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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair

MANAGING EDITOR

Jon Garth Murray

ASSISTANT EDITOR

G. Richard Bozarth

READING EDITOR

Barry Cashman

NON-RESIDENTIAL STAFF

Bill Baird

Angeline Bennett

Wells Culver

Conrad Goeringer

Connie Perazino

Ignatz Sahula-Dycke

Elaine Stansfield,

Gerald Tholen

The American Atheist magazine is

published monthly by American

Atheists, located at 2210 Hancock

Drive, Austin, Texas, 78756, a non-

profit, non-political, educational or-

ganization. Mailing address: P.O.

Box 2117, Austin, Texas, 78768.

Copyright 1980 by Society of

Separationists, Inc. Subscription

rates: $20.00 per year. Manuscripts

submitted must be typed, double-

spaced and accompanied by a

stamped, self-addressed envelope.

The editors assume no responsibility

for unsolicited manuscripts.

The American Atheist magazine is in-

dexed in:

MONTHLY PERIODICAL INDEX

Austin, Texas

A m e r i c a n h e i s l

Volume 22, No.1

January, 1980

articles

Isaac Asimov - Do Scientists Believe in God? 11

Elizabeth Cady Stanton - The Woman's Bible,

a Series 15

Oliver Evans - Myths

&

Mental Mayham 22

Anthony J. Pasquarello - Religion & Morality 23

features

Editorial - Jon G. Murray - You're Out,

Mrs. Johnson 2

Letters to the Editor 3

Atheist News

Utah 4

Atheism Asks For An Open Mind 9

Roots of Atheism - Elizabeth Cady Stanton,

Part 1 20

Columnists

G. Richard Bozarth - The Holely Bible 29

Ignatz Sahula-Dycke - The Baited Hook 32

Angeline Bennett - It Could Be Verse ',.'. 33

Gerald Tholen - Education - The Terrible ..

Tragedy? 36

American Atheist Radio Series

Madalyn Murray O'Hair - Ernst Haeckel,

German Atheist 34

Poems 37

Film Review - Elaine Stansfield - Alien 38

Book Review - The God Fixation 40

our.co~er

Richard Andrews, Chapter Director

Utah Chapter, American Atheists

P. O. Box 11622

Salt Lake City, Utah 84147

Telephone: [801] 3632562

January, 1980

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Editorial

onG. urra

You're Out./' Mrs. Johnson

be useless. Rules for the game of religious life are se t up to be

One of the most common areas of conflict in the arena of broken so that a penalty can be levied and that penalty, in

separation of state and church is 'that of civil rights vs. religion. turn, can be absolved by a higher authority.

A graphic example of this was played out in Utah last month. The ultimate penalty, of course, as in any game, is to be

There, a.good Mormon woman, Sonia Johnson, waS excom-thrown out of the game, or excommunicated. The Mormon

municated from her church for supporting the ERA and assoc- church had, in effect,

tuio

choices with Mrs. Johnson. It could

iating and working with those who favor its passage as an a- penalize her so many yards' iff 'her rush-for the goal of heaven

mendment to our Constitution. or throw her out of the game altogether. It chose the-latter.--- ,.

Mrs. Johnson was tried by a Bishops' court of the Mormon Mrs. Johnson does not know how lucky she is for the

church, according to internal church policy, and excommuni- choice. She is now, officially, a spectator at the Mormon game

cated. The outcry in Utah was that Mrs. Johnson's civil rights instead of a player. She

is

now one step closer to the position

had been violated in that her church trial lacked any of the of an Atheist. An Atheist

is

a spectator to all religion not just

Constitutional guarantees of the right to face one's accusers, a particular team: Mrs. Johnson

is

likely to find a ne'w church

the right to counsel, etc. Critics failed to realize, however, that with a spectrum of allowable activity, or rules, which is wider,

Mrs. Johnson gave up her rights under the Constitution when wide enough to encompass her position on the ERA.

she entered into a church setting. Civil rights in a courtroom Her excommunication, or being kicked out of the game,

extend only to proceedings in courts operating under the con- was an effective punishment of her only because she believed

trol of some governmental branch of the city, county, state or in the intrinsic value of staying in the game. As a player, the

national jurisdiction. They do not extend into a Mormon Bish- team effort for all the players to reach the goal of heaven was

ops' court. . paramount. To a spectator, who sees the game as entertain-

Internal procedure within the confines of the doctrinal ment or only a game, a player being thrown .out is only a

disciplining of any church

is

its own business. If one chooses temporary lull in the action.

to belong to a particular church one comes under the jurisdic- To an Atheist religion has but an entertainment value. It is

lion of the rules and regulations of that church. The Mormon something at which to laugh.

can only hope that out of the

churcb did nothing illegal when it tried Mrs. Johnson, [it church Mrs. Johnson will learn to laugh also.

being immoral would be another matter.] It merely exer- Within the game she was laboring under the illusion that

cised its internal policy on the subject of women's rights. If civil rights had a place within the game structure. Just as any

Mrs. Johnson wished to remain within the church, she had the sporting event

is

irrelevant to human life so is the game of reli-

option of coming to terms with those internal

policies:

gion. Real human concerns have no place within the rules of a

The same would apply to the American Atheist organiza- game, there the rules themselves are the only relevant ele-

tion. American Atheists is perfectly within its rights, as a pri- ments.

vate, membership organization (like the Mormon church) to . What can we learn from all this? We learn {ust one more

expel anyone' who comes into contradiction with its stated lesson on the point that one must examine any system of

corporate aims and purposes. If, for example, American A- controls of human behavior before one subscribes to it. The

theists expelled a born-again. Christian from membership for'most important decision one can make in life is the setting up

practicing religious evangelism under the name of an Atheist' of a system of rules to guide. one's self along the way. The

organization it would be perfectly within its rights. choice is between a selfmade system wfiicnoife tailors to one's _ ,

Every religion and, for that matter, every church has a set own needs, tempered by the trial and error guidelines of all hu-

of rules which are open for the inspection of anyone seeking man, as well as one's personal, history and a so-called inspir-

admission to that religion or church. If one

is

not willing to ed system that one accepts on faith. For my money, I choose

remain within the spectrum- of allowable activity set up by the self-made one.

those rules, one does not join the religion (or the particular If one chooses a system ready made, one must be prepared

denomination thereof). Each world religion, historically, de- to be let down by it, for ready-made lifestyles cannot grow

rives the boundaries of this spectrum of allowable activity with one, one must instead grow to fit the system. If one

within the church from its holy book, or whatever it deems mahes one's own system, modifying it as one grows, one never

to be the inspired word of its particular deity. Those activities, has to fear a situation outside of its bounds, for it has none.

both mental and physical, that are allowable are then consid- Don't box yourself in like Mrs. Johnsoti. Leaoe plenty of grow-

ered to be virtues. Those that are unallowable are sins. ing room; your mind needs it.

It is essential toa church for human activities to be grouped I don't know of any life style with any more growing room

into the allowable and nonallowable, or those things inside and and, self-control built into it than has Atheism. It's like the dif-

outside of the spectrum of church dogma. Unless the spectrum

ference

between living in a box or in an ever expanding bal-

is not only finite, but a subset of allowable human activity in loon.

nature, - then - sinning cannot be accomplished. Sin must Think about it.

exist in order for redemption to be possible. If everything one

can do, as a human being, in one's natural environmen t, is

permissible then there is no sin. Without sin there is nothing

from which to be redeemed or saved. The religion would then

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January, 1980

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Letters to The Editor

HOW THE BLACKS GOT INTO

THE MORMON PRIESTHOOD

Dear Friends,

Here is an experience I had this

summer.

A school was tom down, and help

was hard to get, so they imported

some Negro and Mexican boys to do

the work. It was across the street, so

I got acquainted with them. The fore-

man had time to chat with me, and it

was highly amusing when he told a-

bout their entry into the Mormon

church.

Quote: You know the black boys

were not satisfied to be only members;

they wanted to get into the thing big,

mingle with all the white gals, and you

know to get there, you have to be a

deacon. But Mistuh Kimball, he said,

'Nope, you can't because god said you

don't qualify.' So anyway, the pres-

sure mounted, and finally old Spence,

that's Mr. Kimball, he said, 'Well, I

talked to god, and he said he would

think it over.' But it seems god could

not make up his mind for two or three

years. Finally god said to Father Kim-

ball, 'OK. It seems you have been los-

ing money account your white boys

just can't compete. with the schools

that have 'them tall black boys - they

won't let your boys have the ball.' So,

when god told old Spence that, we got

in with god's blessing. Now we just

about have all the say up at that

Brigham Young school - and the gals

come around and joke and tickle our

ribs.

Fred Girard

Arizona

Dear Fred,

We always knew the real reason

that the Mormons decided to let the

Blacks into full membership was to

play ball, with the idea of equality,

but as an Atheist don't fall into the

trap of letting anyone persuade you

that all Black men want white women.

T'ain't so - and we will have a sociol-

ogist write to that myth in another is-

sue of the magazine.

The Editor

Austin, Texas

What More Do You Want?

Editor:

I was upset by the movie review on

The Life of Brian

by Elaine Stansfield.

It seemed to me that she was trying to

outdo Monty Python by being com-

pletely different. Whatever .the rea~on

for her drab thinking, she did Atheism

a disservice by her negative review of

the most Atheist-like movie that has

ever been done commercially, besides

Simon in the Desert

by Luis Bunuel.

I don't know where she saw the

movie - maybe Mexico - but most

intelligent people in this country en-

joyed it immensely.

The movie clearly showed the peo-

ple of that epoch for the sorry, gull-

ible confused lot that they were,

whi~h strongly implies where the

Jesus myth came from. When people

are picking up gourds after Brian

exits and exclaiming, It's a miracle ,

they are being clearly exposed as i~-

iots. That is a direct put-down of reli-

gion. When people parr.ot their lea.der

no matter how unthinkingly, that ISa

direct put-down of religious people.

When a guy on a cross advises another

not to worry because we came from

nothing and will go to nothing, and

then proceeds to sing a beautiful song,

Always Look on the Bright Side of

Life he is making an Atheist affirm-

atio~ of the noblest kind. In other

words don't pray to some non-exist-

ent g~d for one's troubles; just man-

age them in the best possible way.

What more do you want?

Richard M. Smith

Idaho

Never Had Anything Like It

Editor:

Contrary to the review by Elaine

Stansfield I think that

Life of Brian

is the biggest

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Wherever there are walls ~shall inscribe this eternal

accusation against Christianity upon them

- I can write in letters which make even the blind

see.... .I call Christianity the ONE great curse, the

ONE great intrinsic depravity, the ONE great

instinct for revenge for which no expedient is

sufficiently poisonous, secret, subterranean,

PETTY - I call it the ONE immortal blemish of

mankind ..... And one calculates TIME from the

DIES NEFASTUS. [unlucky day] on which this

fatality arose - from the FIRST day of Chris-

tianity WHY NOT RATHER FROM HIS LAST?

~ FROM TO DAY? - Revaluation of all values

Friedrich Nietzsche

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