churches, in
turn, decry. Ifcondoms were distributed
after mass by the Roman Catholic
church, it would do more to reduce the
Vol. 33, No.6

number of abortions in this country

than the church's condoning of the
blockading of clinics.

Fighting fire with fire

In closing, I must also say that I do not
think the physical sieges on abortion
clinics and family planning establishments willstop until those who are prochoice begin to fight back. I think that it
must come to the pro-choice forces being willing to block the entrances to
churches for Sunday services to give
the pro-life forces a taste of their own
medicine. If women cannot have access
to a medical procedure, then the religionists should not have access to their
Sunday fix of pious dope. I would hate
to see the battle over abortion come
down to what would amount to virtual
civil war within communities. But it has
oftentimes been the case throughout
history that a principle cannot be established without a war of some sort. It
took a civil war to abolish slavery. The
civil rights movement for Black Americans went through its violent stage. The
anti-war movement went through a
period of violent demonstrations. So
perhaps it is inevitable that the same
thing will eventually happen in the debate over abortion. I do not condone
violence, but I can see all the signs of its
coming with regard to this issue.
As I said at the beginning of this article, I have not relished getting into this
particular debate, but the actions of
groups like Operation Rescue have
pushed me into saying my piece. If you,
the reader, disagree, than we shall simply have to agree to disagree on this issue and go on to face the many challenges on other issues which are specific to Atheists as a united front. ~

Sources
Arkansas Gazette, August 14, 1991;
August 20, 1991.
Aurora [Illinois] Beacon-News, August
10, 1991.
Courier-News, August 31, 1991, sec. A,
p.5.
Page 13

DeQueen [Arkansas] Daily Citizen, Au-

Pittsburgh Post Gazette, August 7, 1991,

gust 9, 1991, sec. A, p. 8.

Detroit Free Press, August 6, 1991, sec.
A, p. 1; August 10, 1991, sec. A, p. 4;
. August 13, 1991, sec. A, p. 4; August
26, 1991, sec. A, p. 3; August 29, 1991,
sec. A, p. 10.
Detroit News, August 7,1991, sec. A, p.
3; August 8, 1991; August 12, 1991,
sec. A, p. 3; August 19, 1991, sec. A,
p. 5; September 16, 1991, sec. A, p. 4.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, August 21,
1991, sec. A, p. 2 and sec. B, p. 7.
Indianapolis News, July 25, 1991, sec. A,
p. 2; July 31, 1991, sec. A, p. 2; August
5, 1991, sec. A, p. 9; August 8, 1991,
sec. C, p. 7; August 10, 1991, sec. A,
p. 3; August 26, 1991, sec. E, p. 1; August 30, 1991, sec. B, p. 5; August 31,
1991, sec. A, p. 3.
Indianapolis Star, August 4,1991, sec. A,
p. 20; August 7,1991, sec. A, p. 3; August 8, 1991; August 14, 1991, sec. A,
p. 3; August 17, 1991, front page; August 18, 1991, sec. F, p. 1 and p. 5; August 18, 1991, sec. C, p. 3; August 18,
1991, sec. A, p. 11; August 19, 1991,
sec. A, p. 5; August 22, 1991, sec. A,
p. 9; August 24, 1991, sec. A, p. 9; August 25, 1991, sec. A, p. 14 and p. 16;
August 26, 1991, sec. A, p. 3; August
31, 1991, sec. A, p. 3; September 1,
1991, sec. C, p. 7.
Los Angeles Times, August 4, 1991;
August 11, 1991; August 19, 1991, sec.
A, p. 14; August 20, 1991; August 21,
1991; August 27, 1991, sec. A, p. 18;
August 31, 1991, sec. A, p. 24.
New Jersey Daily Record, August 6,
1991, sec. A, p. 5.
New York Times, August 4,1991; August
8, 1991; August 9, 1991; August 10,
1991, p. 5 and p. 6; August 12, 1991,
sec. A, p. 1 and p. 13; August 13, 1991,
sec. A, p. 9; August 14, 1991, sec. A,
p. 16; August 19, 1991, sec. A, p. 6;
August 24, 1991, p. 19; August 26,
1991, sec. A, p. 10.
Newsweek, August 19, 1991, p. 18 and p.
19.
Oakland Tribune, August 13, 1991, sec.
A, p. 6; August 26, 1991, sec. A, p. 6.

p. 1; August 13, 1991, p. 3; August 24,

1991, p. 2; August 26, 1991, p. 2.
Pittsburgh Press, August 7, 1991, p. 1;
August 8, 1991, sec. A, p. 8; August
11, 1991, sec. A, p. 3; August 14, 1991,
sec. A, p. 9; August 16, 1991, sec. B,
p. 3; August 26, 1991, sec. A, p. 5.
Revolutionary Worker, September 22,
1991, p. 5.
San Francisco Chronicle, July 18, 1991,

Page 14

sec. A, p. 9; August 8, 1991, sec. A,

p. 2; August 10, 1991, sec. A, p. 4; August 12, 1991, sec. A, p. 20; August 13,
1991, sec. A, p. 16; August 14, 1991,
sec. A, p. 4; August 17, 1991, sec. A,
p.2.
San Francisco Examiner, August 4,
1991, sec. A, p. 6; August 11, 1991.
Time, August 19, 1991, p. 22; September
9, 1991, p. 19.

A few things that you can do

to help American Atheists
1. Search old bookstores for Atheist books. Rare and used
book dealers often have Atheist classics in stock which are
quite valuable to Atheist history - even though they have no
idea what they are holding. Such volumes can be obtained
often at modest cost for the Charles E.Stevens American Atheist Library and Archives. Donations of books and magazines
should be mailed to: American Atheist Library, P.O.Box 14505,
Austin, TX 787614505.
2. Watch for news items in your local paper or any news magazines concerning separation of state and church. Clip all the
items you find and send them to American Atheist General
Headquarters, making sure that they are marked as to their
source and date of publication. These clippings are a rich
source of information for a variety of publications issued from
G.H.Q.and can even be the basis for litigation in the separation
of state and church area.
3.Write letters to the editor of local newspapers and magazines
on issues important to Atheists,such as state/ church separation.
Let them know that there are Atheists in their community concerned about the intrusion of private religion into public life.
4. Leave a note with the Dial-THEAtheist number (512-4585731) on the bulletin board of your grocery store or laundromat.
Or place a classified advertisement for this free telephone
service in one of your favorite magazine.

American Atheist General Headquarters

P. O. Box 140195
Austin, TX 78714-0195
Telephone: (512) 458-1244
Vol. 33, No.6

American Atheist

Jojo's Waterloo
inda had folded the last pair of
jeans and was just about to carry
the stack of clothes upstairs when
she was startled by an unearthly screeching sound. With the pile of clothes
tucked precariously under her chin, she
ran to the kitchen window to see what
had made that grating noise. At first all
she saw was her two sons leaning over
the shallow end of the swimming poo\.
They seemed to be holding something
under the water.
"Oh, no! They're drowning the cat!"
she cried, dropping the laundry on the
kitchen counter and racing out the back
door.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Linda
screamed at the boys. Guiltily, they
yanked the cat out of the water and released him. In a tenth of a second, the
drenched animal disappeared into the
shrubbery.
"Why were you trying to kill Jojo?"
she demanded, baffled by her sons' unusual cruelty.
"We weren't gonna kill him, Mom,"
said Clark, the oldest. "We were just
bathizing him."
"It isn't necessary to bathe the cat,"
Linda said angrily. "He does a very good
job of keeping himself clean. And even
ifwe had to bathe Jojo, we would not do
it in the swimming pool!"
"No, Mom. We weren't bathing him,
we were bathizing him."
"What?" Linda shook her head.
"Jason said you have to dip them in
the water three times and say 'I bathize
thee in the name of the father and of the
son and of the holy oath'," Clark explained.
"Amen," Teddy, his younger brother,
reminded him.
"Oh, yeah. Amen," Clark added.
Linda wanted to laugh, but suppressed it. She was still angry with her
kids, and now also with Jason, the kid
next door.
"Jason told you you had to baptize
the cat?" Linda asked.
"Well, no. He told us that ifwe weren't
bat hized we would go to hell. Hell is this

Two boys learn that

what adults believe is
not always true.

Mother, musician, and freelance writer,

Mary Gray lives in the countryside
outside Boston, Massachusetts. She
has recently completed her first novel.

Mary Gray
Austin, Texas

Vol. 33, No.6

horrible place you go after you die

where you burn in fire FOREVER!"
Clark fell to the ground and pantomimed being gruesomely tortured.
"Jason bathized me and Clark in his
pool so now we can go to heaven with
all the good people," Teddy said.
"And then we got to thinking," Clark
sprung up, recovered from his imaginary torment. "What about Jojo? We
don't want him to go to hell."
"Yeah, we want Jojo up in heaven with
us," Teddy exclaimed.
Linda sat down on the deck chair next
to the kids. Jason and his family were
members of one of those fundamentalist Protestant cults that had a long name
and a short history. The Martins were
pleasant people, kept a neat yard, and
never gave loud parties. In that respect,
they were ideal neighbors. Linda could
overlook the occasional flyers she found
tucked in her mailbox with titles like
"Hope for Sinners" or "Let Jesus turn
your Sidewalks to Gold."
She did think the parents were a little
rough on their children. But Linda could
never bring herself to speak to Mr. or
Mrs. Martin about what she considered
to be abusive behavior. Legally speaking, she was unclear as to what constituted child abuse. She just knew that
she personally would never strike a
child. It had never occurred to her that
she would be called upon to deal directly with her neighbors' quirky beliefs.
Teddy and Clark were seven and nine
respectively, old enough to be fascinated by myths and magic, but not quite old
enough to follow a logical argument and
draw a reasonable conclusion.
"Guys, there's no such place as hell.
Or heaven, for that matter," she said.
"But then where do you go when you
die?" Teddy asked, looking puzzled. He
had scratches all over his forearms. Obviously Jojo had not volunteered to be
"bathized."
"Nowhere," Linda answered. "You
just stop being. You don't feel any pain
anymore. You don't feel or think anything. You just ... stop." She tried to
Page 15

make it sound sort of relaxing.

"And your body rots and the worms
eat you," Teddy chimed in. Teddy, like
small boys everywhere, loved gore.
"But what about that kid on TV, the
one with AIDS? You mean when he died
he just disappeared and didn't go anywhere?" Clark seemed aghast that a
person, especially a kid his own age,
could just disappear forever.
"Yes. It's really sad when kids get sick
and die, but it happens." Linda was
aware that she might be scaring her kids
and tried to think of a way to soften the
concept. "But you two are healthy.
You'll probably live to be a hundred."
Clark didn't look very relieved by her
prognosis of a long and healthy life."But
even ifwe live a long time, someday we'll
have to die," he said.
"That's true," Linda nodded. "But
I've talked to a lot of old people, and,
Page 16

you know, they all say pretty much the

same thing; after a long life filled with
family and work and lots of changes,
they don't mind dying. They feel like it's
time for them to rest and let the new
generation take over for them."
"That's sort of what Grandma said,"
Clark agreed pensively. "She said she
was tired. She told me not to be sad
when she died because she was happy
just to know she was leaving behind
such wonderful grandchildren."
Linda was taken aback by Clark's remarkably precise memory of a conversation that must have taken place over
three years ago. It was definitely something Linda's mother would have said.
Clark had been only six years old when
her mother died of cancer, but he
seemed to have her words permanently engraved in his mind. Linda was glad
that he could remember her so well.
Vol. 33, No.6

Teddy had been too young. For him,

Grandma had indeed "disappeared."
"But why did Jason's mommy lie to
him?" Teddy wanted to know.
The hardest part is trying to explain
how a person could believe something
so strongly and still be wrong, Linda
thought to herself. That's why she had
given up years ago debating with people
about the existence of god. And now
she realized that the debate was far
from being just an intellectual exercise.
Here were two very real people depending on her for critical answers about the
meaning of life and death.
"Jason's mommy didn't lie," Linda explained. "She was just telling Jason the
same thing her parents told her. Somebody made up these stories many, many
years ago, and parents have been passing them down to their children for
years and years. And nobody stopped
American Atheist

to think about whether or not the stories were true. They just believed them
because they wanted to believe them. It
would be nice to think that when we die
we go to some beautiful place far away
where we'll be happy forever. But we
don't have to think about what happens
after we die. Instead, we can think about
how great it is to be alive and all the
exciting things we can do while we're
still here."
"I want to be a fireman!" Teddy shouted. His class had visited the fire station
last week. Before that he was going to
be an appliance repairman.
"But Mom," Clark asked, still brooding over the implications of Linda's explanation, "how do you know for sure
there's no heaven?"
"I don't know for sure," she shrugged.
"But I don't go around believing in
something unless someone can prove to
me that it exists."
Clark nodded. Linda didn't know if
either child understood what she had
said. She hoped she could give them a
head start on being able to extricate the
truth from all the centuries of garbled
religion and mysticism that would confront them on a daily basis for the rest
of their lives. Childhood is for everyone
a time of magic and make-believe. But
some people are able to pull out of the
mire, and others sink deeper into it until
it colors their every thought and action.
"Look! Jojo!" Teddy hopped up and
walked over to where Jojo sat sunning
himself and licking his soggy fur.
"It's okay, kitty," Teddy said, stroking
Jojo, "you weren't going to go to hell
anyway. We're sorry we got you wet.
Right, Clark?"
Clark was staring into the swimming
pool, thinking thoughts that Linda
would have dearly loved to know. But
they were Clark's thoughts and he
would find his own answers. Just as she
had found hers. ~

Austin, Texas

AN ATHEIST EPIC

An Atheist Epic

~.~
.. giancewaschangedto includethe
rl;;"';;,,-.~._-_-b:n:~l~:::~he~:::::lle_

-.

.(,~p

words "under God."

)
"""",'","""'""",'''0'''''''''"',''",,
,",<mo", ',om ,"" " "'00"0""0.",,,,,,,,

On July II, 1955, President Eisenhower made the slogan "In Cod We
~~ ~
Trust" mandatory on all currency. The
national motto was changed to the
same god phrase on July 30, 1956.
And in 1959 a self-admitted Atheist challenged school
prayer.
The 1950s - it was the decade of "Father Knows Best" and
the Red Scare. A good American was a Christian American or at least a religious one. The enemy was "godless communism," and our best weapon against it was the Christianization
of America.
But a Baltimore woman challenged all that.
She simply said "no" to mandatory prayer - and started a
controversy that still rages today.
That woman was Madalyn Murray. And An Atheist Epic is
her story, from the first complaint to the public school that
required her child to say the Lord's Prayer to the day the
Supreme Court gave its decision in the landmark school prayer
case Murray v. Curlett.
New edition; now includes photos. 302 pp. Paperback. Stock #5376.
$10.00 plus $3.00 postage and handling per book.

Available from:

American Atheist Press

P. O. Box 140195
Austin, TX 78714-0195
VISA and MasterCard phone and FAX orders accepted;
just call (512) 467-9525 any time of the day or night.

Vol. 33, No.6

Page 17

Roots of Atheism

Robert Owen: Atheist, philanthropist, labor reformer

oone knows what it is that makes
a man of a different stripe. Hundreds of millions of us go through
life not seeing, not caring, not attempting to make a difference. It reminds one
of our own nation's Declaration of Independence - which no one, now, ever
reads. There the simple truth is set out:

Some philanthropists
look on the masses only
as objects of charity,
unable to help
themselves. But Welsh
infidel Robert Owen
spent a lifetime
demonstrating that
people working
together could improve
themselves and their
lot.

Atheism has long, underground

tentacles which reach deep into human
history. This feature in the American
Atheist uncovers them through the
lives of many of our spokesmen and
women and restores to you a sense of
the precious heritage they fought to
bequeath to our times.

Madalyn Q'Hair
Page 18

. . . all Experience hath shown,

that Mankind are more disposed
to suffer, while Evils are sufferable,
than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are
accustomed.

the diverse sects of religion, and this

alone had turned him skeptical in that
field.
He had other labor to do, for at age
nine he was put to work in a grocer and
haberdasher's shop to earn his living.
But his reading education goaded him
toward further horizons, and when he
was ten he was permitted to go to London to join an elder brother who was a
saddler there. Once in London, he
stumbled onto a haberdasher in lincolnshire who made him a handsome
offer - board and lodging in return for
work for one year. Should his master
profit from young Owen's work, in the
second year he should earn 8 and in
the third year 10.

The Declaration then goes on to list

twenty-seven very grievous offenses
which the king of England had visited
"Our opinions are made for us,
upon all of the colonies of America.
Robert Owen only needed to see chil- not by us."
When he was installed at the shop, to
dren in the factories of his day, cold,
hungry, dirty, alone - and that was his delight he discovered that the haberenough for him. We can only wonder dasher had a library. When the shop was
closed at 4:00 P.M. each day, Owen was
what made him into the man he became.
He started out in life very ordinary, permitted to read for the next five hours
the son of a comfortable small trades- in the library. His master was a Presbyman, a saddler - who hustled on the terian and his mistress was Episcopaside as a postmaster. His mother, Anne lian, and as he dutifully trotted to one or
the other churches to hear each minisWilliams, was a farmer's daughter and like the women of the day had been ter rant against the other, he quickly
taught that her function was to breed. concluded that "our opinions are made
She had seven children of whom Robert for us, not by us." His religious feelings
were quickly displaced by a "spirit of
was number six. Somehow the parents
managed to get some of their brood into universal charity toward the human
school, which for any child in the late race rather than toward god" - and he
was, even then, halfway to the rescue of
1700s, was a one-in-seventy chance.
In any event, Robert Owen was born the children.
The man to whom he was apprena Welshman on May 14,1771,in a nation
which was filled with tranquil and igno- ticed was famous for finer articles of
rant people. Robert Owen was quickly female wear and Owen became a good
infected with the most dangerous pro- judge of different fabrics. This knowlclivity known to man: 'he learned to edge served him well in later life, as he
read. This is a burden upon one's life managed mills for fine cotton.
When his three-year term was done,
and activities that few people experience - for the un crushable desire to he went back to London, where he
found work as an assistant in a haberknow is all-consuming.
In his case, as in the case of all avid dasher's shop on old London Bridge. In
readers, there came to him information just several years he received an offer of
40 a year in Manchester and the unwhich would fashion him differently
than any others. By the age of ten, he known north called him. He worked
already knew of the mutual bitterness of there, again within the world of cottons
Vol. 33, No.6

American Atheist

Robert Owen (below) pioneered many of the labor

reforms which bettered the condition of the working
people. Some of his writings and ideas were endorsed
and sponsored by the duke of Kent, the father of
Queen Victoria, and other members of England's
political elite.

and linens, for two years. He knew his

work well, and then, only nineteen years
of age, he set up a small spinning mill of
his own and soon cleared 6 a week. He
was forced to learn to manage men, to
keep books, to be innovative with fabric
manufacture, to acquire a knowledge of
fabrics, and master the machinery.
He heard that a larger factory owner
was looking for a manager, went to the
man, asked for the job, and demanded
300 a year. That was, to him, logical:
with fifty-two weeks in a year, clearing
6 a week in his little mill, he was worth
the price. The astonished owner gave
him the job, and he managed the millso
well and turned out such a fine product,
that in the second year he was paid 400
and in the third year 500 for his services. It was at this mill that American
cotton was first used. In his fourth year
of. service, his management was so
skilled that he acquired a quarter of the
profits made.

It did not hamper matters

that the French Revolution
was in full blast; that Dalton
talked of atoms, the bases of
the universe; that Fulton
was full of inventive ideas;
and that Coleridge's poetry
rang in his ears. All three
called Owen "the reasoning
machine." The atmosphere
of Manchester was one of
extreme liberalism and of
debate, and Owen was soon
a deist admiring only one
mighty power that would
really assist the human race:
science.
There is a breed of man
that cannot sit. philosophically discussing the problems of the age. They are
driven rather to effectuate
the changes which need to
be made. In this case, as he
traveled for his business,
The "reasoning machine"
Owen went to Glasgow
As a young working man, he lodged where he found that the
with others and became intimate friends Dale mills (on the Clyde Rivwith Robert Fulton (pioneer of steam er, in New Lanark) were up
navigation), John Dalton (later a world- for sale, and he calmly prorenowned chemist), and Samuel Taylor posed to buy them for 60,000. At the
Coleridge (poet), all of whom belonged same time, he met, wooed, and married
to the "Literary and Philosophical Soci- Miss Anne Caroline Dale, the daughter
ety of Manchester."
of the wealthy spinner who sold him the
mills. They were married on
September 30, 1799, when
Owen was twenty-eight years
old. It should be noted that
Mrs. Owen retained her early religious opinions, which
Owen treated with courtesy.
Together they had seven
children, four sons and three
daughters.
The mill was typical of
those at the time. It employed thirteen hundred cotton workers, men and women who brought their children to work with them (from
Robert Owen's birthplace (second from the left) and dawn to dark) in the foul, undeath place (right), both in Newtown, North Wales. sanitary rooms. In the New
Austin, Texas

Vol. 33, No.6

Lanark mill there were also over five

hundred orphans from various workhouses, from the slums of Glasgow and
Edinburgh. To get rid of them, workhouse authorities would send a cartload
of orphans, ages six and seven, to work
in the mills.
The workers' quarters were typical of
the day: the streets of the mill village
were sewers; the homes were foul
hovels; squalor was pervasive.

Improving the factory for

both worker and owner
Owen's partners wanted money.
They felt that the workers had no minds
to be reformed, and Owen was severely
taxed to introduce new methods to the
factory. First he reorganized the work
and introduced new machinery as he
kept profits flowing. He reduced thefts
with a checking system and then gave
Page 19

Right: The Institute for the Formation of Character in New Lanark was one of the
first "infant schools" in Great Britain; at night it provided a place for the entertainment of adults.
Below: Owen had name his school "The Institute for the Formation of the Character" because he felt that early influences made a person good or bad. One of the
activities he encourage in the school was dancing - much to the chagrin of his
Quaker partners.
Below, right: A contemporary drawing of New Lanark shows how it differed from
the dirty, squalid conditions of most factory towns of the period.

merit increases in wages for better

work. As he worked with the large mill,
he began to formulate and inaugurate
measures which would improve the
plant environment, produce better quality goods, and at the same time ameliorate the wretched working conditions of
those employed there. He soon was on
the track of constructing an ideal industrial community.
He then went to work on the village.
He founded reasonable stores with reasonable prices (25 percent cheaper). He
had the streets cleaned and sewers installed. He forbade the casting of refuse
in front of the houses on the streets. He
then invaded the houses, insisting on a
cleaning once a week and a whitewashing once a year. He divided the village
into districts and put a "principal" in
charge of each. He compelled the fathers of illegitimate children to pay two
shillings per week toward their upkeep.
Soon the cleaner and better homes and
streets, the better and cheaper food,
were gradually and grudgingly appreciated. He then founded a Sick Fund and
opened a Savings Bank. Because the
wives also worked, he founded cornrnunal kitchens and dining rooms for good,
well-cooked food for all of the workers.
For the aged, he built a row of commuPage 20

nal houses. By 1816,he was able to reduce the hours of work from fourteen
(with two hours for meals) to twelve
hours a day with one and a quarter
hours off for meals.

Schools, not work, for the young

When he decided to build a school for
the children, his partners bitterly complained of this loss of profits - so he
simply bought them out for 84,000 in
1809. In the ten years that the mill had

Vol. 33, No.6

been operating, they had also shared

60,000 in profits. New partners were
found, but these too began to grumble
at the waste of profits to benefit workers.
They tried to assume complete control
of the works, but with new business
associates who were wealthy philanthropists he was able to resume cornmand of the New Lanark mills.
He built his school - providing a
large and comfortable playroom for the
infants, the first infant school in Britain
- and it was opened on January 1, 1816.
A large two-storied building, it was
known as "The Institute for the Formation of Character." It was open day and
night, for in the evening it was used for
concerts, dances, lectures, and adult
entertainment. He refused the dicta of
the times that too much education
would lead to revolution. Instead he
held fast that the industrial system was
just - the machines treated each worker
the same. And he considered that the
better mind a worker had, the more
thoroughly he would cooperate with the
system.
He was soon operating on the principle that 5 percent should be paid on capital investment and the whole surplus

American Atheist

devoted to general education and the

improvement of laborers' conditions.
The fame of New Lanark spread
throughout the world, and in the early
decades of the 1800s, it had 2,000 visitors a year on average, mostly businessmen, factory owners, and those who
would be philanthropists.

Two woodcuts from the 1834 reprint of

Owen's Essays on the Formation of the
Human Character illustrate the effects
of bad and good circumstances.

The principles of reform

Owen soon attempted to define what
he perceived as the needed reforms of
society. The French Revolution had resulted in Napoleon, and Napoleon resulted in Waterloo. The Industrial Revolution was replacing human labor with
machinery. Britain suffered in one of its
recurring depressions. And Owen published his "abstract principle" of reform
in a series of essays. The just of this was
summarized by one writer as:
1. To establish a universal, uniform, unsectarian
system of
Austin, Texas

schools, with training colleges ...

for teachers.
2. To establish a department of
State which shall collect and publish each quarter the condition of
labour, unemployment, and wages
in every district.
3. To restrict the hours of adult
labour to ten, and forbid the employment of children.
4. To institute public works
(making roads, etc.) which shall
absorb allwho are left unemployed
by private enterprise.
5. To revise the Poor Laws drastically.
6. To reform the jails and the administration of justice with the
same thoroughness.
7. To reduce the number of licenses and raise the duties on
spirits.
8. To suppress the State lotteries
and discourage gambling.
9. To reform the Church by
abolishing tests and dogmas.
10.To get rid of religious intolerance and war.'
As the situation deteriorated in England and Owen came under increasing
attack, he courageously introduced the
idea of "new industrial and agricultural
communities" of from five hundred to
fifteen hundred persons where living
conditions could be controlled so that
the community was entirely self-supporting. He leafleted the nation, spending
tens of thousands of pounds advertising
his ideas. He soon found his enemy, and
by 1817he began openly to attack "all
the religions of the world."

A new world
England did not respond to his ideas.
But in 1824 he received an emissary
from the United States. A German dis-

lJoseph McCabe, Robert Owen, Life-Stories

of Famous Men (London: Watts & Co.,
1920), p. 38.
Vol. 33, No.6

The character of Owen's work caused

him to be idealized in the eyes of many,
as in this 1821engraving in which he is
framed by symbols of industry and
learning.

senter and religious fanatic, George

Rapp, had purchased 30,000 acres on
the banks of the Wabash in Posey County, Indiana, and established a prosperous community which he named "Harmony." Now Rapp wanted to sell in
order to move elsewhere.
Owen wanted to see the property.
Leaving his son Robert Dale Owen in
charge of the mill, he took another son,
William, and in December 1824set sail
for the United States. The sale price was
28,000, and he bought the acreage, the
surrounding village, the houses, the
workshops - everything - out of his
own private fortune. Immediately eight
hundred eager colonists descended
upon him. He wanted to do it his way and in 1826he renamed the community
"New Harmony" and opened it with
Scottish recruits and American enthusiasts. The project contemplated a community of goods distributed according
to age, the substitution of ethical leePage 21

tures for religious worship, the public

care of children, cooperative - instead
of competitive - work in the various
industries, with an ultimate objective of
the colony thriving for the mutual benefit of alL
The very first of what came to be
called "freethought" periodicals was
founded as a vehicle for Robert Owen's
social views and was published at this
community of New Harmony, The first
issue was dated October 1, 1825. This

Abolitionist, reformer, and Atheist

Frances Wright joined the Owen in the
New HarmonY experiment.

Page 22

The vision (above) and reality (inset) of

the failed New Harmony experiment.

publication, the New-Harmony Gazette,

faithfully reproduced his numerous addresses and writings (when he was in
New Harmony, he generally delivered
lectures each Sunday). At first its three
hundred subscribers found it to be only
mildly anti-Christian. The second issue,
however, found the editor openly espousing infidelity.During the fallof 1826,
articles appeared showing the flimsy
foundations of Christianity, the absurdity of the doctrine of original sin, and
the insufficient evidence in support of
future rewards arid punishments. The
accounts of the creation of the world,
the Garden of Eden, the deluge, the
Tower of Babel, Lot and his daughters,
and, indeed, most Old Testament stories. were held up to be absurd, irrational, and (often) obscene.
It soon developed that there was not
as much harmony in the community as
the name implied. By 1827the restless
groups asked Owen to break up the estate into three separate colonies (New
Vol. 33, No.6

Harmony, Macluria, and Feiba Pevla).

He generously gave each group a 10,000year lease of a plot of land at a nominal
rent. The separate societies were soon
at one another's throats. Owen left New
Harmony on June 22, 1828.He was then
fifty-six years old.
Later in the year (November 28, 1828)
Owen went to Mexico where he had
been promised a territory fifty leagues
broad, stretching through 13Y2 latitude.
But that government refused the land
grant when it proposed, and Owen refused, to have the colony adopt the
Roman Catholic religion. He soon left
Mexico and headed north to the United
States.

The Campbell-Owen debate

Somewhere along the way Owen had
made an agreement to debate a fiery
Universalist preacher, the Rev. A. Campbell, and a date was set for April 13, 1829.
He returned to the United States to
keep this commitment, the first public
debate in which the truth of the Christian revelation was impugned. The
churches in the city of Cincinnati, where
the debate was to be held, refused to
rent space, but finallya Methodist meetinghouse' which seated one thousand,
was obtained. The debate began at 9:00
A.M. every morning and continued for
eight days - each day the meetinghouse being crowded to capacity. Mrs.
American Atheist

Below:A lithograph from Frances Trollope's Domestic

Manners of the Americans (1832) represents the
debate between Robert Owen and the Rev.Alexander
Campbell. This was the first public debate in the
United States on the validity of the Christian
religion.

Frances Trollope, the peripatetic travel

author, was in attendance and was
taken by Owen's delivery style. A shorthand reporter took it all down, and the
published debate ran to 550 pages of
small print. Owen had come to attack
only one error of religion. Campbell insisted that the issue was the truth or
falsehood of the Christian religion. The
result was that each one went his own
way in the argument, not paying any
heed to the other. At the end of the debate, Campbell used the stratagem of
asking all those present who believed in
the Christian religion to stand. When,
obviously, almost the entire meetinghouse did, he asked those who doubted
the Christian religion to stand. Three
were brave enough to do so.

In 1821 the journal the

Economist had been established to propagate his views.
During the remainder of the
century, dozens of cooperatives, labor exchanges, community associations, ebullitions of the Owenite ferment
were everywhere - usually
run by incompetents and
therefore short-lived. Few of
the tens of thousands who The Equitable Labor Exchange founded in 1832 isattempted to emulate what sued labor notes in denominations of hours of work,
not dollars or pounds. Above is a two-hour note.
he had done or had proposed
understood the great ethical and educa- "industrious classes" whom he saw as
tional ideals upon which he predicated
mental and manual workers had to unite
his ideas. By 1830there were thirty co- to free their fellows from ignorance and
operative societies in London, and three poverty. He quickly saw that labor
hundred in the United Kingdom, with should be the exchange value, and the
medium of exchange he proposed was
that of "labour notes."
George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906)
was an enthusiastic spreader of Owen's
ideologies and subsequently wrote a history of the cooperative movements.
By 1834, the attempts at Owenism
had run their course in England. During
that time, Owen had become less and
less reserved concerning his opinion
about religion, and powerful religious
enemies were made, all of which mitigated against his success with socialism.
He also saw no hope in politics and politicians.

Demand for an eight-hour day

After the Campbell debate, Owen returned to London, not to revisit the
United States until 1844. There he had
established the London Co-operative
Society in 1824during a prior stay in that
city. Its purpose was to educate, and
there the principles of Owenism were
fought out with the "Philosophical Radicals" - who Owen adjudged could only
formulate "theories and doctrines [which]
would only produce misery to the human
race."
Austin, Texas

memberships of twenty thousand, issuing nine different journals. What Owen

proposed was socialism, and that name
soon became attached to his ideas.
Owen's own paper, the Crisis, continued but from 1832 to 1834. About that
time, he helped form an "Association of
the Intellectual and Well-Disposed of the
Industrious Classes for removing Ignorance and Poverty." The title showed his
turn: he could not look to the state or
the "idle rich" for assistance, instead the
Vol. 33, No.6

At this time, the economic situation in

England was so bad that the workers
turned to trade unionism to champion
their own cause, and to this movement
Owen turned to help. Its beginnings
were in the early 1830sand Owen began
with a demand for an eight-hour dayforty-eight hours of manual work a
week. This he wanted with no reduction
of wages. Although the movement
failed, the idea was planted. He then attempted to have all the unions join in a
"Grand National Consolidated Trades
Union of Great Britain and Ireland," and
early in 1834, the organization had half
a million members. Unfortunately a fiPage 23

nallyunifiedgovernment brutally crushed

it within six months.

Rational religion
Eventually the movement passed to
the supervision of George Jacob Holyoake and was moved to Birmingham,
with elements of religion frozen into it.
Rational Religion, (Secularism, Rationalism, and Ethicism) soon had sixty-four
branches, with Sunday services being
attended by as many as fifty thousand
persons each week. By 1839 it sold no
less than half a million tracts, and the
membership reached one hundred thousand. Unable to rent facilities in which to
meet, the groups were soon building
their own "Halls of Science" or "Social
Institutions." But soon a "holy war" was
instigated against the Rationalists by the
House of Lords. It is no wonder that the
last trial for Atheism was against George
Jacob Holyoake in 184l.
On May 4, 1845,a "Convention of the
Infidels of the United States" was held in
New York, and Owen was in attendance
and gave an address. Others there included Ernestine Rose- and Dr. Charles
Knowlton.' Delegates appeared from
New York, the New England states,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Alabama, and
South Carolina. A total of 196 delegates
signed in, and the hall was filled with
over 500 freethinkers and infidels. A society was to issue from the meeting, and
the name proposed by Owen was "The
Society for the promotion of Universal
Mental Liberty," but the name finally
chosen was "The Infidel Society for the
2Ernestine Louise Lasmond Potovsky Rose
(1810-1892), Polish-born reformer and abolitionist, who was a much admired Atheist
orator in her generation. Her accomplishments were featured in "Roots of Atheism:
Ernestine Rose, A Troublesome Female,"
American Atheist vol. 30, no. 2.
3Charles Knowlton (1800-1850), American
physician and birth control advocate. His life
was described in "Roots of Atheism: Charles
Knowlton," American Atheist vol. 23, no. 1.
Page 24

Promotion of Universal Mental Liberty."

One final communal experiment was
tried in 1839at Tytherly, in Hampshire,
on a large 533-acre farm known as
Queenswood, but this failed in 1845.
Owen, then seventy-four, did not try
another. Instead, at long last, he returned
to the United States for a few years but
then, finally, went back to England
where he continued to try to exert his
influence - to little or no avail. He died
on November 17, 1858, at age eightyseven. He wanted to be buried beside
his father, and the rector of the parish
demanded a fullchurch service over his

which poverty and vice are not so proliferate as in his early years in Britain, in
which women are often the civic equals
of men, in which the average work day
is eight hours. There is hardly a reform
movement in the world which does not
owe much to Owen's original spirit and
aspirations. He could well be the greatest, but least-known, social redeemer in
the world.

ms

Sources

Cole, G. D. H. Curiosities in Politics,

Robert Owen. London: Ernest Benn
Ltd., 1925.
Cole, Margaret. Robert Owen
of New Lanark, 1771-1858.
London: The Batchworth
Press, 1953.
Johnson, Oakley C. Robert
Owen in the United States.
New York: Humanities
Press, 1970.
McCabe, Joseph. Robert
Owen. Life Stories of Famous Men. London: Watts
& Co., 1920.
Owen, Robert. The Book of
The New Moral WorldContainingthe Rational System
of Society founded on demonstrable facts, developing the constitution and
laws of human nature and
of society. London: The
Home Colonization Society, 1842. Reprint. Clifton,
New Jersey: Augustus M.
Kelley, 1970.
Owen, Robert, and Campbell, Alexander. Debate on
the Evidences of Christianity, containing an examination of the "Social
Robert Owen's grave in Newtown, Montgomeryshire.
System" and all the systems of skepticism of angrave. The rector refused to permit any
cient and modern times. Held in the
of his friends to speak at the grave.
City of Cincinnati, Ohio, from the 13th
But Owen has his memorial stone
to the 21st of April, 1829;between Robelsewhere: in the nations in which young
ert Owen, of New Lanark, Scotland,
children no longer are in factories, in
and Alexander Campbell, of Bethany,
Virginia. Reported by Charles H.
which there are public schools for all, in
Vol. 33, No.6

American Atheist

Sims, Stenographer, with an Appendix,

Owen, Robert, Robert Owen's Millenwritten by the parties. Bethany, VA:
nial Gazette, explanatory, The Principles and Practices by which, in peace,
Printed and Published by Alexander
with truth, honesty, and simplicity,
Campbell, 1829.
the new existence of man upon the
Owen, Robert New-Harmony Addresses,
earth may be easily and speedily coma Compilation. Evansville, Indiana:
menced, Numbers 1-16. London:
Scholars Portable Publications, 1977.
1856-1858. Reprint. New York: AMS
Owen, Robert. A New View of Society
Press, 1972.
of Essays on the Formation of the Human Character, Preparatory to- the "Owen, Robert." In National Cyclopedia of American Biography. Vol. 6, p.
Development of a Plan for gradually
521-22. James T. White & Co, 1892ameliorating the Condition of Man1929. Reprint, Ann Arbor: University
kind. Clifton, N.J.: Augustus M. Kelley,
Microfilms, 1967.
Publishers, 1972.
Owen, Robert. The Life of Robert Owen, Pitzer, Donald E., ed. Robert Owen's
American Legacy: Proceedings of the
written by Himself. 2 vols. London:
Effingham Wilson (Royal Exchange),
Robert Owen Bicentennial Confer1857-1858. Reprinted in one vol. Fairence. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical
Society, 1972.
field, N.J.: Augustus M. Kelley, PuPitzer, Donald E. and Josephine M.
blishers, 1977.
Austin, Texas

Vol. 33, No.6

Elliott, eds. New Harmony's Fourth of

July Tradition: Speeches of Robert
Owen, WilliamOwen, Frances Wright.
New Harmony, Indiana: Raintree
Books, 1976.
Podmore, Frank. Robert Owen, A Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co.,
1906.
Post, Albert. Popular Freethought in
America 1825-1850.New York: Octagon
Books, 1974.
Putnam, Samuel P. 400 ~ars of Freethought. New York: The Truth Seeker
Company, 1894.
Sargent, W.L. Robert Owen and his Philosophy. 1860.
Sir Leslie Stephen. "Robert Owen" in
Dictionary of National Biography.
Vol. 14. London: Oxford University
Press, 1921.
Page 25

Masters of Atheism

Declaration
of Mental Independence

The three greatest evils

to affect humankind are
identified on the fiftieth
anniversary of
America's Declaration
of Independence.

Robert Owen (1771-1858) was a

Welsh social reformer who held as
his primary principle that "man's
character is made for him and not
by him." Subsequently, he reasoned
that the working classes could be
bettered if congenial conditions
were created in which they could
live. To prove his point he transformed an industrial community in
New Lanark, Scotland, into a model
society known throughout the world.
He later tried to reproduce his success in New Harmony, Indiana, but
met with failure. During his life, he
spent his fortune promoting various
reforms, including those of trade
unions, feminism, prisons, education, and marriage.
Robert Owen delivered the following oration, known as "A Declaration of Mental Independence, " in
the public hall of New Harmony, Indiana, on July 4, 1826. It was reproduced in the New-Harmony Gazette,
vol. 1, no. 42, on July 12, 1826.
e meet to commemorate the period, when the inhabitants of
this new world attained the power to withdraw from the control of the
old world, and to form a government for
themselves.
This event is likelyto prove, in its consequences, as important as any which
has occurred in ancient or modern
times. It has been the means of preparing a new era in the history of man, and
of producing such a change of circumstances as willadmit of the introduction
of measures to change, entirely, the
character and condition of the human
race.
The revolution in America, sanctioned and secured by the Declaration
of Independence in 1776,gave to a people advancing towards civilization, the
first opportunity of establishing a government, which would, by degrees, permit them to acquire that greatest of
blessings, MENTAL LIBERTY
This was indeed, a most important

point gained: it was the first time such

privilege had been ever possessed by
mankind.
Its fruits have been visible in the gradual advance towards mental liberty,
which has been made during the half
century which this day completes from
that memorable event. But, I conclude,
it will be in the next half century, now
about to commence, that the wondering
world will learn justly to estimate the
value of the high achievement which
was then attained.

Atheism has a long, proud history of

publishing and speechmaking. Unfortunately, however, much of that history
is inaccessible to modern readers, surviving only in rare booklets, books, and
pamphlets housed in scattered libraries and private collections. The American Atheist attempts to make some of
that literature more available to modern Atheists by reprinting essays by
yesterday's "Masters of Atheism."
These reprints are produced courtesy
of the Charles E. Stevens American
Atheist Library and Archives, Inc.

Robert Owen
Page 26

Vol. 33, No.6

Robert Owen as he was in 1826 when he

called for the ultimate liberty: the freedom
of the human mind.

It was not the mere political liberty

then conquered from the old world, that
was the real victory gained by the inhabitants of these vast regions; for political
power had been often wrested from one
party and obtained by another: But, it
was the right which they thereby acquired and used, to establish the liberty
of freely extending thought upon all subjects, secular and religious; and the right
to express those thoughts openly, so
soon as the existing prejudices, derived
from the old world, could be so far removed as to direct the mind of the multitude to investigate facts and reject the
mysteries of disordered imaginations: to
American Atheist

Owen's eldest son, Robert Dale Owen (below, left),

collaborated with Frances Wright (below, right) on
the publication of the Free Enquirer, one of the first
infidel papers in the United States. Wright is shown
in the ideal costume which the senior Owen devised
for members of the New Harmony community: a
jacket and wide pantaloons.

teach them to discern the value of the fathers brought from Europe,
former, as they always direct to the de- and which had descended to
velopment of real knowledge; and in- the inhabitants of those restruct them rightly to estimate the evilof gions through many ages of
the latter, as they lead to those errors despotism, superstition and
which have made man a compound of ignorance. And although a
few of these highly gifted
follyand a recipient for misery,
Yes, my friends, the Declaration of In- men of the Revolution saw a
dependence, in 1776,prepared the way stronger and clearer light at
to secure to you MENTAL LIBERTY, with- the distance, as they supout which man never can become more posed, of some ages before
than a mere localized being, with pow- them; they were too coners to render him more miserable and scious of the extent of the
degraded than the animals which he has old errors around them to
been taught to deem inferior to himself. attempt more than to secure
It is true, the right of mental liberty is in- the means in the Constituherent in our nature; for, while man ex- tion which they formed, by
ists in mental health, no human power which their successors might
can deprive him of it; but until the Rev- work their way to the supeolution of 1776,no people had acquired rior distant light, and gain for
the political power to permit them to use themselves the innumerable
that right, when their minds should be advantages which real menso far freed from early imbibed preju- tal liberty could bestow upon
dices as to allow them to derive benefits them.
It is for YOU and YOUR sucfrom its practice. No nation, except this,
even yet possesses the political power cessors now to press onto enable the people to use the right of ward, with your utmost
speed, in the course which,
mental freedom.
This right - this invaluable right, you by so many sacrifices, for
now enjoy by the Constitution obtained your benefit, they have opened for you.
for you by Washington, Franklin, Henry, They discovered some of the innumerand the other worthies associated with able impositions which have been practhem.
ticed on your predecessors; they saw
You have indeed abundant reason to more of them, than in the temper of
rejoice in this victory, obtained over the those times, they could venture publicthick mental darkness which,
ly to expose; but they have
left such decided proofs of
tillthen, covered the earth.
their own feelings and views
The collisionof mind which
regarding them, that none,
produced that victory, and
who reflect, can doubt the
which was produced by it,
elicited a spark of light,which
strong desire they felt to attack and destroy still more
enabled the prominent actors in those scenes to disof them, and if possible, to
annihilate all the arts and
cover a glimpse through the
long night of error and mismysteries by which the few
rule, with which the inhabithad so long held a perniants of all the earth had been
cious, despotic sway and
previously afflicted.
control over many.
Still, however, these men,
These wise men were withwhose minds were in advance of the age held from going beyond the line deterin which they lived, were encircled by mined upon at the Revolution, apprethe prejudices which they and their hending that, by attempting to gain a
Austin, Texas

Vol. 33, No.6

greater advance upon ignorance and superstition, they might put to hazard the
benefits they found they could secure;
and herein they evinced their knowledge of the times in which they lived and
acted.
These worthies knew, that their descendants, starting from the point which
they had gained, could, in due time,
without such risk, make other and still
more important advances toward mental liberty - toward that which will,
when fully attained, enable man to remove the cause of all crime, and the misery which arises from the commission of
crimes. To attain this mental liberty, in
its full extent and highest purity, and to
be secure in its permanent possession,
willbe the greatest victory that man can
gam.
My friends, it surely cannot be your
wish, that any good and great cause
should be effected only by halves, Page 27

and more especially when that which remains to be done, is, beyond all calculation, the most important? There is a
noble object before us, to be won by
some party or another in this or in some
other country. It is no less than the destruction of the threefold causes which
deprive man of mental liberty, which
compel him to commit crimes, and to
suffer all the miseries which crime can
inflict. Could we but gain this object soon would rational intelligence, real virtue, and substantial happiness, be permanently established among men: ignorance, poverty, dependence, and vice,
would be forever banished from the
earth.
Let me now ask, Are you prepared to imitate the example of your ancestors? Are you willing to run the risks which they encountered? Are you ready, like them, to meet
the prejudices of past times, and determined to overcome them at ALL hazards, for the benefit of your country and
for the emancipation of the human.
race? Are you, indeed, willing to sacrifice your fortunes, lives, and reputations, ifsuch sacrifices should be necessary, to secure for all your fellow-beings,
Page 28

the GREATEST GOOD, that, according to

our present knowledge, it is possible for
them ever to receive?
Are you prepared to achieve a MENTAL
REVOLUTION,
as superior in benefit and
importance to the first revolution, as the
mental powers of man exceed his physical powers?
If you are, I am most ready and willing to join you in this deed - the last and
most daring that has been left for man
in his irrational state to perform.
But, my friends, knowing, as I do, the
immeasurable magnitude of the GOOD
which this Mental Revolution will effect
and permanently secure for human nature through all future ages - I deem
the continued existence, a little longer
here, of a few individuals to be of no consideration whatever in comparison with
its attainment; and, therefore, as I cannot know the present state of your
minds, and as the continuance of life at
my age, is very uncertain, I have calmly and deliberately determined, upon
this eventful and auspicious occasion,
to break asunder the remaining mental
bonds which for so many ages have
grievously afflicted our nature, and by
so doing, to give forever FULL FREEDOM
Vol. 33, No.6

TO THE HUMAN

MIND.

Upon an experience, then, of nearly

forty years, which owing to a very peculiar combination of circumstances, has
been more varied, extended and singular, than perhaps has ever fallen to the
lot of anyone man, and, during which
period, my mind was continually occupied in tracing the cause of each human
misery that came before me to its true
origin; - I now DECLARE, to you and to
the world, that Man, up to this hour, has
been, in all parts of the earth, a slave to
a TRINITY of the most monstrous evils
that could be combined to inflict mental
and physical evil upon his whole race.
I refer to PRIVATE, OR INDIVIDUAL PROp
ERTY -

ABSURD

OF RELIGION
ON INDIVIDUAL

AND IRRATIONAL

and

MARRIAGE,

PROPERTY

SYSTEMS
FOUNDED

COMBINED

SOME ONE OF THESE IRRATIONAL

WITH

SYSTEMS

OF RELIGION.

It is difficult to say which of these

grand sources of all crime ought to be
placed first or last; for they are so intimately interlinked and woven together
by time, that they cannot be separated
without being destroyed: - each one is
necessary to the support of the other
two. This formidable Trinity,compoundAmerican Atheist

In 1829 Frances Wright and Robert Dale Owen (Robert Owen's eldest son)
oversaw the founding of the Free Enquirer,an infidel newspaper. Published
in New York City, it advocated Atheism; espoused labor reforms; opposed
capital punishment and imprisonment for debt; supported women's political, social, and economic equality; and advocated the right to testify in
court without a religious test. Soon after its inception, the paper had over
one thousand paying subscribers.

ed of Ignorance, Superstition and Hypocrisy, is the only Demon, or Devil,

that ever has, or, most likely ever will
torment the human race. It is well calculated, in all its consequences, to produce the utmost misery on the mind and
body of man of which his nature is susceptible. The division of property among
individuals prepared the seeds, cultivated the growth, and brought to maturity all the evils of poverty and riches existing among a people at the same time;
the industrious experiencing privations
and the idle being overwhelmed and injured by wealth.
Religion, or Superstition, - for all religions have proved themselves to be
Superstitions, - by destroying the
judgement, irrationalized all the mental
faculties of man, and made him the most
abject slave, through the fear of nonentities created solely by his own disorganized imagination. Superstition forced
him to believe, or to say he believed,
that a Being existed who possessed all
power, wisdom and goodness - that he
could do and that he did, everything and yet, that evil and misery superabound; and that this Being, who makes
and does all things, is not the direct or
indirect author of evil or misery. Such is
the foundation on which all the mysteries and ravings of Superstition are erected in all parts of the world. Its inconsistency and inconceivable follyhave been
such as to keep the world in continual
wars, and massacres, to create private
divisions, leading to every imaginable
evil; and it is probable that Superstition
has caused more than its third of the
crimes and sufferings of the human
race.
The forms and ceremonies of Marriage, as they have been hitherto generally performed, and afterwards supported, make it almost certain, that they
were contrived and forced upon the
people at the same period that property was first divided among a few leading
individuals and Superstition was invented: This being the only device that could
be introduced to permit them to retain
Austin, Texas

their division of the public spoils,

and to create to themselves an
aristocracy of wealth, of power,
and of learning.
To enable them to keep their
children apart from the multitude
who were to be kept in poverty, in
ignorance, and consequently without power, - and to monopolize
all wealth and power and learning
to themselves, - some such contrivance as Marriage, with mysterious forms and ceremonies, to
hide their real intentions from the
ignorant, was absolutely necessary, that they might, through the
influence of their wealth, learning
and power, select the most beautiful and desirable women from
among all the people, - and thus
enslave and make them, in fact, a
part of their private property.
This was the commencement of
that system which led to such endless crimes and miseries and degradation of the human faculties, by
tempting the inexperienced to barter their feelings and affections for
wealth, trappings, and power; when too
late for their happiness, they discover
they have been deceived, and that
wealth, learning and power, can make
no amends for the want of those natural
feelings and affections, in the union of
which, all feel the present happiness of
life to consist.
Among the truly intelligent, Marriage
will be respected only when it shall be
formed between those who are equal in
wealth, education and condition; who
are well acquainted with each others
habits, minds and feelings, before they
enter upon the engagement; and who
know also, that by their nature the continuance of affection does not depend
upon the willof either, but that it willdiminish or increase according as they
produce pleasurable or disagreeable
sensations in each other. Marriage, to
make it a virtuous and happy connection, must be contracted by both parties, solely with a view to their hap piVol. 33, No.6

ness. As, then, it is a law of nature that

our affections are not at the control of
the will; and as happiness can be enjoyed only when we associate with those
for whom we cannot avoid having the
most esteem, regard and affection; it
should be as reputable, and equally authorized by law, to dissolve marriage
when the esteem and affection cannot
be retained for each other, and when the
union promises to produce more misery
than happiness, as to form the marriage
in the first instance. When however the
parties are on a perfect equality in
wealth, condition and education, and intimately acquainted with each other's
thoughts and feelings before marriage;
and when no motive whatever exists but
genuine affection to induce the parties
to unite; it is most likely that the marriages so formed would be more permanent than they have ever yet been. But
the present and past character of man,
formed by the inconsistent and inconPage 29

This contemporary cartoon poked fun

at the witch hunt-like reaction to many
aspects of Owen's social reforms. It was
captioned "Protestantism
versus Socialism; Or, the Revival of the Good Old
Times."

gruous circumstances
around him,
have made him so artificial in his feelings, views and conduct, that a decisive
conclusion cannot be drawn upon this
most interesting part of the subject Be
this, however, as it may, we may be sure,
that as soon as man shall be trained rationally, and surrounded by those circumstances only which are in unison
with his nature, he willact only rationally; that is, in such a manner as to secure
the highest and purest happiness to
himself and his fellow-creatures.
The revolution, then, to be now effected, is the DESTRUCTION of this HYDRA
OF EVILS in order that the many may
be no longer poor, wretched beings, dependent on the wealthy and powerful
few; that man may be no longer a superstitious idiot, continually dying from the
futile fear of death; that he may no
longer unite himself to the other sex
from any mercenary or superstitious
motives, nor promise and pretend to do
that which it depends not on himself to
perform.
Upon the experience of a life devoted
to the investigation of these momentous
subjects, Ifearlessly now declare to you,
from a conviction, as strong as conviction can exist in the human mind, that
this compound of ignorance and fraud,
IS THE REAL AND ONLY CAUSE
CRIME, AND MISERY ARISING
WHICH

CAN BE FOUND

OF ALL THE

FROM CRIME,

IN HUMAN

SOCIETY.

This threefold, horrid monster, has

been most speciously gilded and decoPage 30

rated with external trappings, to awe the

ignorant multitude and deter them from
examining the black venom and corruption within. It was in sundry times and
places made death for any mortal, except the initiated, to approach these hidden mysteries; and nothing short of the
Inquisition with the aid of that fearful unmeaning term SACRED, could have, for
so long a period. kept man. - irrational

Woodcuts from one of Owen's publications contrast the squalor of the old
world order with the order and harmony
of his New Moral World.
Vol. 33, No.6

as these terrors made him, - from discovering the imposition which was practiced upon him for the sole purpose of
keeping him in mental slavery and bondage.
For nearly forty years have I been employed, heart and soul, day by day,
almost without ceasing, in preparing the
means and arranging the circumstances,
to enable me to give the death-blow to
the tyranny and despotism which, for
unnumbered ages past, have held the
human mind spell-bound, in chains and
fetters of such mysterious forms and
shapes, that no mortal hand dared approach to set the suffering prisoner free.
Nor, has the fullness of time, for the accomplishment of this great event, been
completed until within this hour, - and
such has been the extraordinary course
of events, that the Declaration of Political Independence, in 1776, has produced its counterpart, the DECLARATION
OF MENTAL INDEPENDENCE
in 1826- the
latter just half a century from the former.
Rejoice with me, my friends, that your
Mental Independence rests now as secure as your Political Independence; for
the overwhelming power of TRUTH over
ERROR is such, that as soon as arrangements can be formed to admit of the full
development of TRUTH to the world, and
it is once publicly promulgated, no art,
or falsehood, or force, can ever afterwards return it back into forgetfulness,
or unteach the truths which it has
taught
Under the circumstances in which
this Mental Revolution has been made,
no human power can undo, or render
nugatory, that which has now been
done. This Truth has passed from me,
beyond the possibility of recall: it has
been already received into your minds:
speedily it will be heard throughout
America, and from thence it will pass
North and South, East and West, as far
as language is known, - and almost as
fast as it shall be conveyed, human nature will recognize and receive it In
countries, in which ignorance and despotism hold their sway over the multiAmerican Atheist

In 1902, a bronze plaque symbolic of

Robert Owen's life was placed on his
grave in Newtown, Montgomeryshire,
through donations by admirers. In it, the
figure of Justice stands behind him as he
holds out his hand to a long procession
of workers.

tude, arts willbe used to keep it from being heard among them: but neither
armies, nor barriers of any kind, can
now prevent a great and important truth
from finding its way, by some means or
another, into the darkest recesses of
error and deception.
Rejoice, then, with me, my friends,
that this light is now set upon a hill; for
it willincrease daily, more and more, until it shall be seen, felt, and understood,
by all the nations of the earth.
Rejoice, with me, that we now live under a government unconnected with
any of the superstitions of the dark ages
of ignorance; a government established
purposely to give man his natural rights;

creased hope to the advantages which

the rising generation, freed from these
errors, willacquire and possess.
All who are deeply versant in human
nature can readily estimate the difference between a generation whose judgement shall have been carefully cultivated from infancy, and whose best faculties shall have been early called into full
action, and one in which the judgement
has been forced to become subservient
to a misguided imagination, and in
whose mind all natural facts have been
distorted and made to bend and support
mysteries only calculated to blind the
understanding and call forth the weaker
and worse feelings of human nature.

sense of the term, for all their fellowcreatures.

'
By doing this, by uniting your separate interests into one, by doing away
with individual money transactions, by
exchanging with each other your articles of produce on the basis of labor for
equal labor, by looking forward to apply
your surplus wealth to assist others to
obtain similar advantages, and by the
abandonment of the use of spirituous
liquors, you will in a peculiar manner
promote the object of every wise government and of all really enlightened
men.
And here we now are, as near, perhaps, as we can be in the center of the

to give him the fullpower to obtain mental liberty as soon as he could disburthen himself of the prejudices of his
ancestors.
The individuals who compose a great
majority of your present government
are happily free from the weakening and
deadening influence of Superstition;
their experience is too extensive, their
minds are too enlightened, to be longer
held in slavery and bondage by imaginary notions unsupported by a single
fact. They will therefore rejoice to see
their fellow-citizens and their fellow-men
throwing off the yoke which has hitherto
kept their finest faculties in bondage,
and they will look forward with in-

Your government, and all the enlightened men of these States and of other
countries, now look to the improved
education of the faculties of children, to
produce a race of rational beings, whose
minds will be freed from the superstitions, prejudices, and errors of past
times; and I trust, that in this respect, no
parties willbe disappointed.
In furtherance of this great object we
are preparing the means to bring up
your children, with industrious and useful habits, with natural, and of course
rational ideas and views, with sincerity
in all their proceedings; and to give them
kind and affectionate feelings for each
other, and charity, in the most extensive

United States, even, as it were, like the

little grain of mustard seed; but with
these GREAT TRUTHS before us, with the
practice of the social system, as soon as
it shall be well understood among us,
our principles will, I trust, spread from
Community to Community, from State
to State, and from Continent to Continent, until this System and these TRUTHS
shall overshadow the whole earth, shedding fragrance and abundance,
intelligence and happiness, upon all the
sons of men.
I would that you, and those who now
live in this and other countries, could
partake, for many years, of all these enjoyments. ~

Austin, Texas

Vol. 33, No.6

Page 31

Talking Back

A state for one religion

What is the response

to the Christian claim:
"America is a Christian
nation"?

John Mayson, an electrical engineering student from Georgia, counters:

The United States was formed as a
secular state by descendants of people
who fled religious persecution in Europe. Atheist founding fathers such as
Thomas Paine are airbrushed out of our
history books, and the religious faith of
men such as George Washington and
Benjamin Franklin is grossly exaggerated. These men would have made Falwell
and O'Connor shudder. Susan B. Anthony won the democratic right to vote
for twenty-six million Americans, yet
her disbelief in a god keeps her out of
the pages of our history.
Besides, just because Christianity is
the most dominant and well-funded religion in this nation does not obligate me
to close my mind and blindly worship a
nonexistent god in hopes of entering a
nonexistent heaven. Ifour history books
better reflected the beliefs and intents of
our founders, it should be clear to you
why our secular nation is not one under
god.
Stephen H. Frey, a retired engineer
and born-again Atheist, agrees with
the claim:
America is, unfortunately, a "Christian nation," and that is basically what is
wrong with it. It was never intended to
be a Christian nation, but the present
and last presidents, the Congress, and
a majority of the Supreme Court profess Christianity and have been, and are
still, trying to force their superstitious
beliefs on the ignorant, gullible majority
of our citizens.
.

So you're having a hard time dealing

with the religious zanies who bug you
with what you feel are stupid
questions? Talk back. Send the question you hate most and American
Atheists will provide scholarly, tart, humorous, short, belligerent, or funpoking answers. Get into the verbal
fray; it's time to "talk back" to religion.

Page 32

Mark Spencer, a Life Member of

American Atheists from Maryland,
explains:
The foundation of America is freedom of thought and expression. The
people who forged the governing documents of America recognized that, for
freedom of thought and expression to
exist, religious dogma and control had
to be separated from the governance of
Vol. 33, No.6

the nation. They also recognized that a

tyranny of the majority could suppress
freedom as completely as a tyranny of
the elite. The separation of state and
church was a deliberate construction in
order to assure that no religion could
control the country as a whole. America, as a country, is no more a Christian
nation than it is a Moslem, Hindu, or
Atheist one.
Robert Bandonis, a writer and schoolteacher from Pennsylvania, replies:
Says who? Certainly not our Constitution, which is a 100 percent godless
document. Certainly not our Declaration of Independence, which doesn't
mention Jesus Christ at all. Certainly
not the people who discovered America, who were pagan nature-worshipers
strolling into Alaska from what is now
the Soviet Union, many thousands of
years ago. No, America is not a Christian nation. America is a nation where
members of all religions, as well as those
with none, strive to live together in
peace and harmony with one another.
That would be impossible in a Christian
nation.
James Serilla, who received his
master of science in psychology
from Eastern Michigan University,
calls upon the Founding Fathers:
One of the prevailing themes of the
men who orchestrated the beginning of
our nation was that of "liberty of conscience." They shied away from identifying themselves with any sect and formulated independent and personal
thoughts on religion. They enjoyed their
personal freedom of thought and tended to treat religion like philosophy. In
fact, one of their major problems was
the numerous polemical Christian sects
of their time. They had to maintain a low
profile about their freethinking for fear
of attacks by authoritative Christian
groups which required a rote-style submission of the mind. It was that religious
intolerance of the time that led to a Constitution that makes no reference to
American Atheist

Jesus Christ and to the composition of

the First Amendment that "Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.... " George Washington, in a letter dated August 17, 1790,
stated, "All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship."
John Adams wrote on October 8,1782,
"I am an enemy to every appearance of
restraint in a matter so delicate and sacred as the liberty of conscience .... "
Thomas Jefferson wrote, "[I]t is comfortable to see the standard of reason at
length erected after so many ages, during which the human mind has been
held in vassalage by kings, priests, and
nobles; and it is honorable for us, to
have produced the first legislature who
had the courage to declare, that the reason of man may be trusted with the formation of his own opinions."
America is a free nation.
Milan Rafayko, an Atheist from
Kentucky,
the Bluegrass State,
opines:
True. And a Jewish, Moslem, Buddhist, Hindu nation. It is also an Atheist
nation.
Ralph B. Shirley, a retired attorney
from Washington, D.C., declares:
According to The World Almanac,
139 million people in the United States
are members of Christian churches, but
fewer actually attend a church. That
leaves at least 111million people who are
not listed as members. While Christians
are in the majority, the First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the
government from establishing a religion.
It cannot, therefore, be a Christian nation.
No one, including the government,
follows Christian precepts. Some examples of those precepts are: you must
agree with your adversary quickly; do
not look on a woman with lust; if your
right eye offends you, pluck it out; if
your right hand offends you, cut it off;
do not divorce, except for adultery; never swear; do not resist evil- ifsomeone
Austin, Texas

hits you on the right cheek, let him hit

you on the left cheek also; love your
enemies.
So the majority may claim to be
Christians but are not so in practice.
Russell Stones, a commodities assembler from Illinois, notes:
Yes, America is a Christian nation.
One merely needs to observe the multitudinous patrons of the judiciary system. Why do individuals on death row
require a prayer before they meet
THEIR maker? (Ihave two makers; I call
them Mom and Dad.) Is there a report
available on the religious denominations
present in a maximum-security prison?
G. W. Meek, an Atheist from a small
town in Texas, answers:
If America is a Christian nation, then
the 1955edition of The American Peoples
Encyclopedia, vol. 5, p. 436, is wrong in
stating: "U.S. church population: 1800,
5-10%; 1890, 22.2%; 1950, 55%." Obviously, for more than a hundred years
church attendance was less than half.
Charles Obler, a Virginia Atheist,
has a few questions of his own:
In history, what "Christian nations"
come to mind? Well, Rome was Christian after Constantine. Do we really
want the U.S. to emulate the Roman
Empire in its later days? What other
"Christian nations" can we come up
with? The Holy Roman Empire after
Charlemagne? Spain under Queen Isabella? Nazi Germany? Allof these "Christian nations" made war against their
neighbors and eventually self-destructed.
Is this the fate we want for the U.S.?
What does being a "Christian nation"
buy us, apart from war and repression?
Those who seek a "Christian nation"
are simply authoritarians who desperately want to preclude possible conflicts
between church and state authorities,
since such an "unthinkable" conflict
would leave many with no choice but to
defy both authorities and learn how to
begin to think independently.
Vol. 33, No.6

Madalyn O'Hair, founder of American Atheists, retorts:

Of course, the United States is now a
Christian nation through statutes, laws,
and rules and regulations promulgated
to govern law-enforcement agencies,
the court system, legislative bodies, and
branches of government. After two hundred years of coercion, naturally the
entire culture would be infused with this
religious insanity.
Our job now, as American Atheists, is
to pun-ourselves out of this Judeo-Christian-dominated mess, restore a secular
government, and seat reason as the
only guide in the legislative, executive,
and judicial branches of government.
Michael Ledo, a health physics technician who enjoys expressing his
opinion whenever possible, points
out:
Among industrialized nations, America ranks last in education. It does not
surprise me that the majority of people
believe in myths. A hundred plus years
ago, America was a slave nation. It does
not make it right or mean that it cannot
be amended.
Kenneth J. Schmidt, a musician and
teacher living in New York City, rejoins:
Yes, it is - but only because the secular, nonreligious, agnostic, Atheistic
Americans in the majority remain silent,
while a minority of fundamental fanatics
(wedded to the present administration)
rapidly proceed to turn the U.S.A. into
a full-fledged theocracy.
Jim Penick, a Kansas subscriber, is
short and to the point:
That blatantly contradicts the U.S.
Constitution and my perception.
Paul Keller, a supervisor at a Minnesota regional treatment
center,
uses history to make his point:
Germany is a Christian nation. It was
98 percent Christian in both world wars.
It killed 120 millionpeople in this century
Page 33

alone. America used to be a Christian

nation. American Christians killed as
many as 50 million Black people during
slavery and caused untold other suffering to Black people. American Christians "converted" five million Native
Americans from alive to dead. There
were only 200,000 left at the turn of the
century. The Christians almost exterminated them. It is amazing that members
of those groups can be Christian. Is it
any wonder that Blacks and Native
Americans don't just "bounce back" to
their former selves? Since 1900America
has helped stop the Vatican from conquering the world twice (World War I
and World War II)and it willdo so again
because freedom is stronger than slavery. America is no longer a Christian
nation.
Samantha Chase, a graphic communications worker and a native of
Seattle, is concise:
Christianity is an imported social disease. It is not American in the truest
sense of the word. Even if you look at
America solely as a nation-state, it still
isn't Christian, because the Euro-American forefathers of the present American nation-state were fearful of tyrannical government and religious persecution. This aversion is reflected in the
Constitution and other documents of
the time. The formal separation of
church and state and the establishment
of a political democracy were a deliberate attempt to avoid the religious and
political tyranny of the old world.
Warren J. Medak, a seventy-threeyear-old Atheist, takes a cynical
look at this claim:
America is a pseudo, ersatz, Christian
nation. Its true god is the dollar!
R. Murray-O'Hair,

the editor of the

American Atheist, takes a jab at the
problem:
What is the point of this hackneyed
claim, which is trotted out so often in
discussions of state/church separation?
Page 34

What is meant is one or a combination

of three assertions: (1) our laws are derived from the Christian Bible, (2) our
Founding Fathers were Christians intent upon founding a Christian state,
and (3) the majority of our population
has been historically or is now Christian. Consequently, the Christian reasons, Atheists and religious minorities
do not have the same constitutional
rights as do other citizens and, in fact,
their very citizenship is in question.
All three assertions are incorrect.
Our laws are based on English common
law, not Judaic tradition. (When was the
last time, for instance, that a disobedient
son was stoned at the city gates in this
country?) Our Founding Fathers, who
held a variety of positions on the veracity of the Christian scheme of salvation,
attempted to found a secular state
which neither imposed on the consciences of its citizens nor regulated
their beliefs. And, lastly, until today the
majority of our citizens chose not to
attend any church on a regular basis. .
But what if all three unarticulated assumptions were correct? Would it still
be legally correct or socially desirable to
oppress Atheists? My answer is no. In
the last hundred years we have begun to
expand the definition of citizenship and
of constitutional rights, including women, Blacks, and the poor (or landless)
within our nation's protection. It is time
now to include the Atheists.
Upcoming questions
God bless you. (In reply to your
being an Atheist - not necessarily a sneezing Atheist.)
Separation of state and church
doesn't mean separation of religion and government.
How would you talk back to
these questions? Send your reply
(limit 200 words) to:
"Talking Back"
p. 0. Box 140195
Austin, TX 78714-0195

Vol. 33, No.6

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American Atheist

The Probing

Mind

\ .....

Part III:Assaulting
Science

"The ape has no power of speech.

He has no vocal cords."
- Robert W. Faid, A Scientific
Approach to Christianity

Formerly a professor' of biology and

geology, Frank R. Zindler is now a science writer. He is a member of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American
Chemical Society, and the American
Schools of Oriental Research. He is
the director of the Central Ohio Chapter of American Atheists.

Frank R. Zindler
Austin, Texas

not contradict the Bible, but actually

supports it." Moreover, the book cover
tells us,
Science proves these amazing
facts:
Jesus was a historical person.
There is actual evidence for the
Resurrection.
The Bible was dictated by the
Holy Spirit and contains mathematical proof of this.
There is conclusive proof of
Jesus' miracles.
There is an afterlife, a heaven, a
hell, and coming judgement.
Scientific evidence refutes the
theory of evolution.

obert W. Faid styles himself a nuclear scientist - a Christian nuclear scientist - and consultant
to the nuclear power industry. According to the dust jacket copy on his bestselling book A Scientific Approach to
Cnristianuv,' Faid was once a legitimate
scientist, free of superstition. But then,
faced with what he claims was a "terminal cancer," he made a "miraculous reo
covery" after Christians prayed for him.
Although no information is ever given
concerning the nature of his cancer, the
legitimacy of its diagnosis, or the curerate statistics associated with it, and
although no evidence is adduced to
show that his cure could only have been
the result of a miracle, we are told that
he "began to reevaluate his scientific
position."
As we shall see, devaluate would
more accurately describe what Faid's
reconsideration did to his science, for it
led him to conclude that "science does

After making these wonderful "discoveries," Robert W. Faid became an

apologist for Christianity - a professional apologist." Parts I and II of "Apologizing for Christianity" have already
dealt with Faid's mathematical "proofs"
of Christianity and with his treatment of
the Bible and its fictional messiah. It remains only to examine the scientific
claims of the man who has made a mint

lRobert W Faid, A Scientific Approach to

Christianity (Green Forest, Arkansas: New
Leaf Press, 1990).

2Aprofessional apologist is one who makes

more money apologizing than could be
earned by working for a living.

Vol. 33, No.6

Page 35

by "proving" that Gorbachev is the Antichrist of whom the Bible warns.?

Can anyone seriously use science to
defend the Bible? Is Robert Faid's science any better than his numerology or
biblical "scholarship"? Hardly.
To begin with, Faid does not quite understand what science is and is not.
With stirring grandiloquence, he declares
The entire universe shouts of
supreme intelligence. For there to
be laws, there must be a lawgiver.
For the intricate colors and shades
and patterns of nature, there must
be a master artist. For the intricacy of precise engineering, there
has to be a master architect. For
all of creation, there must be a
Creator/
What kind of scientist is it who doesn't
understand the difference between natural "laws" and human laws? Natural
"laws" are nothing more than statements of how nature is observed to behave. They are just fancy ways of saying, "That's the way it goes." Natural
laws tell us nothing more profound than
that causes have effects, and that like
causes can be relied upon to produce
like effects. Natural laws cannot be disobeyed, as is frequently the case with
human laws - laws that do indeed require lawgivers. Human laws are arbitrary with regard to truth, and take the
form of commandments or prohibitions,
not descriptions. A typical example is
the law recorded in Lev. 19:19: "You
shall not put on a garment woven with
two kinds of yarn." (While we admit
freely that such a law implies the existence of a lawgiver, it can hardly be used
as an indication of intelligence!)
Among real scientists, the term law

has fallen into disfavor and usually is

avoided. Not only is it undesirable to
have scientific statements confused
with human regulations, it is imprudent
to confer the appearance of absolute
verity upon scientific formulations when
it is unlikely that they can sustain the illusion. After all, Newton's "laws" of
nature have been replaced by Einstein's
theory of relativity; and no one, so far as
I am aware, has ever suggested that
relativity requires a lawgiver!
If Faid thinks natural laws prove the
existence of a supernatural lawgiver simply because he misunderstands the
nature of natural laws - what of his
claims that the beauty of nature bespeaks
the agency of an awesome artist, that
the appearance of design indicates the
working of a divine designer?
It is not recorded who first observed
that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
We can only note that it is a trifle odd
that the beauty of the sunset results
from atmospheric impurities, and that
much of the beauty to which Faid and
we respond today existed for billions of
years without the benefit of sentient beholders. What kind of artist would waste
hundreds of billions of sunsets by displaying them to a world without an audience?
And what of the "precise engineering" which requires "a master architect"?
Is a master architect needed to put
nipples on male mammals - including
creationists? Is a master designer needed
to construct the retinas of our eyes with
the photoreceptor cells aimed away
from the source of light? What kind of
architect would give humans useless
"pseudogenes," and what is to be inferred
from the fact that some of these same
pseudo genes are to be found in chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutansr"

From laws to theories

3Robert W. Faid, Gorbacheu! Has the Real
Antichrist Come? (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Victory
House Publisher, 1988).
4Faid, Scientific Approach, p. 119.
Page 36

While it is an embarrassment to see a

nuclear scientist confuse himself and
others on the nature of scientific laws,
what Robert Faid says about scientific
theories - especially the theory of evoVol. 33, No.6

lution - is a scandal. As an apologist for

the Bible as well as Christianity, Faid has
to attack the idea that life has evolved,
and he must defend a form of creationism, albeit a rather queer one.
To attack evolutionary theory, Mr.
Faid creates a straw-man argument:
The theory of evolution depends
upon several primary premises: 1.
That acquired behavior and knowledge is capable of being passed
onto succeeding generations . . .6
This absurd construction of straw is
easily demolished (or seems to be) two
pages later:
If learned behavior is passed on
from one generation to another, as
the evolutionary theory says, then
the learning process would have
to rearrange the structural configuration of the DNA in the genes of
that individual. And ifthis were so,
your children would not have to
go to school, for all of the knowledge that you had acquired and all
that which you would have inherited from your ancestors would
have been in them at birth."
While other creationists might be
fooled by this ridiculous claim about the
claims of evolution theory, most readers
will realize immediately that no evolutionist today postulates the inheritance
of acquired knowledge, and no evolutionary arguments are based on the
SApseudo gene is a DNA sequence carrying
information for the formation of a protein
but lacking a control region. Thus, the
pseudogene cannot be "turned on" to produce the protein for which it codes. A
pseudogene is useless information occupying space on a chromosome. Finding some
of the same pseudogenes among the great
apes and humans argues strongly that they
share a common ancestry.
6Faid, Scientific Approach, p. 106.
7Ibid., p. 108.
American Atheist

assumption that acquired characteristics

be altered equally as the child acquired
can be inherited."
new information during growth and
While it is true that there once was a maturation, there still would be two diftheory of evolution which posited the ferent sets of genes to be passed on to
biblical principle? of inheritance of ac- the next generation,1Oand some knowledge would be lost. Furthermore, even
quired characteristics - Lamarck's
theory - we should keep in mind that if some way were found to keep both
the Chevalier de Lamarck died in 1829! sets of genes identical, it would only
Lamarck's theory was replaced by Darwin's theory of natural selection in 1859,
and that is the theory Faid should explain clearly and try to refute. But then,
poor old Lamarck is an easier target
than Darwin for a nuclear scientist to
hit.
Before proceeding to examine other
"scientific" claims presented by Mr.
Faid, I should perhaps note that even his
destruction of the straw man reveals a
profound lack of understanding of fundamental biology. Even if learning could
be passed on genetically, children would
stillhave to go to school to learn things
parents learned after their children were
conceived. Moreover, it is likely that all
children need to learn things their parents never learned. There is further the
problem that each parent passes on
only half of its DNA to a given child.
Only if all acquired knowledge were
doubly recorded in both halves of a person's DNA could a child get all the information from both its parents. But then
the child would inherit two different sets create a further problem: genes are
of genes.
carried on chromosomes, and men can
If both sets of genes somehow could be men only if they have an unmatched
pair of sex chromosomes - an X and a
Y Whilewomen do nicely with a matched
pair of X chromosomes, men would be
8The only arguable exception to this stateimpossible. It seems that our apologist
ment would involve the transfer of genes
can't even knock over a man of straw
carried by viruses. It is possible for viruses
to pick up a gene from one host and carry
very well.

Does this mean that chimpanzees are

mute? Was all the racket made by Tarzan's friend Cheetah really an example
of ventriloquism? And just who is responsible for all the noise in the monkey
house at the zoo? Of course, it is not difference in vocal cords which makes humans capable of articulate speech, and
a number of studies published before
Faid wrote his book discussed the details of nasopharyngeal geometry which
are prerequisite for making human
speech mechanically possible. Furthermore, an enormous literature had ap-

it to another, even a host of a different

species. This is, however, hardly a "primary
premise" of evolutionary theory!
9The thirtieth chapter of Genesis tells the
story of how Jacob caused the she-sheep
and she-goats of Laban's flocks prenatally to
mark their fetuses and bear them as differently colored young, which then could pass
their color on to their offspring, to enrich the
fortunes of Jacob. Clearly, this involves the
inheritance of acquired characteristics.

llHere we seem to have a confusion inside

an error. While the common ancestor from
which both the African apes and humans descend could be considered a "higher ape," it
appears that Faid intends the term to refer
to the modern species. To put it simply,
evolutionists consider the living apes to be
our "cousins," not our ancestors.

Austin, Texas

gious scientific errors - howlers. Since

this essay has become a bit heavy with
scientific details, it may be advisable to
lighten things up a bit by noting some of
Faid's most ignorant claims.
Chapter 11of his book is largely an attempt to show the biological and "spiritual" uniqueness of human beings. Artfully ignoring the fact that the human
genome is 99 percent identical to that of
the chimpanzee and 98.5 percent the
same as that of the gorilla, Faid zeros in
on the fact that only humans have the
power of speech. On pages 138-9, we
learn that
There are several parts of his
anatomy which are rarely mentioned but which clearly indicate
that man did not descend from the
higher apes'! by any sort of evolutionary process.
The ape has no power of speech.
He has no vocal cords. No creature on earth, past or present, has
the highly developed vocal cords
which man possesses.

Howlers
In apologizing for Christianity, its
would-be Lochinvar makes some egre-

100ne set would contain the child's own information plus that from the mother, the
other would contain the child's information
plus that from the father.

Vol. 33, No.6

Page 37

peared concerning the capacity of the

great apes for symbolic communications apart from the vocal mode. Surely,
before writing his claim that apes have
no vocal cords, Faid had heard about
the apes that have learned - at least in
a rudimentary fashion - to use human
sign language as well as a system of
computer-mediated hieroglyphics. Why
did he not discuss these facts? Does the
answer to this question tell us anything
about the moral level of apologetics as
a profession, or about the character
traits of the people who practice that
profession?
Let us turn from the higher primates
to the protozoa, to learn some shocking
facts which seem to have slipped past
the metropolitan health authorities:

reasonable model for what the earliest

DNA-containing cells must have looked
like.

Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve also receive "scientific" elucidation by Mr. Faid, although his
explication of the sacred text must be

Where did Cain's wife come

from? Some theologians try to explain her away as being his sister.
But that is incest, and God forbids
incest. If God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, then incest
has always been forbidden by
God. There were plenty of young
women in the world at that time.
Cain married one of these.>

Draw water from your kitchen

faucet and place a drop under a
microscope. You will see amoeba
[sic] swimming in it, along with
perhaps other forms of microscopic life. These creatures are at
the very bottom of life in terms of
simplicity. Watch the amoeba divide and remember just how complicated, how precise, how intricate .the process of mitosis really
is.12
I can only hope that readers who do
find amoebae in their tapwater will report them to the proper authorities! As
for the amoeba being "at the very bottom of life in terms of simplicity," it is
nothing short of shocking that our nuclear scientist has never heard of bacteria, which are much simpler than amoebae. Bacteria lack nuclei, and reproduce by simple fission rather than mitosis. If our apologist had done his homework before commencing his assault on
science, he would have learned of the
pleuropneumonia-like organisms (PPLO)
which are several orders of magnitude
simpler than bacteria, and constitute a
12Faid,Scientific Approach, p. 116.
Page 38

"Adam's fall" occurred at least three

hundred years after the founding of the
Old Kingdom of Egypt, at the beginning
of the Sixth Dynasty! If Faid is correct,
Pharaoh Teti, the first ruler of the Sixth
Dynasty, was the first pharaoh to "know
sin." Neither Cheops nor the thousands
of workers who helped him build the
Great Pyramid at Giza ever committed
a single sin, having had the good fortune
of living in the pre-sin era of the world.
While Faid's dating of Adam's fall to
the year 2500 B.C.E.is very funny, I must
admit he triumphs over a long-standing
conundrum of biblical studies, namely,
the problem of Cain's wife:15

the rankest heresy to fundamentalist

Christians who read his book carefully.
It appears that Adam and Eve weren't
really the first humans on earth, only the
first to sin. Faid presents a number of
arguments to justify "the placing of
Adam and Eve in a rather recent setting
compared with the total length of time
man has been present on the earth."13
As shocking as this may be to traditionalists, Faid further tells us that "the time
period of Adam's fall from favor had to
be no earlier than about 2,500 B.C."14
To put this startling "fact" into its historical context, we must note that

13Ibid.,p. 129.
14Ibid.,p. 131.
Vol. 33, No.6

How simple!
While all this is silly enough for any
educated person, Faid seems almost to
test the credulity of his readers by proceeding to the subject of Noah's flood,
even considering the geological "evidence" to show that "every part of the
world has, at one time or another, been
under water," and that
geology does give evidence of a
flood of epic proportion in every
part of the world. At Ur, at Kish,
and at Erech, geologists find evi-

lSEven though Cain is supposed to be a

member of the second human generation
ever, Gen. 4: 16-17tells us that "Cain went
out from the presence of the Lord, and
dwelt in the Land of Nod, on the east of
Eden. And Cain knew his wife; and she
conceived, and bore Enoch."
16Faid,Scientific Approach, p. 130.
American Atheist

dence of a great deluge, and this is

the general area where Noah would
have lived."

How firm is the firmament?

Not all the "howlers" of Faid's book
are errors as explicit as his claim that
apes have no vocal cords. Some of them
are more implicit, causing eructations
from readers' innards only after the
cerebral cortex has failed to digest
Faid's "explanations." Readers are told
that there is no real contradiction between the best scientific understanding
and the first chapter of Genesis - provided one interprets Genesis properly.
The first six days of creation week were
not literal days of twenty-four hours, for
example, but long periods of time. So
far, so good. But then there are the
details.
First, Gen. 1:6-7 is quoted:

Faid never tells his readers that this

information derives from errors of geologicalinterpretation made by the famous
archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley back
in the 1920s, and that his "flood deposits" represent highly localized fluvial deposits laid down by the Euphrates and
Tigris rivers as they gradually changed
their courses of flow through ancient
Mesopotamia. But not even Faid seems
aware of the implication of having
Noah's flood be a real, world-wide
event, and having Adam and Eve munch
the mango in 2500 B.C.E. According to
traditional biblical chronology, Noah's
flood occurred in the year 2348 B.C.E. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,
smack in the middle of the Egyptian Old
and let it divide the waters from
Kingdom. While it is embarrassing
the waters. And God made the firenough for Bible-thumpers to have the
world end without the Egyptians' taking
mament, and divided the waters
which were under the firmament
notice of the fact, Faid's "improved"
from the waters which were above
chronology spawns even funnier implithe firmament: and it was so.
cations. Since the genealogies in the
Biblemake it clear that the flood was unleashed upon the earth 1656years after Then Faid exults,
Adam's unbirthday, it follows that the
The earth developed an atmocorrect date for the end of the world was
sphere. The waters under the firaround 844 B.C.E. That would put it in
mament were the oceans and the
the period of the divided monarchies of
seas, and the waters above the firIsrael and Judah - after the time of
mament were the clouds which
King David and King Solomon. Perhaps
contained water in large quantiit was the flood that ended the reigns of
Asa of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah. IS
ties.So far, the Bible gives an
account of the early period of the
Not only must we conclude that the
earth's history which is chronologworld ended during one of the busiest
ically accurate and in full agreeperiods of biblical history, we must adjust to the fact that although King David .
ment with what science has determined. 19
was supposed to have been a descendant of Noah, Noah lived and floated his
boat several centuries after David's
He then blithely quotes Gen. 1:8:
death.
And God called the firmament
Heaven. And the evening and the
morning were the second day.
17Ibid.,p. 131-2.
ISIfthis be true, we should exclaim "swimmin'
Jehoshaphat!" instead of "jurnpin' Jehoshaphat!"
Austin, Texas

19Faid,Scientific Approach, p. 89
Vol. 33, No.6

Not only does Faid not discuss the

"fact" that this verse places Heaven below the clouds, he does not explain what
the terms evening and morning might
mean if the term day means a long period of time. After explaining that there is
plenty of "room here for the Techtonic
[sic] Plate Theory"20 beneath the firmament, he proceeds to quote Gen. 1:1617:
And God made two great lights;
the greater light to rule the day,
and the lesser light to rule the
night: he made the stars also. And
God set them in the firmament of
the heaven to give light upon the
earth. (Emphasis added)
Ifthe clouds are above the firmament,
and the sun, moon, and stars are in the
firmament, it follows that these "heavenly bodies" are below the clouds. What is
truly amazing about Faid's discussion
about the firmament is the fact that he
never seems to wonder why the word
firmament contains the word firm. Ifthe
writers of the Bible didn't think the sky
to be a solid object, why did they use a
Hebrew terrn'" implying firmness to
name it? If the firmament isn't firm, and
ifdays aren't twenty-four hours long, we
must wonder if the Bible hasn't misled
us in other terminology also. Perhaps

20lbid., p. 90.
21The Hebrew term translated as firmament
by the King James crew is raqia', derived
from the root r-q-', which can convey the
meaning of 'spread out' - especially as a result of beating or pounding, as by a smith
beating a lump of metal into a thin sheet. The
ancient Hebrews thought the sky to be a pellucid hemisphere arching above the earth.
The sky appears to be blue because of the
cosmic ocean above it (the "waters above
the firmament"). The sky is blue because
water is blue. The ancient translators of the
Latin and Greek versions of Genesis also
correctly understood the solidity implied by
the Hebrew term, rendering it srereomo in
Greek and firmamentum in Latin.
Page 39

the 'blood' mentioned in John 6:5422

doesn't mean blood at all. Perhaps it
means 'wine' (as the Roman Catholics
have claimed allalong) or 'Welch's grape
juice' (as the Baptists now claim).

Go to the ant, thou -sluggard ...

Not only is Robert Faid an expert on
amoebae, vocal cords, and firmaments,
he is an authority on ants as well. On
page 116of his book, he commands us
to
Observe an ant. He [sic] will be
identical in makeup and habit as
those ancestors of his [sic] which
have been found preserved in
amber for the last seventy million
years.

It

*medium

broadly attached
1-jointed pedicei
I
I

rI
I

V:--::;::;::;-::7i/
extrus ible
sting __ J

I
I

0'

completely

median
--tarsal teeth

HYPOTHESIZED

separated

petiole

I
I
I

wasp-like

'\

~:~~na

ti bioi

PREVIOUSLY

,)
/

/
rretopteurot
gland

"double
spurs

-length
mandibles with
serially arranged
multi pie teeth

reduced
thorax

ANCESTOR

short bidentate
mandibles

In this instance, Faid seems to know

even less than the authors of the Bible
in the area of biology. The vast majority
of the ants in a given colony during most
of the year are workers - sterile females.
The unknown author of Provo6:6-8 got
it right when he23 wrote
SPHECOMYRMA

Go to the ant, thou sluggard;

consider her ways, and be wise:
Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the
harvest.
Of course, I don't want to press this example of biblical wisdom too far: Faid
might claim that only supernatural revelation could have told the ancient
author that the sterile insects gathering
up his matzo crumbs were females!

22John 6:54: "Whoso eateth my flesh, and

drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I
willraise him up at the last day."
23Thepopular recent book The Book of J to
the contrary notwithstanding, I take it as a
given that no woman would have been
allowed to write any part of a book which
considers her as no more than a chattel.
Page 40

Figure 1. The "missing link" isn't missing any more. The discovery of Sphecomyrma
freyi (lower drawing) preserved in amber revealed that an insect lived one hundred
million years ago in New Jersey that was nearly identical to the connecting link
between tiphiid wasps and ants (upper drawing) previously hypothesized by
evolutionary entomologists. Of the many reconstructions involved in creating the
hypothetical ancestor of the ants, only one proved to be in error: the antlike jaws
(mandibles) evolved after, not before, the antlike waist (petiole). Reprinted by permission from "The First Mesozoic Ants," by Edward O. Wilson, Frank M. Carpenter,
and William L. Brown, Jr., Science, vol. 157, September 1, 1967, pp. 1038-1040.

The purpose served in mentioning

ants at all, I should note, was to fulfillthe
requirement set for all creationists, viz.,
to repeat the lie that the fossil record
bears no evidence of evolution. Unfortunately for our would-be apologist, he
could not have chosen a worse example.
As long ago as 1967, Science - one
of the most prestigious as well as readilyavailable scientific journals in the United
States - reported the discovery of the
connecting link between tiphiid wasps
Vol. 33, No.6

and the most primitive known ants."

Preserved in Cretaceous amber approximate~y one hundred million years old,
Sphecomyrma jreyi electrified the world
of evolutionary biology. Not only was it
a nearly perfect intermediate between
wasps and ants, it exhibited in minute

24Edward 0. Wilson, Frank M. Carpenter,

and William L. Brown, Jr., "The First Mesozoic Ants," Science, vol. 157, 1 September
1967,pp. 1038-1040.
American Atheist

detail the features which entomologists

had long predicted should be seen ifthe
"missing link" should someday be found.
As can be seen in Figure 1,Sphecomyrma
is astonishingly like the previously hypothesized ancestor of the ants. Only in
one detail of the dozens possible did the
evolutionary prediction prove to be in
error: it had been expected that antlike
jaws (mandibles) would have evolved
before the antlike waist (petiole).
After one hundred million years,
Sphecomyrma has returned from the
dead; it is an ant destined to spoil creationist picnics like no picnic has ever
been ruined before.
For the nonce, however, Faid still
maintains that "Not one type of intermediate fossilanimal has ever been found."25
A lie repeated often enough ...
Faid does not tell us of Eusthenopteron, Sterropterygion, Acanthostega, Ichthyostega, or Tuierpeton - forms that
show how fish became amphibians. He
gives no notice of Seymouria, which sits
securely on the fence between amphibians and reptiles. No alibi is offered for
Archaeopteryx or Protoavis, forms showing dinosaurs in the act of becoming
birds. A Scientific Approach to Christianity has not one word to offer about
the Therapsida - an entire order of
mammal-like reptiles, with dozens of
species providing links between links to
join the reptiles to the mammals. Readers
willsearch in vain for mention of Pakicetus, the ancestral whale, Hyracotherium, the ancestral horse, or of Homo
erectus, the connecting link between
the australopithecines and Church of
Christ preachers.
"Not one type of intermediate fossil
animal has ever been found." A lie repeated ...
For people constrained by the bounds
of fairness, however - for persons
bound by honor to tell the truth as best
as it can be inferred from the evidence
at hand - science can give no support
25Faid,Scientific Approach, p. 117.
Austin, Texas

to the claims of Christianity. Science

cannot be the handmaiden of Christ.

All for the glory of god

Previous installments of "Apologizing
for Christianity" have raised the question of what kind of person, this far
along in the history of science, would become a professional apologist for Christianity. Libel law being the morass it is,
I shall not venture to answer the question either generally or with regard to
the particulars of the case of Robert
Faid. Nevertheless, I can observe that
Mr. Faid is repelled by the answers - or
non-answers - modern science gives
to the questions "Why are we here?
What is our purpose?"
The traditional answers offered by
Christianity are well known and have
been satirized by Mark Twain and other
literary giants. Nevertheless, most of
Faid's apologetic seems designed to prepare the way for the traditional reply.
Much of the later part of Faid's book argues that the deity created humans so
he26would have an admiring audience.
Basically, god created beauty so we
would all behold it and say, "Ooooh!
Look!" He created intricate "laws" of
nature so we would stand in awe and
say, "Wow!" According to Christianity's
apologist, we have been put here on the
earth to glorify god. To put it crudely,
our place in the universe is to be both
cheerleaders for god and the roaring
crowd in the bleachers. IfFaid is correct,
we should really be spending our days
shouting: Rah-rah-rah! Siss-boom-bah!
'leaaaaaayGod!
The view that Homo sapiens is not
the center of the universe, that humanity is the result of blind forces acting for

26InFaid's book all pronouns relating to the

deity are spelled with capital aiches and are
masculine. What significance there can be in
ascribing gender to a spirit is unclear. Perhaps the deity is possessed of transcendental
genitals - accoutrements used only once in
the history of the universe.
Vol. 33, No.6

eons on insentient matter - in short,

the notion that we are alone in the universe and that purposes are things of
our own making - is not something
that everyone is emotionally or intellectually capable of contemplating, let
alone accepting. What fraction of our
kind is sufficiently heroic to accept,
assimilate, and act upon the judgement
of Bertrand Russell:
Brief and powerless is Man's life;
on him and all his race the slow,
sure doom falls pitiless and dark.
Blind to good and evil, reckless of
destruction, omnipotent matter
rolls on its relentless way; for Man,
condemned to-day to lose his
dearest, tomorrow himself to pass
through the gate of darkness, it remains only to cherish, ere yet the
blow falls, the lofty thoughts that
ennoble his little day; disdaining
the coward terrors of the slave of
Fate . . . undismayed by the empire
of chance, to preserve a mind free
from the wanton tyranny that rules
his outward life;proudly defiant of
the irresistible forces that tolerate,
for a moment, his knowledge and
his condemnation, to sustain alone,
a weary but unyielding Atlas, the
world that his own ideals have
fashioned despite the trampling
march of unconscious power.P?
Alas, of the vast mass of humanity
that pullulates upon this planet, very few
are prepared to play this part in the
comoedia humana, and it is uncertain
how many more can be coached to fill
the role. When Mr. Faid has faded from
the scene, I fear, there will always be
others rushing to resume the task of
apologizing for Christianity. Then, as
now, many will apologize their way to
fortune. ~

27Bertrand Russell, Mysticism and Logic

and Other Essays (London: George Allen &
Unwin Ltd., 1951), pp. 56-7.
Page 41

Poetry

Father, We Thank Thee

The Missionary

For rattlesnake and polio,

Father, we thank thee.
For defective embryo,
Father, we thank thee.
For poison oak and killer bee,
For nuclear capability, .
Father in heaven, we thank thee.

The Missionary is a man

To view with some suspicion,
He spends his life in foreign lands
Denouncing superstition.

Wisdom Takes Ages

My Grandmother
studied
the
bible
all
her
life
and
then
at
the
age
of
92
died
an
Atheist

For Black Death, Hitler and Pompeii,

Father, we thank thee.
For HIV and KKK,
Father, we thank thee.
For drought and pinworm, flood and flea,
For ruinous fertility,
Father in heaven, we thank thee.
For eon of emergency,
Father, we thank thee.
For epoch of catastrophe,
Father, we thank thee.
For evil we can and cannot see,
For terror past and yet to be,
Father in heaven, we thank thee.

Matthew Behling

He comes, he says, to free the blacks,

To love and educate them,
But once inside their humble shacks,
Does nothing but berate them.
You must not worship deities:
He castigates the chief,
But practice White Man's pieties
For spiritual relief.
Young lambs must not be sacrificed,
Shamans must be despised,
To save you from sin, Jesus Christ
Was scorned and ostracized.
Out go old customs and taboos
Like juju and rain dances,
The churches filltheir empty pews
And lo! the tribe advances.

Emily Newland
Repent, repent your wicked ways,
Barrabas, Jezebel.
If you don't, this fanatic says,
You'll surely go to Hell.

Why: The Genesis of Atheist Thought

Christians sometimes ask me
Why I'm so down on god,
Why I don't believe that Jesus
Let them crucify his bod.

Such is the Mission Man's tirade

Against his hapless brother,
But all he does is trade
One superstition for another.

Why I think that angels

Are just figments of the mind,
Why I blame religion
For the ills of humankind.

Alexander Baron

Why I don't buy their superstition:

Heaven, god, and all that stuff,
Well, we've only got one life to live
And isn't that enough?

Absolute Faith
Absolute faith can not be argued against
Because ...
Because why?
Just because.

It's Always Tough

I've no time to spare to go to mass,

Or waste on prayer or hell.
I've only got one life to live
And I plan to live it well.

it's rather difficult to breathe

with a pillow taped to your face
it's quite prohibitive to walk
with your legs tied in a knot
it's generally tricky to eat
with a fist shoved in your mouth
it's always tough to think
with a god living in your brain

T. Dunn

J. E Ciofalo

Lisa Wannamaker

Page 42

Vol. 33, No.6

American Atheist

American Atheist Radio Series

The Ten Commandments

or the last ten weeks of radio
broadcasts, I have been reviewing
an enormous book written by Joseph Lewis, an American Atheist writer
of several decades ago. 1 The book is 643
pages and those pages are ten by seven
inches, which means that it was a Herculean task Mr. Lewis undertook. One
by one, he examined the Ten Commandments, and I attempted to condense each one sufficiently enough to
put it into a fifteen-minute radio program on this, the "American Atheist
Radio Series."
To do this, I had to eliminate the thousands and thousands of examples which
he gave, and instead attempt to stay
within the theoretics of what he had to
say.
His work completely discredits the
Ten Commandments as any kind of
moral guide.
He has shown without a doubt to be
had that the Ten Commandments were
expressions of belief in what is called
sympathetic magic. I want to stop here
to describe this. Sympathetic magic is
predicated on the belief that one thing
or event can affect another, at a distance, as a consequence of a sympathetic, affective, emotional connection
between them.
There are several branches of sympathetic magic. Contagious magic is that
magic which attempts to affect a person
through something connected with him,
as nail clippings, a cloth containing
sweat from his body, or a footprint left
in sand. It is based on the belief that
things once in contact are in some way
permanently so, however separated
physically they may subsequently
become.
Imitative magic, also known as homeopathic magic, is magic that attempts to control the universe through
mimicking a desired event, like stabbing

Though they are

commonly touted as
rules for living, the Ten
Commandments have
more to do with
primitive ideas of magic
and witchcraft than
with ethics.

When the first installment of a

regularly scheduled, fifteen-minute,
weekly American Atheist radio series
on KLBJ radio (a station in Austin,
Texas, owned by then-President
Lyndon Baines Johnson) hit the
airwaves on June 3, 1968, the nation
was shocked. The programs had to be
submitted weeks in advance and were
heavily censored. The regular production of the series ended in September
1977, when no further funding was
available.
The following is the text of "American
Atheist Radio Series" program No. 274,
first broadcast on December 15, 1973.

Madalyn O'Hair
Austin, Texas

1Joseph Lewis, The Ten Commandments

(New York: Freethought Press Association,
1946).
Vol. 33, No.6

an image of an enemy in an effort to destroy him, or performing a ritual dance

imitative of the growth of food in an
effort to secure an abundant supply. It is
a branch of sympathetic magic based on
the belief that similar actions produce
similar results.
Magic itself is the art of producing a
desired effect or result through the use
of various techniques that presumably
insure human control of supernatural
agencies or the forces of nature. The
original meaning of the word magic was
"witchcraft."
Looking at the Ten Commandments
in the context of the times in which they
were written, trying to understand the
primitive minds of men in that era,
Joseph Lewis finds that each of the Ten
Commandments were tribal Jewish attempts at sympathetic magic.
Let me repeat the commandments.
The First Commandment,
"Thou
shalt have no other gods before me,"2
was simply a declaration by the god of
the Jewish tribe that there were other
gods (such as Chemosh, the god of
Moab and Milkom, the god of Ammon)
and that he expected the tribe which he
governed to stay with him and not to
stray to these gods of the other tribes.
The Second Commandment, "Thou
shalt not make unto thee any graven
image,"3 is the one which the Roman
Catholic church omits from its list of
commandments. Lewis points out that
the Roman Catholic church has practiced defiance of this commandment,
and even has omitted it in the list of commandments, and that this god has not
visited iniquity upon the Roman Catholics and their children unto the third and
fourth generations as he vowed to do if
this commandment was not kept. 4

2Exod. 20:3 and Deut. 5:7.

3Exod. 20:4.
4Exod. 20:5 and Deut. 5:9: "for I the Lord thy
God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children unto the
third and fourth generation ... "
Page 43

From this point forward, of

course, the list of commandments
differs between Protestants and
Roman Catholics, but Iwilluse the
Protestant versions, since the religious faith in this country is predominantly Protestant. .
The Third Commandment,
"Thou shalt not take the name of
the Lord thy God in vain,"> is an
example of sympathetic magic in
that uttering a name could bring
injury to the person named. If a
mere mortal could be injured
through the use of his name by an
enemy, it was certainly that much
more vital to protect the name of
a god. Lewis points out that the
name of the "Lord thy God" is so
taboo that no one knows it even to
this day. The name does not appear anywhere in the Bible. The
Jewish version substitutes Eternal, the Roman Catholic version
uses Adonai, and the Protestant
version is Jehovah. The tetragrammaton - that is, a four-letter word
- was used to designate the name.
The Protestant Christians put
vowels between these four letters,
which were JHVH, and invented
the name Jehovah. The Jews substituted Adonai, the Hebrew word
for "Lord," to avoid using the
name. The Roman Catholics picked
this up, and the Jews then finally
used the words Ado Shem, which
in Hebrew means "name."
Since no one knew the name of
god to begin with, it is difficult to
understand why this god would
give a commandment that his name
could not be uttered.
The Fourth Commandment is to "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it
holy."6There are, however, two reasons
given for this in the Bible. The first is that
it should be kept holy since god made

the world in six days and rested on the

seventh." The second is that he brought
the Jews out of Israel and because of
this, as a covenant between the Jews
and god, the Sabbath should be kept
holy."
Mr. Lewis finds that there is nothing

SDeut. 5:9.
6Exod. 20:8.

7Exod.20:11.
8Deut. 5:15.

Page 44

distinctive about the Sabbath: it is like

any other day of the week - nothing
sets it apart.
In examining the primitive events of a
Sabbath, Mr. Lewis finds that the day
was considered to be evil and that the
admonition to do nothing was to keep
evil activity at a minimum. It was a taboo
day and was used to ward off evil. There
is no indication that god desired this to
be a festival day or a day of worship as
such.
Mr. Lewis shows the Fifth Commandment, "Honor thy father and thy mother,"? as one which required the children
to follow the religion of the parents. He
pointed out that the commandment did
not say, "Love thy father and thy mother,"
but rather to honor them. To a fanatically religious parent, the greatest disgrace, the deepest humiliation a child
could possibly inflict, was to marry a
person of a different religious faith. Mr.
Lewis points out that the love and affection in family lifeis just as strong and just
as fervent among human beings who
never heard of this commandment as
among those who hold it as a first order
of living.
These first five commandments are
said to deal with man's relationship to
his god. The remaining commandments
are said to deal with man's relationship
to man. The first five commandments
have punishments attached to them.
The last five do not.
The Six Commandment is "Thou
shalt not kill."loYet Mr. Lewis points out
that god killed Jesus Christ, his son, for
mankind and thus was the most notable
violator of this concept. He points out
that Moses started his career by murder.!' He concludes that the commandment was devoid of moral implication
and had only to do with the fear of blood
that defiled what it touched, and the fear
that blood of the Jews might be thus lost

9Exod. 20:12 and Deut. 5:16.

IOExod.20:13 and Deut. 5:17.
llExod.2:11-12.
Vol. 33, No.6

American Atheist

or defiled. Mr. Lewis does not feel that

it is a moral command to husband life
universally.
The Seventh Commandment is "Thou
shalt not commit adultery."12 Mr. Lewis
shows that Jesus Christ interpreted this
commandment
to mean "Whosoever
looketh on a woman to lust after her
hath committed adultery with her already
in his heart."13 This condemns almost
every man. But since adultery is completely undefined in the Bible, Mr. Lewis
asks if the Holy Ghost committed adultery by impregnating Mary, mother of
Jesus, or if Elizabeth committed adultery with "the angel of the Lord" who
caused her pregnancy with John the
Baptist. The incident of the lord himself
commanding Onan to commit adultery"
is impossible to explain. Mr. Lewis concludes that this commandment
also
spoke to sympathetic magic - that it involved disloyalty of the wife to the husband, which could then be injurious to
his welfare.
The Eighth Commandment
is "Thou
shalt not steal."> However, the lord himself commanded
that the Jews steal
everything they could lay their hands on
when they left Egypt.16 Again, this appears to have to do with tribal unity and
loyalty to the tribal god.
The Ninth Commandment
is "Thou
shalt not bear false witness against thy
neighbor."!" Pointing out the narrow
meaning of "neighbor" as being anyone
a part of the ancient Hebrew tribe, Mr.
Lewis argues that false testimony is
unethical no matter against whom it is
given. If it is considered to be ethically
right at certain times, or under certain
circumstances,
with certain persons
alone, then the whole fabric and structure of the moral ideal collapses. Truth

12Exod.20:14.
13Matt. 5:28.
14Gen. 38:8-9.

15Exod. 20: 15.

16Exod. 12:35-36.
17Exod. 20: 16.
Austin, Texas

is truth, and it is not for the benefit of

one's neighbor or to the detriment of
one's enemy. Truth for truth's sake only
is a sufficient reason to utilize it.
The Tenth Commandment
is "Thou
shalt not covet thy neighbor's house,
thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife,
nor his manservant, nor his maidservant,
nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that
is thy neighbor's."18 Here Mr. Lewis
found again that in sympathetic magic
the idea of coveting was the directing of
an evil physical force against a person or
his possessions
so that harm would
come because of this evil force. Coveting was the weapon of witchcraft and
sorcery, having the malign influence of
casting an "evil eye." It is also instructive
that this commandment
includes women with the livestock owned by a man.
Mr. Lewis pleads that instead of the
Ten Commandments
we should seek
for and use universal concepts of justice
which can be applied to all persons
equally. I will quote him here:
The discovery of the indifference of nature to the morality of
the person subject to its laws is as
great an achievement of the human
mind as was the discovery of the
evolutionary process of life. The
earth will revolve on its axis, the
sun will rise and set, the rains will
fall, the seasons will pass according to their accustomed time, men
and women will love, and children
will be born, regardless of belief or
disbelief in the Bible or its God, regardless of prayers or sacrifices.
The force of gravity acts alike on
the good and bad; poison kills the
purest-minded, as well as the most
vicious; cold will chill and heat will
warm all alike; electricity lights our
houses and runs our machinery
with the same unconcern
as it
snuffs out the life of an innocent
person; the planted seed will grow

18Exod. 20: 17.

according to the soil and moisture,

and not according to the social
position of the one who planted it;
water will drown irrespective of
the character of the person unable
to swim; fire burns the tender flesh
of the child with the same intensity
as the hardened criminal; disease
attacks the innocent and guilty
alike; and death comes to each
and all "when it will come" - the
inevitable ending of all that lives as evidence of the inexorable law
of life. There will be no mark to distinguish between the devout and
the infidel. The atheist and the religious believer will suffer from the
same ills and will enjoy the same
fruits.
The discovery of the indifference of nature to the individual
subject to its unvarying laws has
liberated the minds of men from
the myriad unseen forces which
gripped them in fear. This emancipating discovery drove the evil
spirits and demons from the sky,
the malign agencies of a jealous
and wrathful god; it was a warning
to the ghosts "to cover their eyeless sockets with their fleshless
hands and fade forever from the
imaginations of men." It was the
"Emancipation
Proclamation"
for
the human
mind
(emphasis

added).'?
In this we find that Joseph Lewis joins
every Atheist who ever existed or wrote
on the subject. We all say it differently,
but the idea is there. I have put it this
way: "The history of mankind has been
the record of his fight to attain freedom
of the mind." We are only now breaking
clear of the primitive ideas which held us
in a mental vice for thousands of years.
The intellectual explosion has yet to
come.~

19Lewis, Ten Commandments,

Vol. 33, No.6

p. 608.
Page 45

Letters to the Editor

Roman Catholic crimes

'

Forget about Maria Monk ("Ask

AA," vol. 33, no. 4). Her expose was
discredited years ago. Instead concentrate on recent history.
Adolf Hitler was a life-long Roman
Catholic. He received the sacrament of
confirmation in Linz, Austria, on Whitsunday, May 22,1904, received Bs in religious instruction, and attended for a
while the Benedictine monastery school
at Laubach where he considered becoming a priest. He was never excommunicated. This information is available
in any good biography.
Of far more interest is the role of Roman Catholics in recent European history. Had they opposed Hitler, there
would not have been a Holocaust.
Hugo Borresen
Virginia
Mr. Borresen appended a list of Roman Catholic dictators of the twentieth
century. It includes:

;;"

~~~n;~bliC

nyto"".

US~

"Letters to the Editor" should be either questions or comments of general

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Page 46

Leon Degrelle, Belgium

Ngo Dinh Diem, Vietnam
Engelbert Dollfuss, Austria
Francisco Franco, Spain
Emil Hacha, Bohemia-Moravia
Konrad Henlein, Sudetenland
Adolf Hitler, Germany
Father Andrei Hlinka, Slovakia
Miklos Horthy, Hungary
Father Anton Koroshec, Yugoslavia
Pierre Laval, Vichy-France
Ferdinand Marcos, Philippines
Benito Mussolini, Italy
Ante Pavelic, Croatia
Henry Petain, Vichy-France
Antonio Salazar, Portugal
Father Josef Tiso, Slovakia (hung
as a war criminal)
Father Augustin Voloshin, Ruthenia

Atheism, gay rights, and abortion

This letter is in response to the letter
of Phoebe Rose (vol. 33, no. 4) who said
that she cancelled her subscription to
the magazine because it included artiVol. 33, No.6

cles concerning subjects other than

Atheism. Two of those subjects she
mentioned in particular were gay rights
and abortion. Ms. Rose concluded that
the name "American Atheist" misleads
people about the nature of the organization and its magazine.
I must disagree. To use Ms. Rose's
own example, if the church were going
around forcing people to eat meat or
face the consequences, then vegetarian
rights would be an Atheist issue and
properly subject to treatment in this
magazine. However, requiring people to
eat meat is not, or at least is not currently, on the religious fanatics' agenda.
On the other hand, Operation Rescue, National Right to Life, and the majority of mainstream churches are seeking laws to transfer reproductive rights
from the individual to the government.
Other conservative groups, generally
involving the same people, want legislation to curtail the freedom of homosexuals to pursue their happiness in sexual
matters.
An advocacy of reproductive rights
and of gay rights therefore comes into
the baliwick of Atheist activism. Sure,
we Atheists want religion off our backs,
but religion is oppressive in many ways.
Fight it on every front.
Hey, Phoebe: I'm not gay. Get the
point? (Oh, how I'm going to suffer for
that!)
David W. Sims
Alabama
You asked for a response to the claim
that "sexual freedom issues are unrelated to religion and its attempt to
control our lives." This is a tough one.
Just as there are many "Christians"
who disagree with each other over the
abortion issue, there are many Atheists
who fall on either side of the fence.
I happen to agree with your point of
view, but what about the membership at
large? Perhaps you can poll the membership about this and other issues.
However Phoebe Rose did raise an isAmerican Atheist

sue that has disturbed me from time to

time - you insert articles that have
nothing to do with what our organization stands for. The story on Eisenhower
is an example ("Eisenhower and the
'Disarmed Enemy Forces,''' vol. 33, no.
4). For what reason did you publish this
story? What did it have to do with our
cause? Do you truly believe that an
American-made holocaust of this nature
would not have been exposed before
this? I for one don't believe it!
Eugene Vitamanti
California

Concerning Letters to the Editor

In vol. 33, no. 4, you published two
letters not in agreement with Atheism.
The blather from infected minds deserves no voice in the only Atheist magazine in the country. Their letters create
a stench not welcomed in a publication
devoted to sanity, logic, beauty, and
common sense.
I have been writing letters to papers,
etc. for a long time, and many are published, but (with the exception of the Village Voice) not those openly Atheistic.
"Turn the other cheek," "hear their
side," "be fair" - I say horsefeathers! If
the religious zanies had their way, they
would bring back the (new, improved)
Inquisition and put the flame to all us
"heathens."
Let them beseech their mythical god
to allow them to commit a physical impossibility upon themselves! Or put in
the Queen's English, "screw 'em."

To be sick is sad. To be religiously

sick and unaware of it, is tragic.
Kenneth J. Schmidt
New York

Christianity as pro-family
Check out the bill of goods which
right-wing religious zealots are selling
you when they claim Christianity is
"pro-family." British logician and Nobel
laureate Bertrand Russell wrote in his
book Why I Am Not a Christian: "The
polemic against the familyin the Gospels
is a matter that has not received the
attention it deserves."
Russell noted that the church treats
the Mother of Christ with reverence,
but Jesus showed little of this attitude.
"Woman, what have I to do with thee?"
(John 2:4) is his way of speaking to Mary.
Jesus rebuffs his biological family by
asking, "Who is my mother or brethren?" in Mark 3:32-35 when he is notified that his mother and siblings are in
attendance.
Christ says also that he has come to
set man at variance against his father,
the daughter against her mother, and
the daughter-in-law against her motherin-law, and that he that loves father and
mother more than Jesus is not worthy
of him (Matt. 10:35-37).
Luke 14:26 quotes Christ as saying:
"If any man come to me, and hate not
his father, and mother, and wife, and
children, and brethren, and sisters, yea,
and his own life also, he cannot be my
disciple."

Also in Luke 18:29, Jesus urges his

followers to leave "house, or parents, or
brethren, or wife, or children."
In his book Marriage and Morals,
Russell strongly criticized St. Paul's discussion of marriage in 1 Cor. 7:1-9 for
making "no mention whatever of children; the biological purpose of marriage
appears to him wholly unimportant.
This is quite natural, since he imagined
that the Second Coming was imminent
and that the world would soon come to
an end."
Jesus' false prophecy that the people
of his generation would see the advent
of the kingdom of god appears in Matt.
24:29-34, Matt. 4:17, Mark 9:1, and numerous other New Testament passages.
After the death of Jesus, his followers
mistakenly predicted his imminent return in Heb. 1:2, 1 Cor. 7:29, 1 Pet. 4:7,
1 Pet. 1:20, James 5:8, and elsewhere.
Read Uta Ranke-Heinemann's Eunuchs
for the Kingdom of Heaven (the title refers to Matt. 19:12) to understand the
subjugation of women and denigration
of sexuality in the Bible. She writes that
"none of the Church Fathers had any
idea what marriage was all about." This
distinguished German theologian cites
among others St. Augustine who charges
in "Against Faustus" that husbands are
"adulterers of their own wives" and that
"husbands are shameful lovers, wives
are harlots, marriage beds are bordellos,
and fathers-in-law are pimps."
Jim Senyszyn
Connecticut

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VoL 33, No.6

American

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suggested

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introductory reading list

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Amendment I
Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right
of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government
for a redress of grievances.

"Mv reason taught me that I could not have

made one of my own qualities - they were forced
upon me by Nature; that my language, religion,
and habits were forced upon me by Society; and
that I was entirely the child of Nature and Society;
that Nature gave the qualities and Society directed
them. Thus was I forced, through seeing the error
of their foundation, to abandon all belief in every
religion which had been taught by man."
- Robert Owen
Autobiography