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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.
8/9/2019 American Atheist Magazine April 1983
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(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
Page 2
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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