American Atheist Magazine April 1983

8/9/2019 American Atheist Magazine April 1983

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THE

$2.50

AMERICAN ATHEIST

A Journal of Atheist News and Thought (VoI.25, No.4) April, 1983

cl~~

IN HIS EASTER BONNET

WITH ALL THE THORNS UPON IT


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1963 19

AMERICAN ATHEISTS

is a non-profit, non-political, educational organization, dedicated to the complete and absolute separation of

state and church. We accept the explanation of Thomas Jefferson that the First Amendment to the

Constitution of the United States was meant to create a wall of separation between state and church.

American Atheists are 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 histories; .

to encourage the development and public acceptance of a human 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 culture in which man is the central figure who alone must 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;

to engage in such social, educational, legal and cultural activity as will be useful and beneficial to

members of American Atheists and to society as a whole.

Atheism-may be defined as the mental attitude which unreservedly accepts the supremacy of reason and

aims at establishing a lifestyle and ethical outlook verifiable by experience and the scientific method,

independent of all arbitrary assumptions of authority and creeds.

Materialism declares that the cosmos is devoid of immanent conscious purpose; that it is governed by its own

inherent, immutable and impersonal laws; that there is no supernatural interference in human life; that man -

finding his resources within himself - can and must create his own destiny. Materialism restores to man his.

dignity and his intellectual integrity. It teaches that we must prize our life on earth and strive always to improve

it. It holds that man is capable of creating

a

social system based on reason and justice. Materialism's faith is in

man and man's ability to transform the world culture by his own efforts. This is a commitment which is in very

essence life asserting. It considers the struggle for progress as a moral-obligation and impossible without noble

ideas that inspire man to bold creative works. Materialism holds that humankind's potential for good and for an

.outreach to more fulfilling cultural development is, for all practical purposes, unlimited .

*

AMERICAN ATHEISTS

P.O.BOX 2117

AUSTIN, TX 78768-2117

Send $40 for one year 's membership. You wil l r eceive our Insider's Newsletter monthly.

your membersh ip cer ti ficate and card. and a one year subscript ion to this magazine.


3/43

(Vol. 25, No.4) April , 1983

REGULAR FEATURES

Editorial: An Atheist's Fairy Tale 2

American Atheist Radio Series: What Makes Easter Move 25

American Atheist Radio Series: The Zodiac and Religion 27

Dial-an-Atheist 29

FEATURED COLUMNISTS

The Origin of Easter -

Merrill Holste

7

Fool's Gold -

Gerald Tholen

23

Handmaidens of God - Margaret Bhatty 34

Letters to Ann Landers - Jeff Frankel 36

ARTICLES

Focus on Atheists: Christian Bias in Textooks

- by Madalyn Murray O'Hair 5

Passover: The Egyptian Holocaust

- by Madalyn Murray O'Hair

11

Man and His Imagination -

Hansel Harper

15

Prison Atheist League of America Challenges Religious Influence in

America's Prisons - by Robert Zauner 18

Penance: The Prison Stultification of the Mind

- by Madalyn Murray O'Hair 21

Jesus Christ Never Existed -

by James Erickson

30

Insects Zap Astrologists -

by Charles

Q.

Bufe

31

The Real Threat of Nuclear War

- Rear Admiral Gene R. LaRocque

32

MEMORIAL

Robert Harold Scott - Pioneer Atheist 16

POEMS

There -

Robin Eileen Murray O'Hair

4

Spring -

Robin Eileen Murray O'Hair

33

AllFor The Want of Proof - Ralph Shirley 33

Editor-in-Chief

Madalyn Murray O'Hair

The American

Atheist

magazine is pub-

lished monthly at the Gustav Broukal Ameri-

can Atheist Press, 2210 Hancock Dr., Aus-

tin, TX 78756, and 1982 by Society of

Separationists, Inc., a non-profit, non-politi-

cal, educational organization dedicated to

the complete and absolute separation of

state and church. Mailingaddress: P.O. Box

2117/Austin, TX 78768-2117. A free sub-

scription isprovided as an incident of mem-

bership in the 'American Atheists organiza-

tion. Subscriptions are available at $25. for

one year terms only. Manuscripts submitted

must be typed, double-spaced and accom-

panied by a stamped, self-addressed envel-

ope. The editors assume no responsibility

for unsolicited manuscripts.

ON THE COVER

Fornearly 2000 years now egg-

headed cultists have been trying

to make their easter/jesus fairy-

tale float. That's what I call hard-

boiled persistence And, although

the crux of their nonsense - some-

thing they call the resurrection -

seems to be faltering badly, they

have devised a juvenile level plan

centering on brightly colored hen

fruit, candy, and other assorted

goodies. With this more appetizing

approach it is easier to entice the

simple-minded.

Iwould suggest that to make the

story even more believable they

should have chosen areptilian egg

instead. This would seem to more

suitably coincide with the mentali-

ty of the group with whom they

desire to relate. I can, however,

understand the hidden signifi-

cance of their selection of the

more conventional chicken egg.

The entire farce began with the

religious chicken-thief acquisition

of an historical spring event. They

stole our vernal equinox

I suppose we should have ex-

pected as much from fundamen-

talists who have always lacked

originality. Since their' inception

they have permanently bor-

rowed every aspect of their myth-

ology. The whole sordid mess

holds a kind of tragic humor. Their

infamous journey from krishna to

chicken thief spans centuries of

insane cruelty to humankind. They

now want to attach to it cute little

bunnies and colorful gadgetry.

At any rate we would all do well

to prepare ourselves for this sec-

ond coming of ignorancel You

know how wild-eyed these people

become during their pagan-like

festivals.

G. Tholen

Managing Editor

Jon G. Murray

Poetry

Robin Murray O'Hair

Angeline Bennett

Gerald Tholen

Production Staff

Art Brenner

BillKight

Richard Smith

Gerald Tholen

Gloria Tholen

Lex Stevens

Non-Resident Staff

G. Stanley Brown

Jeff Frankel

Merrill Holste

Margaret Bhatty

Fred Woodworth

Clayton Powers

The

American Atheist

magazine

is indexed in

Monthly

Periodical

Index

ISSN: 0332-4310

Austin, Texas

April,1983

Page 1


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.~~4

~ . ~ ,

Jon Garth Murra~

A':

\~11'~,~

AN ATHEIST FAIRY TALE / \ :~~ ~

I would like to tell a little story this month to Atheist one

and all. Once upon a time in the Eastern woodlands of

America there was a very historic and very conservative

state. The name of the state was Tennessee. Now at one

time long long ago the elders of this very pretty state

decided that they would like to have a constitution. This was

a very long, big and important paper that set forth all of the

rights and privileges of all the citizens who dwelt in

Tennessee. A part of that constitution was not like all the

other parts, though. All the other parts of the great paper

gave many rights to the citizens, but this part took a right

away from some of them. It said, No person who denies the

being of god, or a future state of rewards and punishments

shall hold any office in the civil department of this State.

(Article IX, Sec. 2)

'Now most of the kindly hard working citizens of the state

thought nothing of this part of the great new list of rights.

They had all believed in god all their lives and did not know

anyone who did not believe. Someone who does not

believe in god Oh, how silly. No one like that lives in our

pretty little state, they thought. But ah , over in the deep

dark woods in the southern part of the great state of

Tennessee there dwelt a big tall handsome man, sir Harold

of Church. Sir Harold lived in a big castle in the little village

of Columbia. Rumor had it around the village that a fire-

breathing dragon lived under sir Harold's house and that he

used the fire from its nostrils to roast little christian children

he caught on their way home from school when they

wandered near his castle. Everyone in the village knew that

he was an Atheist. No one knew exactly what an Atheist

was for sure, but they remembered their grandfathers' old

tales about how wicked and naughty they were. They had all

been told around their hearths at night to be good little boys

and girls and go to the church down the lane whenever the

kindly vicar rang the big bell lest they become like sir

Harold. They knew that the Church in his title was meant

to fool them and lure them to his web like a wily spider.

Well, one day sir Harold found out about the part of the

great state paper of rights that denied him one of his rights

when it gave the others of the village so many. So sir Harold

went far far away to the far off state of Texas where the

queen of the Atheists lived. Everyone in the village knew of

this and trembled in fear for they had heard of this land of

Texas down at the south edge of the land where the world

dropped off over the edge. That is where the evil Atheist

queen lived in a cave with her henchmen. So sir Harold

back from Texas with evil spells brewed up by the wicked

queen Madalyn of Hair and her black-eyed evil son, Jon,

duke of Murray, and tricked the goodly elders of the great

state of Tennessee into changing that part of the great

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April, 1983

paper of rights so that people like sir Harold could hold

office.

A wicked, evil, nasty Atheist hold office in our nice little

state of Tennessee? Ohl Woe is me. said the members of

the village to each other. Sad as it was, it was true. Well, the

leaders of sir Harold's village were not going to give up

without a fight and neither were the leaders of other villages

and towns and cities all over the great state of Tennessee.

They all gathered together and put pressure on their elected

representatives in the great wise legislature of the state

whose job it had been all these many years to sit in judgment

on the great long paper of rights and uphold and defend it

against all the enemies of the state. The people from far and

near cried out, we must save our children from the wicked

Atheists. We must armor them against Atheism with a

shield that they can use against those like sir Harold who

may leap out of the woods at any time to gobble them up,

they said.

It was then that one of the kind, old and wise senators

proposed a bill in the legislature that would require all the

teachers in the little red school houses in all of Tennessee to

make all the children have a minute of classroom silence to

be spent in prayer or meditation each day. In that way

each child could recharge his little shield of faith around him

each morning in school so that they could ward off any of

the nasty, dirty Atheists that might try to gobble them up or

fool them to leave the path on the way home. The Senate of

the great state of Tennessee voted and passed the bill, and

so did the younger and less wise house, and the good

governor signed it into law. Hurrah the people shouted

with glee. Our children are saved from the Atheists. But, it

was not to be so.

Along came the knights of the ACLU. They had been

known in the past to fight for the wicked. No one quite knew

why, that was just their job. They swooped down on a poor

old federal judge who had been placed in Tennessee by the

great president far far away who lives in a great white castle

and looks after all the people in many states and who is

all-wise. They badgered that poor old judge until he could

not take it anymore, as was their style as they had ganged

up on poor unexpecting judges before, and he gave in and

said that the new law was unconstitutional. One of the

reasons the judge gave was that the legislature had spent so

much time arguing loud and long over the wording of the bill

that it was obvious that they intended to establish prayer in

the school houses. The great mysterious Constitution of

the United States that had been given, so the tales told, to

the wise President in the before time (the time before the

state of Tennessee was at all) had some words in it against

the establishment of religion in all the land. The people

The American Atheist


5/43

thought that this part of that mysterious Constitution from

the before time had been forgotten. The saga had been

told from generation to generation that the fathers ofallthe

land to the edge of the world had put together this great

document with the aid ofgod almighty himself. The purpose

of this great document, the sagas said, was to preserve the

relationship between men and god and never let men go

astray. The part about establishment of religion was there

because the fathers of all the land did not want any of the

bad people like sir Harold or the wicked queen Madalyn to

come to the schools disguised in the mask of a secular

humanist and beguile the little children into the path of

Atheism. So they thought, in the before time, that they

would ban allreligion from school so that the children could

learn the true faith from their kindlyvillagevicars and not be

tricked in the school house by any Atheists in sheep's

clothing masquerading as secular humanists.

The wise men ofthis time inTennessee thought that such

a thing must be changed now, however. In the before time

the fathers of allthe land had not been tricked by the likes of

sir Harold and queen Madalyn to change their great paper

of rights. The wise men of Tennessee had been tricked and

now they had to make amends.

So, the good Senator from the village of Camden

changed the billmade 'to protect the children just a little so

that itnow called for the teachers ineach little school house

in the great state of Tennessee to make all the children in

each classroom have a minute-of-silence each day. Allof

the good littlechildren ofTennessee would know what to do

during that minute to recharge their littleshields against the

Atheists. Their parents would whisper to them what to do

so that the old judge that had been fooled by the knights of

the ACLU could not hear. In a like manner the wise men of

the Senate passed the new bill

with

no

discussion

this time

so as not to draw the wrath of the knights of the ACLU

down on the poor old judge.

Austin, Texas

One Senator did not vote for the silence with all the rest.

He was the Senator from the village of Murfreesboro. He

said that he didn't think it was a proper function of the

Senate of the great state of Tennessee to meddle with the

law of the land given by the fathers in the before time. The

papers all over the state printed this Senator's name in big

fat letters on the front page so that all the citizens would

know that he did not stand with them in their hour of need.

They would make him sorry later on, they vowed.

After the Senate had passed the billfor the little children,

the House, which is younger and a little less wise, had to

vote on it, too. The House voted 89 to 6 to go along with the

older wiser Senate. The papers did the same thing with

those six bad Representatives that they had done with the

1

1 /

one wayward Senator. They put their names in big big

letters out for everyone to see. Out of the six Repre-

sentatives who voted against the minute-of-silence for the

children, two of them were extra naughty. Representative

Cobb from the city of Nashville and Representative Bragg

from the village of Murfreesboro were the two extra

naughty ones. Remember that Murfreesboro is the same

village that the bad Senator was from. That village would

have to be shown a thing or two by the other villages and

towns because its Representatives were no good and did

April,1983

Page 3


6/43

not care about the little children. Cobb suggested to the

other members of the house that they make the new law

read so that teachers could be punished under the civil laws

if they attempted to influence their students' thoughts

instead of just keeping them silent for a moment. All the

other good House members saw that this was a trick right

away and voted against it. They knew that if the wording

was changed the way the wayward Cobb wanted, that no

one would vote for the minute of silence because they would

be afraid of hurting the kindly teachers who are good to all

the little boys and girls of the state. And besides, and golly

gee, everyone knows that teachers are never wrong. How

could someone suggest that teachers would influence their

students' thoughts? That was a mean thing to say about

the loving teachers of the great state of Tennessee. Bragg

suggested two changes in the wording of the good minute-

of-silence bill. One was to allow the teachers to keep the

children in a period of silence for up to an hour each day.

Oh How terrible. Our kindly teachers would not do such a

thing, said the other House members and voted that

suggestion down. The other one of Bragg's suggestions was

for the bill to require a moment of silence in homes and

businesses as well as for the children in each little red school

house. The other House members knew that that was a

fiendish thing that would anger all the mommies and

daddies who would have to interrupt their busy work times

each day for something that they did in church on their day

of rest each Sunday. Perish the thought that the House

members would do anything that the mommies and daddies

who elected them may not like. So the other House

members voted that suggestion down, too.

Now all that remains is for the Governor to sign the new

law into force and all of the children of the great state of

Tennessee will be saved from the nasty Atheists like sir

Harold of Church for ever and ever and ever.

Meanwhile the woods and closets of Tennessee were full

of sinister, piercing little sets of eyeballs staring out of the

dark, menacingly taking in all the commotion surrounding

sir Harold and the children. To whom do these eyes belong?

Why, they are the other Atheists. They all agreed with sir

Harold and the wicked queen Madalyn from the South. but

they dare not show themselves or come out of the closet,

for should they be revealed, the same fate may befall them

as has befallen sir Harold. What was this horrible fate? They

would become part of the dreaded unloved of the state. No

one would invite them over for tea. Their children would

never laugh again or play in the sunshine. The daddies

would be kicked out of the Moose lodge and never again be

allowed to use the secret handshake. Tliey would be

mocked in the village square and everyone would whisper,

Look, there goes one of those people who think. They use

their heads instead of their hearts to guide them through

life. Oh how hard their lives must be

All of the other Atheists did not understand that sir

Harold did that, because he was very happy and free and full

of joy. He read and thought of many things and explored

many things of which the other people in the village were

afraid or which their vicar told them were bad. He never

thought of any of his actions as sins or repenting for them.

Sir Harold could do as he pleased without needing to figure

out if something was or was not a sin. He was not really so

bad as any of the other villagers made out and the smoke

from underneath his house was not a dragon at all but just

Page 4

April,

1983

an old leaky furnace. He had never really eaten any

children. Those bones they saw him with one day were from

his interest in the early men that lived on the land way back

before the fathers of the land, before the before time. He

knew that people had been around back then too, and he

studied them - unlike the other villagers who thought that

the world was only a few thousand years old. Sir Harold

read and explored the lands past the end of the earth. The

other villagers would not even think of such a thing.

The moral of this story is that ifall those piercing little sets

of eyeballs in the closet had come out to help sir Harold

anywhere along the line, he could have made all the people

of the village happy on the inside too like he was instead of

just being happy on the outside and full of fear and

trepidation about what they did not understand on the

inside. The whole village could have been a happier place to

live, inside

and out,

and all the villagers could have lived

together in

true

happiness for ever after. Instead of that,

they stayed in the closet and allowed themselves to

continue to be part of the unloved and to be counted

among the unthinking. In that manner they created their

own unhappiness and condemned themselves and their

children and their children's children to life in the closet for

ever and ever.

There

Sometimes I daydream a little

And see a land of trees

Floating feather-like in a breeze,

Where daffodils and yellow roses

Bloom while the birds awake from their dozes

And sweeten the air with their melodies.

There everything is like the trees,

Floating, drifting easily.

The birds glide, the time slides,

And nothing, nothing collides.

Everything is matching

And happiness is catching.

There friends are friends regardless

Of time, or place, or this, or that,

Are always ready to stop and chat,

And never, never disturbing,

And would be there before the need's arriving -

But there the need never comes.

There lovers are not teasing and squeezing

One's feelings and freedom to death.

Instead the breeze carries love's sweeth breath

And a lover's hand enclosing one's own brings

Stars' twinkling brilliance, not night's darkenings.

And lovers' tears do not drown the land.

There the everyday chasms and cliffs

Do not exist, though there are rolling hills,

Nor do illnesses or the bitter pills

That come so often here.

Friends, lovers, and life are always dear.

And it's nothing like here.

Robin Eileen

Murray-O'Hair



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1 0CU5 o n atbt i5 t5

w e w o n t t a k e i t anrmere

CHRISTIAN BIAS IN TEXTBOOKS

The regressive thrusts of the theists in our nation

proceed in the dark corridors of the christian hearts

which would return, if they could, to medievalism. And,

those christians in positions of power utilize the inept and

the unknowing in their schemes for christian dominance.

Take Texas, which isthe second largest purchaser ofpublic

school textbooks in the nation - California being, of

course, the first. In 1982 new book titles cost Texas $60.5

million. With orders in this magnitude Texas can force

textbook publishers to do its bidding.

Unfortunately, the Texas State Board of Education is

headed up by a particularly virulent christian who does not

care to be exposed in his machinations. Therefore he has,

over the years, stage-managed two puppet, semi-literate,

rabid fundamentalists - a retired, other-side-of-the-track,

ma & pa team to dominate the textbook selection hearings

with their whinings for christ. This pair, with offensive

badgering and media attention, has been the screen behind

which gross attacks have been made against science,

education, and reason. And, as Texas goes, so goes the

nation, in textbook selections. What your child reads in a

textbook in Mansfield, Ohio is determined extensively by

Norma and Mel in Austin, Texas. In actuality, it is deter-

mined by the Chairman of the Texas State Board of

Education who has accepted jesus christ as his personal

savior and mentor.

Madalyn Murray O'Hair

States in their effort to inhibit the teaching of science in

primary and secondary public schools. Because the Texas

market is so big, the publishers rewrite science and other

textbooks to come into compliance with the demands of the

Texas textbook selections requirements, thus forcing reli-

gious ideologies on all students throughout the nation.

And since many textbook selection committees operate

in many states on negative selection principles, Texas'

choice isreinforced downward. InTexas until this year, only

those who

objected

to textbooks, or materials intextbooks,

could give input to the selection process - and that in

protracted procedures culminating in a session of oral

argument before the Board of Education, in which the

puppets Mel and Norma star. From their fame acquired in

this charade Mel and Norma have been called into other

states to review textbooks and to lay down the frame-

works of complaints and enhance the methodology of the

attacks with the flavor of christian fundamentalists.

And this they did in Colorado. In that state, inApril 1976,

a member of the House of Representatives suddenly came

up with the idea ofpresenting a list ofbooks to the Colorado

Congress which he wanted to ban from the states's public

schools. With moral support and assistance from Mel and

Norma, the Representative enabled religious groups to

display in the state Capitol building the books they thought

should be banned from public schools.

Ourpoint is that no book should be banned, and no book should be burned. Ifthere

is, however, going to be a moral standard for banning, then the bible should be

banned as well.

And in 1974Texas adopted an anti-evolution rule which

the President of the Texas Council for Science saw would

set back the teaching of biology nationwide. The anti-

evolution rule basically was that biology textbooks could

not teach evolution as a fact but must treat it as one theory

only, with biblical creation holding equal scientific dignity

as an alternate theory.

The President of the Texas Council for Science also saw

Norma and Mel as the most effective textbook censors in

the country However, they were, in fact, only what the

Texas Board of Education permitted them to be: scape-

goats for the onus which should have properly been on the

Board. The Texas Board ofEducation actually has been the

greatest weapon of fundamentalist christians in the United

Austin, Texas

But little did they know that the Denver, Colorado

chapter of American Atheists was a militant one. And,

before the fundamentalist display was over, Bill Talley,

chapter director, had mounted his appeal to include the

bible in the list of banned books if

any books were to

be

banned.

Mounting a marathon session ofbible reading, at a

well-known lounge and beer parlor, Bill Talley and his

American Atheist Chapter cohorts read lewd, licentious

and vile verses from the bible far far into the night as

television cameras, radio mikes and popping flash cameras

of the media enjoyed the spectacle. As stories of rape,

incest, sodomy, sadism, brutality, homicide, genocide,

family murder, greed, lust, foul word utterances, excreta-

eatings, genital-whackings and other gross obscenities

April,1983

PageS


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rolled out of the readings, BillTalley explained:

Our point is that no book should be banned, and

no book should be burned. Ifthere is, however, going

to be a 'moral standard' for banning, then the bible

should be banned as well.

Curiously, the efforts of the representative stopped there.

Then, some months later, in November, 1982, the

Jefferson County (Denver) School District suddenly found

itself confronted with an organization which called itself

CUPS (Committee to Uprgrade Public Schools). The

christian fundamentalist group challenged five school

books which they claimed were Godless and promoted

the tenets of secular humanism.

Again, Bill Talley was all over the fundamentalists, the

school district and the media. After extensive battle plan-

ning with the American Atheist Center, Bill counter-

attacked with one of the best ideas that has ever come out

the Atheist cause. He decided that Atheists should counter

the entire christian fundamentalist book censorship drive

with the more positive, more pro-education, pro-science

retaliation of cleaning out the christian bias in textbooks.

Gathering the stalwarts ofthe Denver Chapter of Ameri-

can Atheists, Bill Talley, its Director, began the task of

reading every textbook which had been chosen for inclu-

sion in the Jefferson County (Denver) School District. In

Denver, as elsewhere, a special library of such books are

available for parental (and public) review. Billnotified the

Superintendent of his intentions to conduct a wide-ranging

review to see ifthe textbooks and teachers' guides used in

the school systems were violative of the imperative of the

First Amendment of the Constitution of the US to keep

Houghton-Mifflin Co.

Lippincott's book stated as history that ... christianity

was founded by jesus christ almost 2,000 years ago. and

that ... jesus rose from the dead ... (The Human

Expression, A History of Peoples and Cultures)

Scott Foresman's Living World History, (1980, 5th Ed.)

stated flatlythat ... jesus christ was crucified ... and then

... reappeared after the crucifixion.

Houghton Mifflin's

Unfinished Journey,

A

World History

insisted on the (miraculous) birth and life of christ as an

historical fact.

McGraw-Hill's book

Your Marriage and Family Living

boasted chapters on Religion in the Control of Negative

Emotions and Religion inAction. In the text allquality of

lifewas associated with the morality of religious values.

Meland Norma were both horrified and astonished at the

Atheist counteroffensive, and Mel whined to the press that

he, representing christian fundamentalists, believed that

public school textbooks should reflect judeo-christian

teachings.

Meanwhile, Bill Talley and his committee continued to

read and continued to point out violations by volume, page,

and paragraph in more and more texts. The first payoff for

the Atheists' efforts came on March 2nd, 1983.On that date

BillTalley was notified that Jefferson County public school

teachers will be notified that some books used by the

district do contain a religious bias. A ten-member commit-

tee of teachers, parents and administrators concurred with

Bill Talley and the Denver Chapter of American Atheists

that two (2) of fifteen (15) books cited as pro-religious were

indeed so. The teachers were to be informed of the bias and

Scott Foresman s

Living World History ...

stated flatly that ... jesus christ was

crucified ... and then ... reappeared after the crucifixion.

state and church separate. He pointed out the Colorado

constitutional provision which prohibits the promotion of

religion or the showing of favoritism toward one religion

over another.

Billhardly expected the reception his ideas would have.

Tactically learned inthe best methods to handle hostility, he

was prepared, but not for the results. School personnel, the

media, the community, were not alone receptive ofthe idea

but cordial to it. There was almost a mass sigh of relief that

finally

an effective counter had been found to beat back the

inroads into education of the total insanity being pressured

into the public schools system by evangelical religious

fanatics. Media coverage was excellent.

And, as Bill and his fellow Atheists on the American

Atheist Textbook Inquiry Committe, Bob and Edith Fenn,

Charles Pique, David Hofer, and Gale Schreier, moved into

review the books, they were properly shocked by the

blatant and outrageous intrusions of the christian belief

system inthe history, political science and sociology books.

Violations of both Colorado and US constitutional provi-

sions to safeguard state/church separation were flagrant.

Laudatory interpretations of religion in history, replace-

ment of biblicalmyth for researched historical verities, and

emphasis on miracles abounded in three particular history

books, issued by the allegedly reputable textbook pub-

lishers, Scott Foresman

&

Co., J.B. Lippincott, and

Page 6

April,1983

it was agreed that new editions of the two texts would

undergo review before they would be purchased in the

future. The committee found that the Houghton-Mifflin

book,

Unfinished

Journey, A

World History,

which pre-

sented material about jesus as fact and without qualifica-

tion was a text which was catechetical rather than

historical. Your Marriage and Family was found by the

committee to fail to support its claims about the role of

religion in successful marriage.

All is not, however, pie in the sky, for the several books

dealing with jesus rising from the dead remained. Also the

committee took no action on a biology book that deals with

creationism. Talley had charged that any scientific biology

book should properly refute the theory of creationism

rather than explore it with deference. The committee,

however, found a discussion of creationism in the science

book to be objective and helpful in placing evolution in

historical perspective.

Meanwhile the complaints of the christian fundamen-

talists were completely rejected, which resulted in CUPS

charging the school district with caving in to a powerful

minority group - American Atheists.

It was an enormous symbolic victory for Atheists. Until

1983 and BillTalley, our complaints had been ignored. But,

now the nose of the camei is under the tent. And, what is in

cont d on page 4



9/43

THE ORIGIN OF EASTER

Austin, Texas

Merrill Holste

Easter is the chief festival of the christian religion. It is

supposed to commemorate the greatest event in world

history - the resurrection of the son of god after being dead

for three days. There were many historians writing in those

days, and it is strange that such an important event went

unrecorded, an event accompanied by such spectacular

miracles that they must have been known to everyone living

at that time. The only exception isa brief notice inJosephus

and a couple of other writers. But, these are obvious clumsy

interpolations by unknown persons who were trying to

manufacture some evidence for the origin of their new

religion. The christian religion isa mixed up conglomeration

of elements, a fusion of elements gleaned from the pagan

religions in the surrounding lands.

In this connection, I found an interesting item in a book

written byDr. E.A. WallisBudge with the title ofOsiris, The

Egyptian Religion of Resurrection. I quote: In some

oriental christian systems the prophets, apostles, martyrs,

and many great saints occupy in the celestial hierarchy

positions identical with those of the gods in the Egyptian

religion. There you have a statement by a noted scholar,

the late keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in

the British Museum. This statement supports the position I

have always held, that the christian religion is merely a

made-up religion, made up from elements borrowed from

other pagan religions.

Easter, as an annual festival, is mentioned in only one

place in my king James bible at acts 12:4 where it speaks of

Herod imprisoning peter,intending to release him to the

people after easter. But this is an obvious error on the part

of the translator of the king James version because other

bibles such as Smith & Goodspeed, the revised versions,

the jehovah witness, and the roman catholic douay all use

the word, passover, at this place for this annual spring

festival.

Originally, christians observed no holy days of any kind

- no birthdays, no anniversaries. The apostle paul wrote in

his letter to the Galatians at chapter 4:

10-11,

Ye observe

days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you,

lest I have bestowed my labors in vain. And to the

Colossians he wrote at chapter 2:16-17, Let no man

therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect to any

holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days. He

wrote to the Romans at 14:5 ( One man esteemeth one day

above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let

every man be fullypersuaded in his own mind.) in a similar

manner.

April, 1983

Page 7


10/43

So, why isthe easter festival held at the time of the spring

equinox by christians now? Solstice festivals were cele-

brated throughout the pagan world for thousands of years

before the christian era ever began. Our word, easter,

comes from the Germanic languages, forerunners of our

English. Itis eostre, eoster or ostara inthe Anglo-Saxon; itis

ostern in the German where it was the celebration for the

coming of spring. Why did the christians adapt their

passover to the mode of celebration used by the pagans?

The missionaries and preachers who were trying to convert

the pagans found that these people insisted upon continu-

ing in celebrating their joyous spring festival. And, if the

missionaries were to be successful in attracting the pagans

to their rather somber and joyless religion, they found that

they had to adopt these pagan festivals in order to gain

converts from among the pagans. The missionaries feltthat

byadopting they could sanctify the pagan celebration ofthe

vernal equinox by adding to it their brand of christian

verbiage.

Sunday after the paschal fullmoon. That means it was one

week after the first fullmoon occurring on March 21, or the

first full moon after that date. This method of determining

the date of easter seems to me to be a queer way to

determine the day that is supposed to mark the world's

greatest historical event, an event which could have hap-

pened on anyone of the 365 - if it ever did occur. The

moveableness of this day is clear indication that the actual

date of the event is unknown, and that it is tied to ancient

moon-goddess worship combined with sun-god worship.

The adoption of the pagan celebration of spring in its

present modification as a christian festival came about at a

very late date. The earliest christians celebrated the spring

equinox much as the jews celebrated their passover. The

early christian crosses were represented with a lamb or a

young sheep as the sacrificial object. The cross arm of their

cross was at an acute angle so that it would represent the

crossing of the equatorial circle by the ecliptical circle as it

was represented then on armillary spheres and stillis today.

Ourword, easter, comes fromthe Germanic languages, forerunners of our Eng lish.

It is eostre, eoster or ostara in the Anglo Saxon; it is ostern in the German where it

was the celebration for the coming of the spring.

The early christians were a sect ofthe jewish religion and

celebrated the easter passover as the jews did. This

passover was an annual religious feast celebrated on the

evening of the 14th ofnisan, the beginning ofthe jewish new

year, and continued to the 22nd of nisan. The passover was

an annual festival of the jewish religion instituted, according

to exodus 12, to commemorate the sparing of the Israelites

in Egypt at the time their god was so angry with the

Egyptians that he decided to kill all the firstborn of the

Egyptians. The Israelite god, via his earthly agent, the

priestly dictator moses, ordered the Israelites to make a

blood sacrifice. They were ordered to select a yearling lamb,

a male without blemish, from the sheep or goats on the

tenth day of the month, nisan. The order was to kill this

lamb as a sacrifice on the 14thday inthe evening. They were

to make this day the beginning of their new year from that

time on. They were to eat this lamb roasted, not raw or

boiled. It was to be roasted with fire, head and legs with the

purtenances thereof, and that which remaineth of it until

the morning ye shall burn with fire.... It is the lord's

passover. exod. 12:1O-11). Passover for the jews begins

this year on March 29th, the required number of days after

the vernal equinox. The Israelites were ordered to mark

their doorposts and lintel with the blood of this sacrificial

lamb so that moses' god could discern the Israelite houses

from the Egyptian houses. The Israelite god's anger was so

great that he was going to pass throughout all Egypt and

slay all the firstborn of man and animals. I note that this

supposedly omniscient god was unable to discern the

Israelite houses from the Egyptian. Is that a sign of

omniscience?

Our easter isderived from the ancient Hebrew and pagan

solar-lunar spring festival that marked the vernal equinox.

This fact is amply indicated by the manner in which our

easter day has customarily been determined. The date of

easter has long been determined bythe gregorian system of

calculation. Under this system, easter day was to be the first

Page 8

April,1983

The early christian cross isseen on Figure 1.This cross was

used by the christians till the year 680. In that year the sixth

ecumenical council was held at Constantinople where it was

decided that from that time on the figure of a man was to be

represented on the cross instead of the customary lamb as

the agency that removes sin from the world. In john 1:29,

john the baptist said upon seeing jesus, Behold, the lamb of

god which taketh away the sin of the world.

figure

1

There isan astronomical phenomenon going on constant-

ly

which the ancients observed but did not understand. It is

known as the precession of the equinoxes. Because the

earth wobbles on its axis like a top running down, the point

at which the sun crosses the equatorial circle at the vernal

equinox precesses; in other words it is slightly behind the

point it crossed in the previous year. In 70 years the

precession amounts to one whole degree. In about 2,000

years the sun crosses the equatorial circle in an entirely

different sign of the zodiac. Many myths grew up that were

the result of the ancients' attempt to explain this strange

occurrence.

Many myths and fables have grown up about the sun god,

by whatever name he was known, having gone down to a

the American Atheist


11/43

hades, to a prison, to a term of servitude, imprisonment;

and that object, or sign of the zodiac, whatever it might be

- bull-god, ram-god, fish-god, or whatever - was respon-

sible for rescuing or saving the chief god from his period of

wintertime weakness or servitude. Thus, the fable of the

messiah arose.

Some years before the advent of the new religion called

christianity, the precession ofthe equinoxes had caused the

sun to begin rising in the zodiacal sign of pisces, the sign of

the two fishes. The people had expected the appearance of

a savior, or messiah, and such a personage was long

overdue. The jewish people were under foreign domination

at this time and had fondly and expectantly hoped for such a

leader, or savior, to relieve them from Roman domination.

In the book of daniel at 9:25-26 ( Know therefore and

understand, that from the going forth of the commandment

to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the messiah the

prince shallbe seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks:

the street shall be built again, and the wall,even introublous

times. And after threescore and two weeks shall messiah be

cut off,but not for himself: and the people of the prince that

shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the

end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end ofthe war

desolations are determined. ) we read of a prophecy of the

coming of a messiah who would come forth to restore and

rebuild Jerusalem. In the new testament book of john at

1:25-27

( And they asked him, and said unto him, 'Why

baptizest thou then, if thou be not that christ, nor elias,

neither that prophet?' John answered them, saying, 'I

baptize with water: but there standeth one among you,

whom ye know not; He it is, who coming after me is

preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy

to unloose.' ) and

4:25-26

( The woman saith unto him, 'I

know that messias cometh, which iscalled christ: when he is

come, he willtell us allthings.' Jesus saith unto her, 'I that

speak unto thee.am he.' ), we are told that the christians

had thought they had found such a messiah in the person of

one jesus. Of course, this jesus was a hypothetical or

mythological personage, one built up by practitioners of

priestcraft, a person who never existed. We have con-

cluded jesus and all other messiahs are figments of the

imagination.

equinoxes had caused the vernal equinox to occur in the

zodiacal sign of aries, the ram. The religions then changed

to that of the ram-god, or the rescuer of the sun from his

winter weakness or servitude. It was at this time that the

Hebrews acquired their religious regard for the ram, or the

sheep. It is not because of the mythical incident related in

the old testament in which god was supposed to have

tempted abraham to sacrifice his son, isaac, as a burnt

offering. We are told how abraham prepared for this

sacrifice, but was stopped when god provided a ram as

substitute. The Hebrews had adopted the ram worship long

before. They made up the sacrifice myth at a later date

when the real reason for sheep worship was forgotten.

The christians, being originally a sect of the jewish

religion, had at first adopted the sheep, or lamb as their

savior image. The lamb was used because of the command

in the bible to use a lamb of the first year that had no blemish

for their sacrifice.

But the vernal equinox had begun occurring in the

zodiacal sign of pisces, the two fishes, some time before the

supposed time ofchrist. Christ has been associated with the

fish, which is a universal savior symbol. The hindus

>ert Harold Scott started nagging radio

stations of San Francisco to give him air time to

speak on the subject of Atheism. At that time, the

Federal Communications Commission had promul-

gated rules in respect to religion in the young broad-

casting industry. Each rad io and television station in

the country was required to give

5

of its time on the

air to religion - free. Using the Fairness Doctrine

as a basis for his fight, Reibert Scott engaged in a five

year legal battle, which resulted, on July 19,1946, in

the famous Scott Decision. The thrust of this was

that an Atheist should be permitted time. However,

the F.C.C., characteristically, did not force any radio

stations to give the time to Atheists. The free time

was still only mandatory for religion.

Using the permissive decision, Robert Scott

went after the radio stations in the area again. He was

then

57

years old, a veteran of the First World War

with an income only from his disability pension. H~

could not pay for radio time which the F.C.C. had

suggested that he buy. His only recourse was to con-

tinue to nag the stations, which he did from July to

November, 1946. At that time, he convinced the

m

an

aqern ent of station

K

OW to perm it him to have

one-half hour of time, ordinarily the spot given to the

Salt Lake City (Mormon) Tabernacle Choir, early on

a Sunday morning, November 17,1946.

The program erupted a furor across the nation. It

was reported in

Newsweek

and in

Time

magazines.

Editorials reared their ugly heads. And, the U. S. Con-

gress ordered an investigation of the F.C.C. to see if

it had been infiltrated and taken over by Commun-

ists. The extensive official congressional hearing last-

ed several days.

K OW was deluged with letters, telegram s, tele-

phone calls and visits from the righteous and that was

the last of the Scott programs.

But, both Time and Newsweek took enough inter-

est to check the response and discovered that

24

commended the radio station for giving time to an

Atheist. And, the St. Louis

Post-Dispatch

newspaper

editorialized that America's free speech right heritage

needed to be protected in the case of Robert Scott.

But with all the burst of news, it was felt that

one

time was enough.

Subsequently the F.C.C. reversed

its decision and again Atheists were shut out of air

time.

What is strikingly important is that no Atheist or

pseudo-Atheist organization in the U. S. moved for-

ward t o either help Scott or continue the fight at the

threshold of broadcasting which Scott had won.

In 1963 when the Murray-O'Hair family came up-

on the scene in the U. S., Robert Scott was contacted

by them. And, it was the Scott Decision which was



19/43

relied upon by American Atheists to attempt to gain

access to the airways with the original American A-

theist Radio Series. At that point, on June 3,1968,

in the first program of that series, the history of the

Scott case was given.

Meanwhile Robert Scott worked closely with Mad-

alyn Murray O'Hair to preserve his records, transfer-

ring large volumes of legal documents to the Ameri-

can Atheist Library and Archives. Later, he was to be

given a Pioneer Atheist Award by the American

Atheist organization.

We honor Robert Harold Scott again today. He was

one of the few winners in the long and uneven

fight with religion and government. And, from him

has come the lessons of tenacity and the need to ex

ert continual pressures against the barriers, every-

where erected, which prohibit a free and open e x p r es-

ion of American Atheism.

5 E f i R f f i l o t J O F (H UR Cf . A N )

) T A T t

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American Atheist Magazine April 1983

Documents

Transcript of American Atheist Magazine April 1983