Ethics & Atheism
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Ethics & Atheism © 2010 Photos.com, a division of Getty Images. All rights reserved. ANOTHER STUDY CONFIRMS: ATHEISTS “JUST AS ETHICAL AS CHURCHGOERS” he old canard that people who do not believe Both perceptions are incorrect. “At least a few TV in a “Supreme Being” are untrustworthy, with- preachers and other demagogues almost certainly and know- out morals, and unethical has received yet an- ingly encourage these misunderstandings, intentionally lying other rebuke. to shore up their own power and prestige. Atheists are al- According to a new study published in the ready serving in government, the armed forces, and the pro- journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Atheists are “just as fessions (even in the clergy); most just don't openly advertise Tethical as churchgoers,” and religion is only one way through the fact that they have no religious beliefs,” added Buckner. which people can manifest a moral code. Dr. Marc Hauser Dave Silverman, Vice President and Communications of Harvard University reported that his research team was Director for American Atheists added that the study dis- investigating the foundations of moral behavior and religion. cussed whether religion was an evolutionary adaptation “The research suggests that intuitive judgments of right which contributed to group solidarity and social cohesion. and wrong seem to operate independently of explicit reli- “It's a fascinating question that may never be resolved,” said gious commitments,” said Hauser. Silverman. “The point remains, though, that you can indeed, Dr. Ed Buckner, President of American Atheists, said be good without a god. In fact, you can be excellent! The that the study should help dispel one of the many great lies ethical actions of millions of Atheists, Freethinkers, Secular about non-religious Americans. “Nearly 13% of the U.S. Humanists and other non-religious people are proof of that.” population, according to surveys, have no religion; that's about 40 million people,” said Buckner. Surveys indicate, however, that a near-majority of people would not support an otherwise qualified Atheist candidate for public office and The study is available at falsely believe that there are no Atheists in foxholes. http://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences April 2010 American Atheist Vol 48, No.3 ISSN 0516-9623 (Print) ISSN 1935-8369 (Online) AMERICAN ATHEIST PRESS Managing Editor Frank R. Zindler [email protected] AMERICAN ATHEIST ‘A Journal of Atheist News and Thought’ Editor, Cover Art, & Magazine Design David Smalley Helen Kagin [email protected] Staff Writers & Journalists Kate Sirls Edwin Kagin Blair Scott 4 James MacIver Keith Lowell Jensen Jim Haught Samuel Johnson Conrad Goeringer also in this edition... Staff Cartoonist April Pedersen 6 Alleged Atheist Hoax Reincarnates Staff Photographer Kiny McCarrick 7 One of Our Own—The Anti-Christ? www.kinymccarrick.com Published monthly 8 Plowing Naked For Jesus by American Atheists, Inc. Mailing Address: 9 Atheists Don’t Know What True Love Is P.O. Box 158 Cranford, NJ 07016 908.276.7300 P 10 Peace, Love, & Discrimination 908.276.7402 F www.atheists.org 12 Atheist Joy: The Best Kept Secret 13 Blessed Be... ©2010 American Atheists Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole 14 Separation of Armageddon & State or in part without written permission is pro- hibited. American Atheist is indexed in the Alternative Press Index. American Atheist 16 Amalgamation magazine is given free of cost to members of American Atheists as an incident of their membership. Subscription fees for one year 18 Coexist of American Atheist: Print version only: $20 for 1 subscription and $20 for each additional gift subscription Online version only: $35 – Sign up at www.Atheists.org/aam 19 Review of Dawkins’ Latest Book Print & online: $55. Discounts available for multiple-year subscriptions: 10% for two years 20% for three or more years. Additional post- 20 The Earth is Flat! age fees for foreign addresses: Canada & Mexico: add $15/year All other countries: add $35/year 23 Why I Am Humanist Discount for libraries and institutions: 50% on all magazine subscriptions 25 Bible Crossed America: Verses Revisted and book purchases elen Kagin, my wife, my best friend, and More important to her than all of her years as a co-founder of Camp Quest, was pronounced physician were the years she spent in helping to create dead at 6:55 PM Wednesday, February 17, Camp Quest, which she saw as the most important thing H2010, at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. she had ever done. Helen underwent surgery for lung cancer on Janu- She died on Ash Wednesday, and the anniversary of ary 7, 2010 and never left the Intensive Care Unit. In the death of Freethought hero Giordano Bruno in 1600. Hconformity with her Living Will, and the opinions ex- Helen never did Ash Wednesday, and her death was far pressed to us by six physicians who strongly concurred, more gentle than that of Bruno. her daughter, Caroline Good and I agreed that dialysis Helen’s body is now an empty shell, and it will be not be started when she went into renal failure. Helen treated as such. The body was picked up by a funeral had been on oxygen for some time, her lungs leaked home and immediately cremated. The ashes were given air, she had developed fungal pneumonia, and systemic to her daughter Caroline, who has proved her very sub- sepsis, her body had stopped making red blood cells, stantial character during these past few weeks. By the and she had suffered multiple systems failures that were time you read this, a celebration of Helen’s remarkable incompatible with life. She had been unconscious for life will have taken place. days. I know for a certainty that if she had decision mak- And what a life it was! I am honored to have shared ing capacity, Helen would not have wanted to live on a it with her for twenty-five years. She will be missed be- ventilator and dialysis. Surrounded by family members, yond my ability to say. She was the finest human being the ventilator was withdrawn and the life force that had I have ever known. been Helen departed within minutes. And she was dead. If you would honor her accomplishments and mem- Helen was born Helen McGregor Smith in Regina, ory, do not send flowers; do not send money to some Saskatchewan, Canada on January 31, 1934. She at- charity. Help send a kid to Camp Quest. tended medical school at the University of Saskatche- wan and came to Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio as —Edwin Kagin an Intern. She did her residence there, was employed as an anesthesiologist there, worked there until she retired, and she died there. She was 76 years old. We celebrated her 76th Birthday in the ICU, but we do not know if she was aware of the signs, the cards, and the well wishers. Helen was an accomplished athlete. She was a fig- ure skater, an ice dancer, a hockey player, a softball player, a swimmer, a fencer, and a superb human being. She loved the Winter Olympics, and it is fitting indeed that she died during the Winter Olympics now being held in Canada. 4 American Atheist - April 2010 ree-thinking children of the world have lost a dear Madalyn Murray O’Hair never tired to claim that had it not friend. I have lost a dear friend. American Atheists been for the Catholic Church’s suppression of all the sciences, have lost a dear friend. All who value liberty have Columbus would have landed on the moon, not some Carib- Flost a dear friend. After weeks of suffering in a hospi- bean island. It is true. Moreover, a cure for cancer would have tal intensive care unit, Dr. Helen Kagin is no more. been known before 1900 and a way to prevent it would have Well known as co-founder of Camp Quest, the summer been developed quickly thereafter. Had it not been for Chris- Frespite for children of the Freethought community, Helen tianity, Helen surely would not have developed lung cancer at was a well-known figure at conventions of American Atheists this late date in the history of medicine. and other Freethought organizations. To her husband Edwin, In the same train of reveries my mind also fastened upon American Atheists National Legal Director, she was “Helen, George “Dubbyah” Bush and his eight-year war against sci- the one who must be obeyed.” All joking aside, Helen was ence. Just a week earlier I had analyzed a medical patent de- the perfect foil for her one-of-a-kind husband. All joking not scribing the use of amniotic stem cells to replace damaged aside, humor and merriment were defining components of her lung tissue. As I read the patent my mind wandered to Helen personality. No one who attended the Atlanta convention will whose lung tissues had been badly damaged long before she ever forget the zany performance of a seventy-five-year-old developed the lung cancer. I reflected upon the fact that it usu- woman in the blasphemous “Dance of the Vestal Vegans,” a ally takes about five years for the medical patents that cross sharp-edged spoof of the condition of women in Islamic so- my desk to make it into medical practice. Now that Helen has cieties. Almost no one knew that the body-stockinged female succumbed to lung diseases that could have been cured by the leprechaun before them was in fact a retired medical doctor. techniques disclosed in that patent, I can only imagine what As the piper playing the tune to which she danced, of course would be the case today if George Bush had not blocked stem I knew and I could only marvel at her exuberance and energy.