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ATHEISTS.ORG SECOND QUARTER 2013 th Anniversary Donors Without the financial support of thousands of people over the years, American Atheists would not have become the most visible and effective voice in the fight to protect the separation of church and state.

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Get it here: AMERICAN ATHEIST A Journal of Atheist News and Thought 2nd Quarter 2013 Vol. 51, No. 2 ISSN 0516-9623 (Print) ISSN 1935-8369 (Online)

Above: Madalyn Murray O’Hair was Phil Donahue’s very first guest Cover Design by Rick Wingrove

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Pamela Whissel In This Issue [email protected] LAYOUT and GRAPHICS EDITOR 6 Arrogance of the Clergy | Michael B. Paulkovich Rick Wingrove [email protected] 10 Some Tricks of the Brain | Dale DeBakcsy Copy editor and Proofreader 12 Voices of Reason Rally | Hemant Mehta Karen Reilly 14 Quiet Company Speaks | Becky Garrison AMERICAN ATHEIST PRESS MANAGING EDITOR Book Review: In Freedom We Trust | Carl E. Kramer Frank R. Zindler 16 [email protected] 18 Going Global to Do Good Without God | Becky Garrison Published by Ages of Atheism: Part Three | James Luce American Atheists, Inc. 20 Mailing Address: | P.O. Box 158 23 On Respect JT Eberhard Cranford NJ 07016 Phone: 908.276.7300 24 Remembering Madalyn Murray O’Hair | Frank Zindler FAX: 908.276.7402 www.atheists.org 30 American Atheists’ First Fifty Years | Ed Buckner ©2013 American Atheists Inc. 32 Religion is an App| Ce Atkins All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. American Jesus was a Horse Thief | Rick Wingrove Atheist is indexed in the Alternative Press Index. 34 American Atheist magazine is given free of cost to | members of American Atheists as an incident of their 36 In Memoriam: Ann Zindler Frank Zindler membership. | Annual Individual Membership with subscription for 33 Madalyn O’Hair, Charles Darwin, and Me Paul Loebe one year of American Atheist print magazine: $35. Online version only: $20. Couple/Family Membership with optional print magazine: $35. Sign up at www. atheists.org/aam. Discounts available for multiple year subscriptions: 10% for two years, 20% for three or more years. Additional postage fees for foreign addresses: Canada and Mexico: add $10/year. All other countries: add $30/year. Discounts for libraries and institutions: 50% on all magazine subscriptions and book purchases. 2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 3 Letter from the President

“We must make it safe for Atheists to come out of the closet, and then we must convince them to do so.”

e’ve come a long way, American Atheists. In 1963, Madalyn Murray O’Hair won a battle for all of us. Even though I wasn’t even born yet, her win in the US Supreme Court allowed me to attend public school without the pressure and ostracism that comes with forced Bible readings. She was supposedly the “most hated woman in America,” but that’s because so many people were wrong. They thought religious indoctrination was not only good, but necessary—that’s what their pastors had told them. Madalyn fought a hard fight. She was arrested, harassed, and forced to move to another state, all in the effort to free American children from forced religion. She was not perfect, but her actions and dedications can only be described as heroic. Her organization has flourished. What was once a fledgling organization has now become known worldwide as the leader in American Atheist activism. Thanks to our leadership (i.e., The Reason Rally), other movement organizations look to us for ideas and inspiration. More importantly, American society views American Atheists as the premier Atheist organization in the country. At one time American Atheists Press, run by Frank and (the late) Ann Zindler, was the only organization publishing Atheist materials. This allowed countless titles to be made available to the public that might otherwise never have seen the light of day. Additionally, American Atheist magazine, originally a stapled pamphlet, is now available in major bookstore chains in the US and Canada, placing the word “Atheist” on magazine stands for the first time. We have continued in the O’Hair tradition with our smart and winnable lawsuits. The Murray v. Curlett win has given way to our more recent activities, including the defeat of the “secular crosses” in Utah, the Dept. of Homeland Security case in Kentucky, the World Trade Center “Miracle Cross” case, and our newest quest for equality in the IRS tax code. All these lawsuits have something in common—they are unpopular but necessary. WOur current cases represent the front line of progress toward and protection of our legal equality, and it is something of which our members should be very proud. The number of people calling themselves Atheists has quintupled since 2005.

But to achieve true Atheist equality, we must bring our position to the American public. We must de-demonize the A-word. We must make it safe for Atheists to come out of the closet, and then we must convince them to do so. Our marketing campaigns have done just that. Our billboards, aerial banners, and other PR campaigns use blatant truth and honesty to drive home the message that America’s Atheists are plentiful and growing in number nationwide. Our message may be politically incorrect, but progress is often not politically correct until it succeeds. We are succeeding. According to Gallup, the number of people calling themselves Atheists has quintupled since 2005, and for the first time in modern American history, more than half of the country would vote for a qualified Atheist as president. That’s serious progress. Of course, we are not done yet. We will continue our fight until Atheism is accepted as normal. When bigotry against us is treated as harshly as racism or anti-Semitism, when Atheist votes are courted by elected officials and Atheists are elected to office themselves, when every citizen in every state is viewed equally in the eyes of the government regardless of religious inclination, we will have won. By “we,” I mean our staff, volunteers, and the board, but most importantly, the members and donors, without whom we would still be at square one. Nothing happens without your help. So thank you, dear members and donors, for allowing American Atheists to make this progress happen. We have a long way to go, but we’ve come a long way during these past five decades, and our future improves every day as a result of our activism. Happy Birthday, American Atheists!

Sincerely, David Silverman President [email protected]

4 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 On August 20, American Atheists unveiled a logo to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its founding by Madalyn Murray O’Hair. The design was chosen through a competition judged by select staff members. Participants were challenged to address specific design elements, including use of the original American Atheists logo, while incorporating a forward- looking stance as the organization moves ahead into the next fifty years and beyond. The winner, Carbon Red Designs, will receive $250 and an official introduction by President David Silverman during the convention.

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 5 The Appalling Arrogance of the Clergy and a Modest Proposal by Michael B. Paulkovich

Religion has had an enormous impact on the world. In this series Michael B. Paulkovich examines dogmas, DOGMA WATCH myths, and relgious notions, past and present, that are of interest.

ocieties generally grant extraordinary respect to men of (and a request for monetary contribution) to have been granted divine the cloth—pastors, priests, shamans, witch-doctors. It is knowledge in these areas of mystery and ministry. He studied theology, accepted social protocol; call a priest “Father,” kneel to so Father knows best? What does the word “theology” even mean? A kiss the bishop’s ring, revere their undaunted “faith” and homiletics (no quick trip to Dictionary.com provides an answer. The first entry, from matter how absurd). This is a priority inversion, an ancient tradition The Random House Dictionary, defines theology as “the field of study andS practice that has stagnated world societies for thousands of years. and analysis that treats of God and of God’s attributes and relations to The typical priest or minister makes spectacular and patently false the universe; study of divine things or religious truth; divinity.” claims about his abilities, his knowledge, his powers. We need not delve How, then, does theology differ from super¬stition or magic? The into the near-psychedelic Mormon “magic underwear” concept to mere occurrence of the word “god” in its definition relegates the term Due to Hitchens’ research and journalism, we know that Mother Teresa was, well, no Mother Teresa. prove this point of religious absurdity. The plain vanilla Christian pastor to a rusty bucket of mystical and ignorant speculation. And note the claims to know more than any person can possibly know: where we all inherent tautology of the term “religious truth.” Perhaps the most came from, who is the real “god” (among thousands claimed), all about succinct religious truth proclaimed is that of the subtitle of the book god god’s son, why we are here, god’s plan for us, and—most audacious and is not Great by Christopher Hitchens: religion poisons everything. Also, arrogant—the eternal, magical things that happen to us after we die. largely due to Hitchens’ research and journalism, we know that Mother Some things might be good, he tells us, and others quite hideous. Teresa was, well, no Mother Teresa. The religious leader actually claims, with a smile and a fatherly wink Pastors and priests claim to have incredible magical powers: to dunk

6 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 a person in wetness to wash away prior proxy sins, the alchemic ability Our Lady’s Rosary Makers (OLRM.org) manufactures rosaries for “the to convert natural H2O to holy water, and the capacity to change the world’s spiritually needy,” claiming an annual output of seven million. course of future events by leading a group in prayer. I wonder who first I have to get into a business like that; it sounds lucrative. Bottled holy proclaimed that “two hands working can do more than a thousand water came to mind as my new get-rich-quick scheme, but apparently hands clasped in prayer.” I’d like to think it was Mark Twain or Thomas such a dodgy and dishonest idea has already been taken by Charlatans Paine, but it was not. Apparently the author is unknown. with even fewer scruples than I. Google it—it’s disgusting. New idea: Catholic priests claim the power to expel “demons” from a person religious Ponzi scheme, perhaps? Oh, that’s right. It’s already been done. via exorcism. This is performed, apparently, only “with permission of Priests claim that by uttering certain phrases a certain number of the bishop and in accord with formulas of the Roman Ritual.” Yet their times (Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be) you may coerce the forgiveness bible prohibits magic: of their god, and even bring about divine intervention. Did you have premarital sex? Well, ten Hail Marys (or is the magic number twenty- There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who The Confession app, calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable at just $1.99 is things the Lord your God will drive them out before you. (Deut. 18:10-13, NASB) “the perfect aid for He made his sons pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-hinnom; and he practiced witchcraft, used every penitent.” divination, practiced sorcery and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger. (2 Chron. 33:6, NASB) seven? Or fifty?) will absolve your sin and render god happy with you. I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you will You can even buy Catholic apps for your smart phone. Little iApps, have fortune-tellers no more. (Micah 5:12, NASB) LLC, is one such company providing these blessed bit of software. Their “worldwide bestseller” is the Confession app—just $1.99. This Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which “perfect aid for every penitent,” even provides a laundry list of sins or are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, “personalized examination of conscience,” as they call it. Just select sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, and save the ones you’ve committed this week and you’re all set for the disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, confessional. Modern conveniences! I have to wonder if there’s an app carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn that will say your Hail Marys for you or allow you to text prayers directly you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who to Jesus in heaven. practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of Man, the money-making ideas just keep piling up! God. (Gal 5:19-21, NASB) Clearly these beliefs and rites derive from naïve superstitions passed down for millennia. When asked about their outlandish dogma, Clearly Jesus exhibited all the characteristics of a wizard. But since the believer typically uses the word “faith” as an end-run around Exodus 22:18 says “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” he should have epistemology and logic. Believers prefer faith over reason and readily been put to death, then forgotten, even set ablaze like Christians have embrace magical and mystical explanations—despite their bible done to millions over the centuries. repeatedly forbidding all magic and imposing the death sentence on witches and wizards. Priestly Infantilism We humans do, in fact, have spiritual desires that spring from our Is it asking too much to request that the clergy simply grow up? human nature, the fear of death, and a fount of ignorance. We have Supernatural demons do not exist. There is neither a devil nor a existential questions we cannot answer but always attempt to. Religions “heavenly father” who grants prayer wishes. so often claim to have all the solutions, and then evolve (devolve?) into One of my pleas: Dear ministers and priests, please embrace 18th institutions of breathtaking arrogance. How many times have you heard century Enlightenment, and (if you are so bold) perhaps even join us “I know my religion is the right one, and I follow my god’s words. All here in the 21st century. other religions and gods are wrong”? Christian clerics claim something magical about handing out tidbits of bread and grape juice shooters to the gullible sheep of their Child Abuse congregation. What is in their secret sauce? Religious leaders exhort lies of profound arrogance upon the Catholics are even taught an apotropaic gesticulation that supposedly youngest of their flock. Unquestionably, it is immoral to lie to children, protects them: the signum cruses, or “crossing” oneself. Catholic priests especially on matters of factual, moral, and philosophical importance, claim that a string of beads can help their lemmings communicate with yet I can exempt the Santa Claus ruse, as it is kind of a fun concept as the deity, to petition their god with selfish desires. A corporation called a child and a harmless thing even when one discovers the truth. But

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 7 Jesus was a racist who praised genocide—and promises eternal torture if you merely do not believe in him. no Christian parent, it seems, ever confesses to their kids that the Jesus And Jesus did not merely mention the mythical genocides; the New stories were all lies, like Santa. “My mum only lied to me about one Testament actually applauds them. Christians are taught that Jesus was thing,” Ricky Gervais recalled. “She said there was a god.” 2 not just a good man, but the innocent, saintly, omniscient, perfect son of The most despicable thing Christians do is to threaten children with god. Yet Jesus was a racist who praised genocide—and promises eternal eternal damnation if they do not believe the absurdities proffered by torture if you merely do not believe in him: the misguided (and perennially brainwashed) clergy. For if you do not follow Jesus, he says you are cursed and his dear old dad will send you I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye into everlasting fire: once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, them that believed not. And the angels which kept not Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath prepared for the devil and his angels... And these shall reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and into life eternal (Matthew 25:41-46). Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy wrath of God abideth on him (John 3:36). dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities (Jude 1:5-8). And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! the people. Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and For if the mighty works, which were done in you, had those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented likewise foretold of these days (Acts 3:22-23). long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of Robert Ingersoll lamented long ago about such evil teachings, saying judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art “These are the words of eternal love.”3 exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for The Bible claims that this vengeful and jealous god relegates if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had unbelievers to hell, even though he created those very same unbelievers. been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this God still loves them, it seems, while he has them tortured for eternity. day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable No clear-thinking, compassionate person can believe or teach such for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for mythical, evil nonsense. thee (Mat. 11:21-24). Mark Twain’s insights come to mind here: “I cannot see how eternal punishment hereafter could accomplish any good end, and therefore I Clergy, Humble Thyself am not able to believe in it.” And, “... but to roast him forever for the The source of most religions lies in meek humans pondering deep mere satisfaction of seeing him roast would not be reasonable—even questions, still figuring out the universe. We are (perhaps) the superior the atrocious God imagined by the Jews would tire of the spectacle animal on this insignificant blue orb, yet we are just a chromosome or eventually.”4 two away from the chimpanzee. Even Neanderthals had a brain larger In a fair, logical, freethinking world, what should be the punishment than Homo sapiens. For thousands of years we pondered—even “figured for teaching falsifiable myths as if they were true history? What should out,” although always incorrectly—where we came from, why we are be the punishment for teaching children that all humankind descended here, what happens after we die. Nobody can truly pull off this hat trick. from two people a few thousand years ago—and that we are thus Yet religious leaders claim to have all the answers with no evidence descended from Adam and Eve’s children, all three having been boys? whatsoever. Then again, they studied theology, so... In a just world, what should be the punishment for teaching that When religious groups believe that they are on the “right” side, the god forged by ancient Hebrews despised peoples of certain genetic able to answer imponderable enigmas, they lose perspective on reality. makeup, and that this god himself assisted in their massacre? Yahweh They repeatedly reinforce their falsely concocted sense of the world “destroyed seven nations in Canaan and gave their land to Israel as an with weekly or even daily homilies. Their superstitions become their inheritance” (Acts 13:19). Gee, I wonder why there is trouble between adamantine, insuperable reality. Palestine and Israel today. This creates monsters like Paul Jennings Hill, a Presbyterian minister

8 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 who murdered abortion provider Dr. John Britton and his clinic escort Endnotes James Barrett in 1994. Hill was found guilty and sentenced to death. 1. Catholic Encyclopedia, Revised and Updated. Nashville: Thomas Prior to Hill’s 2003 execution he proclaimed that he expected “a great Nelson Publishers, 1986, p. 207. reward in Heaven ... I am looking forward to glory.”5 And you know 2. YouTube.com/watch?v=sBBtYcK9Jb8 there are zealots who truly think Hill is in heaven now. 3. Ingersoll, Robert G., The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll. C. P. Farrell, Religion was the motivation of Dena Schlosser, unable to distinguish 1900. reality from the Christian mythology of her upbringing. In 2004 she 4. Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain: A Biography Volume III Part 1: saw a news story about a boy who was mauled by a lion, so Schlosser 1900-1907, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1912, p. 1583. took that as a sign of the apocalypse. She amputated her 11-month-old 5. Paul Vallely, “A Certain Martyr?” Third Way, Oct. 2003, Vol. 26, No. daughter’s arms with a knife (WWJD?). The infant died, and Schlosser 8, p. 5 offered the dead child to “god.” She thus responded to that “sign from 6. “Doctor: Woman Says God Wanted Her to Cut Baby’s Arms,” USA above” with human sacrifice.6 Today, Feb. 20, 2006. High on gerin oil for far too long, Leilani and Dale Neumann watched 7. NBCNews.com/id/12082681 piously and with faith in the Almighty as their daughter of eleven years 8. Janet L. Factor, “The Ties that Bind,” Free Inquiry, Oct./Nov. 2009, sunk into a diabetic coma. Her parents did what they considered most Vol. 29, No. 6, p. 22-23. reasonable: pray. The couple chose to eschew the scientific proof and 9. YouTube.com/watch?v=Ml0FqyFYfrU simple logic that the “power of prayer” is mere superstition, as proven scientifically in many experiments.7 Their daughter Kara Madeline Editor’s note: Except where indicated as NASB (The New American died, and the Neumanns were charged with second-degree reckless Standard Bible), all scripture passages are from the King James Version. homicide. The parents showed no emotion and had no sadness in losing their daughter or when they were found guilty. Instead, they said Michael Paulkovich is a systems engineer and freelance they had “peace in God.”8 I generally agree with John Lennon’s lyrics writer who also contributes to Free Inquiry and The American “whatever gets you through the night, it’s all right,” but certainly not Rationalist. Raised Christian and subjected to weekly Sunday when others are harmed by that same “whatever.” School and even yearly vacation Bible school, he rejected These are not isolated incidents. I enumerate over fifty recent religions around age ten. He is the author of No Meek Messiah. victims of similar religious venom in my book, No Meek Messiah, along To learn more, go to NoMeekMessiah.com. with tens of millions of other victims throughout history.

A Modest Proposal My dream, though I know it will never come true, is a worldwide moratorium on Abrahamic teachings. Give us a dozen years during which children are not inculcated with the absurd myths. Then, when they reach age twelve, go ahead and tell them, “We believe human origins are explained by this book, the Old Testament, and that God sent his son to Earth 2,000 years ago on a suicide mission to save us all from the sin that Adam and Eve perpetrated 6,000 years ago, when the universe was created, by eating a forbidden fruit because they were tricked by a talking snake.” The children will either lose it in an uncontrolled laugh-attack or look at their mom and dad the way a dog looks at a ceiling fan— in either case, they will most likely drop most of their respect for the deluded parents. Then again we must consider a peculiar phenomenon that I like to call the Saul Syndrome, where an adult raised without religion suddenly accepts claims that are supernatural and illogical and which could just as well be updated to Francis Collins Syndrome. In a CNN interview, Collins, the organizer of the Human Genome Project, admitted that before blindly accepting Christianity in adulthood, he already “had glimmers of something, some longing outside of myself, some sense that maybe there was a god out there that I might be able to reach out to.”9 So we see his inherent predilection for the supernatural as a yearning, a frailty, or his own word: longing. If my dream of a brief moratorium on Judeo-Christian mythology could be realized, I believe the world would be born anew, largely full of logical individuals, and free of antique delusions and malignant superstitions. We might even attain the state of enlightenment the Greeks had realized 2,500 years ago. Now to research how to create a cell phone app…

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 9 Some Tricks of the Brain Neurochemistry, World of Warcraft, and the End of Religion by Dale DeBakcsy

very day, over an intense period of a year and a half, I used to log on to the role-playing game World of Warcraft and dither away one to four hours picking virtual purple lotus flowers and joining up with old college chums to rid that virtual world of virtual evil. And Eit was great. I didn’t think too closely about it at the time, but on a chemical level, it was really doing everything necessary to trick my mind and body into believing that all of my primary biological imperatives were being fulfilled. Day-to-day religion does pretty much the same thing but with ourselves to get it. thousands of years of metaphysical and historical baggage. An Conversely, if our relationship of two years falls apart, our brain inspection of how Warcraft and similar games work on a natural level very sensibly decides that we are probably barking up the wrong might be in order to answer the oft-posed question, What can replace reproductive tree and lathers us in cortisol. This makes us feel terrible religion to keep people happy and fulfilled? at the mere sight or thought of the lost loved one, shoving us along to But before we go there, let’s look at the mind that is absorbing all the next mating partner, who we hope will be rather less picky about our of this adventure. The Homo sapien brain has been in the business of numerous personal, financial, and physical failings. keeping us alive in spite of ourselves for the better part of 200,000 years. There are three things above all that our genes, through the It’s done this by making us feel good about behaviors and items that mediation of our brains, want us to do: pursue those resources that have increase our chances of passing on our DNA and wretched about things done well for us in the past, gather together in groups, and climb to a that don’t. When we see a bit of food chock full of historically rare position of authority in those groups. In other words, to keep our genes sugars and proteins, our brain pushes us toward it by pumping us full of going, we need to eat, find protection in communal living, and be so dopamine. Suddenly, we feel very desirous of that food bit, and we exert dazzlingly impressive that we have the pick of mating partners.

10 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 Whenever we go along with this game plan, our brains reward us waiting for you. Serotonin? Check. with shots of dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin, and we feel quite good Why work on the real social issues that make forming a community for a while. This is the real trinity humans have given themselves over difficult, or the real personality conflicts that make relationships to, and it’s one that World of Warcraft exploits to the fullest to keep us challenging? You can submit to an imposed community based around forking over $15 a month for the pleasure of mining imaginary ore. repetition of a few stock phrases once a week to generate a feeling that In the game, there is always something that you are made to want— approximates togetherness. Oxytocin? Check. experience points, gold, honor points, faction points, armor, rare And why be tossed about on the back of your body’s real physical crafting components, skill levels—all entirely illusory, but so close to needs and worldly goals? You can spend a lifetime in delicious, constant those reward systems that got us candy and new bicycles in elementary anticipation of heavenly reward without even getting out of bed. school that our brain takes them for the same thing and rewards us with Dopamine? Check! dopamine shots for pursuing them. Surviving in a modern social system This is the brilliance of religion and the road out of it as well. What is so complex, and the needs so numerous, that our poor caveman thrived long past its time as a low-energy alternative to the chemical brains are quite worn out by keeping track of what we actually need. Our rewards of survival can also be ended as such. We tend to look to brains instead have to make do with apportioning dopamine whenever religion to meet deep spiritual needs that cannot possibly be answered we approach something that looks kinda-sorta like something that once by anything lacking the dominating edifice of metaphysical thought. helped us out. By keeping us in constant anticipation of reward, the And so we despair at what society might be like if religion is removed. game keeps the chemicals flowing and us playing. But that’s just because we have believed the stories religion tells us about The social aspect of Warcraft is perhaps even more compelling. itself to obscure the fact that, in terms of its day-to-day pull, it has gotten With millions of players the globe over, the game is teeming with others by almost entirely on neural sleights of hand. Remove the chemical who need your help to achieve their own in-game objectives. Thus do trickery and what’s left of religion’s intellectual content are fumbling, guilds form, which have at their root the human interdependence that foggily worded, self-contradictory answers to ill-put questions of the brain decided long ago was a good strategy for survival. Trusting metaphysics. And that’s just not enough to keep religion alive. others to heal us when we are hurt, jump in front of us when we are So, am I suggesting that we replace religion with video games? Not being attacked, and craft the items we can’t make ourselves—as well remotely. I started by saying that I played Warcraft intensely for a year as being trusted by others to do the same for them—are all very close and a half. I played once a week for about three years after that, more to the bonds that allowed us to survive in days of yore. We are liberally to drink beer while chatting online with far-flung friends than to do rewarded with oxytocin for our efforts, in spite of the fact that none of the game justice. Then followed one final year of paying fifteen bucks these people online can protect us from anything resembling a genuine a month for the opportunity to play the game, if I should happen to threat. If a tiger walks into my study, it is going to eat me in spite of all want to, which I didn’t. I found other things that fed me neurochemical those frost spells my Warcraft guild might summon. happiness more effectively, though I was aided in that task by what I had And, oh, the opportunities for status-seeking. There are entire learned about my head through years of having it batted about by the websites devoted to ranking your armor, your achievements, your talent mad geniuses who design Warcraft. allocations on a global scale, and these are a source of intense pride for Put simply, Atheists need to combine their town halls with Azeroth. many. Having the #4 hunter orc on the Zangarmarsh server makes you By doing so, we can blend the oxytocin-inducing connections to real walk a little taller; people cower in your path, and you are assiduously people with the constant dopamine-based and serotonin-based reward courted for guilds. mechanics perfected in the online world. From the brain’s perspective, you have dominated your peers, which Frederick the Great noted long ago what men will do for a bit of will surely make you a more attractive reproductive partner, and so you ribbon and a title. In our data-rich society, it shouldn’t be too difficult are rewarded with serotonin. In reality, that online status costs you face to find a thousand ways to reward people for the things they do as a time with actual potential mates, destroys your physique through hours matter of course and then turn the mere act of living into a grand secular of sitting while drinking Mountain Dew and eating bags of Halloween adventure all its own where the world itself is your guild. candy, and dulls your social senses to the bare minimum required to The sanitation district says you just recycled your ten thousandth communicate with your guild during a raid. But at that moment, when aluminum can—here’s a badge for your jacket and the title of CanMan you are The Guy who can save the day, and you get the call to do Supreme for your Facebook page. You’ve worked 400 days straight what only your character can do, your brain thinks that you have hit without calling in sick. Congratulations, Iron Horse! Keep on doing reproductive gold, and you feel on top of the world. what you do. If every act works towards some bit of distinction, and Warcraft brilliantly manipulates the brain’s motivational system by if those distinctions exist in a real, physical place where Everybody offering it virtual survival that it interprets on a chemical level as the Knows Your Name, humans will have the chance at lives happier than real thing. This is nothing new. Religion has been at it for thousands they ever dreamed possible. And then that quaint chap people used to of years. It is a grand trick that we played on our own brains to get call “religion” will be just a thing we did for a while until we figured out the drugs we like. In place of grueling demonstrations of dominance, what we wanted after all. laborious dedication to tangible goals, and the difficult requirements for forging relationships, religion offers easy paths to neurochemical Dale DeBakcsy is the author of the weekly Atheist webcomic The Happy Town—easy because they are entirely made up. Vocate, co-author of Frederick the Great: A Most Lamentable Why struggle to make yourself the head monkey? It’s easier to just Comedy, contributor to The Freethinker, and former editor of the kick back and believe the guy who says that, no matter how messed up online Rivets Literary Magazine. By way of feeding his children you are, you are Jesus’s best friend and your seat at the celestial table is he is a physics and mathematics teacher.

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 11 Voices of Reason Rally Photo by John Welte Because our past coverage of the March 24, 2012, Reason Rally on the National Mall in Washington, DC, has been a mere glimpse of that day, we will continue to feature the words that were spoken by some of today’s greatest voices of reason. Hemant Mehta

t has taken many people many years to put together this company. If we don’t run for office, the Religious Right will. event, and I hope everyone has a great time. But if you go home without something to take back with you, it Support your local freethought communities. will have been for nothing. You all know the statistics. There is strength in numbers. We have the numbers but you’d never We’re the least trusted and least electable minority group in America. know it if you go to most local gatherings. With numbers, we can raise But we can change that. I want to suggest a few things we can do to awareness that we’re out there. We can put up billboards that let people Imake a profound difference in how Atheists are perceived and treated know Atheists can be good without god. We can volunteer for local in America. If we can make these things happen, we will change the charities that need more support. We can lobby all those politicians course of American Atheism. who care more about the Bible than the Constitution. We can’t do it alone. Run for public office. What if you don’t have a local group? What if you don’t like your Do you want your child’s school district run by creationists? Do you local group? Then start your own. We can’t grow a movement if we want your health care in the hands of legislators whose faith tells them don’t know you’re out there. women should not have total control over their own bodies? Do you want a Congressperson who believes we live in a Christian nation or a Let people know you’re an Atheist. Senator who creates the US Office of Alternative Medicine? I know that’s easier said than done. I removed any reference to Then get on the ballot. Atheism from my resume when I applied for my first job—I didn’t You don’t all need to run for president. You don’t all need to run for mention the scholarships I had won for my activism or the campus Congress. But run for city council. Run for the local school board. If Atheist group I helped create. I didn’t think I would get the job if I you’re a college student or a high school student, run for class president. mentioned those accomplishments I was so proud of. If your city elects a dog catcher, run for that! We need more rational But not every conversation has to begin with, “Hi, I’m Hemant, and thinkers in public office—people who know how to tell truth from I’m an Atheist.” And not every declaration of disbelief has to be a big deal. fiction, ask good questions, and think critically. Pete Stark needs some When you’re on the flight home and the person next to you asks

12 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 why you were in DC, tell her you were at a rally with thousands of other Atheists. And smile as you say it. If you’re on a date, and religion comes up, tell the person you’re with I lost my faith when I was 14. you don’t believe in a god. And watch for the reaction. That’s good dating advice right there. You don’t have to yell or scream or TYPE IN ALL CAPS. You just have to be honest with people. Treat them with Wait. Scratch that. I discovered respect, but if their ideas are bad, don’t be quiet about it. If you do that, you may even convince other people to come clean about their own reality when I was 14. religious doubts.

Help young Atheists. Atheist, I asked people if they would chip in to give her a scholarship to I lost my faith when I was 14. Wait. Scratch that. I discovered reality college. Another group created shirts that said “Evil Little Thing” and when I was 14. But I didn’t know what to do with that information. I was donated the money to the cause. The American Humanist Association always taught that Atheists were bad people. I didn’t know any Atheists. And even now, when there are books and blogs and videos Photo by John Welte and podcasts about Atheism, a lot of young Atheists feel alone. How can you help? Where are the college students? Start a group for Atheists on your campus. The Secular Student Alliance and the Center For Inquiry will be glad to help you. If you are already part of a group like that, then help people you know at other schools start their groups. And then I want you to talk to your friends who are still in high school and help them start a group for Atheists there. When they’re that young, it’s so important that they realize it’s okay to be an Atheist. I’m a high school math teacher. And I would never tell my students that some numbers are imaginary…just like God. But it turns out a lot of the students know I’m an Atheist. Not because I bring it up, but because I’m so public about it outside of work. In the five years I’ve been teaching, students have come up to me before class Roy Speckhardt, Executive Director of the American Humanist Association, because I’m the only adult Atheist they presents Jessica Ahlquist with a scholarship for $62,000. know. And they tell me that their pastor said something in church over the weekend that they didn’t agree with. Or offered to hold on to all the money in a fund for Jessica. Now, I’d like they tell me they don’t want to go through with their confirmation, but to invite the American Humanist Association’s executive director, Roy their parents are making them. Or they’ll say they’re not sure how to tell Speckhardt, to the stage—as well as Jessica Ahlquist. their parents they don’t believe what the Bible says. Jessica, with the help of thousands of donors, it’s our honor to And my response to them is always the same: You didn’t do your present you with this check for $62,618. Thank you for your bravery, homework, did you? your courage, and for inspiring so many of us to remain vigilant in the Still, if you’re someone who works with children, with teenagers, fight for church/state separation. you can help them feel less alone by helping them start a group where [Addressing the crowd again] Please take these action steps. Support they can discuss these thoughts openly and without fear. the Atheists who do, whenever you can. We are all spokespersons for It’s never easy for them. In fact, there is one high-schooler here who Atheism whether we like it or not, and we should take that responsibility stood up to her administration and her city. She sued her school district seriously. because of an illegal prayer banner they had up in their auditorium. They said nasty things about her when she filed the lawsuit and they Editor’s note: Two days later, Jessica was named Atheist of the Year said even worse things after she won. A state representative called her an at the American Atheists national convention in Bethesda, Maryland. “evil little thing.” Local florists wouldn’t even deliver flowers to her. But she stood her ground, always kept calm, and showed the world what an Hemant Mehta is a high school math teacher and blogger at intelligent young woman with the facts and the law on her side can do. FriendlyAtheist.com. The Young Atheist’s Survival Guide is his Jessica Ahlquist is a hero to a lot of us. On my website, Friendly latest book.

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 13 Left to Right: Matt Parmenter-bass / Tommy Blank - guitar / Cody Ackors - trombone, keyboard / Taylor Muse vocals - guitar / Jeff Weathers - drums

Quiet Company Speaks An Interview with Taylor Muse

by Becky Garrison

ince their 2005 inception in Austin, Texas, indie rock band Quiet Company has traveled all over the country logging over 400 shows from 2007 to the present day. Their songs have been played on multiple episodes of Keeping Up With the Kardashians and MTV’s The Real World New Orleans. The band also appeared on an episode of ABC’s My Generation where they played themselves. Two of their songs have been featured in the series. Becky Garrison met Taylor Muse, 31, last November in Cambridge, Massachusetts, when they performed at the 2012 Harvard Humanist of the Year award show which honored the online dating website OK Cupid. Garrison continued the interview recently by telephone to explore some of the themes Muse raised during his brief talk prior toS the band’s appearances at the 2013 South by Southwest Music Festival. The band has performed previously at SXSW, though this looks to be the year Quiet Company will emerge as one of the breakout acts of the festival.

We have a capacity to imagine a world that’s so much better than the world in which we now exist. Religion provides outlets, like prayer, for dealing with the pain and suffering we experience because we are vulnerable, finite, and alone. We need to cultivate humanist, secular reposes to this situation. When Quiet Company creates music, that’s a direct response to the pain of life. It’s a way of saying I look my eventual death in the mouth and I laugh and I sing and I hold hands and I connect. –Greg Epstein, Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University

14 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 What role did religion play in your childhood? I grew up in East Tyler, Texas—the most bible-belty part of the Bible belt. Religion is in our schools and our social lives there. My brother is still a youth minister, and my grandfather was a song leader.

You moved from there in 2002, followed with a stint in Nashville, and then settled in Austin in 2003. How did your faith shift when you moved from East Tyler? This relationship with It was the first time I was away from my family and my childhood this deity or this idea faith. Since I had just gone through a rough breakup, I viewed it as a becomes a romantic story chance to reinvent myself and become the worldly person I wanted of your battle against to be. I started reading a lot of stuff I had never read before, like Kurt all odds for this person Vonnegut and Tom Robbins. I had always viewed humanism and who died for your sins. Atheism in an exclusively negative context, so for me to hear Vonnegut discuss the potential of humanism was a shock to my system. He quickly became my favorite author, and I read everything of his that I could. Why did you issue your debut album with the Christian rock label Northern Records and then promote it at the Cornerstone Festival put on by Jesus People USA? At that time, I was a big fan of Northern Records. This label is run by guys who had been in bands that I had grown up listening to and liked. We were never a Christian band, and by the time we played Taylor Muse Cornerstone, we were only tenuously connected to this world. But we wanted to play in front of a lot of people and just took whatever shows Was the birth of your daughter three years ago a part of the catalyst and opportunities that were available to us. I was still a Christian, so I to break away from your faith? wrote from that perspective, but I didn’t think my stuff was preachy. We never saw ourselves as the poster boys for anyone. If I were only responsible for myself, I would allow people to assume whatever they thought about me. But now that my daughter, Harper, Why do you call We Are All Where We Belong a break-up record? has come into the room, I am responsible for another person. So I had This relationship with this deity or this idea becomes a romantic story to ask myself, Do I ever want to lie to that person? That was clearly not of your battle against all odds for this person who died for your sins. He the case. Hence, I felt I had to be honest with everyone and tell them has this unchanging love for you that spans all time and space. Every facet I was not part of the club. Then I started writing We Are All Where We of your identity gets wrapped up in this relationship. When you walk Belong. away from religion, you’re walking away from that part of yourself that And your wife’s response to this news? you know the best. Am I still the same person or am I different? Leia was raised in a Jewish home but they weren’t terribly observant. How did your family react when you walked away from the faith? She converted to Christianity early on because she thought it was My family is concerned for me because they still believe, so they feel important to me even though I said I didn’t care. When I told her I I am putting my eternal soul in danger. They felt that if I reject my faith, was having a crisis of faith, she replied, “Great! I never really believed then it meant me rejecting them as well. I do not expect them to agree it anyway.” or talk to me about this. But I still love them. Nothing has changed. I’m Where do you find your faith these days? still their son and brother, and that’s all that really matters. Faith is a weird word because it has all these connotations with How have your Christian fans reacted to your de-conversion? spirituality. No one gave me this gift of existence, but I have enjoyed We Are All Where We Belong is the best example of why it’s best to do every day of it and hope to enjoy several thousand more days. In honest art. If they are honest, they know they’ve had these doubts that particular, I enjoy being with my family and seeing what kind of person are well represented in this record. They will be glad that a record like my daughter will become and what kinds of things we will create this exists at all. We joke how once we get done with this, we’ll fake a together. Life is all about the adventure you create with the people you reconversion back to Christianity. We need to be authentic. love. In this album, you move from abstract religious metaphors to calling You put some definite Christian songs on your new Christmas album. Jesus out by name. “Oh Holy Night” and “Angels We Have Heard on High” are just None of our records were ever written from the perspective of good songs. Yes, it’s ironic but who cares? If we did songs about Santa, it someone who was in the honeymoon phase of the Christian faith. Once would have been the same because we don’t believe in him either. I left the faith, it didn’t feel lame to call out Jesus and call him a fake or What’s been the reaction to your trajectory from playing at Cornerstone a phony. to South by SXSW and then a humanist gathering at Harvard University? So you weren’t a Jesus jumper? We still keep in touch with a lot of people we met at Cornerstone. I never was a cheerleader for the faith who thought it was cool to While we don’t need them to agree with us and vice versa, we’re really write gushing praise songs about Jesus. happy to have them support the band. The same is true with any fans (Continued - p. 17)

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 15 Book Review: In Freedom We Trust by Carl E. Kramer

ince this review is written at the invitation of American Atheist, I feel it is appropriate to disclose certain things the editor knew about me when she extended the invitation— and which inevitably shape my evaluation of this book. First, I am a professional historian with a doctorate in American history, including a subspecialty in religious history. Second, I am a liberal Protestant with roots in the Reformed tradition. I am aS member of the United Church of Christ (UCC) and have a foot in the Presbyterian Church (USA), my wife’s heritage. In the late 1980s I was a UCC student-in-care at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where I took courses in Old and New Testament and the history of the United Church of Christ. Readers familiar with the Reformed heritage and its influence in American history should not be surprised that I agree with most of the Buckners’ analysis. At the same time, I do take issue with some aspects of their argument. But that is tempered by the fact that the authors (a father-son team), while scholars in their own fields, are neither historians nor Biblical scholars and need not be held rigidly to the canons of those disciplines. That said, it is deliciously ironic that they deftly skewer claims of some who should know better—including Newt Gingrich, a former American history professor—that the Founding Fathers envisioned this country as a Christian nation in some formal sense. The Buckners’ intent for In Freedom We Trust is to “show why a defense of secularism is necessary.” In building that defense, they argue soundly that “secularism requires everyone to admit that ultimate religious truth, if it exists at all, is not within the grasp of human beings” (18). That is an argument to which most thoughtful people of faith, and certainly this reviewer, can say “amen.” As for the Founding Fathers, the authors add, they “did not intend—and we do not here advocate for— an anti-theistic government or even an atheistic government except in a narrow sense that government should not be based on or dependent on religious ideas, or anyone’s conclusion of what any god is like or wants us to do. Secular means ‘not religious’—it does not necessarily mean ‘antireligious’” (18). Again, amen. Edward M. Buckner and Michael E. Buckner. In Freedom We Trust: In nineteen concise, easily readable chapters, the Buckners make An Atheist Guide to Religious Liberty. New York: Prometheus Books, mincemeat of a broad range of arguments by Texas Governor Rick 2012. Paperback. $18.00. ISBN: 978-1-61614-644-3. Perry, 2008 Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, pseudo-historian David Barton, Representative Michele Bachmann, Pat Robertson, and other right-wingers that the U. S. was formed as a “Christian nation” and that the American government must follow Judeo-Christian principles. Invoking Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Washington, Thomas Paine, and other founders, the authors underscore the fundamental truth that freedom of religion is important and worth protecting and that it is impossible unless it is voluntary. Simply put, separation of church and state is essential to liberty because any government that has the power to approve or endorse a particular

16 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 Quiet Company from p. 15 faith also has the power to restrict it and any other faiths and to punish those with no faith. We strive to build a community around While the central argument of In Freedom We Trust is fundamentally sound and well documented, I was distracted by parenthetical insertions our band that brings in both freethinkers that telegraph what’s to come or that reference previous points, which unnecessarily disrupt the narrative. When it comes to controversial and Christians. Anything that I can do to Biblical citations, the authors tend to prooftext as well as avoid passages promote humanist ideas is icing on the from Isaiah, Micah, the Gospels, and the Pauline epistles that bespeak liberal values of peace, love, and justice. cake. If we’ve challenged any Christians The terms “theocracy” and its variants are employed loosely to suggest to think about their faith or helped that a faith-based government is inherently theocratic, as in the “theocratic underpinnings” of some American colonies. While this understanding is Atheists to feel less alone, that’s great. not uncommon, a “theocracy” is, in fact, a state governed by the clergy. But early Puritan New England communities prohibited clergy from holding public office. This policy reflected the fact that the mission of Non- we’ve got from the Atheist and freethinker side. We don’t want to Separating Congregationalists was to build an alternative model to the be thought of as the Atheist or Christian band. Instead, we strive to Church of England. Ministers had a central theological role in leading the build a community around our band that brings in both freethinkers process, and to endow them with civil power as well amounted to letting and Christians. Anything that I can do to promote humanist ideas is the fox guard the hen house. It’s also noteworthy that in colonial Virginia, icing on the cake. If we’ve challenged any Christians to think about where the franchise was limited by law to Anglicans, officeholders in their faith or helped Atheists to feel less alone, that’s great. I love many counties allowed dissenters such as Presbyterians and Baptists to the work Greg Epstein is doing with the Humanist Community at vote and actively sought their support. Harvard by providing community without the theology and dogma. I find the authors’ tendency to fight their battle on the opponents’ field problematic. Much like the skilled athlete, trial lawyer, or debater whose performance can be diminished in the face of a weak opponent, the Buckners accept their adversaries’ sloppy use of “nation” and “state” interchangeably. But the words are not synonyms. A nation is a territory demarcated by specified boundaries and occupied by people who share broadly common ethnicity, language, religion, traditions, and political values. The state is the complex of laws and institutions through which the nations is governed, and the government is the people who conduct the functions of the state. In this light, the right-wing assertion that the United States is a “Christian nation” is objectively correct, since most Americans are at least nominally Christian and a Christian culture has prevailed since the founding. But the central issue is not whether the US is a Christian nation but whether it is or should be a Christian state. It is the latter argument that conservatives actually make, and regardless of semantics, the Buckners are on sound historical footing in their insistence that the American state must be secular. The framers of the Constitution and the First Amendment recognized that religious freedom is possible only when all Quiet Company faiths have the opportunity to operate freely and openly, when those with We Are All Where We Belong no faith have full rights of citizenship, and when no government body or official is empowered to determine who may or may not participate in the What are you working on these days? political process based upon their faith or lack thereof. I am doing an album of songs that I wrote for my daughter. I look I noted earlier that I am a Reformed Protestant. A major tenet of forward to that day when she’s old enough to really appreciate a record Reformed theology is that God calls us all to vocation, widely defined. her dad made that’s all about her. Not many kids have that. Also, we Based upon scriptural authority of both the Old and New Testaments, are in the studio re-recording our first album, which was released on perhaps it is not too ironic to suggest that God has called Atheists a small label. In the revision, we are adding back the words we were like Edward and Michael Buckner to remind people of faith that our told to take out in order to get a Christian distribution. A month or so freedom to express our beliefs, including the right to bring prophetic ago, we all quit our day jobs and we hope to get to a sustainable level. judgment upon those who govern, is most secure with a secular state, especially in a nation as diverse as the United States. For up-to-date info, tour dates, and streaming audio and video from Quiet Company, go to QuietCompanyMusic.com. Carl E. Kramer is vice president of the historical consulting firm Kramer Associates, Inc., in Jeffersonville, Indiana. He is the retired director of the Becky Garrison is a storyteller and religious satirist. Her seven books Institute for Local and Oral History and adjunct assistant professor of history include Red and Blue God, Black and Blue Church (Publishers at Indiana University Southeast, where he taught for 34 years. Weekly starred review) and Roger Williams’ Little Book of Virtues.

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 17 Going Global to Do Good Without God by Becky Garrison

hen I first interviewed Greg Epstein, Humanist Chaplain for Harvard University, in 2007, we spoke about his “Good Without God” campaign for a book I was penning at an “edgy” Christian book imprint. While Wwe connected over our shared interest in highlighting the collective good found among both liberal people of faith and nonbelievers, I remained skeptical if this conversation could develop into a bona fide movement. After all, the media-driven, sound-bite culture favors Greg Epstein partisan debate over informed dialogue. This system does not lend itself to the creation of platforms that connect people of differing fostering this conversation. These freethinking dialogues struck me belief systems. as far more spiritual than the material being marketed by Christian Within a year, the commercial Christian industrial machine began publishers to a growing “Christian Atheist” market that promoted a to implode under the weight of its own hubris. The so-called cutting new kind of Christianity guaranteed to usher forth an insurrection edge imprint where I was scheduled to be featured got consumed into where supposedly love wins. the belly of Thomas Nelson, the world’s largest Christian publisher. In When I reconnected with Epstein last fall, I learned that since he what could be seen as a symbolic protest, the satirical magazine The took the reigns in 2005, the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard (HCH) Wittenburg Door, where I had served as a Senior Contributing Editor has grown from four active students and an annual budget of $28,000 since 1994, closed up shop during this time frame. Even though I had to a point now where they have outgrown their space. Epstein, who signed a book deal with Zondervan with the promise that I would be came out as a “none” while growing up in multicultural Queens, is now marketed in the secular sphere, they seem to have lost interest in any trending on twitter, commenting on the rising number of nones that works that dare to question their status quo. come through his door: “There’s a lot happening in what I would call He wants to push the humanists so they are perceived as the leader in doing the most good when responding to society’s problems. Then, after I lost my position on the Sojourners masthead for the humanist community. A lot of people both here at Harvard and all protesting their rejection of an LGBT welcome ad, all signs indicated over the world want and are even increasingly willing to use some of that even progressive and emergent forms of evangelical Christianity their own time, energy and community to build a community that is a had now moved to the right. Women and LGBT folks need not apply. positive alternative to a religious community for non-religious people.” Meanwhile, I noticed a shifting in select freethinking and humanist Following the publication of Good Without God, Epstein set out to circles toward embracing the spiritual side of non-belief. Alain de create a local community at Harvard as outlined in the closing section of Botton’s book Religion for Atheists (Pantheon, 2012) joined earlier works his book. This burgeoning group focused on the core areas of education, like Epstein’s Good Without God (William Morrow, 2009) and André community, secular ceremonies to mark life’s transitions, and interfaith Comte-Sponville’s The Book of Atheist Spirituality (Penguin, 2008) in dialogues.

18 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 As the movement grows in strength, it is no longer acceptable for faith groups to ignore us in forming coalitions. The Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge, who served as the interim biologist Greg Graffin; writer/director Joss Whedon; Mythbusters Episcopal Chaplain at Harvard in 2010-11 before being appointed hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman; actor/ humorist Stephen Fry; Boston University’s Episcopal Chaplain, reflects on the collaborative author Mary Roach, and comedian Eddie Izzard. nature of Epstein’s work. “I remember him being supportive of me as While focusing on building up their local community, the Harvard an openly trans chaplain, and of trans people in general. Also, I recall an Humanist Chaplaincy began hearing from others seeking advice on environmental stewardship project on which the Episcopal chaplaincy how they could to do likewise. Last November, the HCH’s Harvard collaborated with an undergrad from the humanist chaplaincy that year. Community Project (HCP) forged a new partnership with the AHA My overall impression of the humanist chaplaincy at Harvard was that to build and promote communities for the nonreligious. This venture they were lively and particularly LGBTIQ affirming.” marks the first coordinated national effort to create multigenerational By partnering with faith-based groups that welcome LGBTIQs, communities with the potential to reach millions of Americans who Epstein encourages friendly competition remain unconnected to any religious among collaborators. Ideally, he wants to body but desire the connections afforded push the humanists so they are perceived to those belonging to a faith-based as the leader in doing the most good when community. responding to society’s problems. Through Over the next three years, Epstein and their Values in Action (VIA) initiative his staff plan to research and document launched in 2010, the HCH spearheads the successful efforts of community- community service projects where anyone building by humanists, Atheists, and in the Harvard community can participate. nonbelievers worldwide. In compiling At least once a month the HCH sponsors these accounts, they hope to cite the a VIA event. These programs have best practices that can help inform 21st- mobilized thousands of people of different century humanist communities. Take, religious and philosophical traditions to for instance, the United Kingdom, where come together and work on projects like nearly ten percent of Parliament joined packaging over 70,000 nutritious meals the Humanist Caucus. Members attribute for hungry children, making scarves for this growth a program that has trained homeless veterans, and assisting LGBT hundreds of people to officiate at rituals youth in crisis. like weddings and funerals. Chris Stedman, Assistant Humanist Epstein hopes their analysis of humanist Chaplain, VIA Coordinator, and author of communities can help them ascertain Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common those components of program that can Ground with the Religious (Beacon Press, work in other contexts. He expects that 2012), elaborates on the value inherent in after three years they will have compiled these gatherings: “By building coalitions the resources needed to train professional and working with people of faith toward leaders and assist people on the local level common goals, we can challenge the to organize humanist collectives. idea that Atheists and other nonreligious As humanist communities begin to people don’t care about helping others and making the world a better find their voices, how will they evolve over time? In my reporting, I have place, we can destigmatize Atheism, and we can build relationships with documented the rise of a similar collective spirit that arose in the early religious communities in order to foster a more constructive dialogue. 2000s among progressive evangelical and emergent groups in the US. By combining the resources of different communities, we’ve been able But by 2007, this movement devolved into yet another commercialized to accomplish much more than we could on our own, and we’ve been author/speaker showcase. One can find countless examples of quests able to partner with groups that haven’t had many, or any, positive to do good that over time morph into hierarchical institutions led by interactions with Atheists before.” those with power and publishing deals. According to Epstein, collaborating with religious organizations Initially, the signs appear quite promising for humanist communities. experienced in community-building gives the HCH the opportunity When I reported on Kelly Carlin’s tribute to her late father the comedian to learn from the success of others. In forging these relationships, George Carlin for this magazine (3rd/4th Quarter 2012) I observed, Epstein maintains that humanists should be included in any faith- “The more I connect with spiritual Atheists and agnostics, as well as the based responses. “As the movement grows in strength, it is no longer occasional religious community or individual, I realize that while we all acceptable for faith groups to ignore us in forming coalitions. We should think for ourselves, we often speak a similar language that connects us be given equal opportunities for leadership in collaboration issues.” in our shared humanity.” I’m picking up similar sensibilities in Epstein’s For the past six years, the HCH has reached beyond the Harvard work. community to collaborate with the American Humanist Association (AHA) in presenting an Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award Becky Garrison is a storyteller and religious satirist. Her seven books include in Cultural Humanism to an individual who has advanced humanism Red and Blue God, Black and Blue Church (Publishers Weekly starred review) worldwide. Recipients include Salman Rushdie; punk rock star/ and Roger Williams’ Little Book of Virtues.

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 19 Ages of Atheism: “ Why It’s Difficult To Be An Atheist From Day One To Death

by James Luce

The courtroom dialogue in the film Inherit the Wind was taken almost verbatim from Clarence Darrow’s cross- examination in the Scopes Monkey Trial.

Part Three: The Days of Whines and Bosses Defending and Defining Yourself as an Adult Atheist

In Parts One and Two, I examined issues of Atheism relating to children and adolescents in those days of wine and roses devoid of adult responsibilities. Now let’s examine the issues and obstacles adult Atheists frequently encounter both at home and in the outside world in our days of “whines and bosses.”

Like Gaul, Atheism is Divided into Three Parts This is not surprising in that throughout history there have been people “ in one religious group who have felt the same way about people of other The only common characteristic shared by all Atheists is their knowledge that there is not, and never has been, any god. Just as religions. Northern Ireland, the Middle East, and Kashmir are full of such Christians are divided into Protestant, Catholic, Evangelical, etc., each examples, but so is the rest of the world. In Europe and the US, people Atheist approaches life and is approached in life differently. There is no of religious faith tend to be more circumspect about expressing their uniform list of problems faced by every Atheist. But for our purposes opinions about a person whose god goes by a different name, tending here, I’m dividing Atheists into three distinct subcategories. They are to avoid rather than persecute people of differing religious persuasions. those who: However, their attitudes towards Atheists are frequently less tolerant. Ridiculing, lambasting, boycotting, and shunning are more the norm in •have been out of the closet since their youth and have never the case of the godly when confronted by the godless. After all, how can interacted with the world as a person of religious faith,1 someone who has no holy writ, no moral guidelines chiseled in ancient •are still in the closet regardless of what age they first saw the light stone, possibly be trustworthy or even safe to be around? of reason, or A recent personal example makes my point that even open-minded, •become overtly Atheistic in adulthood, much to the surprise or intelligent, well-educated people of religious faith consciously or even chagrin of the people in their lives. unconsciously view Atheists as slightly sinister or insensitive—and are surprised when they find out we aren’t. An old friend of mine Perhaps the only problem common to each of these subgroups is that recently emailed to his mostly Christian associates a poem I’d written most people who believe in a divine being also believe that Atheists in at his request, directed to the younger generation. I received a message general are misguided, immoral, unreliable, and just plain reprehensible. from one of the recipients saying he thought my poem was “hopeful,

20 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 Ages of Atheism: soothing, and beautiful” and had been surprised to learn of my Atheism. the Anti-Discrimination Support Network, have documented the Atheists are frequently prejudged in this manner, but we are often consequences of coming out: divorce, child custody disputes, loss Why It’s Difficult To Be An Atheist From Day One To Death unaware of this prejudice…until we are fired from a job or excluded of friends, exclusion or expulsion from social groups, termination of from an organization for our non-belief and our insistence on adhering employment, and emotional and physical harassment of the Atheist as to fact. well as family members.3 Atheists in the closet must determine whether or not the continuing Still in the Closet mental pain is less supportable than the yet-unknown—but likely I regard Atheists in this subcategory as the most tormented. Living unpleasant—results of opening the door. a lie creates powerful and disturbing cognitive dissonance,2 feelings If your spouse or a friend rejects you because you rejected god, then of guilt for being a hypocrite, and a sense of betrayal as loved ones are perhaps the relationship was not worth saving. As painful as it is to lose excluded from this secret mental life. such people, how tolerable is it for you to be around people who are The most productive tactic is to concede their right to believe in god.

Having the good fortune to be born to Christian parents (Deistic intolerant of your beliefs? If you have children, they will at last have a father, Presbyterian mother) who believed that their children had the chance to get to know the real you. right to choose between god and no god, I’ve never personally suffered If you lose your job, you may want to consider filing a lawsuit. The any of the torments of being in the closet, but I know from my reading attorney doesn’t even need to be an Atheist. (But I can tell you from my and discussions with friends trying to emerge that the list of daily personal experience as a trial lawyer that there is nothing quite as much torments is long and painful: fun as having a sworn witness under cross examination who throws her Bible at you and accuses you of being the Antichrist. Fortunately, she •Sending your children to Sunday school where they will missed.) indoctrinated into a dangerous worldview and idiotic cosmology; Moving is not an option for everyone, but if it is, there are dozens •Having to explain to your children how it is that god created the of states in the US and dozens of other countries in the world where universe in six days even though their science book says it took a Atheism is not considered a mortal sin.4,5 quantum event plus fourteen billion years; Furthermore, the sources of these consequences are external, and as •Being unable to oppose your tax money going to creation science such can be (with admittedly quite a bit of effort in some cases) tolerable teachers, nativity scenes, and Ten Commandments displays in and possibly even avoidable, unlike the incessant mental turmoil caused government establishments; by living a dual and deceitful life. Our brains are with us 24 hours a day •Standing in church, head bowed, reciting prayers to a god you wherever we are, unlike the bigoted, ignorant hypocrites, gossips, and know does not exist and keeping a straight and pious face while evangelicals with whom we are occasionally confronted. doing so. •Donating cash you know will go to spreading false propaganda, Tolerance building more ziggurats to some god, or even paying the salaries Overt Atheists share a common thorn with doctors and lawyers: of lifelong child molesters; being approached by relative strangers at social gatherings and asked •Listening to interminable, ignorant, and inaccurate recitations a lot of questions. Doctors and lawyers are approached for medical or by friends and neighbors about the goodness and wisdom of legal advice. Atheists are approached by people seeking to “dialogue” Judaism, Christianity, Islam, or the Tao when they obviously have (i.e., convert us to their god) or bait us into showing how unreasonable never read the Old Testament, New Testament, the Koran, or the and hostile Atheists are (i.e., to confirm their prejudices). Tao-Te-Ching; How to cope with such either relatively bland or antagonistic •Hearing a minister, priest, rabbi, or other religious leader blither confrontations is of concern to all Atheists because each of us is, on about some species of glorious afterlife and the goodness of willingly or not, a soldier in the war against bigotry and annihilation. god in taking a loved away from you forever; The last “official” auto de fe (act of faith) when the Spanish Inquisition •Being unable to speak frankly with your spouse or partner, and murdered a person for questioning god’s grace occurred only 186 •Living with yourself in light of all of the above years ago.6 The Old Testament and the Koran both include express admonitions to slaughter all nonbelievers.7 Fortunately, closeted Atheists hold the sole solution in their hands We will not gain acceptance by attempting to covert Americans who because they can at any time declare their affirmative non-belief in the believe in god to Atheism. Our best strategic and tactical course is to existence of god or gods. Unfortunately, this solution is often seemingly push freedom of, and from, belief as guaranteed by the US Constitution. unavailable because the principal cause of the torment is the fear of going These social situations of “dialogue or confrontation” fall under public, especially the perceived negative impact such a revelation would the rubric of tolerance, a word that has unfortunately become almost have on personal and business relationships. Even more unfortunately, synonymous with political correctness, multi-cultural diversity these fears are rational. worship, and moral relativism. Tolerance is about accepting the right of somebody to do things we don’t like and to believe things we think are Issues of Coming Out misguided. But these rights end at the tips of each of our noses. So long Various reports, such as those of Margaret Downey, founder of as a person’s actions or beliefs don’t damage me, my family and friends,

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 21 or people unable to defend themselves, fine. If they do, tolerance does been created yet when god told Adam not to do so. You can point out not prevent taking action. Tolerance is active, not passive. that there is nothing in Genesis that suggests anybody, including god, When confronted by a person earnestly trying to save your soul or ever forbade Eve to eat of the tree. trying not so subtly to get your goat, there are two rules that if followed Another effective tactic is to imitate the cross-examination will result in yet another victory for reason and tolerance. First, don’t approach of Clarence Darrow in the Scopes Monkey Trial. (For a argue the numbers, and, second, always play in their ballpark. reference, watch Inherit the Wind. The courtroom dialogue was taken Most intrusively-bent people of religious faith come armed with almost verbatim from the actual trial transcript.) Eventually, the high- caliber studies, surveys, pseudoscience, and illogical “logic” to person will either drift away quietly or will start ranting. Either way, keep you busy and on the defensive for hours. They can “prove” that you win. Tolerance is active. Atheists are sicker, sadder, more prone to suicide, more likely to abuse a spouse and children, likely to die a premature death, and are less One Omitted Issue charitable/friendly than people who believe in god.8 You can counter This article intentionally does not discuss an extremely complex with a host of refutations.9 You can point out the flaws in their surveys problem faced by many Atheists from time to time, but especially as we grow older: lingering doubts and backsliding. The final installment of this series, “Until Death Do Us Depart,” will explore how and why religious faith tends to try to creep in under the sheets as we face the inevitable pitfalls and disappointments in life. Yet, contrary to that You can point out popular saying, there are indeed plenty of Atheists in foxholes, and for good reason.

that there is nothing in Endnotes 1. The word “faith” is often used as though it means only spiritual Genesis that suggests belief, rather than simply as a noun meaning “complete trust in someone or something.” The distinction is important. 2. Stanford social psychologist Leon Festinger developed the now anybody, including accepted theory of cognitive dissonance. We all have a compelling need to have our beliefs be consistent and also that our behaviors are in conformity with our beliefs. Except with the truly pathological, god, ever forbade Eve telling a lie increases the heart-rate, elevates blood pressure, and releases unhealthy quantities of adrenaline and other hormones. to eat of the tree. Acting inconsistently with belief has an even greater impact, in that these same physiological stresses remain operative so long as we continue to create dissonance. 3. SecularHumanism.org/library/fi/Downey_24_4.htm and their logic. You can point to the obvious “leaps of faith” made in 4.Patheos.com/Blogs/FriendlyAtheist/2009/01/30/top-10- their reports. This will only reinforce their belief that god is real and MostLeast-Religious-States-in-the-Country that you are a nasty person. They have no difficulty attacking your 5. SecularHumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=PZuc beliefs, but their god tells them to punish those who blaspheme or kerman_26_5 deny. In short, arguing the numbers is futile. 6. School teacher and Deist Cayetano Ripoll was garroted in The most productive tactic is to concede their right to believe in Valencia on July 26, 1826, for teaching that god has had no active god. Concede the fact that they consider you to be in mortal error and role in the universe since the creation. For comparative historical under a delusion or in the thrall of the devil. Then point out that the reference, the last time a witch was murdered anywhere in Europe was Constitution gives you that right. Most Americans do not want to be in 1811. seen as unpatriotic and they will normally concede your point. Score 7. For example, Koranic Sutra 4.89 in reference to unbelievers: one for the Atheists. “Seize them and kill them wherever you find them.” However, if they persist and you can’t escape from the situation, 8.Conservapedia.com/Atheism#Mayo_Clinic.2C_university_ then it is tactically necessary and permissible to go on the offensive, studies.2C_and_other_research but always by asking them questions about their holy writ, whatever it 9. SecularHumanism.org/library/fi/Downey_24_4.htm may be (i.e., by playing in their ballpark). This approach saves a great 10. In The Bible of the World, edited by Robert O. Ballou, you will deal of heartache because you don’t get into creation science or Saint find the major portions of all the world’s religions. Chapter Four of Thomas Aquinas’ twelve logical proofs of god or indeed any theology my book, Chasing Davis: An Atheist’s Guide to Morality Using Logic and at all. Just tell them about how you have read the (Bible, Koran, the Science, can also provide you with dozens of missiles and arrows. Tao) and you have some questions.10 The Books of Genesis and Job provide ample ammunition, as does any page in the last two-thirds James Luce is the author of Chasing Davis: An Atheist’s Guide to Morality of the Koran opened at random (Mohammad got more radical as Using Logic and Science. After four years as a criminal investigator in the his revelations progressed). For example, you can ask why Eve was US Air Force, he spent 25 years as a trial lawyer. Now retired, he lives in blamed for eating of the tree of knowledge when she had not even Spain. Read more by him at LucelySpeaking.com.

22 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 Respect means treating others like they can do better— and then holding them to that standard rather than “telling them that they’re doing great when they’re not. “ On Respect by JT Eberhard

ecently, I was asked by a teacher of a Christian high from insult. Respect means treating others like they can do better—and school to make a video for his students discussing how then holding them to that standard rather than telling them that they’re an Atheist views technology. I thought this was pretty doing great when they’re not. So many Atheists of the accommodationist rad of the teacher and I agreed to do so. I later posted the video to sort want to create a culture of mutual condescension and then call it Rmy blog, after which I received an email from another non-believer “respect.” They’re convinced that the unwillingness of firebrands like who wanted to congratulate me for putting a good face on Atheism: me to suffer irrationality with deference is what is harming the Atheist “Thank you for being so nice and respectful. When we disrespect the movement. It seems clear to me that the opposite is true. Being nice does not always mean respecting others and their opinions. beliefs of others, we push away potential allies and friends.” For those who wonder why we can’t all just get along, the answer is I hate to disappoint this person and those who share his opinion, but simple: irrationality in the heads of individuals affects the entire society. that is not at all what I did. Being nice does not always mean respecting We should not smile about that. We should not antagonize others for others and their opinions. Some people’s opinions are deleterious the sake of antagonism. But when someone believes that a Canaanite to humanity and manage to twist the kind natures of others into hate Jew rose from the dead and that the Canaanite and his father have moral (look no further than all the well-intentioned opponents of gay rights instructions for that person, the Atheist can do one of two things: we to confirm this). The truth of the matter is that in order to be nice to the can lie to the Christian and tell them that we respect that belief or we human race, we must sometimes meet other individuals with intense can help them to improve by telling them the truth. disrespect—and that is precisely what I did in that video. Anybody who thinks the first even resembles respect might be an I told the students that their god was cruel, and I provided them with Atheist, but they have aligned themselves with unreason. For all the evidence. Were I not focusing on the subject of technology, I would tell horrors of religion around the world, it makes no sense to abandon the them that their beliefs about people rising from the dead were both well-being of the world to protect the feelings (and the delusions) of foolish and wrong. I would tell them that they have a moral obligation to an individual. I will never do that, and I will never do it because I care be reasonable and that they, and their parents, are failing it. Never would deeply about that individual and the world in which we both live. I tell them that I respect that failure or that I respect their beliefs or that their failure was even acceptable, let alone worthy of respect. JT’s blog, What Would JT Do?, is at Patheos.com/Blogs/WWJTD. He The person who emailed me needs to understand that respecting previously worked for the Secular Student Alliance, where he was others means assuming that they want to be told when someone else their first high school organizer. He is the co-founder of the Skepticon thinks they’re wrong. It means expecting them to be able to tolerate conference and served as the event’s lead organizer for its first three some mild criticism and believing in their ability to distinguish criticism years.

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 23 REMEMBERING MADALYN MURRAY O’HAIR April 13, 1919 – September 1995 by Frank R. Zindler

24 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 REMEMBERING MADALYN MURRAY O’HAIR

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 25 s we approach the ninety-fourth anniversary of the birth of Madalyn Murray O’Hair, I am moved to try to total up the historical, intellectual, legal, and human significance of the woman who, for more than a decade, was virtually a mother to both my wife, Ann, and me. It is a Adaunting task. I confess I am still too close to be able to attempt a truly objective assessment of Madalyn the person, Madalyn the friend.

Her fight was fundamentally a fight for liberty, the liberty of the mind.

Madalyn the Intellectual During the last fifty years, I have known a lot of brilliant women. I’ve who takes pleasure in exercising the intellect. Like Aristotle, she took worked with them as a science professor and in the field of scientific all knowledge as her province. Coming as late in history as she did, publishing. I even had the good fortune to marry one. And then, of however, she had a lot more provinces to master than did Aristotle— course, there was Madalyn—arguably the smartest woman I’ve ever and all of Aristotle’s provinces had become much bigger. Nevertheless, known. Her intelligence was analytical, dissective, and often applied like Madalyn was a lifelong student who went after every subject as though an x-ray probe. Most problems, both in daily life and in law, are complex it were a rare or exotic butterfly to add to her collection. She read all composites composed of a skeleton of the classics. She read all the “Great facts and hard data surrounded by a Books.” She read all the philosophers and foggy envelope of misperceptions and theologians. She read all the histories. emotional color. In its prime, Madalyn’s She studied the sciences. She assembled mind could pierce such fog covers with the greatest library on Atheism that ever lightning speed to reveal the hard core of existed in the US. the problem facing her. When she did this Music also was a province Madalyn on the debate platform or in the midst of a sought to subdue. Completely conversant radio or television show, she was dazzling. on all the great classical composers, she Although she retained this ability to studied their lives as well as their music, the end of her tragically abbreviated concluding that many of the greatest had life, during her later life her cognitive been Atheists—or at least not Christians. functions were sometimes impaired by Beethoven, I think, was her favorite. the brittle form of diabetes that bedeviled She clearly could relate to the story told of the final years of her career. With blood his death. Beethoven, it is said, was lying sugar too high or too low—I never could comatose upon his deathbed, unable to decide on which side the problem lay— speak or respond to speech. A terrible problems presented too suddenly could lightning storm developed. A sudden elicit fiery emotional outbursts. On a barrage of thunder shook the death number of occasions, she would punch chamber, causing him to sit up suddenly, out letters on her typewriter that utterly shake his fist at the sky with a look of wild devastated their recipients. At least some defiance upon his face, and then fall back of these letters I am certain she later dead. Beethoven’s remark, “I have seized regretted. But she could never publicly go Fate by the throat and grappled with him,” back on a decision once made. Frank Zindler, Ann Zindler, Robin Eileen Murray- probably was ever in her consciousness. For someone who, for so many years, O’Hair, Jon Garth Murray, Madalyn Murray O’Hair She could play the piano, too. The first had been able to wield the scalpel of reason time I ever visited her at home, I noticed with the self-assurance and finesse of a neurosurgeon, it must have been a modest spinet piano in what my grandmother would have called a difficult or impossible to admit even to herself that anything could affect sitting room. I asked if I might try out the instrument and she told me to her ability to reason objectively. Fortunately, such lapses were rare. go ahead; there were music books in the piano bench if I needed them. Madalyn Mays, then Madalyn Murray, then Madalyn O’Hair or Opening the bench, I seized upon Schirmer’s edition of the Chopin Murray O’Hair, was the quintessential intellectual—that is, a person Études. Turning to my favorite, the so-called “Revolutionary Étude,” I

26 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 was startled to see that the pages were dog-eared, another personal preference in a society that wanted thoroughly worn, and had been carefully annotated to remain both civilized and free. Religion was the in pencil for fingerings. “Who’s been playing the enemy of freedom, the corrupter of natural human Revolutionary Étude?” I asked. “Me,” she replied, ethics, and the greatest threat to survival of Homo “before the Baltimore cops broke my wrists when sapiens. Religion and religious modes of thought they attacked us in our home.” I was too stunned had to go. Clearly, that could not be achieved by by this information to attempt the piece myself, force. Only education, assisted by completely free settling instead upon the “Moonlight Sonata.” How speech, could attempt it. Madalyn the educator, the appropriate, I thought later, for Madalyn to have free-speaker, accepted the challenge with relish. devoted so much effort on a revolutionary etude. Free speech: that was what was needed to Symbolism was as important in Madalyn’s life as educate the public about religions and the illogic was breakfast. of superstition. Madalyn knew that words can have Although Madalyn was well-read in all the magical significance in religion—for example, philosophers and her Atheism was firmly grounded preachers end prayers with “In Jesus’ Name We in solid philosophical principles, she was not a Pray” in order to use the heap-big-medicine of a philosopher herself—at least not a technical or name of power to make the prayers magically come theoretical philosopher such as Bertrand Russell Robin Eileen Murray-O’Hair true. She knew that the commandment “Thou shalt or A. J. Ayer. She discovered no new disproofs of not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain” gods that I am aware of, and wrote very little on was simply a prohibition against using a magical epistemology and the other topics that professional word for unauthorized purposes. She knew that philosophers like to gnaw upon. One of her treasured this was the foundation upon which the concept of possessions was an admiring letter written to her by blasphemy was based — as were the anti-blasphemy Bertrand Russell. laws which seek to nullify the First Amendment’s She was an applied philosopher who attempted guarantee of freedom of speech. to put into practice the eclectic philosophy of Madalyn argued that in the world of physics materialism or realism that she had put together in and physiology there were no magical words, and the course of her voracious reading. She wanted to blasphemy was a subjectless crime. Words are make the world reasonable, and tried until the end to words, nothing more. People who reacted to certain do so. Everything in the world sorted out so clearly words as though they were magical had to be in her mind. Why couldn’t the rest of the world see educated. Specifically, they had to be desensitized things the way they really were? Once people could to the religious words of power. “My gawwd!” she be made to see how evil religion is—how they are would exclaim, relishing the reactions of “Christers” being conned and duped by preachers, priests, and as they recoiled from the mockery of an Atheist gurus—surely they must rise up, overthrow their Jon Garth Murray demonstrating so casually the utter triviality of deceivers, and join her cause. their most potent word. To do that, she had to get the attention of the world, which was Madalyn knew also that the taboo four-letter words proscribed in not easy given the vast amounts of money being spent to keep people ordinary American speech are anthropologically no different than the inattentive to voices of reason. Madalyn often had to be flamboyant and religious words of power that must not be “taken in vain.” She would even somewhat outré. Since professional philosophers never got on point out that “Yahweh” (the secret name of the deity which must One of her treasured possessions was an admiring letter written to her by Bertrand Russell. television and radio, she knew she would have to be theatrical and more never be pronounced, on pain of death) is a four-letter word in Hebrew than a bit outrageous. (YHWH). She realized that speech taboos were nothing less than the To get the attention of the world, she often had to apply the principle intrusion of religious (i.e., illogical) modes of thought into daily life. behind the joke about the Quaker farmer who had to hit his mule Four-letter words were, when you got down to it, religious. People had over the head with a two-by-four to get his attention.” She was Phil to be desensitized to them also. She delighted in challenging people Dona¬hue’s very first talk show guest, and as such launched his career to explain the objective difference between the words “fuck” and in television at the same time she launched her own. “copulate,” and she would point out that ficken, the German cognate, Madalyn never even tried to hide the fact that she had no respect was fairly acceptable for use in ordinary German discourse. Why should for anybody’s religion. According to her aphorism, religion had caused it be wrong to use the word in English but not in German? Superstition, more harm than any other single idea in the history of humankind. It nothing more. would be immoral, in fact, to pretend that evil so great might become just She did expend great effort to desensitize the nation to the ‘A-word.’

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 27 She used the words “Atheist” and “Atheism”—capitalized, no less— In ruling against the case, US District Court Judge Jack Roberts agreed over and over in every possible venue. Before Madalyn, most Atheists with a federal appeals court’s ruling that the use of the motto on coins were afraid to use the word other than in whispers. Things are much “has nothing to do with the establishment of religion. Its use is of a different now, thanks to her, although I can’t say the desensitization of patriotic or ceremonial character and bears no true resemblance to a society as a whole is yet complete. Nevertheless, Madalyn made it much governmental sponsorship of a religious exercise.” The Supreme Court safer — and much more natural — to call oneself an Atheist. refused to review the case on appeal. Attempts to remove religious slogans from money, the national motto, and the pledge of allegiance The Legal Legacy to the flag continue today. (All three intrusions of religious language Madalyn is most remembered for her watershed lawsuit Murray into the secular sphere occurred in the mid-1950s, as the finale of the v. Curlett (1963) in which the US Supreme Court ruled that forced McCarthy crusade against “Atheist communism.”) prayer and bible reading in public schools was unconstitutional. O’Hair v. Blumenthal changed my life completely, forcing me to Murray v. Curlett, moreover, had contested school prayer on behalf of abandon a twenty-year career at a community college branch of the Atheists, and the plaintiffs had identified themselves as Atheists— State University of New York. How did this happen? In 1977 I had supplying an eloquent explanation of Atheist philosophy (see sidebar). joined with Madalyn, the composer Leonard Bernstein, and a multitude Unfortunately, this very fact of which Atheists are justly proud resulted of other co-plaintiffs in her suit to get “In God We Trust” off our money. in the court spitefully relegating Madalyn’s case to a subsidiary role I made the rounds of radio and television talk-shows in the New York in its published decision, which combined Murray with a similar case State Capital District. That infuriated the right-wing politicians who Life magazine dubbed her “the most hated woman in America.” brought by Edward Schempp, a Unitarian. That made it hard for legal controlled the purse strings of the college and led to their withholding scholars even to obtain her case. Although the full title of the decision funds for science education until I was forced to resign.* is School District of Abington Township, Pennsylvania, et al., Appellants, v. Edward Lewis Schempp et al., William J. Murray III, etc., et al., Petitioners, Office Space v. John N. Curlett, President, et al., Individually, and Constituting the Board Living and working long hours together in what psychologically of School Commissioners of Baltimore City, the case is always indexed and were tight quarters was not easy or without instability. The three referred to as Abington Township v. Schempp. Period. Despite the fact highly-charged personalities of Madalyn, her son Jon Garth Murray, that Murray had docket No. 119 and Schempp was No. 142 (Murray and granddaughter Robin Eileen Murray-O’Hair were like mutually clearly having priority), and despite the fact that Murray was broader in repellent protons in an unstable nucleus—threatening to fly apart its petition, the Court could not dignify Atheists by granting them the at any moment but held together by the invisible binding forces of title of a decision. common purpose and consanguinity. New staff would often be Madalyn never forgave the slight. alarmed—even frightened—by the shouting matches that often Despite the judicial smothering of her case, Madalyn was quick to erupted among the three principals, but such emotional outbursts claim the victory—and the world ignored Schempp—even though that were always short-lived. One time, when my wife, Ann, and I were was now the official name on the case—and focused all its wrath on visiting it looked as though they were about to kill each other. Several Madalyn. Life magazine dubbed her “the most hated woman in America.” hours later, they treated us to late-night hamburgers and regaled us (Madalyn’s gripping, personal account of the violent aftermath of the with the day’s hate mail. We all were jolly as we parted to get some SCOTUS decision can be found in her autobiographical An Atheist sleep before the next fourteen-hour day of work. Epic, available from American Atheist Press.) Virtually every First Amendment religious case before the Supreme Madalyn’s Voice is Silenced Court since 1963 has either been enabled by Murray v. Curlett or For many years, persistent rumors had circulated that Madalyn has been necessitated by attempts of religionists to nullify it. All the had embezzled millions of dollars from her organizations and had attempts to sneak creationism into the public schools, all the prayers at squirreled them away in some offshore repository. (No matter that those football games, all the attempts to get vouchers for parochial schools— organizations were always so close to bankruptcy that she often had to all these efforts and more have, without exception, had Madalyn’s case use her military and Social Security pensions to help pay the staff!) She down deep below the surface as the irritant motivating them. Of course, was, after all, an Atheist, and how could an Atheist be trusted? this motivation is not always hidden. In fact, literally millions (probably Somehow, rumors of the millions found their way to David Roland billions, if one counts all the sermons preached since 1963) of words Waters, a man who had committed his first murder while yet a teenager have been written and spoken by religionists about the case that “kicked and had served time for other violent crimes as well. Out of prison once God out of the public schools” and about the Atheist who challenged again, he found his way to the American Atheist Center in Austin and the hegemony of the clergy in American secular society. sought employment. Presenting a completely bogus resume, he started Although Murray v. Curlett—a case she won—was Madalyn’s most work as general factotum and quickly demonstrated that he could do important case for our country, O’Hair v. Blumenthal (1977)— a case anything needed to keep the office running. When the Murray O’Hair she lost—was of greatest importance to me personally. This case sought family had to leave the office for a week or so to join me and other to remove the motto “In God We Trust” from US currency and coins. members of the board to defend ourselves and our corporations in a

28 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 trial to be held in a federal court in San Diego, he was charged with Texas ranch. Only then could it be proved that they were not traitors to holding down the fort. their own cause or robbers of their own corporations. No one was ever As soon as the family was gone, Waters hacked into the computers charged with murder in the case, but David Roland Waters and Gary and stole tens of thousands of dollars of the operating funds. He cracked Karr were sent to prison on lesser charges. the safe as well, stealing over a hundred thousand dollars in bonds. When the Murray O’Hairs returned to the office unexpectedly early, A Chilling Memory they found that the staff had been dismissed and Waters was nowhere At one point, Ellen Johnson was able to contact Jon and Robin by to be seen. Madalyn quickly found incontrovertible evidence that means of Madalyn’s cell phone. They assured Ellen that everything was Waters had robbed her corporation, but when she took the evidence okay—they were just away on business. I also tried several times to to the Austin police, they would not take any action. It wasn’t until call Madalyn on her cell phone, but she never answered. Several days weeks later—after Atheists all over the country, myself included, had after I gave up, I started to receive death threats on my home phone faxed letters and petitions of protest to the chief of police, the sheriff, in Columbus, Ohio. Although I had received dozens of death threats the county prosecutor, and a judge—that David Waters was brought in over the years only a few were deemed to require the attention of police. for questioning. After pleading guilty to the thefts, he was released and These calls, however, were different. They all were from a man who was ordered to repay the stolen money as he was able. could disguise his voice in multiple ways and then, after engaging me While rummaging through the computers, Waters had found a in conversation, would revert to what I suppose was his real voice and million-dollar account in a bank in New Zealand. Having been hired snarl, “The same thing that happened to Madalyn and Robin is going to about a year after American Atheists had completed its well-publicized happen to you and your wife.” fund drives to amass a million-dollar trust fund—it had been hoped The calls came daily for more than a week. Immediately after the that the earnings from the fund would pay for the day-to-day operations first call, I notified the police and a trap was placed on my phone. Never of the organization—Waters must have concluded that he had found could a call be traced accurately; they seemed to bounce all over the one of the fabled offshore accounts he had been seeking. The New country and trace to innocent, real people. One call came as a police Madalyn made it much safer, and much more natural, to call oneself an Atheist.

Zealand account, however, was not hackable, and Waters had to delay officer was at my home. He picked up the phone and argued with the its acquisition to a later date. caller. The caller would not believe it was actually an officer of the law! That date appears to have been Sunday, August 27, 1995, a day Days later, the threats ceased, and it was only five years later, after the Waters knew the Murray O’Hairs would be working at the Atheist bodies were found, that I had a chilling thought. Had Waters gotten Center alone. Accompanied by fellow ex-con Gary Karr and petty crook my home phone number from Madalyn’s phone? Had I been talking to Danny Fry (and indirectly assisted by girlfriends and another ex-con, Waters? Improbable, but certainly not impossible. Gerald Lee “Chico” Osborne), Waters kidnapped the trio, held them hostage for a month, and extorted over $600,000 from them. Jon was The Summing Up forced to withdraw money from the New Zealand trust fund and wire I wish to conclude this assessment of Madalyn O’Hair by saying it to a coin dealer in San Antonio, Texas, converted it into gold coins. without apology that I think Madalyn Murray O’Hair was the most When the kidnappers obtained the coins, they killed the “First Family important legal figure of the 20th century in terms of both the practical of Atheism”—apparently by strangulation, dismembered their bodies, impact she had and the theoretical implications of her cases. Her stuffed them into small plastic barrels, tried to cremate them, and then fight was not just about school prayer and Bible-reading in schools. buried them on the Camp Wood ranch near San Antonio. It was not just about the separation of state and church. Her fight The Murray O’Hairs were forced to leave a handwritten note on the was fundamentally a fight for liberty, and it was a fight for the most front door saying that they had been called away on important business. fundamental of liberties: the liberty of the mind. Soon rumors began to circulate about their disappearance. In order All her life, Madalyn sought truth, both in the microcosm and in the to keep American Atheists operating, the board of directors elected macrocosm. The pursuit of truth, however, depends upon freedom— Ellen Johnson acting director. Ann and I were asked to rejoin the board freedom of inquiry. Minds that are shackled by superstition and forced from which we had retired a year earlier. When Ellen discovered the to reason in chains cannot seek truth. Minds that are free but barred by $600,000 missing from the New Zealand trust fund and reported the religious or other authorities from carrying out investigations cannot theft, widespread claims circulated that the family had absconded with seek the truth either. Madalyn fought against all forces impeding pursuers the money and were hiding in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, or of truth. She did not win that war, but she bravely gave her every erg of even Bulgaria or Romania. But no police agency would investigate their effort to the fight. For that I honor her. For that I remember her. disappearance, even when Madalyn’s estranged son William, a born- again Christian, tried to get them to do so. Frank R. Zindler is a member of the Board of Directors and managing editor It would be January 2001 before the dismembered remains of of this magazine. Madalyn Murray O’Hair, Jon Garth Murray, and Robin Eileen Murray- O’Hair would be exhumed from their shallow graves on the desolate *See “Eliminate That Atheist!” in the 4th Quarter 2012 issue.

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 29 From an Old Guy not from the Old Guard

A Look Back at American Atheists’ First Fifty Years by Ed Buckner

left high school for Bible, which he’d asked her to sign.) Rice University in 1963, She once made the comment (for so I have some sense of how a Texas newspaper, I think), “Thank God long American Atheists has I’m an Atheist.” For years afterwards, I been at it, but I never met Madalyn heard people like my siblings claim that MurrayI O’Hair. I joined American Atheists as “proof” that even the Atheists really are sometime in the 1970s, but I was never a part believers—deep down where they don’t even of even local leadership until I was hired to be the know it. What it actually proved was that Atheists president in 2008. But I’m an ardent fan, a longtime have a sense of humor, that we can employ irony to good activist, and old enough to have seen first-hand what American effect. She made it plain in every public appearance that she Atheists has accomplished and to have well-grounded reasons was proud to be a “militant” or “avowed” Atheist, unapologetic for optimism about the future. about not accepting what religions were selling. She never In the 1960s, when Madalyn Murray O’Hair (MMOH, as many asked permission for, or hinted that she needed the establishment’s of us affectionately refer to her) first strode onto the national stage approval of, her views. She bristled at any hint of condescension, boldly raising hell in court, in debates, and on TV, she was not well loved asserting her right—and the right of all Atheists—to believe and among my parents and siblings, let alone the rest of the nation. She practice according to their own lights, not those of authority or religion. took pride in being called “the most hated woman in America” and She was hated, I’ve become convinced, more for daring to disagree she seemed to relish her reputation as a fearless troublemaker and an openly and plainly than for any prickly rudeness or for her occasionally avowed, aggressive Atheist. At the time, I was gradually coming to own grandiose ideas on her personal lifestyle. She was hated more for daring to disagree openly and plainly than for any prickly rudeness or grandiose ideas on her personal lifestyle. my senses as an Atheist but as I watched her from afar, I was unsure Whatever our current needs for civility, graciousness, and of her techniques and tactics. Was she, as some Christian relatives and cooperation (and we can argue about such matters), the only real friends claimed, just being rude for its own sake, intentionally rubbing choices in 1963 were to accept our roles as social and moral inferiors or believers the wrong way for sport? Why was she so angry, so vigorous to stand up and defend ourselves. MMOH had something in common in her defense of Atheism? Couldn’t diplomacy and cordiality have with Baptist preachers in the Revolutionary Era like Isaac Backus worked better? I watched her tell a TV preacher on a talk show, “Keep or John Leland, who rejected “official toleration” of their beliefs and the faith, Bob, but keep it to yourself.” (I think she also wrote that in his practices in favor of complete liberty of conscience. They argued then,

30 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 The 1960s and 1970s were a time when the vast majority of Americans sincerely believed they were speaking the truth (even though they weren’t, even back then) when they said they’d never known an Atheist. as we argue now, that government—and the broader society, for that in foxholes or that we have freedom of religion in America, not freedom matter—has no power to declare whether we’re right about anyone’s from religion, was vocally shared by many I knew. The 1960s and 1970s ideas about any gods. were a time when the vast majority of Americans sincerely believed they In due course, Atheists, including me, came to see MMOH as a were speaking the truth (even though they weren’t, even back then) breath of fresh air, a courageous and clear-headed defender, and a leader, when they said they’d never known an Atheist. The stigma of Atheists no matter her faults. The organization she led quickly gained credibility being hopelessly immoral, outrageously in rebellion against a loving with us as one that would stand up for us and for the idea that we richly God, and in league with Satan (possibly as foolish dupes rather than his deserve to be defended and stood up for. evil minions) was pervasive. The stigma has not ended, the fear of and My son, Michael, was born to my wife, Diane, and me in 1970. When hatred of us has not abated, and the ignorance and misunderstanding he was quite young, one of my pious sisters sent him a book of sappy is still widespread. But there has been overwhelming progress over Bible stories. She knew of our Atheism and insisted she was not trying to the last fifty years for Atheists, despite the massive work still to be be rude or cause trouble; she just wanted Michael to have some exposure done. American Atheists and Madalyn Murray O’Hair were not the to the truth, to have a chance at a decent and moral life. She feared that only factors in bringing about the positive changes, but they were he might, without her brave help, meander through life in the American indisputably the key leaders for the good of Atheists, an indispensable South without learning about the “good news” of Christianity. And, of part of change for the good. course, Christianity was oh-so-invisible to us. (Her efforts apparently I’ve known and had the privilege of working with some of the failed. Despite our steadfast avoidance of indoctrination, Michael is, many people who led and worked for American Atheists in its earliest like Diane and me—but without any suggestion from us—a proud life days: Frank Zindler, the late Ann Zindler, Neal Cary, Noel Scott, the member of American Atheists.) I was angry with my sister then but knew that sending her a protest letter would not change her mind or her approach. I wrote instead to I watched her tell a TV preacher, American Atheists, asking them to send some materials on Atheism to my sister so that her children might have some exposure to better “Keep the faith, Bob, ideas. I strongly doubt that my sister ever shared that material with her children, but she never again sent Christian reading matter to Michael, so she apparently got the message. but keep it to yourself.” Another example of the impact of American Atheists also comes from my personal history. In 1968, my father was the rector at St. late Conrad Goeringer, Chris Allen, Dick Hogan, Arlene-Marie, Christopher’s Episcopal Church in League City, Texas. That was also Rich Andrews, Dave Kong, Ellen Johnson, and many others. (My the year that Apollo 8 became the first manned spacecraft to orbit communication and cooperation with Ellen Johnson came before I was the moon. Its commander, Frank Borman, was a lay reader at St. anything beyond a member.) Christopher’s. Frank and my father cooked up a plan for Frank to take I’m strongly optimistic about the long-range future of Atheism, and part in the church’s Christmas Eve service as he was orbiting the moon. American Atheists is the most important basis for that optimism. Today The timing turned out not to be right for Frank’s live participation, we have an incredibly bright, diverse, energetic board, with a nice blend but he did record a prayer from orbit that was used in the service. As of old guard and dynamic newer leaders. We have important legal efforts a result, there was worldwide hoopla over these religious bits as well as underway. We have this fine magazine to serve as the flagship for our the mission itself and my father got his fifteen minutes of fame. published efforts to educate ourselves and others. We have a still small After all this, MMOH sued the Feds on the grounds that the but skilled and dedicated staff to keep us on track. We support local astronauts are government agents sent to the moon at huge taxpayer groups and collaborate with national groups with stunningly successful expense and should therefore be restricted from using that mission for results like the Reason Rally. It was supported by many groups and their missionary work. The courts denied jurisdiction and refused to individuals—but spearheaded by American Atheists and President intervene, but NASA apparently got the message since future blatant David Silverman. And it’s his leadership that’s assuredly the single most attempts at astronaut proselytizing were at least muted. (See the important reason for my confidence in the future of American Atheists. Wikipedia article on Apollo 8 for more details.) MMOH did not gain in respect or affection from my parents and siblings —but Atheism gained Ed Buckner was the president of American Atheists from 2008 to 2010 and nevertheless. is a current member of the Board of Directors. His new book, In Freedom The widespread national disdain for American Atheists and We Trust: An Atheist Guide to Religious Liberty (Prometheus Books), was co- MMOH, echoed in the recurring canards like there being no Atheists authored with his son, Michael.

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 31 Religion is an App by Ce Atkins

Greetings, heretics. Verily, religion is an app. To put this idea in an evolutionary context, let’s start with a few structure that optimizes relationship information. quotes from a powerful information processor, Dr. Jonas Salk: “The most The philosophic orientation here is that all the codes mentioned fundamental phenomenon of the universe is relationship.” “Evolution has above are structured information aggregates that simultaneously proceeded along the course of optimizing relationships.” function as apps. They are information processors trying to optimize relationships within and among their respective networks. From Nature Tech: Code this perspective, moral, religious, and legal codes are aggregated One of nature’s technologies for optimizing relationships is code. information structures that function—albeit imprecisely—as culture Code—genetic, language, moral, religious, legal, software, etc.—is apps/information processors which attempt to optimize human the technology that living beings use to optimize (organize, weight, relationships. prioritize) component relationships within a network. Codes are Etiquette, sportsmanship, and diplomacy are examples of sub- aggregated, condensed, and generally standardized information codes or apps. DNA and emotions are biological apps; software structures. is a technological app. In the context of our Earth being 4.5 billion DNA is an aggregated, condensed, and generally standardized years old, these are all complexity apps, generated for more effective information structure. DNA is code that functions as an application, navigation (optimization) of increasingly complex relationships. Science, as a reality-processing app, has been gnawing on god’s coverage map for centuries. an app that attempts to optimize a body’s myriad network So how is religion an app? Here’s an example. It’s 1842. You’re in relationships (digestive, immune, etc.) to sustain its life. DNA also a 53-unit wagon train heading west. You’re about to cross the Platte seeks to optimize an organism’s relationships with geo, eco, bio and River in Nebraska, but there’s no bridge. social networks. The wagons slowly roll through the river. You and your family are A set of moral principles is a code. It’s an aggregated, condensed, on the 47th wagon. The first 46 cross without significant problems. often standardized information structure used as an app to optimize However, their crossing has altered the contours of the river bottom, human relationships in social networks. A moral code is an aggregate loosening a rock structure. Your wagon hits the structure, snaps a

32 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 When you have an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent super app called god, you can cover a lot of ground. wheel from the axle, and pitches the wagon into the frigid waters of the offspring. the Platte. When we lived in tribes of 40 hunter/gatherers roaming thousands of Your mother was holding your seven-month-old baby daughter. acres, we needed primitive moral and religious apps. When we evolved Tragically, they both perish in the swift currents of the river. This to 100-acre villages of 4,000 people, we needed to develop a new cultural devastating event causes your emotion apps to be fully engaged; you technology to try to optimize all the new relationships generated by suffer severe crying fits and profound sadness. Still, like a soldier the more complex social structure. And so we invented a new coding whose best friend is killed next to him in battle, the demands of technology, a culture relationship app we call law, or legal codes. survival (other codes) override the emotion apps and the next day the Forty nomadic hunter/gatherers could pretty much bury their wagon train presses on. dead anywhere. Four thousand people living in one place can’t. Next The pastor traveling with your group processes the horrible loss to the well? No. Next to the brothel? No. Legal codes are culture apps by using a religion app to soothe the emotion apps. He eloquently that seek to articulate optimal relationships between decaying bodies speaks of the similarity between grandmother and granddaughter, the and things like drinkable water or people having sex. We processed grandmother’s kindness, and how god has called them home to heaven these relationships, coded them, and survived. because of their purity, or whatever story he invokes per his app. You are an Atheist with a degree in engineering. You understand Complexity and Religious Codes statistics, that crossing rivers can be dangerous, and that there is Religious codes are a cultural technology/app, developed in some probability a wagon will not successfully forge the river. While an attempt to optimize human relationships. Ongoing increases you agree with the pastor’s assessment of the grandmother’s strong in complexity generated by evolution (e.g., where new aggregate character, you do not invoke the god/heaven/religion app to process structures come online such as physics, biology, chemistry) have their deaths. You do use the emotion app of sadness, but you also use rendered the religion app an obsolete and increasingly dangerous the science app of statistical probability. impediment to our ability to accurately, quickly, and powerfully Religion is a primitive information processor—part explanation process the realities of climate change, population increases, etc. app, part comfort app. Religious codes are aggregate information John Tooby, the founder of evolutionary psychology, said, “The structures trying to help people optimize relationships with death, mind is designed to balance these two functions: coordinating with god, other people, ancestors, etc. Historically, religion’s app coverage reality, and coordinating with others. The larger the payoffs to social has been huge. When you have an omniscient, omnipresent, coordination, and the less commonly beliefs are tested against reality, omnipotent super app called god, you can cover a lot of ground from then the more social demands will determine belief—that is, network broken wagon wheels, to the color of your eyes, to super storms, to fixation of belief will predominate. Physics and chip design will have a the collapse of whole nations. Science, as a reality-processing app, has high degree of coordination with reality, while the social sciences and been gnawing on god’s coverage map for centuries. climatology will have less (Edge.org).” As Atheists, we get it. Religion is antiquated code/software, an Culture Codes archaic app that doesn’t coordinate well with reality. In earlier cultural iterations we lived in tribes. When the best hunter (let’s call him Joe) brought home a big buck, we used moral codes to process the distribute-meat-to the-tribal-members relationship. Sure, Joe killed the buck, but it’s Omar who makes the excellent Religion is a primitive arrows that allow for greater accuracy with his new feather app that processes/optimizes the arrows-moving-through-air relationship. information processor: And don’t forget Judy’s bow stings. They allow for greater power. Joe had a lot of information processing help. (We’re a eusocial species; we specialize.) So who should get the best cuts of meat and who should part explanation app, get the merely edible ones? Moral codes tried to optimize meat-tribe (network) relationships for the survival and well-being of everyone. part comfort app. Moses’ Ten Commandments were religious codes trying to optimize relationships in human-to-god and human-to-human networks. His ten-point app says if you want a good relationship with god, forget those other gods (the g-man gets jealous). If you want good tribal relationships, don’t steal and don’t covet Harry’s Ce Atkins is the creator and editor of PostGenetic.com, which proposes the wife (Harry gets jealous). For males, jealously is, in part, a nasty, development of crowd, computer, and/or individual-sourced, postgenetic biological/emotional app, coded to secure and monitor a vital and codes integrated with technology to help us navigate the exponential scarce resource: fertile eggs. For females, jealousy is, in part, a radar increases in cultural complexity. He also writes regularly for the Science app for securing and monitoring a male’s commitment to help raise Interview Series in this magazine.

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 33 Jesus was a Horse Thief by Rick Wingrove

Artists Rendition of the Holy Perpetrator ~ Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld

hile scanning the bible one day, I ran across an odd little story. It was a strange, seemingly innocuous account that seemed out of place, and one that I had never heard mentioned before. The more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed. Now I have come to think that this bizarre little story may hold the key to the entire christian fable. Jesus (assuming for the purpose of this argument that a traveling evangelist by that name once existed) lived in a time Wof great gullibility and religious fervor. Superstition was deeply ingrained into the everyday lives of the millions - literacy and critical skepticism were not - certainly not in regards to vengeful and unpredictable gods whose ire could be unleashed upon the unwary for no apparent reason. The average citizen was fearful and entirely powerless against authoritarian rulers. Questioning authority seldom evoked an enlightened or compassionate reaction. The people of that region have a history of extreme susceptibility to any and every new superstition that came along. It was a golden age for traveling holy men. So anyway, this particular itinerant preacher had a gang of 12 guys who followed him around. That raises the question - what did these guys do all day? Were these 12 mouths he had to feed just mindless adoring sycophants, following him around, hanging on every word, (though

34 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 never writing any of it down), and receiving food like manna from simply hand over their loot without a struggle. heaven, or did they exist in a real world, having to earn their keep and So they went to town, located this guy's horse, and started to make deal with daily pressures, necessities, and irritations? Like traveling off with it when the guy spots them and comes running out to find out preachers of today, his staff might have had a variety of duties like what the hell they think they are doing. So, they 'splain to the guy how those of advance men and roadies who get there ahead of the gig, it's gonna be. I guess you could say they made him an offer he couldn't carry the bags, find accommodations, gather firewood, cook, put up refuse. Long story short, the guy caves and they depart with what, for posters, manage public relations, grease palms, call in favors, arrange many people in that part of the world in those days, would have been permits, find venues, and a thousand other ad hoc chores. a large and indispensable part of their net worth. Whatever they told Or, were some of their duties more like those of Medicine Show him seems to have been quite persuasive. crowd plants who were miraculously cured anew in every town. The Lastly, they made a riding blanket out of their clothing - so far so tricks of the trade, like bringing dead people back to life, might have good, although it is a little surprising that the alleged son of god would played to the country peasants who might mistake a deep coma require either a horse or padding for his own butt - but then it just for death. And faith healing? Petty magic and flim flam - tools of got weird. His followers started laying thier clothis on the ground for the trade for hucksters and charlatans. It might have impressed the the horse to walk on. Why they were doing this is not evident, but it ignorant and superstitious, who, after being taken in, were unlikely sounds like something that a petulant young medieval prince might to confess their gullibility until the show was long gone. have had his minions do out of boredom. Makes me wonder how At any rate, one could easily believe that at least parts of their days many miles they kept that up. were filled with sometimes mundane duties involved in the support Boiled down, this has conspiracy, coercion, and grand theft of a traveling faith healing show - things like finding and preparing written all over it. I'm not sure how the folks around Bethpage and food for his posse, collecting and handling money, managing Bethany dealt with this kind of thing, but the Romans were known to transportation, security duties such as screening access to the son of be very tough on crime and were fond of using criminals, including the creator of the universe, etc. Apparently, sometimes those duties petty thieves, for rough entertainment. Where I come from, stealing included special ops. a horse would have gotten a person hanged a lot faster than religious While searching for a bible passage one day, my eyes fell upon a scammery. most curious account in Luke 19, verses 29 - 36. Conclusion And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to And I think that’s exactly what happened. It turns out that local Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount constabularies of the day viewed thievery very harshly. Imprisonment, of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying, go ye torture, and cruel executions were common even for petty offenses. into the village over against you; in the which at your It seems to me that there is a likelihood that this traveling preacher entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man simply ran afoul of the law, got caught and got hung, so to speak. sat: loose him, and bring him hither. And if any man Now the large number of people who actually believe the jesus ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto fable will tell you that he was tortured and crucified like a common him, Because the Lord hath need of him. And they that criminal for his beliefs. The adamantly religious are rarely objective, were sent went their way, and found even as he had said and sometimes diverge from the facts in the public assessment of their figureheads. Looks to me like his followers and the biblical revisionists unto them. And as they were loosing the colt, the owners who came later may have glossed over any misdeeds committed by thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt? And they this pack of unemployed religionistas, and painted his incarceration said, The Lord hath need of him. And they brought him as if he were an innocent, unjustly imprisoned, and badly treated to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and religious/political prisoner, Luke 19 notwithstanding. they set Jesus thereon. And as he went, they spread their It reminds me of the old Bob Newhart Show in which Bob was clothes in the way. complaining about a ticket for parking illegally in an alley. His airheaded neighbor, Howard, told Bob about a guy he knew who had What are we to glean from this sparse account? Looking at parked illegally in that same alley and was now in prison. this with an eye on known human behavior modes, here is what Bob asked incredulously, "He's in prison for illegal parking?" it looks like to me: Jesus and his crew stopped outside a small Howard replied, "Yeah! Well... that and he killed a guy." town to scope it out and make some plans. Apparently these plans So, yes, Jesus was executed for his religious views. That, and he involved the removal of a horse (colt*) from the town without stole a horse. prior approval or notification of the owner. Today, this is known as 'theft' and, until relatively recently, was a hanging offense. Jesus told two of his men to go into the town where they would Rick Wingrove is the Virginia State Director for American Atheists find a horse. He told them to get the horse and bring it to him and the graphics and layout editor for this magazine. without being seen, but if they were seen, to inform the guy that they were taking his horse to their boss, a guy who apparently had enough *Although there were certainly horses available in those days, it is possible of a rep (and 12 mindless "followers", work hardened and ready to do that this meant an ass or a donkey. But in days of yore, stealing a loaf of bread whatever the "son of god" might require of them) that people would could get you hung, let alone a small, rideable, horse-like, animal.

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 35 REMEMBERING ANN IN MEMORIAM ANN E. ZINDLER February 25, 1935—January 4, 2013 by Frank R. Zindler

t’s been a long goodbye, but now it’s final. The only woman I have ever loved has died, two months shy of her seventy- eighth birthday. Eighteen years after her first breast cancer in 1990, she developed another cancer. Then she suffered liver failure, and a heroic four-and-a-half-year battle against the metastatic disease came to an end. She knew she wouldn’t make it to her birthday. Consequently, upon starting hospice-at-home, she requested that I order from Kroger’s an “un-birthday cake” with lemon filling and white frosting with red roses, get some French vanilla ice cream from Graeters, buy some cheap pink champagne, and have the family join us to have an un-birthday party. We all were there: our daughter Catherine, her consort “Big Mike,” and our three Igrandchildren Michael, Steven, and Laura. Exactly one week later, at about the same time of day that the party had been celebrated, her heart shut down and she breathed her last belabored breath. Ann died at home, but she had spent so much time in hospitals and rehab centers during the year 2012 that any one of them might have begun to feel like home away from home. From January to January, one medical crisis after another developed and I devoured an up-to-date pathophysiology text so I could alert her doctors to subtle developments and allow prompt interventions. At least three times during the year, Ann eluded the Reaper. Alas, during all the “down time” when she was fighting acute illnesses unrelated to the cancer, she could not receive chemotherapy and the tumor cells multiplied steadily until there was nothing more to be done. My wife, lover, and best friend—my better self—is now gone and I need to sort out the facts about her that I hope will be remembered— the facts that may help to show why her life was important not only to me and our family but to the entire Community of Reason as well. Ann was born on February 25, 1935 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Charles Gordon Hunt and Ruth Elizabeth Prather Hunt. Her father was nonreligious during most of his life until he had a heart attack and caught a bad case of religion from his wife. (The disease proved incurable, and he lived only a few years longer.) Ann’s mother, however, was a life-long member of the Church of Christ (not to be confused with the Christian Church, which scandalously allows the use of musical instruments Ann and Frank Zindler in its services) and was an evangelical to the max. Throughout Ann’s childhood and early adult life, Ruth tried to make Ann get religion. Ann remembered how, at about the age of five, her mother made her put her nickel in the collection plate during the collection. She always enjoyed

36 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 recounting how much she resented having to give Jesus her money in Michigan. We wanted to have a “Life magazine wedding,” that is, a when she could buy so much candy with it. “Jesus doesn’t need money wedding so unusual that it would make the pages of Life. I had become to buy candy,” she thought, “so why should I give him my nickel?” acquainted with the anthropologist Margaret Meade and we planned to Ann attended Roosevelt High School, a school operated by Eastern have her perform the ceremony—in front of the Brontosaurus skeleton Michigan University. It was, of course, quite secular—not exactly what in the Field Museum in Chicago. I also knew Marlin Perkins at the time Ann’s mother preferred. Ann was “encouraged” to attend a revival-like and we thought it would be nice for him to supply a couple chimpanzees meeting of the church at which she claimed she was “hypnotized” into from the Lincoln Park Zoo to serve as ring bearers. Unfortunately, getting dunked. The bapt’ypnosis didn’t last, however, and it wore off in a Margaret Meade was not licensed in Illinois to perform marriages, and few days—leaving Ann more skeptical than ever. More drastic measures even if she could, it didn’t seem likely that the museum would allow being needed, Ann was sent off to get religion at Harding College, a bible- chimpanzees inside its Mesozoic sanctuary. college-like school in Searcy, Arkansas. Not surprisingly, Harding College We decided then to be married in the Unitarian Church in Ann was where Ann “learned to sin.” It seems that many other Christian Arbor—a hotbed of heresy filled with atheistic professors from the parents had sent their wayward offspring to Harding to be reformed, University of Michigan. Alas, Ann’s mother had heard about Unitarians and so Ann found many other like-minded free spirits with whom to and that quickly became as impossible as chimpanzees beside a associate. There being around forty rules (“commandments”) governing Brontosaurus. We had to get hitched in the home of Ann’s parents in life in the dormitory, she and another ne’er-do-well systematically set out Ypsilanti. I composed and recorded a wedding march that was played to break them all. Coming to the prohibition against “soliciting,” they as Ann descended the open staircase to the living room where about were unsure how to understand the rule but decided that reselling candy sixteen guests were assembled. Her mother’s hillbilly preacher and bars up and down the dormitory hall would I were waiting for her in front of a large bay suffice to violate the rule. Ann was not asked window that faced the assembled guests. to return the following year. The snakes and Earlier, Ann had told the preacher that she turtles in the bathtub may have been partly to wanted the bare minimum of ceremony—no blame. sermon, no obeying, etc. Just the minimum Returning from Arkansas to Ypsilanti, that would be legal. Right. The preacher had Michigan, where she had been reared, she his back to the window, facing the audience. enrolled at Eastern Michigan University to Ann and I were facing the window and the study biology and art. To earn tuition money, preacher, with our backs to the guests. No she worked part-time at the University of sooner had the preacher started the ceremony, Michigan in neighboring Ann Arbor as a the spirit fell upon him and he launched into desk clerk and telephone operator in a men’s a sermon. As he was just about to enter the dormitory—the dorm in which I had just theosphere, Ann—whose nose was about two come to live. I have only vague memories of feet away from his—made a face. It was an conversations with her from that period, and omigawd-won’t-you-spare-us-this-nonsense didn’t really get to know her until the summer type of face. after my graduation. Although it was a cool day in mid-October, I had decided to stay in Ann Arbor Ann Zindler sweat spurted from the preacher’s forehead. that summer to take the intensive Greek He faltered in his fantasy, stammered, and course. One day, as I was walking with the proclaimed, “I now pronounce you man and cinematographer-to-be Michael (Alessandro) Degaetano to the wife.” Ann and I then decided we really should exchange rings in order Michigan Union to get a drink and a bite to eat, I saw a woman walking to make things legal. And so began an amazing marriage that lasted about fifteen feet ahead of us. “I think that’s Ann Hunt,” I said to more than forty-eight years. Michael, a bit louder than I realized. Furiously, she whirled around and Ann was what I call a natural Atheist—someone who simply confronted us. “Are you talking about me?” she snapped. “Yes,” I said. cannot believe in things without evidence. I, by contrast, had been very “Aren’t you Ann Hunt?” “Who are you?” she fumed. “I’m Frank Zindler.” religious as a child—so religious that after graduating from eighth grade Immediately her annoyance disappeared. It turned out that we had I had been offered an eight-year scholarship to attend a Lutheran high had many friends in common and she knew my name. We went together school and seminary in Milwaukee. Although Ann did not call herself then to the Union and three months later we were engaged to be married. an Atheist at the time we met, after reading the copy of Homer Smith’s We realized much later that I actually had been to a New Year’s Man and His Gods that I gave her that summer she realized that “Atheist” party at her apartment but had passed out after one drink, got very was the perfect word to describe her Weltanschauung. And so began a sick, and spent the night on the bathroom floor of an apartment across philosophical, activist, and loving partnership that never faltered until it the hall. That was the first of the silent migraines that have plagued me was dissolved by death. sporadically throughout my life. In any case, Ann had become known In the 1970s, when I was a professor at SUNY-Johnstown, we lived for the “salons” over which she presided. She was a magnet for some in Upstate New York, in the Mohawk Valley. About the year 1976, of the most brilliant young artists, mathematicians, and scientists at Madalyn Murray O’Hair came to New York City to organize a chapter the university. It was joked that one should receive graduate credits for of her Society of Separationists, the forerunner of American Atheists, attending her gatherings. Inc. (She was not allowed at the time to charter a corporation with It wasn’t possible to actually get married until more than a year later, the word “Atheist” in the name.) As did I, the nuclear physicist Renato when I was teaching biology and earth science at Holland High School Bobone and his wife Mary of Schenectady attended her meeting. We

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 37 decided to start a chapter with Mary as Director in Schenectady, only In 1990, a small cancer was discovered in Ann’s left breast. a half-hour drive from Amsterdam where we were living at the time. Fortunately, a lumpectomy was possible and only radiotherapy was Cable-access television was just beginning at the time, and Ann and the required. Alas, eighteen years later, in August of 2008, a second tumor Bobones and I decided we should produce a weekly Atheist-education was discovered in the same breast. By the time of its discovery it had program. Ann took the training needed to use the cameras and apparently metastasized, but it was several years before the location and recorders, and proceeded to design and build a television studio in our extent the metastases was realized. Things became critical in February garage. Absolutely hating to speak in public herself, Ann did everything of 2012 and it was necessary to make arrangements for hospice-at- possible to allow me and the Bobones to occupy the spotlight. home. Ann was prepared to die. Her birthday was on February 25, and About a year later we moved to Columbus, Ohio, where we founded she thought she would die soon after. We threw a birthday party for the Central Ohio Chapter of American Atheists with Ann as Assistant her in the nursing home. Roses, birthday cake, Graeter’s ice cream, the Director. A very activist chapter needing many picket signs, Ann did all whole family—and a poem. the graphics, made the signs, and marched with all of us as we picketed I had felt that Ann had actually recovered more than was realized mosques, churches, government buildings, and other threats to the wall and I thought a bit of psychological boosting might help. The muse of of separation between state and church. Hating public speaking, she doggerel came to my aid. With Ann sitting up in bed and surrounded by busied herself in creating the necessary infrastructures needed for others our family, I read the following lines: to glory in the spotlight of public attention. I got all the credit for the work that Ann had done. Fat ladies didn’t get much respect in those days. Shortly after founding the Columbus chapter, we resumed cable- TH access TV, producing a weekly half-hour program called American TO ANN ON HER 77 BIRTHDAY Atheist TV Forum. Sometimes the show involved interviews, but often it was highly didactic—an Atheist primer if you will—for which My dearling, my lover, my copilot Ann many elaborate graphics were required. Guess who produced them! A monthly chapter newsletter was needed, and Ann made use of newly Stay with me, love me, as long as you can. available computer layout and typesetting technology to produce the publication. The newsletter turned quickly into a small magazine. The road that we’ve traveled has still far to go; In the mid-1980s, Madalyn Murray O’Hair conferred life Continue our journey, whichever winds blow. memberships upon us and asked us to join the Board of Directors. Madalyn really loved Ann, and treated her like a daughter. The affection Lend me your compass when clouds start to grow. was mutual. We often were invited to Madalyn’s home in Austin, Texas, and several times the “Unholy Family”—Madalyn, Jon, and Robin— Stay true to our mission, reject not my hand; visited our home in Columbus. Until the murder of the Murray-O’Hair Stray not from our path, sink not in the sand. family in 1995, we functioned as though we were a family of five. After the murders in 1995, Ann’s role in American Atheists really Cease not, in this journey, beside me to stand; shifted into high gear. Publication of American Atheist had lapsed almost Faint not on the pathway we’ve trod through this land. a year prior to the disappearance of the family, and Ann and I decided the journal had to be resurrected. Ann had to reconstruct all the logos Continue to love me, hold tight to my hand. and formatting of the magazine from scratch. Artwork, including covers, had to be created in such a way that it could be printed on the Let’s finish the projects our young hearts had planned. antiquated printing press at American GHQ in Austin. (No printing company in Austin would print Atheist material, and so Madalyn had had to do all her own printing in-house.) In like manner, the monthly It worked! About a week later, when Ann was supposed to come national newsletter had to be recreated from scratch. And then there home to hospice, she simply came home. We had a beautiful summer, were books. Ann’s artistic talent proved indispensable in producing visiting state and metro parks, “camping out” at picnic tables working covers and other graphics for the books that she created with the same on crafts and writing, watching birds and reveling in the world of nature complicated computer software used to produce Time and Newsweek. that was so crucially important to both of us. Throughout her adult My darling wife became a computer geek. With foresight, she passed on life, Ann had been an amateur ornithologist and freshwater biologist. many of her skills to our daughter Catherine, who now is in charge of Swamps were her passion. She loved to swim and snorkel, paint and production of books for American Atheist Press. draw, sew, cook, create miniatures of all sorts, and breed tropical fish Throughout the forty-eight-plus years of our marriage, Ann was and birds. During the years we lived in New York, she became a stained plagued by frequent illnesses. Reactive hypoglycemia and then diabetes glasswright and became rather famous from Boston to DC for her acid- induced the obesity that made the misery and embarrassment of her etched stained glass creations. Glasswrights from all over would call her life. There was a reason for her shunning of cameras. The obesity led to for instruction on how she etched the delicate designs into glass—only osteoarthritis and a sequence of surgical interventions. Hospitalizations to be dismayed to learn that because of the deadliness of hydrofluoric were not entirely without fun for her, however. Avoiding Catholic acid she did most of the etching in the fume hoods in my chemistry hospitals at all cost, she always went to Riverside Methodist Hospital laboratory at the college where I was teaching. During the last few years in Columbus, where there was the always-present annoyance of of her life she took up the art of making delicately designed glass beads. Christian chaplains who thought it their duty to discomfit the sick. Ann Sadly, she did not live long enough to attain the fame she had earned for thoroughly enjoyed returning the “favor.” her stained glass artistry.

38 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 I have already opined that Ann was a “natural Atheist.” Never, in the forty-eight years of our life together did I ever detect even a hint that she took into consideration the notion that there might be a life after Columbus Dispatch obituary, death or any paranormal or supranormal reality. To the end, Ann was a January 9, 2013 philosophical materialist who realized the truth of the beer commercial that said “You only go around once. Go for the gusto!” At the same time, Ann Elizabeth Zindler, née Hunt, 77, of Columbus, she daily exemplified the definition of “Materialism” that she printed at succumbed to metastatic breast cancer at her the back of every issue of American Atheist: Columbus home after a heroic battle of more than four years duration. The daughter of the late Charles “Materialism declares that the cosmos is devoid of immanent Gordon Hunt of Michigan and Ruth Elizabeth Prather conscious purpose; that it is governed by its own inherent, immutable, Hunt of Florida, she was born on February 25, 1935 and impersonal laws; that there is no supernatural interference in in Ann Arbor, MI. She is survived by her brother Lynn human life; that humankind, finding the resources within themselves, can and must create their own destiny. It teaches that we must prize Gordon Hunt of Melbourne, FL; her husband of 48 our life on earth and strive always to improve it. It holds that human years Frank R. Zindler; daughter Catherine E. Zindler; beings are capable of creating a social system based on reason and grandchildren Michael A. Zindler, Steven C. and justice. Materialism’s ‘faith’ is in humankind and their ability to Zindler, and Laura E. Zindler, all of Columbus. She transform the world culture by their own efforts. This is a commitment was a graduate of Roosevelt High School in Ypsilanti, that is, in its very essence, life-asserting. It considers the struggle for MI, and studied art and biology at Eastern Michigan progress as a moral obligation that is impossible without noble ideas University. Before marriage in 1964 she managed that inspire us to bold, creative works.” a women’s dormitory at the University of Michigan. Upon moving to Johnstown, NY in 1967 she became Ann now has been transformed from a material being into a torrent a stained glasswright and was well known on the of cascading memories, but the world of reason is the better for her East Coast for her acid-etched stained glass creations. having lived. It is not entirely likely that American Atheists would Her hobbies included drawing, painting, miniaturing, have survived the death of its founder had it not been for the practical sewing, cooking, snorkeling, breeding tropical fish and publishing skills that Ann brought to the team of Atheist stalwarts who rescued the organization after the disappearance of the Murray-O’Hair birds, and crafts of all kinds, most recently the creation family. Most of her contributions have been so fine-grained that they of glass beads of fine artistry. Coming to Columbus are invisible to the eyes of the present membership. Nevertheless, in 1983 she served as joint director of the Central Ann’s legacy reverberates throughout the Community of Reason. Her Ohio Chapter of American Atheists, the organization presence can be felt everywhere, even if only a few can identify the founded in 1963 by Madalyn Murray O’Hair. After source of the feeling. the murder of the Murray-O’Hair family in 1995, Ann became the principal artist and art and layout editor for American Atheist Press, designing and producing books, magazines, newsletters, and Atheism-associated ephemera such as clever solstice cards. Beyond her family, Ann devoted her life to the advancement of reason and the dispelling of superstition. Even in childhood she could not force herself to believe in religion and was by nature a skeptic. For many years she served on the national Board of Directors of American Atheists, Inc. and labored with her husband Phoenix to guard the wall of separation between state and Acid-etched stained church. She was a member of Planned Parenthood glass window by and NARAL, Zero Population Growth and, being an Ann Zindler avid ornithologist, the Audubon Society. A private memorial of reminiscence will be held in Columbus later in January and a memorial celebration of life will be held at the 50th-anniversary convention of American Atheists to be held in Austin, TX, March 28– 31, 2013. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to the American Atheists legal-defense fund at www. atheists.org.

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 39 NEW LIFE MEMBERS n the past few months, seven members of American Atheists increased their commitment by becoming Lifetime Supporters or by upgrading their Lifetime Supporter memberships! Thanks to our new and upgraded Lifetime Supporters for their significant Icommitment to our organization and for their continued support. Since our last issue of the magazine, the following members have decided to increase their commitment to American Atheists and further promote our shared goals and values: LIFE SILVER David Andrews Lucinda Loveless Kurtis Rader Kenneth Crosby Leroy Barnett Manish Pathak Matthew Rapp David Saidian Richard Haynes Frederick J. Pollack Terry Tappan

Seeking Regional Directors Are you more concerned with society’s secular issues than holy book debates? Are you a motivated, passionate Atheist? Do you want more than potluck dinners and discussions in a pub? Do you want to make a real difference? Activists and activism are what create change. And that is where we want you. American Atheists is looking for volunteer regional directors. Our directors monitor legislation and issues in their areas and take action when needed. They are also the personal contact for the friends and affiliate groups of American Atheists. And they represent American Atheists in local media and assist in national projects in their part of the country. Your efforts will boost the Atheist, freethought, and secular presence in your community. You will meet and work with other well-known activists and celebrities in the movement. You will stand out at our annual convention and meet others from your area and beyond. Interested individuals should be self-motivated, confident, well-spoken, have a professional appearance, and belong to American Atheists for at least one year. Some experience with activism and organizing is preferred. If this sounds like you or someone you know, contact Ken Loukinen, Director of State/Regional Operations, at [email protected].

40 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 From the author of the Dogma Watch series in this magazine

Religion, especially Christianity, has enjoyed unwarranted respect for far too long. Jesus did say a few nice things, but he was no humble or wise prophet. How do we know? It’s in the Bible.

Available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book

NoMeekMessiah.com

Proclaiming Liberty of Conscience

"No man shall be required to worship or maintain a worship against his will." Roger Williams, 1644

What lessons gleaned from the life and ministry of this pioneer of religious liberty can help us to be good citizens in a global pluralized world?

Available through Amazon and iBooks.

www.beckygarrison.com

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 41 American Atheists Affiliates For detailed information visit Atheists.org/Affiliates or contact Stuart Bechman at [email protected].

ALASKA ILLINOIS NEW YORK Alaskan Atheists The Chicago Freethought Project Hudson Valley Humanists ALABAMA IL/WI Stateline Atheists Society New York City Atheists IWU Atheist, Agnostics, and Non-Religious Westchester Atheists Alabama Atheists & Agnostics (UA) The Secular Segment Auburn Atheists & Agnostics OHIO Birmingham Atheists Meetup KANSAS Free Inquiry Group Marshall County Atheists & Agnostics Kansas City Atheist Coalition Freethought Dayton Montgomery Area Freethought Association University of Kansas Society of Open- Humanist Community of Central Ohio North Alabama Freethought Association Minded Atheists and Agnostics Mid-Ohio Atheists UAH Non-Theists KENTUCKY OKLAHOMA ARKANSAS Humanist Forum of Central Kentucky Oklahoma Atheists Arkansas Society of Freethinkers Lexington Atheists Atheist Community of Tulsa Ark-La-Tex Freethinkers, Atheists, Louisville Atheists and Freethinkers PENNSYLVANIA Agnostics & Humanists LOUISIANA NorthEast Pennsylvania Freethought Society ARIZONA New Orleans Secular Humanist Association PA Non-Believers* Tucson Atheists MASSACHUSETTS SOUTH CAROLINA CALIFORNIA (North) Atheists of Greater Lowell Piedmont Humanists Atheist Advocates of San Francisco Boston Atheists Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry Atheists and Other Freethinkers MARYLAND TENNESSEE Contra Costa Atheists & Freethinkers Freethinkers Union at McDaniel College Memphis Freethought Alliance East Bay Atheists Skeptics Freethinkers Agnostics and Nashville Secular Life San Francisco Atheists Atheists (aka Maryland Freethinkers) Rationalists of East Tennessee Santa Cruz Atheists MICHIGAN TEXAS CALIFORNIA (South) Atheists @ Oakland University Atheist Community of Austin Atheist Coalition of San Diego Michigan Atheists Denton Atheists Backyard Skeptics Mid-Michigan Atheists & Humanists Freethinkers Association of Central Texas Humanist Society of Santa Barbara Freethought Oasis of Amarillo New Atheists of East County MINNESOTA Golden Triangle Freethinkers Orange County Atheists Atheists for Human Rights Houston Atheists Campus Atheists Skeptics & Humanists COLORADO Kingwood Humble Atascocita Atheists Minnesota Atheists* Boulder Atheists Lubbock Atheists MISSOURI Western Colorado Atheists & Freethinkers UTAH Black Freethinkers of Kansas City CONNECTICUT Atheists of Utah Columbia Atheists Atheist Humanist Society of CT and RI Salt Lake Valley Atheists Joplin Freethinkers DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Rationalist Society of St. Louis VIRGINIA Washington Area Secular Humanists Secular Student Alliance @ UCMO Beltway Atheists FLORIDA Springfield Freethinkers NOVA Atheists St. Joseph Skeptics Florida Atheists & Secular WASHINGTON Humanists (FLASH)* MISSISSIPPI Seattle Atheists Gator Freethought (UF) Great Southern Humanist Society Tri-City Freethinkers Rebirth of Reason Humanist Ethical Atheist WISCONSIN Secular Student Association at Rational Thought Society Southern Wisconsin FreeThinkers Univ. of Central Florida NORTH CAROLINA St. Petersburg Atheists Freethought Group WEST VIRGINIA A-News Tallahassee Atheists Morgantown Atheists Treasure Coast Atheists NORTH DAKOTA Red River Freethinkers US NATIONAL GEORGIA Atheist Nexus Atlanta Freethought Society NEBRASKA Black Atheists of America Black Nonbelievers of Atlanta Lincoln Atheists Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers Omaha Atheists Fayette Freethought Society INTERNATIONAL / OVERSEAS Kennesaw State U. Student Coalition for Inquiry NEW JERSEY Macon Atheists & Secular Humanists CONSOCIATES New Jersey Humanist Network Southeast Asia Freethought Association, 379th AEW IOWA Secular Student Alliance @ Montclair State Univ Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society Atheists United for a Rational America NEVADA Iowa Atheists & Freethinkers Reno Freethinkers

42 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013 State Directors For detailed information visit Atheists.org/State-Directors or contact Ken Loukinen at [email protected]

DIRECTOR OF STATE OPERATIONS NEBRASKA Ken Loukinen (S. Florida Reg. Dir.) William Newman 7972 Pines Blvd., #246743 [email protected] Pembroke Pines, FL 33024 NEW YORK 954-907-7893 Michael Dorian [email protected] [email protected] MILITARY DIRECTOR NORTH CAROLINA Justin Griffith Wayne Aiken [email protected] P.O. Box 30904 MARINES LIAISON Raleigh, NC 27622 Paul Loebe 919-954-5956 [email protected] [email protected] ARIZONA OHIO Don Lacey John Welte P.O. Box 1161 [email protected] Vail, AZ 85641 OKLAHOMA 520-370-8420 Ron Pittser [email protected] [email protected] CALIFORNIA PENNSYLVANIA Larry Hicok Ernest Perce P.O. Box 277 [email protected] Pinole, CA 94564 510-222-7580 RHODE ISLAND [email protected] Brian Stack [email protected] CONNECTICUT Dennis Paul Himes TEXAS 860-454-8301 AronRa Nelson [email protected] [email protected] GEORGIA VIRGINIA Scott Savage Rick Wingrove [email protected] 703-433-2464 [email protected] IOWA Randy Henderson WASHINGTON P.O. Box 375 Wendy Britton Ankeny, IA 50023 12819 SE 38th St., Ste. 485 [email protected] Bellevue, WA 98006 425-269-9108 MASSACHUSETTS [email protected] Zach Bos [email protected] WEST VIRGINIA Charles Pique MINNESOTA P.O. Box 7444 Randall Tigue Charleston, WV 25356 [email protected] 304-776-5377 MISSOURI [email protected] Greg Lammers P.O. Box 1352 Columbia, MO 65205 573-289-7633 [email protected]

2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 43 Aims and Purposes merican Atheists, Inc. is a nonprofit, nonpolitical, educational organization dedicated to the complete and absolute separation of state and church, accepting the explanation of Thomas Jefferson that the First Amendment toA the Constitution of the United States was meant to create a ‘wall of separation’ between state and church. American Atheists is organized:

• To stimulate and promote freedom of thought and inquiry concerning religious beliefs, creeds, dogmas, tenets, rituals, and practices;

• To collect and disseminate information, data, and literature on all religions and promote a more thorough understanding of them, their origins, and their histories;

• To advocate, labor for, and promote in all lawful ways the complete and absolute separation of state and church; • To act as a ‘watchdog’ to challenge any attempted breach of the wall of separation between state and church; • To advocate, labor for, and promote in all lawful ways the establishment and maintenance of a thoroughly secular system of education available to all;

• To encourage the development and public acceptance of a humane ethical system stressing the mutual sympathy, understanding, and interdependence of all people and the corresponding responsibility of each individual in relation to society;

• To develop and propagate a social philosophy in which humankind is central and must itself be the source of strength, progress, and ideals for the well-being and happiness of humanity;

• To promote the study of the arts and sciences and of all problems affecting the maintenance, perpetuation, and enrichment of human (and other) life; and

• To engage in such social, educational, legal, and cultural activity as will be useful and beneficial to the members of American Atheists and to society as a whole.

Definitions theism is the comprehensive world view of persons who are free from theism and have freed themselves of supernatural Abeliefs altogether. It is predicated on ancient Greek Materialism. theism involves the mental attitude that unreservedly accepts the supremacy of reason and aims at establishing a life- style and ethical outlook verifiable by experience and the scientific method, independent of all arbitrary assumptions of authorityA and creeds.

aterialism declares that the cosmos is devoid of immanent conscious purpose; that it is governed by its own inherent, immutable, and impersonal laws; that there is no supernatural interference in human life; that humankind, finding theM resources within themselves, can and must create their own destiny. It teaches that we must prize our life on earth and strive always to improve it. It holds that human beings are capable of creating a social system based on reason and justice. Materialism’s ‘faith’ is in humankind and their ability to transform the world culture by their own efforts. This is a commitment that is, in its very essence, life-asserting. It considers the struggle for progress as a moral obligation that is impossible without noble ideas that inspire us to bold, creative works.

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

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PleASe SeNd thiS Form to: American Atheists • 225 Cristiani St, Cranford, NJ 07016 • Fax 908.276.7402 2ND QUARTER 2013 www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 45 From American Atheists’ Marine Liaison

Madalyn Murray O’Hair, Charles Darwin, and Me by Paul Loebe

t was only a little over a year ago that I was a silent, apathetic afraid to tell anyone else because he wasn’t sure how his family would Atheist unaware of the existence of a freethinking community. react. It was something he’d been wrestling with for years: a personal I was well aware of the scientific and historical inaccuracies of relationship with ‘god’ versus a personal relationship with reality. Once more than a few religious texts that some view as holy, but I he made that decision, however, he began introducing me to a group of did not know that almost all the research I had conducted had fellow veterans via social networking that all happened to be Atheists. I already been done for me. I simply thought the only Atheists who ever was blown away by the fact that these people existed. Iexisted were Madalyn Murray O’Hair, Charles Darwin, and me. I began to have some of the most insightful, intellectual, and Clearly, I wasn’t looking very hard to find other Atheists because, mentally-challenging conversations of my life. It brought me out of an honestly, who gets together and talks about belief in nothing? That intellectual stasis where I’d resided for years and made me feel alive for was the view I held at the time, and I have since learned is a common the first time in a long time. Once that was awakened within me, I had to misconception most believers hold towards us. It isn’t what we don’t find out if there were more people out in the world like this to befriend. believe that brings us together. Rather, the by-product of our non-belief The only place I knew to look was American Atheists. As a child, I happens to be striking similarities in what we do believe and how we live. thought of them as a horror story and an abomination. I figured it would I knew that Madalyn Murray O’Hair had fought back against state- be a good place to start. Boy, was I right! I began following what exactly sponsored prayer in schools which resulted in a Supreme Court case American Atheists is and what they stand for. It didn’t take me long to that took it away. Of course, because of the indoctrination of my youth, jump on board. I believed that to be a bad thing. I also knew that she had started an Had it not been for Madalyn’s influence on the Christian organization called American Atheists and I wondered why people community—as much as they’d like to deny it—I would probably have Had it not been for Madalyn’s influence on the Christian community—as much as they’d like to deny it—I would probably have never looked into American Atheists at all. would want to be a part of that because the word “Atheist” was a dirty never looked into American Atheists at all. I might have stumbled upon thing back then. I was still blissfully unaware that there were other people them by accident, but the fact that they’ve been making an impact large in the world besides the small group of Fundamentalist Christians who enough to effect the close-minded community of believers I grew up surrounded me. with speaks volumes to me. My misconceptions about Charles Darwin were startling! I thought I’m proud to be an American Atheist and I’m proud to be a part of he was an avid Atheist who created this myth called “evolution” in order the organization as well. I’m thankful that Madalyn made a stand against to further the Satanic agenda. Well, that’s what I was taught anyway. school-sponsored prayers so long ago because I doubt I would have Once I discovered the truth—that he was a firm agnostic who delayed even been aware that there was a community of people out there who for two decades the publishing of his findings because he didn’t want didn’t need god to be good. to offend his devoutly religious wife—I was quite upset I’d been lied to. As I mentioned earlier, I was comfortable remaining blissfully Paul Loebe is currently deployed. The contents of his columns do not in unaware of the freethinking community at large until one day my best any way speak on behalf of any part of the US government in any official friend and cousin, Britt, confided in me that he had lost his faith. He was context. He is speaking only from personal experience and opinion.

46 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org 2ND QUARTER 2013