February 1991

A Journal of Atheist News and Thought

Religion on the battle front

Jon Murray examines the "holy war"
andsome of the religious
controversies that it has spawned.

$2.95

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American Atheist

February 1991

A Journal of Atheist News and Thought

American Atheist

Religion on the battle front

Editor's Desk
R. Murray-O'Hair

Director's Briefcase
Jon G. Murray

From the motivations of Bush and

Hussein to Bob Hope's road show and
Christmas in the desert, religion has
played a part in almost every aspect of
"The Gulf War."

News and Comments

Cover art and design by
Greg Anderson.

20

Are We on God's Side? - George

Bush enumerates what he feels are
appropriate reasons for the United
States to engage in a war against another nation.

Mother's Milk
Rita M. Acosta

Roots of Atheism
Madalyn O'Hair
23

Three generations of women struggle

with the beginnings of disbelief in this
short story.

31

While immersing himself in the most

controversial issues of the nineteenth
century, author Grant Allen fought for
"Freethought and Free Love."

Masters of Atheism
Grant Allen

34

For centuries, individuals have clung

to the idea of a god because of a fear
that without that entity there would
be no purpose to their existences. But
Atheists do have a rational answer to
the question of "What Is the Object of
Life?"

Blood and Tears in the Holy Land 25

Isaac Hasson
.
The founder of an Israeli Atheist organization examines the religious ideas
which contribute to the continuing
violence within his homeland.

Talking Back

Volume 33, No.2

Austin, Texas

February 1991

37

American Atheist Radio Series

Madalyn O'Hair

38

"Arguments for god, historical and

contemporary" leave a lot to be desired.

Me Too
30

Nonbelievers who have fought "For

Principle and Country" respond to
the theistic assertion that there are no
Atheists in foxholes.

Poetry

41

A frustrated member of American

Atheists outlines "What Atheists
Need to Do."

Letters to the Editor

42

Classified Ads

44
Page 1

American Atheist
Editor
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February 1991

American Atheist

Editor's Desk

Loving the sinner,

hating the sin

1m

erchants have rushed to take advantage of the marketing appeal

of the Gulf Waf- Military families
are, of course, being offered special discounts and payment plans, But the real
activity has been in merchandising.
Yellow ribbons of various widths and
fabrics have been pushed for indoor,
outdoor, and lapel display. Suddenly
U.S. flags, large and small, are on the
counters
of retail outlets. The red,
white, and blue isn't a sales gimmick
limited to Old Glory, however. It's been
slapped on everything from jackets to
hair ribbons and then rushed to the
malls. Our nation's popular culture
seems to be largely defined by what is
for sale - from images of mutant reptiles to miniskirts and Madonna - and
the sales counters now tell us that we
are patriotic.
Along with the array of disposable
goods, a new slogan has entered our national culture: "I support the troops."
Available for purchase on bumper stickers, buttons, posters, patches, yard
signs, caps, balloons, coffee mugs, and
who knows what else, it has entered the
vocabularies
of American
adults as
tenaciously as "cowabunga, dude" has
been marketed into the lexicon of America's youth.
The odd thing to me is that in real life
- the world outside of cash registers
and mail order forms - I have rarely
heard the phrase quite the way it is stenciled on T-shirts and banners. Usually
another word is tacked onto the slogan:
but As in "I support the troops, but." Or
"I'm opposed to the war, but I support
the troops."
The I-support-the-troops-but
position
has been a common one among the Gulf
War's critics - whether they are opposed
to all wars, to just this particular war, or
merely to President Bush's handling of
this war. They wish to carefully distinguish between the war and the warriors,
attacking one but not the other.

R. Murray-O'Hair
Austin, Texas

But as the antiwar movement in the

United States sputters to a close, the difficulty of this position is evident. The 1support-the-troops-but
stance seems to
boil down into holding our men and
women in uniform to be guiltless tools of
the government (or, if you prefer, the
military-industrial complex) but somehow still noble and self-sacrificing. The
soldiers are merely the conduit for the
will of the government, not responsible
for the content of their actions yet deserving of glory for those actions. The
duplicity of such a position can only contribute to the impotence of the peace
movement in the United States.
The problem of separating the idea or
policy from its advocates and enactors
- and whether that should be done is one which Atheists also confront,
often on a daily basis. Our versions of 1support-the-troops-but
are more varied,
less standardized.
They range from "I
disagree with religion, but have nothing
against believers" to "Religion is wrong,
but many ministers mean well." But the
question of the appropriateness
of distinguishing the actor from the action remains. And that question should be
carefully considered by Atheists, for it
affects not only how we conduct our
work on various issues but what issues
we choose.
Some peace advocates
have been
fond of pointing out that our "all-volunteer" army is hardly volunteer in the
true sense of the word. For many, the
armed services are their best chance to
get out of the ghetto: the military promises them not only a job but an education. There may be technically no conscription in the United States, but for
many their economic situation is as
compelling as any draft board. The
argument then made is that these servicemen should not be blamed for any
war, as they are essentially involved
against their will.
And, to be honest, our country's "allvolunteer" churches are hardly that.
Our citizens are both indoctrinated and
intimidated into church attendance. But
February 1991

using the I-support-the-troops-but

logic,
the woman who is reared a Christian
Scientist who lets her daughter die of a
simple illness rather than take her to a
doctor is no more "guilty" than the near
illiterate soldier (on either side) who kills
on order. Both are reacting to cultural
conditioning. Neither can be held responsible for or prevented
from his
action. They are merely pawns of a system, and that system - in this view should not be attacked through their
persons.
Yet I would do everything I could to
prevent that mother from practicing her
religion on any other children, including
her own. I would assume that the readers
of the American Atheist would also. But
nonbelievers would not uniformly agree
concerning attacks on other, less immediately fatal, manifestations of religion.
Much of the dichotomy in the attitudes of peace advocates and Atheists
toward their opponents
is less logical
than emotional. Approximately
10 percent of the U.S. population are veterans
of a war, Approximately 90 percent of
the population have religious beliefs.
Both are numerous enough to be found
in any family. Peace advocates find it as
difficult to tell dear old dad, sitting there
with his treasured medals, that on D-day
he debased himself by engaging in the
ethically untenable activity of war as
Atheists do trying to explain to mom
that acceptance of the myth of the resurrection of Jesus is just plain loony. Affection and friendship can corrupt principles as effectively as cold hard cash.
Ethics is, of course, not the only area
in which this occurs. In the areas of drug
addiction,
alcoholism,
child abuse,
spouse beating, people let their affection for a person involved in destructive
behavior overcome their common sense.
They pretend negative behavior does
not exist or is not meant. Yet as these codependents
eventually must learn, destructive behavior persists if not discouraged.
This is a lesson which we as Atheists
must also remember, ~
Page 3

Director's Briefcase

THE
WAR
From the motivations of
Bush and Hussein to
Bob Hope's road show
and Christmas in the
desert, religion has
played a part in almost
every aspect of the war.

A graduate of the University of Texas at

Austin and a second-generation Atheist,
Mr. Murray is a proponent of "aggressive Atheism." He is an anchorman on
the "American Atheist Forum" and the
president of American Atheists.

Jon G. Murray
Page 4

can remember when I was growing

[] up in Baltimore, Maryland. My mother, then Madalyn Murray, was "for" a
number of things that most of the neighborhood folks who surrounded us were
against. She was for world peace. She
was for the right of a Black man or woman to be served at the same restaurant
table or counter as a White man or
woman. She often was the lone White
female among a line of Black males
shouting for the right of Blacks to be
seated and served with Whites. She was
for equality for women at a time when
most women were not for equality for
themselves. She was for equal justice
under law. She was for separation of
state and church. She truly believed in
freedom of political expression in a free
marketplace of ideas.
It was in such an environment that I
was reared - a home in which truth,
justice, fair play, freedom of speech, and
a plethora of other associated freedoms
really meant something. I grew up with
certain ideas firmly implanted into my
brain, my very way of life. These were
ideas that violence was not a solution to
any human problem, that the Black children with whom I played were the equal
of the White, that women were as good
as men, that all citizens, religious or not,
should be treated equally, fairly, and
February 1991

justly. I was taught that government

should be first and foremost an instrument to provide for the health, education, and welfare of all Americans.
I remember well leaving our home
and being driven up to Washington, DC;
to be part of large marches against nuclear bomb testing, both below ground
and in the atmosphere. I recall being
with thousands of marchers who would
traverse the diameter or circumference
of a circle marking the area that would
be destroyed by an atom bomb dropped
on the nation's capitol. I can still see myself, carrying a sign that was sometimes
bigger than I was. On other occasions I
recall an image of myself next to my
mother marching up and down in front
of the White House with many, many
others protesting nuclear testing or the
likes of the Cuban missile crisis.
I was a member of a family which
cared about the events of the day. I never will forget staying up all night in that
slow-moving line that seemed to go on
forever to file silently past the coffin of
John E Kennedy in the Capitol rotunda.
We were participants in our culture and
desired to make our view known. We
were proud of being propeace, antiracist, and for freedom of political expression, and mindful and full of respect for
the Constitution that guaranteed us
American Atheist

those stands. I was never ashamed of desk at the American Atheist General in the cradle of ancient civilization. Yet
those views and I hold them to this day Headquarters when my mother buzzed despite the archaeological value and the
me on the intercom and said, "It has fact that Iraq is for all practical purposes
in an unabashed way.
When the Vietnam War was upon us, started; we are bombing Baghdad!" I a "third world" country, U.S. planes
in the latter stages, I had to register for rushed down the hall and joined her and were pounding that city that night with
the draft along with many other young my sister at the office television, glued to thousands of deadly sorties.
It matters not to me what the reason
Americans. I did so, forsaking the con- CNN (Cable News Network) while the
scientious objector status. I truly, in fact, reporters in that Baghdad hotel gave or provocation. I cannot logically justify
the insanity of war. In Baghdad that
had strong conscientious objecvery night (or early morning, I suptions to war. I knew that I could nevpose it was) there was for certain a
er shoot down another human bethirty-six-year-old male, not unlike
ing, but I did not relish languishing in
,,
myself, at the receiving end of a
a jail cell either. My rational nature
bomb. A mother just like mine, age
overcame my gut instinct to just
seventy-one or better, would grieve
run, so I filled out the necessary
and for what? For nothing! In: the
forms. I was lucky. I drew a draft
history of all nations, the killing has
number that was high enough that
been primarily over real estate, natthe war ended before my numerical I"
ural resources, or religion. That
sequence was called up. I never did '
translates into the root causes of
get corralled into the legions hauled ~~~~~~
"greed" - I want what you have in
off to be trained to killand be killed.
terms of land or resources - and of
I truly do not know what I would
"insanity," in the form of "my god is
have done had I actually been called;
better than your god." I cannot help
taken off to Canada, I suppose.
Many of the Gulf War's supporters viewed Sad- but think, perhaps utopistically, that
I remember the black arm bands
an Atheist world would at least neof "moratorium" day protests in my dam Hussein as the Antichrist.
high school. I wore one proudly. I would their blow-by-blow description of the gate the latter of those two root causes
leave school early, if need be, on such attack. I could not believe that I was see- of human pugilism and might even tend
days to join a peace march downtown ing and hearing the evidence of our to mitigate the former cause through
the application of logic.
nation again at war.
with my mother. Even the peaceniks
Referring to instruments of mass deAmid the rhetoric of "surgical" strikes
with whom I occasionally associated in
school would not have me in their ranks, and "pinpoint" bombing, I thought of struction as "devices" or "ordnance"
though, when it came to any such orga- the millions of people on the ground in and speaking in terms of "acceptable
nized antiwar protests because I was, that large old city under attack. The losses" confirms the insanity of it all for
after all, "the Atheist." To be an Atheist women and children, the old, the mothers inquiring minds while pacifying the witand fathers, who were all in mortal dan- less.
was to be the school untouchable.
It has not taken me long either, as a
So here I am in the nineties, as an ger. I also thought of those pilots. How
adult, and I am witness to our nation could they? How could you fly over a person of perception, to see what is realgoing to war in the Persian Gulf. I am old city, at night no less - under the cover ly going on with this one-sided war. I
enough now that I need not worry about of darkness - and take aim at a build- waited for the Iraqi army or air force to
the draft. I am safe in that regard. I tell ing full of people and drop a bomb? It fight back, but they did not. Saddam
you, the reader, all of the foregoing be- takes a special mind-set to do that duty, Hussein must have a plan, I thought. He
cause I desire for you to know where I a mind-set somehow detached from hu- cannot just be willingto sit back and to
am coming from when rendering my manity and from our pack instinct as watch his nation be pounded to ruins
opinion of the current state of events in animals. What ifthose planes were over and do nothing! Then I figured it out.
the Persian Gulf.
The Arab culture is extremely male
Austin, Texas, that very night, I thought,
I see no more valid reason for the over my neighborhood? Why also were dominated. The Arab military man
present war than I did for the cold war we bombing a city that is thousands of comes from a heritage of hand-to-hand,
or the Vietnam War of my formative years old? Baghdad sits in the fertile sword-to-sword combat with another
crescent of the Tigris and Euphrates riv- man on horseback or on foot. They preyears. I was struck sick at my stomach
on the evening that our warplanes be- ers just fifty-fivemiles north of the site fer to fight with pride and dignity and the
gan to hit Baghdad. I was working at my of the ancient city of Babylon. It is truly honor and glory which they perceive to
I

Austin, Texas

February 1991

Page 5

The rank-and-file inhabitants of Kuwait never knew a "democracy,"

but survived under a despotic monarchy
which was an oasis
for the "chosen" few.
accompany combat. To Sad dam Hussein a nighttime air raid on his capital,
targeting his palace among other buildings, was "cowardly" in the terms of his
culture. He had anticipated meeting the
Americans, if at all, face-to-face on the
desert battlefield along the border between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, to
"fight like men for the glory of god," as
his troops had done with their Iranian
foe just years before. This was not to be.
No glory, no "honor" in Arab terms. Just
the high-altitude laser-guided bombing
runs, all by computer. Nice and clean,
with none of the victims' blood splattered all over those nice clean and
pressed uniforms.
It was at that moment, in which I realized that the type of war to which Saddam Hussein and his men were no
stranger was not to be, that I felt sorry
for Saddam and his people. In Vietnam
the Viet Cong were outnumbered, outgunned, faced with superior technology
from the outset. Here we go again, I
thought. We would fight a clean, longarm war, pounding the Iraqis from the
air, fighting the kind of fight in which
they could not engage. They would not
be fighting us in the trenches as they had
with Iran and perhaps, just perhaps, this
had never dawned on Saddam Hussein
in his defiance. It was not fair!

The emirate of Kuwait

Meanwhile there was a little emirate
called Kuwait. It had a royal family and
an emir, Sheikh Jabir aI-Ahmed el-Jabir
al-Sabah, who were so wealthy with
money from oil that they knew not what
to do with it all. Part of their wealth they
put in United States banks, billions of
dollars' worth of it. As of twenty years
ago in Kuwait only eighteen families
controlled all investment.'
The al-Sabah royal family has ruled
over Kuwait for 284 years, being dominated periodically by foreign imperialist

IThe People, vol. 100, no. 23, 9 February

1991,p. 8.

Page 6

power. The last time that happened was

when Kuwait fellunder British rule from
1899 to 1%1. At the end of that period,
it was declared "independent," with the
al-Sabah clan being handed power under the protection of British troops."
Those in favor in Kuwait, the Sabah
clan, lived very well, monopolizing "the
country's security, oil, economics, infor-

Sheikh al-Sabah, the emir of Kuwait,

permitted only approximately 3 percent
of the residents of the country which he
ruled to vote.

marion, and defense establishment."3

Meanwhile the majority were used,
along with the "braceros" imported
from surrounding Arab countries, to do
the stoop labor that was too lowly for a
Kuwaiti to touch, much the same as the
Palestinians are being used by the Israelis. Some 60 percent of the population,
made up of "foreign" workers who compose the majority of the work force, had
no citizenship rights even if they were
multigenerational residents.' The rankand-file inhabitants of Kuwait never
knew a "democracy," but survived under a despotic monarchy which was an

2fbid.
3Achal Mehra, "Democracy in Kuwait," Lies
of Our Times, vol. 1, no. 12, December 1990,
p.14.

4The People, vol. 100, no. 23.

February 1991

oasis for the "chosen"

source wrote,

few. As one

The Emir of Kuwait is a hereditary

ruler and only one-third of Kuwait's
approximately two million residents are citizens. The rest (including all women) are barred
from the political process, ... s
Kuwaiti citizenship was divided into two
categories, with sixty thousand adult
males being enfranchised. The noncitizen majority could not own their own
homes, could not belong to trade unions,
and were denied the health care which
was provided free to Kuwaiti citizens.
The only unions allowed to exist were
associations of skilled workers and professionals who tended to the emir's oil
fields. The majority of government
workers were non-Kuwaiti and were
paid 40 percent less than Kuwaiti workers. Of non-Kuwaiti Arabs, only 10 percent were allowed to attend public
schools. The minority electorate chose
a fifty-member national assembly which
was disbanded by the emir twice between
1976and 1985.It was again dissolved in
1986and remained so up to the time of
the Iraqi invasion.f
Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in
what he viewed as a justifiable act of retaking what used to be part of Iraq.
Hussein wanted that additional oil revenue and, I suspect, did not think that the
billionaires of Kuwait would miss it. He
used no more force in that effort than
our government had used not too very
long before in "Operation Just Cause"
in Panama. We invaded a small and essentially defenseless country to overthrow its legitimate government because it was not of the leadership which
we preferred. Or was it because Manuel

SAchal Mehra, "Democracy in Kuwait."

According to The People (vol. 100, no. 23)
there were 535,000 citizens out of a population of 1.9 million.
6The People, vol. 100, no. 23.
American Atheist

A congressman dissents
The following is the complete text
of a letter dated January 25, 1991,
from Representative Henry B. Gonzalez (D-Texas) to Madalyn O'Hair,
founder of American Atheists.
I appreciate your support for impeachment of the President and others
because of Operation Desert Shield,
now Desert Storm. I fear for what may
happen now that war has begun. For
the reasons I state below, I introduced
a Resolution of Impeachment of the
President on January 16th. It is only
through impeachment
hearings and
compelling the President to come before
Congress, which he has not done even
once since August, that the questions
about our mission, the costs involved in
lives and money, and other underlying
significant facts can be brought out into
public light.
Clearly, the President's actions have
been a violation of the United States
Constitution, the United Nations Charter, and other national and international
laws. Our soldiers in the Middle East are
overwhelmingly poor White, Black, and
Mexican-American. They may be volunteers, technically, but their volunteerism is based on the coercion of a system
that has denied viable economic opportunities to these classes of citizens. Under the Constitution, all classes of citizens are guaranteed equal protection,
and calling on the poor and minorities to
fight a war for oil to preserve the lifestyles of the wealthy is a denial of the
rights of these soldiers.
The President bribed, intimidated
and threatened members of the United
Nations Security Council to support
belligerent acts against Iraq. It is clear
that the President paid off members of
the U.N. Security Council in return for
their votes in support of war against
Iraq. The debt of Egypt was forgiven; a
$140 million loan to China was agreed
to; the Soviet Union was promised $7
billion in aid; Colombia was promised
assistance to its armed forces; Zaire
was promised military assistance and
partial forgiveness of its debt; Saudi
Arabia was promised $12 billion in arms;
Yemen was threatened with the termination of support; and the U.S. finally
paid off $187 million of its debt to the
United Nations after the vote President
Bush sought was made. The vote was

Austin, Texas

bought, and it will be paid for with the

lives of poor and minority soldiers.
When we start using the weapons of
massive destruction that are in place for
this war, there is no doubt that thousands of innocent civilians will lose their
lives. As killings occur, the principles
laid down in the Nuremberg trial will be
applicable. Their deaths will not only be
a moral outrage, but they will constitute
a violation of international law.
From August, 1990, through January,
1991, the President embarked on a
course of action that systematically
eliminated every option for peaceful
resolution of the Persian Gulf crisis.
Once the President approached Congress for a declaration of war, 500,000
American soldiers' lives were in jeopardy
- rendering any substantive debate by
Congress meaningless. The President
has not received a declaration of war by
Congress, and in contravention of the
written word, the spirit, and the intent
of the U.S. Constitution has declared
that he will go to war regardless of the
views of Congress and the American
people. Congress abdicated its responsibility, but the President violated the
Constitution. I am dismayed with the
Congressional
leadership, but I am
frightened by the President's unwillingness to uphold his oath of office in protecting and preserving the Constitution.
I called for Congress to stand up to
the President and protect its legislative
enactments and constitutional powers,
but my calls were ignored. We have lost
any sense of a balance of powers if any
one of the three branches of government abdicates its responsibility, which
Congress has done. Our forefathers
founded this country on the principle of
a weak executive branch in order to
protect the will of the people - in religion, in pursuit of their daily lives, and
in freedom from "king-made" wars.
Sadly, the American people, through
Congress, have relinquished this cherished liberty.
How soon forgotten the last wars: the
basket cases, the armless, the legless,
the sightless. The Minotaur once again
is turned loose by cynical old men to
consume our young. How tragic!
Henry B. Gonzalez
Member of Congress

February 1991

Henry B. Gonzalez
Noriega knew too much about George
Bush and the Contra connection? Saddam Hussein invaded a small and defenseless country to take what he claims
was his. I see little difference in moral
terms. Be it an American bully or an
Iraqi bully picking on a smaller neighbor,
it is all the same to me. To Hussein his
invasion of Kuwait was an "Operation"
of an equally "Just Cause."
I do have to say that Operation Desert Shield at least had overtness going
for it, unlike the covert operations in
Nicaragua pulled off behind the back of
our own Congress.

The price of the United Nations

Once Hussein had taken Kuwait,
though, George Bush was determined
that he would take it back to restore the
despotic monarchy to power and keep
its billions in U.S. banks and its oil flowing in the direction of our gas tanks. He
began to push the United Nations into
backing his war. For years the United
States had not given a damn about the
U.N., not even enough to pay its dues to
the organization. The U.N. was our pet,
housed in our backyard, to use whenever it suited U.S. interests to get a vote
here or a resolution there to bolster our
policy anywhere in the world. We had
the audacity, at one point, to tell that
august body that it could not have the
Palestine Liberation Organization chief
address it without holding a special
European session to do so. When Bush
needed the U.N., however, for his war
vote on Kuwait, suddenly
the U.S.
check for its U.N. dues was cut. Bought
Page 7

Saudi Arabia is a window into the many exigencies of a theocracy.

A frightening example is the mutawain (or "volunteers"),
the religious police, "formally known as
committees for Encouraging Virtue and Preventing Vice."
and paid for, the U.N. gave its host
nation what it wanted, the okay for war.
In 1967a U.N. resolution called for Israel
to withdraw from the "occupied territories," the designation for the West Bank
and Gaza, which Israel has held since
the Six-Day War of that year.? Israel is
still in occupation in those regions and
has never had the U.S. military machine
enforce that U.N. resolution of 1967.
Saddam Hussein was given a pullout
deadline measured in days, while Israel's
occupation has endured for more than
twenty- four years. That puts Hussein's
insistence on Israeli withdrawal above
just verbal diplomatic rhetoric, or Bush's
and Baker's "unacceptable linkage,"
and beyond a mere fair comparison and
into the realm of a just cause.

ing Americans. I urge all Atheists who

agree with this author's position on the
war in the Gulf to write to Rep. Gonzalez
and thank him for his valiant effort.
Hundreds of thousands of young men
and women were shipped to Saudi
Arabia and so were body bags for the
enlisted men and coffins for the officers.
Unloading that cargo must have been a
morale booster! We were ready once
again, like Vietnam, to butt our noses
into a conflict that was none of our business. The invasion of Kuwait is an Arab
problem and should have an Arab solution. Instead big brother, United States,
is there to prove once again that might
does make right despite the timeworn
adage to the contrary.

Freedom in the Saudi kingdom

Congress steps in
Congress too had to join in the act. A
nation on the brink of depression, the
recession worsening, could a war be just
the cure? World War IIhad pulled us out
of one depression; could a Gulf war do
the same? Congress thought it was
worth a try, and even those pesky prices
at the pump agreed by not going up
when the bombing started, as we had all
feared, but, instead, dropping down. At
least Congress got to put on a good
show for C-SPAN and the networks first
this time, instead of being second to
know, as in the case of the so-called surgica~strikes against Muammar Gadhafi's
home in Libya, murdering his daughter
and other innocents. The media were
even allowed to participate this time, to
the extent of the reach of their Pentagon
leash, unlike Reagan's Grenada fiasco.
One member of the House did, however, have the incredible intestinal fortitude to introduce a resolution of impeachment of the president on 16 January 1991. That representative
was
Henry B. Gonzalez, Democrat from the
20th District of Texas. This brave individual deserves the support of all think"DetroitFree Press, 24 January 1991.
Page 8

When our troops did get to Saudi

Arabia, there was not much that the
Saudis liked about us. Saudi Arabia is,
after all, a rigid Muslim theocracy. It is
the site of Islam's two holiest cities,
Mecca and Medina. The population of
Saudi Arabia is 85 percent Sunni Muslim, mostly of the Whabbi sect, and 15
percent Shi'ite Muslim. This contrasts
with Iraq, which is 97 percent Muslim,
mostly Shi'ite, with 3 percent of other
faiths, and Iran, which has a religious
makeup of 93 percent Shi'ite Muslim,
only 2 percent Sunni Muslim, with 2 percent mixed Christian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian.f One summary of the division
between the two groups of Muslims is
that
The main difference between Sunni
Muslims and the Shi'ites is that
Sunnis adhere to no religious authority other than the heritage of
Islamic law, while Shi'ites exalt suo
perior personal authorities."
The laws of the kingdom are based on
the Koran and ban all religions except

8Washington Times, 19 January 1991, p. F6.

9Washington Times, 1 February 1991.
February 1991

Islam, and the Saudi monarch King

Fahd is considered protector of the
Islamic faith. He also protects most of
the kingdom's wealth, ranking second in
Fortune magazine's list of the top ten of
the world's billionaires, with assets
worth $18 billion.P Houses of worship
for "faiths" other than Islam are banned
and any displays of religious symbols or
observances by non- Muslims is prohibited.
Saudi Arabia is a window into the
many exigencies of a theocracy. A frightening example is the mutawain (or "volunteers"), the religious police, "formally
known as committees for Encouraging
Virtue and Preventing Vice."ll They reo
ject the wearing of bands around their
headscarves, as other Saudis do, as unnecessary adornment. These pious
thugs, clothed in short thobes, carry
small camel-hide whips to use on minor
offenders, such as women daring to
show a little flesh out from under the
abaaya12 they must wear, and guns and
clubs for those bigger jobs. The Sharia,
or Islamic Law, forbids women and men
to socialize unless related by blood or
marriage. That code serves as justification for the mutawain to break into private homes to arrest foreigners and
even prominent citizens on charges of
drinking or chatting with those of the
opposite sex.P

The welcome for our troops

The troops of Operation Desert Shield
offended the Saudis' Muslim sensibilities. Our female service personnel were
"uncovered," something not allowed by
Islamic law and the Koran. Female circumcision yes; bare female arms or uncovered heads no. Saudi customs would

10Arkansas Gazette, 22 August 1990 (Associated Press, New York).

llPittsburgh Post- Gazette, 24 December
1990, p. 3.
12Blackcloak worn with a black veil.
13Richmond Times Despatch, 4 January
1991, p. 1 (from Boston Globe).
American Atheist

Despite Saudi orthodoxy the inventive religious Americans have seen to the
availability of religious symbols. The American Bible Society donated
50,000 Bibles with desert-camouflage covers, reduced in size to fit the
pockets of military gear, for the troops in Operation Desert Shield.
not allow books that deal with religion or
books with "risque pictures" on the cover to be delivered to servicemen. When
the Soviets would not allow Bibles to be
shipped into their country by American
zealots, we were offended: it was just
not right. When the Saudis did the same
it was all right because "we do respect
the laws of the host country,"14 as Pentagon officials put it. Further,

that, in keeping with the worldwide

shortage of Roman Catholic priests,
there is a deficiency of priests in Operation Desert Storm. The shortage is the
worst in the Marine Corps. Troops have
been issued cards with a suggested
prayer for Roman Catholic soldiers

The U.S. Joint Information Bureau in Saudi Arabia does not

allow news coverage of church
services because of Saudi sensitivities. Taking photographs of chapels is forbidden. 15

The chaplaincy
Every army in the world, in all ages
of man, has claimed to have had
"god" (or gods) on its side, on both
sides, of every conflict large or small.
It was not therefore unexpected or
uncharacteristic for the U.S. military
to harbor such notions and to have established a chaplaincy right from the beginning. The Continental Congress created the position of military chaplain in
1775. These vultures of the psyche prey
upon the fears and trepidations of those
likely to die on the battlefield.
In Operation Desert Shield there are
200 navy chaplains, of which there are
167 Protestant, 32 Roman Catholic, and
one Jewish. These serve both navy and
Marine Corps personnel. The army has
1,586 chaplains on active duty, but is not
releasing figures as to how many have
been sent to Operation Desert Shield.
The air force, similarly recalcitrant with
regard to releasing figures on the current operation, has 815 chaplains on
active duty.16
A small bit of news about the chaplain
corps has managed to leak out. It seems

14Arkansas Gazette, 3 September 1990.

15Waxahachie Daily Light, 9 December 1990
(Associated Press).
16Columbus Dispatch, 9 January 1991.
Austin, Texas

~=~~'

which could be read by a comrade when

no priest was available. In the case of
only a Protestant chaplain being available, a Roman Catholic soldier would
receive Catholic-approved "emergency
ministration," not the same as a priest's
extreme unction."?
The chaplains of all branches of the
service have operated under unprecedented restrictions since their arrival on
Saudi soil. The chaplains are being referred to, for the purposes of Operation
Desert Shield, as "morale officers" and
have been ordered not to give interviews. Church services are being held
regularly but quietly in mess halls, tents,
and warehouses. Notices for the services are passed by word of mouth or
posted discreetly on bulletin boards
under code names like "C-Word morale

service" for Roman Catholic mass or "JWord" for a Jewish service. Some of the
chaplains, particularly in the air force
where American troops are stationed
closer to Saudi cities, have been removing their insignia (cross or Star of David)
from their uniforms. When they venture
into the field, away from populated
areas, they put them back on." Despite
Saudi orthodoxy the inventive religious
Americans have seen to the availability of religious symbols. The American
Bible Society donated 50,000 Bibles
with desert-camouflage covers, reduced in size to fit the pockets of military gear, for the troops in Operation
Desert Shield." Additionally Gideons International has provided some
575,000 Bibles to troops in Saudi Arabia as requested by chaplains, some
of which were carried over by U.S.
soldiers, and others were shipped
into desert bases.s? The Knights of
Columbus, acting on a request from
the Archdiocese for the Military Services, U.S.A., sent ten thousand rosaries
to Operation Desert Shield troops accompanied by pocket-sized cards explaining how to recite the rosary and
also confession guide leeflets."
All of this religiosity, which usually
closely accompanies death or potential
death, carried with it the same old slogans that Atheists have heard for years:
"There are no atheists in foxholes," said Capt. B. A. Arnold, an
Air Force chaplain from Cannon
Air Force Base, of Clovis, N.M.22
And from another source:
"I haven't met a paratrooper who
is an atheist," said Sgt. Derrick
White of Paterson, N.J. "When

17DetroitNews, 4 February 1991.

18LosAngeles Times, 2 January 1991, sec. E.

19Associated Press.
20Stars and Stripes, 22 November 1990.
21Ibid., 16 December 1990.
22Arkansas Gazette, 3 September 1990.

February 1991

Page 9

Then, on top of all the other problems getting along with the Islamic
majority in Saudi Arabia, along came the Christian holiday of Christmas.
The holiday was celebrated by the troops in the Persian Gulf,
but discreetly.
you are jumping from an aircraft at
2,000 feet you believe in God."23
As Atheists we know that these generalizations are untrue. There are many
among the membership of American
Atheists who are combat veterans of
U.S. wars and insurgencies.

dred to eight hundred are with the U.S.

force in Saudi Arabia, says the director
of the Jewish Chaplains Council of the
Jewish Welfare Board, which certifies
Jewish chaplains. He reports that there
are two Jewish chaplains on land and

Dreaming of a
discreet Christmas
Then, on top of all the other problems getting along with the Islamic
majority in Saudi Arabia, along came
the Christian holiday of Christmas.
The holiday was celebrated by the
troops in the Persian Gulf, but discreetly. Decorated trees, carolers,
traditional midnight mass, church
services, and a full Christmas feast
complete with turkey and all the trimmings were had under the cover of
U.S. military installations and away
from the Saudi public. In an official
statement outlining its policy on religious worship during Persian Gulf operations, the Pentagon put it this way:
As the guardians of Islam's holy
places, the Saudis restrict the
overt practice of proselytizing of
any religion other than Islam....
Our personnel, whether Jewish,
Christian or any other faith, are
free to practice their religion as
long as they do so in a discreet
manner.P

The Jewish troops

And what about the Jewish servicemen and -women? The Muslim Saudis
have for some time been technically in
a state of war with Israel. Of the 7,700
active-duty Jewish members of the
armed forces, according to the Defense
Department.P anywhere from five hun-

23Peninsula Daily News, 3 September 1990

(Associated Press).
24Stars and Stripes, 23 December 1990, p. 3.
25Newsday, 24 August 1990, p. 17.
Page 10

two at sea in the Persian Gulf.26

Jewish servicemembers in Operation
Desert Shield observed each night of
the eight-day Hanukkah (Feast of Lights)
by lighting candles on menorahs in the
traditional way, but they did so discreetlyand in a manner shielded from the media.27 They celebrated using hundreds
of menorahs, candles, and Hanukkah
gifts shipped in by various Jewish organizations, schools, and individuals, who
were careful not to send products made
in Israel. Saudi customs did allow the
shipments to go through."
Meanwhile Sen. Daniel Patrick
Moynihan (D-New York) got to Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney about reports that Jewish soldiers
had been advised of the "option"
of receiving a "non-Jewish" identity, including non-denominational
dog tags,29
26New York
27Stars and
28New York
29Newsday,

Times, 15 December 1990, p. 32.

Stripes, 13 December 1990.
Times, 15 December 1990, p. 32.
24 August 1990, p. 17.

February 1991

and about complaints he had received

"that Jewish chaplains were not being
deployed with their units."3o Secretary
Cheney went on ABC's "Good Morning
America" to deny the reports - for
what that was worth.
Even Bob Hope's Christmas shows
for the U.S. troops had to be curbed.
The Pentagon banned news organizations from covering the shows, and
humor critical of the Saudi government or Saudi customs had to be cut
from Hope's material. Hope had to
leave a number of the female performers out of the shows in Saudi
Arabia because they might have
shown some "f1esh."31
All in all it has been a disturbing
scenario for U.S. troops on duty in
Saudi Arabia. They can't go for a
beer despite the desert heat because
drinking offends the Muslims; they
can't smoke in front of the Saudis because that is forbidden; they certainly can't go into town on liberty looking
for a hot date; they can't pray out loud;
the traditional use of women as drivers
in the military has to be curbed; and the
Saudis were even offended at flag shoulder patches and other military insignia
as idolatry. Even ifthey get shot down or
captured, their worries may not be over
in this land hostile to Christianity in
which they have been placed. The Code
of Conduct for the armed services, created by President Eisenhower in 1955,
changed in 1977 by President Jimmy
Carter, and last updated three years
ago, ends with the line "I willtrust in my
God and the United States of America."32They had better be ready to clarifywhich god is their god when they find
themselves under the fist of a Muslim
captor. This allhas made many U.S. personnel ask what the hell they were doing defending a country that did not like

30Ibid.
31Indianapolis News, 26 December 1990, p.
A6.

32Houston Chronicle, 22 January 1991.

American Atheist

The Code of Conduct for the armed services, created by

President Eisenhower in 1955, changed in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter,
and last updated three years ago, ends with the line
"Iwill trust in my God and the United States of America."
bly held every seven or eight years.38 It
was during that conference more than
twenty major Protestant and Orthodox
Ramadan:
Christian denominations as well as fifteen Roman Catholic bishops stated
the big religious holiday
their opposition to the war in the Gulf
If all of the problems just dealing with
and called for a cease-fire. The statethe day-to-day aspects of Saudi religiosity are not enough, there is an upcomment was released in New York and
ing additional religious headache just
Canberra by the National Council of
around the corner for U.S. military planChurches and said in part that the U.S.
had embarked in "a war that should
ners in the Gulf. The annual holy month Christian opposition to the war
While the troops were facing an un- have been avoided ... ," and that "[t]he
of fasting, Ramadan, is due in midMarch, and is followed by the ha), or pil- welcome mat in Saudi Arabia, some of words of the Gospel cannot be recongrimage, to Mecca. It is expected on 17 the mainline churches at home were ciled with what is now happening in the
showing signs of opposition to another
Gulf," asking for "a fresh effort to find a
March, but the exact date is determined
by an Islamic religious council according war. Three San Francisco area parish- diplomatic solution."39 In addition to the
to the position of the moon. During Ra- es34 and the University Baptist Church
officers of the thirty-two-denomination
madan Muslims must rise before dawn in Seattle publicly offered sanctuary to National Council of Churches, signers
and eat heartily enough to last them soldiers who refused to serve in the Mid- included leaders from the United Methuntil dusk when the Ramadan cannon dle East or went AWOL (absent without odist Church, Evangelical Lutheran
signals the end of fasting and an evening leave). These institutions had also shel- Church in America, Presbyterian Church
feast can commence. Believers must ab- tered Vietnam War resisters in the 1970s U.S.A., Episcopal Church, Greek Orstain from food and drink from sunrise and Central Americans in the 1980s.35A thodox Church, the Orthodox Church
to sundown. Traditionally "soldiers of peace march of several hundred on the in America, the United Church of Christ,
Allah" are exempt from fasting, which White House was organized by Pax American Baptist Churches, the Remeans that the killing can go on undis- Christi USA, a Roman Catholic peace formed Church in America, the Christurbed. What a religion!
organization, and by the Sojourners
tian Church (Disciples of Christ), the
The Ramadan fasting might not pose community, an interdenominational
National Baptist Convention of Amerias much of a problem for U.S. forces group. Sixty-two members of the pro- ca, the African Methodist Episcopal
stationed in Saudi Arabia as the haj. test were arrested." An independent
Church, the African Methodist EpiscoThis is a period of forty days during Catholic center for justice, the Quixote pal Zion Church, the Progressive Nawhich some four to five million Muslims Center, in Mount Rainier, Washington,
tional Baptist Convention, and the
make a pilgrimage to Mecca to pray be- condemned the war and urged public Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. 40
fore the Kaaba. A true Muslim believer resistance "with every ounce of nonThere was also a thirty-second televihas to make the haj at least once in his violent energy and creativity they have sion spot financed by the Military Famlife.33So what happens when the Mus- available."37
ilies Support Network opposing any
The Seventh Assembly of the World U.S. attack in the Persian Gulf, which
lim faithful head from Iran, Turkey,
Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan to Council of Churches, held in Canberra,
Cable News Network (CNN) and three
Mecca? They must pass through, around, Australia, this month, had as a major Washington, D.C., area local stations
or by U.S. forces which are in the mid- focal point the war in the Persian Gulf. (WJLA-ABC, WRC-NBC, and WUSAdle of an air war, and likelyalso a ground The World Council is representative of CBS) refused to air. The commercial
war by the time of Ramadan. The pilgrims 311member churches which send some was produced by Evans Communicafrom those nations will pose enough of 950 voting delegates to the world ass em- tions out of Washington, D.C., at a cost
a problem with travel through a war or
to the support network of $10,000. It feaoccupation zone, but what about the
tured flag-draped caskets being carried
Muslim populations of Iran and Iraq?
off air force transports at Dover Air
34University Lutheran Church in Berkeley,
The massive Muslim civilian population
First Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto, and
of Iraq cannot be denied access to the Beacon Street Presbyterian Fellowship in
holy sites in Saudi Arabia. Such a denial Oakland.
38LosAngeles Times, 2 February 1991.
anything about Americans. A good, but
yet officiallyunanswered, question.

33Washington Times, 1 February 1991.

Austin, Texas

would bring the wrath of the entire Arab

world to bear on the United States for
its interference, a position in which the
allied commanders do not want to find
themselves. This puts pressure on the
U.S. military to have the war in the Gulf
mopped up by the start of Ramadan but what of our continued postwar presence there?

35Washington Post, l2 January 1991.

36Washington Post, 23 January 1991.
37Washington Times, 1 February 1991.
February 1991

39New York Times, National, 15 February

1991.
40Ibid.
Page 11

place when the nations of the Earth turn

against Israel and begin to fight against
her,"44said Pat Robertson, televangelist
and former presidential candidate. Robertson opined,
As I read the Bible, at that time,
the Messiah will come to defend
his chosen people in this beleaguered nation [Israel]. No one
knows when this will take place,
but it does seem that world events
are moving toward a conflict in the
Middle East more terrible than we
have known."
Force Base in Delaware. However, a
pro-Kuwaiti ad financed by the conservative Coalition of America at Risk was
accepted for airing on local cable channels in twenty-two markets across the
country but was turned down for national airing by CNN.41Earlier in Arkansas, television station KTHV of Little
Rock had refused to air an ad
produced by Operation Real Security in Tempe, Arizona which
[was] a passionate statement by
Ron Kovic, the paralyzed Vietnam
veteran and author of "Born on
the Fourth of July."42

Most denominations gave the "moral

nod" to the president based upon a denouncement of what they saw as the
"unjustifiable act of aggression by Iraq
against Kuwait." The National Council
of Churches itself stated back in August
of 1990 that
The Council supports the demands
of the international community for
a speedy and complete withdrawal of Iraqi forces.P
The tune changed considerably and
dramatically once the bombs began to
falland it was obvious that some civilian
casualties would most certainly result.

The Kovic ad's attempted local sponsor

was the Arkansas Peace Center. The ad
was, however, shown in fifty cities
around the nation.
This is not to say that the organized
religious community was totally opposed
to intervention in the Persian Gulf, at
least until the bombs started to fall. In
the early going virtually all of the major
denominational groups which later became signatories to the National Council
of Churches statement against the war
supported President Bush's deployment of forces to the area in principle.

Meanwhile, the fundamentalist Christians look at the Persian Gulf war and
find fulfillment of biblical prophecies
about the return of their alleged Christ.
Some in the fundamentalist camp believe
that events in the Persian Gulf place the
world on the verge of "the Rapture," an
apocalyptic event in which Christ is supposed to take the souls of loyal Christians up into heaven in advance of the
end of the world. "From a biblical perspective, the final struggle will take

41Arkansas Gazette, 11 January 1991, p. 3A.

42Arkansas Gazette, 6 December 1990.

43Arkansas Gazette, 5 August 1990 (George

Cornell, Associated Press).

Page 12

Would it be the Rapture?

February 1991

The fundamentalists believe that the

war in the Gulf willbring together the required coalition of forces to precipitate
the "final battle." They also believe, relying on the book of Isaiah,
that the first headquarters of the
anti-Christ will be Babylon, and
that he will first bring peace for
three-and-one-half years, but his
ultimate goal willbe the acquisition
or destruction of Israel,
according to the pastor of the First
Assembly of God church in Little Rock,
Arkansas." Fundamentalists point to
the fact that Saddam Hussein has indeed been rebuilding the ancient city of
Babylon located just south of presentday Baghdad and that he has launched
Scud missile attacks against Israel.
Louis Farrakhan, Nation of Islam leader,
said,
This war will be that which the
Scriptures refer to as Armageddon. . . . This is the actual hour
that the prophets have spoken
of.... 47

44Newsday, 31 January 1991, Part II, p. 59.

45Ibid.
46Arkansas Gazette, 26 August 1990.
47Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 28 January 1991, p. A-7.
American Atheist

Supporting the troops

but not the war
Then came the dreaded yellow-ribbon
hysteria. It took the nation by storm and
ribbon and flag dealers by surprise. The
overt meaning of this symbolism was to
show support for "our boys" in Saudi
Arabia. The ribbons represent something more than that, though, having a
twofold purpose.
The first level of meaning is one best
articulated by a quote from a regional
Presbyterian church official in Los Angeles while trying to make the point that
some church leaders
hope to balance their opposition
to the war with compassion and
sensitivity toward church members involved in the military buildUp.48

That official said,

We want to make sure that we
don't make the same mistakes
that were made during the Vietnam conflict, where criticism of
the conflict was taken as criticism
of the individuals caught up in that
conflict. 49

ly show support for the men and women

of the armed forces stationed in Saudi
Arabia but at the same time the displayer
thereof can be morally opposed to the
war.

The offering of yellow ribbons

The second level of meaning to the
yellow-ribbon hysteria was brought out
in a New York Times editorial statement
titled simply "Yellow Ribbons" in which
it was said:
... But the custom itself - leaving something to placate or thank
a deity or as a reminder of what is
desired - is half as old as time.
One thinks of the prayers scribbled on bits of paper and poked
hopefully into the chinks in Jerusalem's Western Wall. The discarded crutches at Lourdes. Turkish trees hung with small white
rags, each the prayer of a barren
woman. The ex-votos in Latin
American churches, each tiny
image a testament to recovery.
And now, the yellow ribbons.
"The tying of a ribbon to a tree

This is a very important point. Many individuals, particularly religious ones, desire to oppose the war in the Gulf but at
the very same time they want to show
their support for the individual servicemen and -women who are caught up in
the conflict. It is the old Christian line of
"we love you as a person, but Ihate your
ideas" which gets thrown at us Atheists
time and time again. I am consistently
told, when facing Christians, that they
"love" me through the "Lord Jesus," but
that they hate my Atheist stand and will
fight me to the death against that stand.
So those yellow ribbons can supposed-

48LosAngeles Times, 22 December

S5.
49Ibid.
Austin, Texas

1990, p.

is related to putting the symbol of

a boon to be requested at a holy
place," says Alan Dundes, professor of anthropology and folklore at
the University of California at
Berkeley .... 50

That is, all of those yellow ribbons we

see on car hood ornaments, pickup gun
racks, trees, and lightposts are actually
superstition at work. I guess those who
display them think that the big bogeyman in the sky will answer their "fervent" hope because of a little piece of
cloth or plastic. That is why you willnot
see me displaying any yellow ribbons in
support of "our boys" in the Persian
Gulf. Ido not support those who would
join an all-volunteer military and allow
themselves to be trained to kill. The individuals participating, each and every
one, in the war in the Gulf are just as responsible for every bomb dropped, every civilian killed, every bit of property
destroyed, as are their commanders, or,
for that matter, Saddam Hussein. They
voluntarily joined the active duty military or the reserves. That is why Ilikewise, as cold as it may sound, have absolutely no sympathy whatsoever
for the sniveling widows or relatives of those killed in action in the
present U.S. military operation. In
my mind those who volunteer for
military service get what they
asked for if they are killed. It is as
simple as that. A war in which
there is involuntary conscription is
an entirely different matter. When
individuals have the choice of prison time or being drafted into military service, then they have my
fullsympathy if they come back in
a body bag. They took a calculated
risk after being faced with two undesirable alternatives, both imposed on them against their will.
That is a far cry from walking, voluntarily, into a recruitment office

George Bush claimed to be fighting for

a new "moral order."
February

1991

50New York Times, 4 February 1991, p.

A16.

Page 13

From the Oval Office, Bush then telephoned Rev. Billy Graham
at his Montreat, North Carolina, home with a short message:
"Come. We need you."
and givingoneself up for cannon fodder.
I have had discussions with my own
mother, who served as an army officer
during World War II, about why she volunteered. There was no draft for women
in World War II, so I asked her why she
did what she did. Her best response is
that she was caught up in the emotional
hysteria of the time. I leave it at that.

Bush's Christian motivations

Inow want to turn to President George
Bush. This journal has gone over and
over the insult of then-Vice President
Bush to Atheists when he said that he
did not consider us as true citizens or
patriots. We know what he thinks of us
Atheists, in a nutshell. The president is
an Episcopalian by denomination. Mr.
Bush is a deeply religious person:

the Rev. Robert Schuller, pastor of the

Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove,
California, to discuss the situation in the
Gulf. Bush told Schuller "to tell his audience that he [Bush] was praying and
wanted their continued prayers."53
The next day, 15 January, Episcopal
bishop Rt. Rev. Edmond Browning was
in Washington for a peace vigil. He

~~~~~.

.~--....
~

Mr. Bush, by all accounts, found

strength and renewed purpose in
his faith. Barbara Bush has said
she and her husband pray aloud
together every night, and what he
prays for, she says, is "wisdom" or
"guidance. "52
Bush's lack of wisdom is proof sufficient that there is no god and prayers
are not answered. The pious nature of
this president has been evident for some
time. It was then no surprise to me that
as the deadline he had imposed, with the
assent of Congress and the U.N., for
Sad dam Hussein's withdrawal from Kuwait approached, he solicited the counsel of religious leaders.
On 14 January the president called

SINew York Times, 16 February 1991.

52Ibid.
Page 14

Mr. Bush told them both he had

been praying for peace during
these troubled times. They both
offered prayers on behalf of the
President and the country. 56

Bush dined that night around 6:45 P.M.

with Barbara and their daughter Dorothy and her two small children. He and
Barbara flipped through the available
selection of television news on the Gulf
situation and just before retiring at
10 P.M. went to the Oval Office for a look
at a painting which hangs there. It is
"The Peacemakers" by George Healey,
of which Mr. Bush has commented:

He is a lifelong churchgoer whose

parents read Bible lessons to the
children each morning as the family gathered for breakfast. 51
Throughout the trials and tribulations of
his life,

together over the phone. Bush also telephoned the chaplain of the United
States Senate, Rev. Richard Halverson,
for advice on the fifteenth. Marlin Fitzwater, the presidential press secretary,
said of the calls to Halverson and Brownmg:

Billy Graham: Presidential confidant.

called the White House to ask if the

president wanted to pray with him.
Bush called him back wanting to talk
about a letter Browning had written to
the president back in December, against
military action in the Gulf, based on the
premise that "two wrongs don't make a
right."54In that telephone call, Browning
said that the president told him, "You
and others have taken the high moral
ground"55but that he (Bush) had to take
another route. Bishop Browning also
talked to Barbara Bush. Then the next
morning Secretary of State James
Baker called Browning, wanting to pray

53Los Angeles Times, 2 February 1991, p.

F16.
54That is, Bush's military action against Iraq
is wrong; adding that to the wrong of Hussein's invasion of Kuwait does not make
everything right again.
55Ibid.
February 1991

It pictures Abraham Lincoln and

his generals meeting at the end of
a war that remains the bloodiest in
the history of our country. A battle
rages. Yet what we see in the distance is a rainbow - a symbol of
hope, a passing of the storm. For
me, it is a constant reminder that
our struggle for peace is a struggle
blessed by hope. 57

"Come. We need you."

Bush was up by 4 A.M. the next morning, 16 January, and out for a walk with
his dogs at 5:30 A.M. From the Oval Office, he then telephoned Rev. Billy
Graham at his Montreat, North Carolina, home with a short message: "Come.
We need yoU."58About 5:30 P.M. that
evening Bush phoned House Speaker
Thomas Foley at his car phone; Foley

56San Antonio Star, 3 February 1991, pp. 1819.

57Ibid.
58Ibid.
American Atheist

Bush told the gathering that he had received a letter chastising him for not
mentioning god in his State of the Union speech in a way other than his
usual "God Bless America" sign-off. He said in response to that letter's
criticism, "Ishould have made that clear; God is our rock and salvation."
stopped and rushed to the capital. Rep.
Foley and Senators George Mitchell and
Robert Dole along with House leaders
Representatives Richard Gephardt and
Bob Michel were with the president
when he signed a formal notice of war.
Then around 6 P.M. the president phoned
United Nations Secretary-General Javier
Perez de Cuellar to let him know of the
attack on Baghdad to come. Mr. Bush
was working on his speech to the nation
then when Rev. Graham arrived. At 8:30
P.M. Bush and wifeBarbara, Rev. Graham
in tow, stepped into the Queen's Bedroom of the White House, where Rev.
Graham customarily slept on visits, and
all three got down on their knees and
prayed. From that prayer session, the
president went down to the Oval Office
where news crews awaited him for his
address to the nation. S9In his televised
address to the nation about the beginning
of war in the Gulf, Bush concluded with,
May God bless each and every
one of them, and the coalition
forces at our side in the Gulf, and
may He continue to bless our
nation, the United States of

gler, assistant to Chaplain Lt. Col. Bruse

Burslie of the Memorial Chapel. He
added:
We had a hymn scheduled that
was perfectly suited to this worship for peace. But at the last minute, someone remembered that
the president's favorite hymn is
"Amazing Grace." We went with
that.62
At that service, in his sermon which he
called "A Service for Peace," Graham
said,
This was supposed to be the Christian century. But it has been anything but the Christian century.
Why can't we settle our problems
in peace? ... There comes a time
when we have to fight for peace.
Our democracy has been built
within the framework of the Ten
Commandments and the Sermon
on the Mount. ... Perhaps out of
this war will come a new peace
and - as has been stated by the
President - a new world order.v

that assemblage that his was a "just

war" and he attempted to do so by using
traditional criteria which had been laid
out by the U.S. Catholic bishops back in
November in letters to the Bush administration. Those criteria were sixfold and
consisted of: (1) "Just cause." (Does the
Gulf War confront a "certain danger"?),
(2) "Competent authority." (Did Bush
go to war on behalf of a committed nation?), (3) "Probability of success." (Can
a just purpose be achieved against
Iraq?), (4) "Right intention." (Is Bush iustified to liberate Kuwait, but not to destroy Iraq and Saddam?), (5) "Last resort." (Did Bush give diplomacy a complete chance?) (6), "Proportionality."
(Will future good achieved in the Gulf
outweigh war's harm?), according to
columnist Sandy Grady of the Miami
Herald.66 Bush told the religious broadcasters that the war was authorized by
a legitimate authority, the United Nations,
and was initiated as a last resort after
the failure of diplomatic efforts and that
it had not been conducted out of proportion to the threat. Also during his address Bush made two other important
statements.

America.w

On the morning of 17 January, just

after allied planes had begun bombing
Baghdad, Billy Graham; the Bushes;
Vice President Dan Quayle and his wife;
military officers; chaplains; General
Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff; Secretary of Defense
Dick Cheney; and most of the Cabinet
attended a prayer service at the Memorial Chapel at the Fort Myer, Virginia,
Army Base. There were some four hundred people in attendance in all. "The
first thing President Bush did after arriving was lean over and pray for a few seeonds,"61 said Staff Sgt. Michael Swin-

S9Ibid.
6oLos Angeles Times, 5 February 1991, p.
H5.
61San Antonio Star, 3 February 1991.
Austin, Texas

Graham's sermon lasted but seventeen

minutes in all and ended with "God
Bless the President!"64 Graham has
known the Bushes for thirty years and
has spent the last ten Labor Day weekends with the Bushes in Kennebunkport.
On 27 January, Bush was quoted as
saying, "God willing we will win this
war."6S

The criteria for war

On 28 January, the president spoke to
the convention of the National Religious
Broadcasters in his fifth such appearance before televangelists. He argued to

62Ibid.
63Ibid.
64Ibid.

(1) "Saddam tried to cast this

conflict as a religious war, but it is
nothing to do with religion per se.
It has, on the other hand, everything to do with what religion embodies - good versus evil, right
versus wrong, human dignity and
freedom versus tyranny and oppression." (Emphasis added.F'
(2) "During the darkest days of
the Civil War a man we revere not'
merely for what he did, but for
what he was, was asked whether
he thought the Lord was on his
side. And said Abraham Lincoln,
'My concern is not whether God is
on our side, but whether we are on

6630 January

6SLos Angeles Times, 5 February

February

1991

1991.

1991, p. 17A.

67Los Angeles Times, 5 February

p. H5.

1991,

Page 15

Saddam Hussein "prayed

that God would save them from the evil of the evildoers,
enable them to defeat their enemy
and raise high in their hands the banner of right and faith."
Gulf bears witness "to the fact that
the triumph of the moral order is
the vision that compels us." (Emphasis added.)"

Saddam's god
In the midst of such presidential piety
here at home, on the other side of the
Atlantic Saddam Hussein was equally
involved in supplication to his deity. At
the beginning of the new year Hussein
spent the night with units of his Republican Guard. According to the Iraqi media,
George Bush claims that "God is our rock and salvation."
God's side.' My fellow Americans,
I firmly believe in my heart of
hearts that times will soon be on
the side of peace, because the
world is overwhelmingly
on the
side of God."68
On the evening of 29 January, the
president faced a joint session of Congress for his State of the Union address,
during which he said about the Gulf
War, "[O]ur cause is just. Our cause is
moral."69 Then in a brief message to
Congress the next day, he stated that
the goal of the Gulf War was to establish
a new "moral order.l"?
On 31 January the president attended
an ecumenical National Prayer Breakfast. That function was "begun by a Senate prayer group thirty-nine years ago"
as "an annual reunion of members of
Congress, governors, clerics, and men
and women in business."?' It was attended by some 3,500 persons at the Washington Hilton. Bush told the gathering
that he had received a letter chastising
him for not mentioning god in his State
of the Union speech in a way other than

68Ibid.
69Los Angeles Times, 2 February

Page 16

I have learned, as all Presidents

have, that you cannot be President of our country without faith
in God .... I encourage all people
of faith to say a special prayer on
that day, a prayer for peace, a
prayer for the safety of our troops,
a prayer for their families, a prayer
for the innocents caught up in this
war. 73
Finally, on 2 February, in a brief radio
speech, the president said
that the United States is waging
war in the Middle East against" evil
that threatens world peace," and
he urged Americans to "unite together in prayer" ... [T]he President said the presence of half a
million U.S. troops in the Persian

Further,
He prayed that God would save
them from the evil of the evildoers,
enable them to defeat their enemy
and raise high in their hands the
banner of right and faith. (Emphasis

added.)"
Sad dam then said, on Iraqi television,
Iraq's men, children and women
will not be defeated, and they will
fight and fight on until God decides
when to stop.??
During the week of 7 January, about
four hundred
Muslim clergy met in
Baghdad to sanctify Hussein's position
as a jihad, or holy war.78 In a 17 January
letter to President Bush, Hussein said,
We are being faithful to the values
that God Almighty has inspired in

74Los Angeles Times, 3 February

1991, p.

A14.
1991, p.

72Washington Post, 2 February 1991.

73Los Angeles Times, 2 February 1991, p.

F16.

7oIbid.
71Washington Post, 1 February

his usual "God Bless America" sign-off.

He said in response to that letter's criticism, "I should have made that clear;
God is our rock and salvation.T? It was
then that the president announced, at
that prayer breakfast, that he was designating Sunday, 3 February, as a National Day of Prayer for Peace. He said,

[h]e prayed to God almighty that

coming days and years would
bring well-being and blessings to
the valiant militant Iraqi men."

1991.

F16.
February

1991

75Columbus Dispatch, 2 January 1991.

76Ibid.
77Ibid.
78Washington Times, 18 January 1991, p. F6.
American

Atheist

us, for we have no fears of the

forces of Satan, the devil that rides
your [Bush's] shoulder."?

Presidential prayers:
An insult to Atheists
and to the Constitution

On Iraqi radio on 20 January he said,

In the coming period, the response

of Iraq will be on a larger scale,
using all the means and potential
God has given us.80

In another domestic speech on 29

January, in reference to George Bush,
Hussein said,
The world needs to tell the one
with the big stick that the stick in
your hand cannot destroy the
house of God or the humanity of
man.s'
Then during a 30 January interview
with CNN's Peter Arnett, Saddam said,
"We are convinced that God is on our
side."82
What we have here is the confluence
of two religious nuts joining together like
two great rivers of ignorance meeting to
form a larger one of stupidity. Just as it
has been for thousands of years, both of
them feel that a "god" is "on their side."
They both see things in terms of "good"
versus "evil" in the usual narrow-minded
religious sense.

Is this a religious war?

Yet, this war is about many things.
Religion is one of them for certain. The
Christian and Muslim religions have
been at. each other's throats since the
Crusades. This war is also about oil, its
massive profits, the very few in the
world who benefit from those profits,
and our nation, which has an unending
appetite for that "light sweet crude."

79Los Angeles Times, 5 February 1991, p.

H5.
80Ibid.
81Ibid.
82Ibid.
Austin, Texas

The following is the complete

text of a press release made by
American Atheists on February 1,
1991.

President George Bush has the temerity to ask all of the people of the
United States to engage in a day of
prayer on Sunday, February 3, 1991.
There are two considerations in respect to his call to prayer. First: the
First Amendment to the Constitution
of the United States precludes a president from such commingling of religion and government as to make a
call for a national day of prayer. If
Bush desires prayer for his war, he
should have asked hierarchical representatives of the Judeo-Christian,
the Hindu, the Buddhist, the Islamic,
and other faiths to make such a call
to their followers. Religion in the
United States is, or ought to be, a private matter; i.e., privatized - not
commingled with government. For
the president to ask all Americans to
pray on a certain day and for a specific reason constitutes a blatant disregard for the basic freedom of state/
church separation.
Second: the Bureau of the Census
of the United States for the last decade has continually reported that
Atheists comprise 9 percent of the
population. For Bush to designate a
"Day of Prayer" is a patent insult to
their intelligence and an implied repudiation of their citizenship.
A final consideration is that Bush
exhibits the height of hypocrisy. The
deliberate destruction of the nation
of Iraq is George Bush's war; not a
war of the American people; not a

February 1991

war of our young military men and

women who are sent by him to die in
the Gulf.
Neither is it a war of the cowardly
Congress of the United States, which
permits Bush to counter his image of
being a wimp, which has clung to him
in his public offices during the last
two decades, by his military adventurism in the Persian Gulf - at the
price of human life on all sides.
American Atheists has no quarrel
with any Iraqi citizens or those of the
other nations involved. We reach out
to them in commiseration for the travail that Bush inflicts on them. We
would assuage the pain of the mothers,
the children, and the other innocents
on whom Bush has ordered 25,000+
bombs and missiles to drop in an unrelenting eighteen days of destruction and murder.
What Bush needs is impeachment;
not prayer.
American Atheists challenges all
churches in the nation to have their
members take to the streets on Sunday, February 3, to demand an end to
the inhumanity of Bush's war instead
of humiliating themselves on their
knees in prayer to a nonexistent god.
Death is final. All of the persons already, or yet to be, killed by Bush's
maniacal orders have no "future life."
The promise of religion that there is
a life after death is a fraud.
Prayers are useless; there is no god
to stop Bush's war. Only we Americans, united, can do that.
Madalyn O'Hair, Founder
Jon G. Murray, President
American Atheists, Inc.

Page 17

The United States is demonstrating that,

based on a belief in a Judeo-Christian god, an Anglo god,
we are justly the new world leader
and that we are making it so by divine right.
This war also has a larger purpose for
the United States as I see it. Since the
end of World War II, only two nations
have really been a deterrent to U.S.
world economic and political domination. Those nations were China and the
Soviet Union because of their nuclear
capabilities. First China fell from internal upheaval and then the Soviet Union
followed along the same path. With
those two communist superpowers out
of the running, the United States is now
free to demonstrate that it is the new
"bully on the block." It can show the
world that we can force any nation that
has a leadership we do not like, a foreign
or internal policy with which we do not
agree, or takes an action which we perceive as a threat to us or to an ally (or
to our oil supply), that we can deal with
them not only covertly, as in the past
through our CIA, but overtly. We have
a prime opportunity to take the stage in
the Persian Gulf and demonstrate to the
world, and particularly the nearby Soviet Union, that we can move massive
armies and technically superior airpower to any location within a short
amount of time and enforce our will.We
have done so with Iraq. We can do so
with any other nation. We are indeed
demonstrating to the world in the theater of the Persian Gulf that there is a
"new world order," a repeated phrase of
President Bush. It is a world order based
on our version of "right" against the
"wrong" of the way in which other nations see the current world situation.
The United States is demonstrating
that, based on a belief in a JudeoChristian god, an Anglo god, we are
justly the new world leader and that we
are making it so by divine right.
Irecall the ramblings of Ronald Reagan
when he said that he believed that his
god had placed this continent in its present geographical position for Columbus
to find and for the Pilgrims to come to
for religious freedom. Is what Bush is
doing in the Persian Gulf all that different or any more rational? I think not.
Americans are not "god's gift to the
Page 18

world." The rest of the world can get

along just fine without our interventionism.
At the recent commemorative ceremony on Capitol Hill of the fiftieth anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt's
famed declaration that a moral world
order must include "Four Freedoms,"
which Roosevelt defined as freedom of
speech, freedom of religion, freedom
from want, and freedom from fear, Bush
remarked that both World War II and
the Persian Gulf conflict were "defining
hours." He also likened the beginning of
hostilities with Iraq under his guidance
to the nation's entry into World War II
under Roosevelt's leadership, stating
that in both cases the nation entered
into combat "against the oldest enemy
of the human spirit - the evil that
threatened world peace."83 Bush does
believe that he is the commandant of a
new world order, with the United States
at the pinnacle.
I stand firmly against the war in the
Gulf, as Istand against all wars. YetI find
that this war is somehow at the top of
the list of the most rank in history, because it has been brought about by one
man who thinks that his god is with him
and that he must be the benevolent big
brother to the world.
Had Saddam seized territory that did
not belong to some of the world's richest men, or harbored a precious world
resource - oil - no one would have
noticed.
One final note on a couple of points.
This war is also linked to the Palestinian
problem. This wilLbe but one of many
bloody conflicts to come unless and until the Palestinian people are restored to
their homeland. That reality is not just a
ploy of Saddam Hussein. It is reality that
must come, and for it to come the basis
of the U.S. relationship with Israel must
change. That change may well be one of
the most disturbing internal controver-

83Houston Chronicle, 16 February 1991, p.

IE.
February 1991

sies that this nation has ever endured,

dwarfing even the abortion debate, but
it must come. Also, whatever the outcome of Operation Desert Storm, U.S.
military presence will be required for
quite some time to come in both Kuwait
and Saudi Arabia. We are, after all, still
in Panama. Will the Kuwait-Iraq border
become another zone like the 39th Parallel no-man's-land between North and
South Korea? Only time will tell. Finally, the United Nations mandate, which
was purchased and badgered out of that
international body, was for Saddam
Hussein to withdraw his troops from
Kuwait and for our nation to use only
the force necessary to enforce that
mandate. The United Nations mandate
for withdrawal of Iraq from Kuwait was
not a mandate for the destruction of
Iraq, as the Soviet Union has now finally
pointed out. If the goal of Operation
Desert Storm was to push Iraqi troops
out of Kuwait, then why did the bombing
begin over Baghdad? The time has
come for both domestic and international outcry to prevent the genocide of
the Iraqi people. 00

Object of Life
(Continued from page 36)

majority of existing human beings, is the

enjoyment of mere selfish personal pleasure and the avoidance of threatened
personal pain, with very little regard at
all to the imagined pleasures or pains of
others. And so far as mankind in the
lump can be said now to live for anything
in particular, outside the instinctively
guarded aim of race-preservation, such
purely selfish and personal happiness is
the real object that most of them live for.
Even in the worst cases, however, it is
slightly tempered by the thin end of the
altruistic wedge, which necessarily
comes in, no matter how imperfectly,
with the first introduction of the wife and
children. 00
American Atheist

American Atheist Symbols

Sure you don't accept all that
stuff they claim in the churches
and cathedrals of the land. But
how do you make a statement
for Atheism when it isn't T-shirt
and button time?
What's a good way to let people know you don't go with the
religious flow when picket signs
aren't quite the way you want to
pass the word?
.
Our answer: an attractive,
discreet ornament, appropriate
for men and women.
The American Atheist symbol
in several jewelry pieces. The
styles available will complement
both dressy and informal looks
and be appropriate at the board
table or the dinner table. But
most importantly, when people
curiously ask what the symbol
means, you have a perfect opportunity to give an explanation
of what Atheism really means
-- after all, they asked so they
have to listen to the answer!
And who knows, you might
find another free mind among
the curious.

American Atheist Medallions (chains included).

A. Large silver. I%" diameter. Stock #3200. $55.00.

B. Small silver. 5/8" diameter. Stock #3210. $30.00.
American Atheist pin. This small (W' diameter),
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Made of gold and
nickel; two backings available.
With a pin back. Stock #3220. $12.00.
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You'll want to wear it just because it looks so
good! W' diameter. Stock #3230. $5.00.

Credit card telephone and FAX orders accepted; just call our automated ordering system at (512) 467-9525.
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mag

News and Comments

Are we on god's side?

George Bush gives his

reasons why w~ are
engaged in a just war,
blessed by his god.
/

policies which you and I support. Like

me, you endorse adoption, not abortion. (Applause.) And last year you
helped ensure that the options of religious-based child care will not be restricted or eliminated by the federal government. (Applause.)
And I commend your concern, your
hank you. President Rose, thank
heartfelt concern on behalf of Ameriyou, sir. And Executive Director
Gustavson - all. First, let me sa- cans with disabilities, and your belief
lute your leadership of the NRB - Billy that students who go to school to nourGraham and Jerry Falwell, Pat Robert- ish their minds should also be allowed to
son, James Dobson, Chuck Colson; the nourish their souls. And I have not lessFCC Commissioners - Sikes and Dug- ened my commitment to restoring volgan and James Quello.
untary prayer in our schools. (Applause.)
This marks the fifth time that I've adThese actions can make America a
dressed the Annual Convention of the kinder and gentler place because they
National Religious Broadcasters. And reaffirm the values that I spoke of earonce again, let me say it is, for both Bar- lier - values that must be central to the
bara and me, an honor to be back here. lives of every individual and the life of
The following is the complete text
of the remarks by President Bush to
the National Religious Broadcasters
Convention on 28 January 1991 at
the Sheraton Washington Hotel,
Washington, D.C.

But above all, we will prevail because of the support of the American people. Armed with a trust
in God and in the principles that make men free.
People like each of you in this room.

The news in this magazine is chosen to

demonstrate, month after month, the
dead reactionary hand of religion. It
dictates our habits, sexual conduct,
and family size; it dictates life values
and life-style. Religion is politics and,
always, the most authoritarian and reactionary politics. We editorialize our
news to emphasize this thesis. Unlike
any other magazine or newspaper in
the United States, we are honest
enough to admit it.

Page 20

Let me begin by congratulating you

on your theme of declaring His glory to
all nations. It's a theme eclipsing denominations and which reflects many of the
eternal teachings in the Scripture. I
speak, of course, of the teachings which
uphold moral values, like tolerance,
compassion, faith and courage. They remind us that while God can live without
man, man cannot live without God. His
love and His justice inspire in us a yearning for faith and a compassion for the
weak and oppressed, as well as the
courage and conviction to oppose tyranny and injustice.
And I'm very grateful for that resolution that has just been read prior to my
speaking here.
Matthew also reminds us in these
times that the meek shall inherit the
Earth. At home, these values imbue the
February 1991

every nation. The clergyman Richard

Cecil once said, "There are two classes
of the wise; the men who serve God because they have found Him, and the
men who seek Him because they have
not found Him yet." Abroad, as in
America, our task is to serve and seek
wisely through the policies we pursue.
Nowhere is this more true than in the
Persian Gulf where, despite protestations of Sad dam Hussein, it is not Iraq
against the United States, it's the regime
of Saddam Hussein against the rest of
the world. Saddam tried to cast this conflict as a religious war. But it has nothing to do with religion per se. It has, on
the other hand, everything to do with
what religion embodies - good versus
evil, right versus wrong, human dignity
and freedom versus tyranny and oppression.
American Atheist

News and Comments

The war in the Gulf is not a Christian

war, a Jewish war, or a Moslem war it is a just war. And it is a war with which
good willprevail. (Applause.) We're told
that the principles of a just war originated with classical Greek and Roman
philosophers like Plato and Cicero. And
later they were expounded by such
Christian theologians as Ambrose, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas.
The first principle of a just war is that
it support a just cause. Our cause could
not be more noble. We seek Iraq's withdrawal from Kuwait - completely, immediately and without condition; the
restoration of Kuwait's legitimate government and the security and stability of
the Gulf. We will see that Kuwait once
again is free, that the nightmare of Iraq's
occupation has ended, and that naked
aggression willnot be rewarded.
We seek nothing for ourselves. As I
have said, U.S. forces willleave as soon
as their mission is over, as soon as they
are no longer needed or desired. And let
me add, we do not seek the destruction
of Iraq. We have respect for the people
of Iraq, for the importance of Iraq in the
region. We do not want a country so destabilized that Iraq itself could be a target for aggression.
But a just war must also be declared
by legitimate authority. Operation Desert Storm is supported by unprecedented United Nations' solidarity, the principle of collective self-defense, 12Security
Council resolutions and, in the Gulf, 28
nations from six continents united resolute that we willnot waver and that
Saddam's aggression willnot stand.
I salute the aid - economic and military - from countries who have joined
in this unprecedented effort - whose
courage and sacrifice have inspired the
world. We're not going it alone - but
believe me, we are going to see it
through. (Applause.)
Every war - every war - is fought
for a reason. But a just war is fought for
the right reasons - for moral, not selfish reasons. Let me take a moment to
tell you a story - a tragic story - about
Austin, Texas

a family whose two sons, 18 and 19, reportedly refused to lower the Kuwaiti
flag in front of their home. For this
crime, they were executed by the Iraqis.
Then, unbelievably, their parents were
asked to pay the price of the bullets
used to kill them.

be fought for the greater good, it is our

gravest obligation to conduct a war in
proportion to the threat. And that is
why we must act reasonably, humanely,
and make every effort possible to keep
casualties to a minimum. And we've
done so. I'm very proud of our military

And I have been honored to serve as President of

this great nation for two years now, and believe
more than ever that one cannot be America's
President without trust in God. I cannot imagine
a world, a life, without the presence of the one
through whom all things are possible. (Applause.)
Some ask whether it's moral to use
force to stop the rape, the pillage, the
plunder of Kuwait. And my answer:
Extraordinary diplomatic efforts having
been exhausted to resolve the matter
peacefully, then the use of force is
moral. (Applause.)
A just war must be a last resort. As I
have often said, we did not want war.
But you all know the verse from Ecclesiasticus: There is "a time for peace, a
time for war." From August 2, 1990 last summer, August 2nd - to January
15, 1991 - 166 days - we tried to resolve this conflict. Secretary of State
Jim Baker made an extraordinary effort
to achieve peace. More than 200 meetings with foreign dignitaries, 10 diplomatic missions,six congressional appearances. Over 103,000 miles traveled
to talk with, among others, members of
the United Nations, the Arab League,
and the European Community. And
sadly, Saddam Hussein rejected out of
hand every overture made by the United
States and by other countries as well.
He made this just war an inevitable war.
We all know that war never comes
easy or cheap. War is never without the
loss of innocent life. And that is war's
greatest tragedy. But when a war must
February

1991

in achieving this end. (Applause.)

From the very first day of the war, the
allies have waged war against Saddam's
military. We are doing everything possible, believe me, to avoid hurting the
innocent. Saddam's response? Wanton,
barbaric bombing of civilian areas.
America and her allies value life. We
pray that Saddam Hussein will see reason. To date, his indiscriminate use of
those Scud missiles - nothing more
than weapons of terror; they have no
military - they can offer no military advantage, weapons of terror - it outraged the world what he has done.
The price of war is always high. And
so it must never, ever, be undertaken
without total commitment to a successful outcome. It is only justified when victory can be achieved. I have pledged
that this will not be another Vietnam.
And let me reassure you here today, it
won't be another Vietnam. (Applause.)
We are fortunate, we are very fortunate to have in this crisis the finest
Armed Forces ever assembled. An allvolunteer force, joined by courageous
allies. And we will prevail because we
have the finest soldiers, sailors, airmen,
Marines, and Coast Guardsmen that
any nation has ever had. (Applause.)
Page 21

News and Comments

But above all, we will prevail because

of the support of the American people.
Armed with a trust in God and in the
principles that make men free. People
like each of you in this room. I salute
Voice of Hope's live radio programming
for U.S. and allied troops in the Gulf.
And your Operation Desert Prayer, and
worship services for our troops held by,
among others, the man who over a
week ago led a wonderful prayer service
at Fort Myer over here across the river
in Virginia, the Reverend Billy Graham.
America has always been a religious
nation - perhaps never more than now.
Just look at the last several weeks.
Churches,
synagogues,
mosques reporting record attendance at services.
Chapels packed during working hours
as Americans stop in for a moment or
two. Why? To pray for peace. And I
know - of course, I know - that some
disagree with the course that I've taken,
and I have no bitterness in my heart
about that at all, no anger. I am convinced
that we are doing the right thing. And
tolerance is a virtue, not a vice. (Applause.)
But with the support and prayers of
so many, there can be no question in the
minds of our soldiers or in the minds of
our enemy about what Americans think.
We know that this is . st war. And we
know that, God willmg, thi is a war we
will win. But most qf all, we know that
ours would not be the-land.of the free if
it were not also the home of the brave.
No one wanted war less than I did. No
one is more determined to seize from
battle the real peace that can offer hope,
that can create a new world order.
When this war is over, the United
States, its credibility and its reliability restored, will have a key leadership role in
helping to bring peace to the rest of the
Middle East. And I have been honored
to serve as President of this great nation
for two years now, and believe more
than ever that one cannot be America's
President without trust in God. I cannot
imagine a world, a life, without the presence of the one through whom all things
Page 22

are possible. (Applause.)

During the darkest days of the Civil
War, a man we revere not merely for
what he did, but what he was, was asked
whether he thought the Lord was on his
side. And said Abraham Lincoln, "My
concern is not whether God is on our
side, but whether we are on God's side."
(Applause.) My fellow Americans, I firmly believe in my heart of hearts that
times will soon be on the side of peace
because the world is overwhelmingly on
the side of God.
Thank you for this occasion. And
may God bless our great country. And

may we remember - and please remember all of our coalition's Armed

Forces in your prayers. Thank you and
God bless you. (Applause.)

If you wish to write Mr. Bush in

order to comment on his interpretation of the importance of religion to
American life and foreign policy,
send your letter to:
The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20520
__ --'-+'-1...,-.-

-- _--452-8121
-837 -0093
5-1111
98
Dial A Minister
Dial A Pastor - _
Dial A Prayer .

n~~",rhp.r

Dial-An-Atheist
The telephone listings below are the various services where you may listen to
short comments on state/church separation issues and viewpoints originated by
the Atheist community.
Anchorage, AK __
(907)
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(602)
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(602)
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(408)
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(703)
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(303)
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(404)
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(708)
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(313)
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February 1991

344-3086
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777-0766
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859-4668

American Atheist

Mothers
milk
Rita M. Acosta's background is in the
entertainment industry, and she is
currently working with a Los Angeles
theatre group in the production of her
first play. Now twenty-eight years old,
she emigrated to the United States
from Cuba with her family at the age
of four.

om," my young daughter Julia

was saying, "I have such a hard
time really believing in god." Her
little mouth twisted to the right, a lock
turning. It was a nervous habit, a signal
she wasn't going to say more for fear of
getting into trouble. An expression, I
imagined, which had gotten a lot of use
in the confessional.
My mother looked up from her dinner.
She waited for me to answer. Earlier in
the day, she had told me she had more
lumps in her breast.
"About three," she told me. "I think."
She wasn't going to have them removed. "Probably cystitis," she said,
echoing her new doctor's diagnosis,
"and I'm so tired of having them cut
out."
Julia shifted her weight, unlocked her
mouth. "Can you help me understand
go d?"
.

"

'!,.,~

.....'l} I'

_ ,,' ,t' 'J

c<'

My mother's breasts were firm and

high, the type of breasts that can make
it easy for tumors to hide. Before I was
nineteen, she had found two lumps and
had had two operations to remove
them.
"Why did you throw up?" my mother
asked me the night before her first operation. She had heard me in the bathroom despite my efforts to be quiet.
"I was thinking of hell," 1told her.
She didn't react. "Don't tell your
father," she said. "It'll make him upset."
I nodded although I didn't understand.

Rita M. Acosta
Austin, Texas

February

1991

Page 23

I tried to go back to sleep. I tried not to

think of death and eternal suffering. At
school, every day, we copied the chapter on Jesus' crucifixion into our notebooks for our catechism class. The nuns
told us we would go to hell if we sinned.
Iclosed my eyes tightly against visions
of nails tearing through flesh. I was nine
years old.
The next day, I was taken to stay with
my relatives. My father waited with my
aunt during the operation. He cried a
little, or so I was told later.

The nuns told us we

would go to hell if
we sinned.
Mother's doctor was an old black
man with long hands and pink palms
that reminded me of raw flesh. He cut
out a tumor the size of a ripe plum from
her right breast. It wasn't cancerous. He
left a silicone implant where the tumor
had been.
Th~
time my mother found a
lump' in hcrlbreast, I was already in college\first sfmester. She had the operation 0lLber birthday. I thought of her
doctor, the same man. My history
teacher at school taught us that one reason the slaves had not rebelled was that
the church told them this lifetime was
unimportant, that they would be rewarded in heaven for all their suffering.
The meek willinherit the world, so turn
the other cheek.
Be quiet.
Don't complain.
Sssh.
My father was late to pick her up from
the hospital.
"Your mother is a very good woman,"
he said to me before getting in the car.
They filed for divorce a couple of
months later. He had been late to pick
my mother up from the hospital because
he had been on the phone to his girlfriend. That's what the private detective
my mother had hired told her. It was all
Page 24

, that morning after my mother had

there in the phone bill.
Earlier that day, I had been watching phoned with her news. "Did you know
Julia play with her father, Ron, outside that?"
"No," he said without looking up from
on our front lawn. He was trying to
teach her to catch a baseball with a mitt. the sports section of the newspaper, "I
Have another child, friends told me; didn't know. Is that what your mother
Ron would just love to have a son. Julia called to tell you?"
was seven years old. I had only recently begun enjoying her. I didn't care too
Don't tell your
much for babies. I wasn't planning on
getting pregnant again.
father you've been
Ron and I had been married for ten
questioning god.
years. It still amazed me. Marriage, as a
concept, did not seem realistic to me. It
"Don't tell your father you've been
seemed like the closing of too many
doors. I always thought I'd leave Ron, questioning god," I told Julia.
although not for any specific reason. My
And she said: "Why not?"
attention span was so short. I had a dif"Because it'll just make him upset," I
said. I didn't really know ifthat was true.
ficult time finishing short stories.
She twisted her mouth shut again.
But Ron and I had something together
Learn to handle it on your own,
and my philosophies no longer mattered
anyhow. We had a solid marriage. Ron wanted to say. Don't be so difficult.
Be quiet.
was a good man. He read novels.
"Breast cancer killed more women
Sssh. ~
last year than AIDS did," I had told him
February 1991

American Atheist

We reprint a speech delivered by

Mr. Hasson to a group of Italians
visiting Jerusalem to promote a dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.

An Israeli Atheist
leader speaks out on
the internal discord in
his homeland.

Blood
and

srael, as named by the Jews, or Pal

estine, as named by the Arab Muslims and Christians, could have become a gathering place to all monotheistic religions. Its capital, called Jerusalem by the Jews, Al Kuds (the holy
town) by the Arabs, could have become
a city loved and bettered by all. Yet the
country that should prosper, that should
rejoice in camaraderie, turns into a
country of tears, of blood, corrosion,
and the crushing of people's psyches, as
one side claims that the country is entirely its own. Religious conflicts grow,
and the social and political situations
seem beyond any solution, save that of
war and violence. And yet, though irra-

right youth movement, educated under

a twenty-year-old Polish Jew called
Yitzhak Yezernizky. Later, he would
change his last name to Shamir. Today,
he serves as Israel's prime minister.
After a year, I found myself automatically inside an underground organization of the right, the National Military
Organization (Ezzel). The ideology
claimed the entire country for us, with
no serious consideration as to the fate of
its native inhabitants. I served under
Shamir as a vigilduring acts of murdering Arabs be they only Arabs: passersby,
workers on agricultural fields, bombing
marketplaces for maximum slaughter in
reaction for the murdering of Jews by
anti-Zionist Arabs.
Allthis happened in spite of the policy
of the popular underground organization, Haganna. Its policy was to strike
only the armed spots that work against
the Jews. It was opposed to murdering

tears
the

Iy
Land

Born in Palestine sixty-eight years ago,

Isaac Hasson founded the Israel Secular Humanist Assocation in 1976and
was a founding member of Israel's Secular Service Association in 1985. The
Israel Secular Humanist Association
produces a Hebrew periodical, Breira
Humanistit, and an English version, Israel Humanist Alternative.

Isaac Hasson
Austin, Texas

tionality flourishes, reasonable people

still exist on both sides. And the world
outside may prove itself smarter than
the warring parties and act to reach a
different reality.
In taking the responsibility to speak to
a worldwide audience, I feel I must first
present myself so that my views will be
better understood. I was born in Israel.
Under the family's, the school's, and the
environment's influence, I found myself
at age fifteen a part of a nationalisticFebruary 1991

innocent Arabs.
I had my hesitation about killing innocents. Though I had no enmity towards
Arabs, my childhood education could
be summed up in the song "of the Biryonim"' that said, "In blood and fire
Judea has fallen, in blood and fire Judea
willrise," or in Jabotinski's song "Beitar"

IJewish terrorists in action against the Romans during the Roman occupation.
Page 25

The Shoah strengthened the idea that there is a need in converging the
diaspora back to the Jewish homeland. The Palestinian, although aware of
this tragedy, cannot accept the idea that it is he who must pay the full price
by losing his land, his national freedom, and national existence.
that quoth, "Silence is mud; soul and
blood are discarded, dedicated for the
sake of the hidden glory." This education
convinced me to overcome my indecision.
Later, when I was eighteen, my organization was split, and I joined the one
that said that the war should not be
against the Arabs, but against the British Mandate, the foreign imperialist
force; we thought the problems with the
Arabs would be solved later by population exchange. Once more I found myself under Yitzhak Shamir's command
in terror actions against the British. The
UN declared in 1947 that the state
should be split into two countries. Israel's war against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan
followed. At this point I became free
from all nationalistic and ethnocentric
dogmas which marked my education. I
sought humanism: the common, the
cooperation, the binding, instead of that
which separates. Later on, I undertook
estab~ishH~ humanist organization in
Israel.
Fr m a humanist, universal approach,
I believe the subject of war and peace
amoni'the1sraelis and Arabs could be
addressed as objectively as possible.
The main problems with ethnic and religious conflicts, examples of which are
spread across mankind's history, are
that each of the sides has its own holy
ideals for which it is willingto fight, kill,
and die. The Palestinian Arabs see Palestine as their homeland simply because
they had lived in it before Zionism existed, before the coming of Jewish pioneering settlers with the intention to form a
Jewish state in their land, like the English people see England, or the French,
France. To the Palestinians, Zionism is
like a meteor that hovered in limbo for
thousands of years, suddenly landing on
them out of the blue. The Balfour Declaration and the British occupation
(after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire) terminated their right to independence, a right all countries occupied by
the French and English empires eventually acquired.
Page 26

Most of the Jews in Israel and all over

the world believe Israel to be their natural homeland. Both religious and secular nationalists consider the Jews of
today descendants of those banished
from their homeland two thousand
years ago by the Babylonians. They saw
themselves livingin exile until the prophesied Messiah would come to free them
and return them to their land. The
emancipation and liberalization of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries influenced components of the Jewish
community to translate the Day of Redemption into nationalistic ideals. On
these ideals Zionism is generally based.
According to it, the land therefore belongs to the Jews and not to the Arabs
living on it.
This concept can be contradicted by
saying that today's Jews are not offspring of the ancient Jews. During its
prosperity, monotheistic Judaism spread
through the pagan Mediterranean, to
north Africa and eastern Europe. Indeed,
it is hard to explain that the Swedish and
Ethiopian Jew are descendants of the
same people. No physiognomic differences can be found between a Moroccan
Muslim and a Moroccan Jew. Nor can
the Yemenite Jew and the Yemenite
Muslim be told apart. It is presumed,
therefore, that most of the Jews are people of different nations that acquired
Judaism through conversion.
A distinction should be made between
the Christian and Muslim conversion
and the Jewish one. Judaism is founded
on historical conformity, in which truth
and mythology both blend. The Jewish
convert is adopted historically, as well.
His forefathers are no longer his real
forefathers. They are now Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, King David, and King Solomon. And they believe they are the descendants of the Israelis exiled by the
Babylonians.
The Shoah strengthened the idea that
there is a need in converging the diaspora
back to the Jewish homeland. The Palestinian, although aware of this tragedy,
cannot accept the idea that it is he who
February 1991

must pay the fullprice by losing his land,

his national freedom, and national existence; that since its first day, Zionism
sought to erase him from the map as
much as possible.
Yet Zionism could not deny the existence of the Palestinians either before or
after founding a state. A hundred years
of war molded the Palestinians' nationalist feelings and striving for freedom.
Four million Palestinians are livingpartly
in the state of Israel, partly in the occupied territories, and partly in refugee
camps dispersed in the Middle East.
It is not easy to settle ethnic disputes
when they are rooted within deep religious and nationalistic feelings. A dispute between two countries, with their
own economic and military systems,
would be easier. But the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is different. One side has a
state, an economy, and a great military
might. The other side lives under an
occupation that prevents its economic
development, prevents its forming social
and national structures, a way to defend
itself. Even the educational and cultural
institutions hinge around the occupying
force and are subject to its say-so. No
rights for forming national institutions
exist; even the national flag is forbidden.
Jewish settlers establish themselves
within the Palestinians' own cities, under the army's protection. The occupier keeps appropriating land about the
occupied territories and settling in
them. This situation is not similar to disputes of nations and border disputes, in
which such disputes as these might be
settled by border agreements, or security and economic coordination, and so
on. The Israeli Palestinian dispute is
completely different, because the occupying force does not see itself as an occupier at all. The territories are a part of
Israel for all eternity.
Israel will not settle the dispute as an
agreement between two national groups
because it denies and seeks to destroy
the nationalist entity of the Palestinians.
All this is in order to uphold the biblical
vision of a Great Israel.
American Atheist

The twentieth-century
Israel wants to
be on good relations with the rest of the
world, with no hints of archaic biblical
myths coming from its ideological, political, and social policies. And so, formally, different arguments for its actions are
presented to the world; like security reasons, or the presentation of the dispute
for a national Palestinian entity as a
battle against terror that seeks to annihilate Israel. Indeed terror exists. But
killing Abu Jihad in Tunis is not different
from killing Rabbi Kahane in the United

making a Jewish republic in the agricultural district in Birobizhan, but very few
Jews came. Most preferred to live in the
cities; no emotional attachment
or incentive pulled them to Birobizhan.
I suppose that a Jewish state would
not have been established in Uganda,
rather a colonialist settlement. A hundred years ago, the Zionist Congress in
Basel pronounced the foundation of a
Jewish state in Palestine. Two aspects
helped its success: the blend of biblical
desires with the secular-nationalist
in-

Terror is the result

of an unsolved political problem.
If you do not want to solve it,
you present the terror as the problem itself.
States. TOe
result of an unsolved
political ~~:.oblem. If you do not want to
solve it, you-present
the terror as the
problem itself.
The PLO's [Palestine Liberation Organization] acknowledgment
of Israel
and its willingness
to talk changed
nothing. The PLO was declared a terrorist organization by Israel's law. Thus,
under an argument of fear against security breaches that will result from talking
to it, the mystical motivation is hidden.
And the condition of occupier and occupied continues with no end in sight for
twenty-three years.
The visionary of the Jewish land, Dr.
Theodore Herzl, was greatly stimulated
by anti-Semitism and believed that Jews
should be separated from the Gentiles
(mostly Christians) in whose countries
they lived. In his opinion, Uganda or
Latin America would be good enough
for that purpose. He was an Atheist, and
his approach lacked any mystical-religious
intentions. What would have been if the
Jewish state had been founded elsewhere, we can only guess. The Soviets
tried to solve the Jewish problem by
Austin, Texas

tent. The Shoah was a powerful catalyst, but in itself it did not cause the
creation of a Jewish state.
The reclaiming of the land and its people unfolded also as the socialist Zionist
(Halutzim) which brought back to the
Jews the working of the land, and which
would later define Israel's borders.
The center and right-of- center streams
of Zionism focused more on developing
Jewish cities and establishing presence
in towns and also in villages with a mixed
populace. If the social-democratic
Zionists who led the Jewish settlements and
later Israel's parliament for a period of
fifty years believed that it was within
their power to find a reasonable solution
to the Palestinian problem, then they
worked against their own purpose. The
policy of bringing as many Jews as possible into the country and granting them
immediate citizenship brought many
political changes. The religious and a
kind of secular religious nationalism and
the mystical beliefs and the hatred of
non-Jews introduced
to the world a
modern era resembling the Crusades,
with Israel claiming sole and eternal posFebruary 1991

session of Jerusalem. This fosters small

groups that support the destruction of
El Aksa holy Muslim temple and building a new house of god on its wreckage.
During Zionism's
inception,
Jews
bought the land from Arabs using money
from abroad. Today Israel's military
might allows it to appropriate Arab land
even from its Arab citizens, and more so
from the occupied territories.
Ben-Gurion sought to populate the
Negev, not the crammed Gaza Strip or
Jordan's western banks. His pursuits
were neglected. The euphoria that followed the victory of the Six-Day War
and the occupation of the territories in
1%7 worked to change reality.
The socialist liberal Zionists failed to
foresee the problems arising from making a land of prayers, a land that is holy
to a great part of the world, into the land
solely belonging to the Jews. The repercussions of their conduct caught up
with them only years later. Ancient historical sites that could have been used
to bridge peace between Judaism and
Islam have turned into spotlights of
trouble.
The naivete of the Zionist liberal left
could be said to have been shared by the
leading man of the right, Ze' ev Jabotinski.
Jabotinski,
a nonreligious nationalist,
wrote in his song "The Jordan River":
"Two banks has the Jordan River. The
one is ours, and the second, too." This
reflects his territorial views of a "Great
Israel." Yet his liberalism and naivete
can be summed up as the song continues,
There will live in prosperity and
contentment,
the sons of Islam,
the sons of Nazareth, and my own
sons. The flag I'm waving is a flag
of purity, and righteousness
will
purify both banks of my Jordan
River.
He did not suspect the Muslims and
Christians might be reluctant to live under a blue and white flag, brandishing
the shield of David, Judaism's symbol.
Page 27

no
~

Today, Jabotinski's self-proclaimed apprentices relate more to his ideas of

territory and strength and power than
to his belief in a humane and just solution.
The Israeli Declaration of Independence itself consists of many contradicting elements. The declaration claims the
state free for all people with no bias to
race, religion, gender, etc. Yet it also
claims that this is the state of the country of the Jews - meaning this is not the
country of the non-Jews who live in it.
This has many consequences as to the
inability of finding a political solution of
peace in the occupied territories. Israel
has "redeemed" the occupied territories, yet cannot go as far as it wants
with this "redemption." If it wants to
appear democratic to the world, it will
have to give Israeli citizenship and the
right to vote to all its Muslims and Christians living there, once it annexes the
territories. This is impossible; it would
longer be a Jewish state, i.e., a state
for Jews only.
'0 a de facto annexation, as much as
possible, is administered, in the hope
that a solution willpresent itself eventually - namely, Moshe Dayan's idea of a
"functional autonomy," in which the territories willbe annexed to Israel, while its
occupiers be Jordan's citizens. Or perhaps the Palestinians willsimply agree to
live in a municipal and meaningless autonomy, devoid of political rights and of
citizenship. Yet the Palestinians remain
adamant that a dialogue with the PLO
on a political basis should be held.
Well, then, what can be done? There
is no meaning in returning to the intentions of the British Balfour Declaration
that spoke of founding a national home
for Jews in Palestine, on condition that
it would not harm the rights of the local
population. No good will come from
mooning over the socialist liberal Zionist
days. Reality today is much different,
and history willnot turn back.
The government turns a blind eye to
the rising radical Jewish groups. The
Palestinian hardships bring to a boiling
Page 28

point the fanatic religious streams of terror and suicide missions unchecked by
political forces. The hatred both sides
feel towards each other thrives, which
bases more strongly the present Israeli
regime. The belief a political solution
can resolve the situation is diminishing.
More and more Jews believe that the
Palestinians can be finished off, or
thrown out of the country.
Since a realistic solution would lead to
giving up the territories; since the current government believes in a Great Is-

Moshe Dayan

rael; and since in the present reality this

dream cannot be actualized: there is no
choice left to Israel's government but to
continue the status quo. The hatred appears necessary to, and indeed desired
by, the present government. Only this
way can it persist with its policy of no
political solution.
The Palestinian uprising, the Intifada,
after twenty-three years of subjugation,
is presented by the Israeli government
to its audience and voters as a true war.
The stone is presented as a weapon
equal to all other weapons (David, instruct the officials, killed Goliath with a
stone). And in war, the enemy must be
beaten, because otherwise it would
destroy us. But the security reasons
against a political solution are losing
meaning. After all, what is a small strip
February 1991

of Palestine that mayor may not come

to be, under the constant threat of the
Israeli air force? In this modem age of
missiles, planes, and satellites, neither
long nor short distances from the enemy
make a difference.
A strange economic dependence has
developed between Israel and the Palestinians for the territories. They provide
cheap labor for agriculture, house-buildings, industry, and public services, despite the enmity and incidents between
the two peoples, and despite the growing unemployment in Israel. This is the
reverse of the Zionism from the beginning of the century, the Zionism that
preached for Hebrew manual labor. It is
impossible for Israel to give up this
working force, despite the bloodshedding incidents. For if the Green Line is
shut before the Arab workers, it willbe
a de facto acknowledgment that two different nationalistic entities exist. This is
bad for the dream of a Great Israel. But
the closing of the Green Line has other
effects. The Palestinian economy depends almost solely on Israel, for no economic incomes have been developed by
the different Israeli governments for the
Palestinians within the territories. If the
present jobs are no longer accessible,
lifewillbecome intolerable for them; the
Intifada will grow greater, more violent.
Only a small crowd in Israel had been
appalled at the IDF's [Israel Defense
Forces] treatment of Arabs. Some religious Muslim fanatics and those who
seek vengeance through knives wander
the streets of Israel, causing the Jews'
sense of security to waver, the hatred to
grow, the need to get rid of all Arabs
stronger. The rational question also
arises, "What next?" "Things cannot go
on like this" and "A solution is needed."
What is the solution? Neither the
Arabs nor the Israelis can all be exterminated. The Palestinians cannot be transferred elsewhere against their will (and
no Arab state will accept them). This
might be done during a war, with the
world's attention elsewhere. But few
Israelis are willingto pay the price of war
American Atheist

for which they too willbear a great price.

One country, for everyone, equal and
democratic, seems impossible. The Palestinians would accept it, but as it would
not be a state solely for Jews - a Jewish
state - the Jews would not agree.
The only feasible' solution seems
something like Switzerland, some kind
of federation. But in the present reality,
Israel willnot accede to this solution. A
fence has been suggested to engulf the
Green Line Border. Shimon Peres, the
opposition leader, says that "we need
Gaza like a hole in the head," and suggests giving it up to the Egyptians or the
Palestinians, because the Jews have no
emotional link to the Gaza Strip. The
legendary Samson from the Bible traveled to Ashdod, the city of the ancient
Philistines. To Gaza he did not travel.
Shimon Peres is possibly willingto concede territory on the western bank but
willnot dare say such things about such
a mythic, historic land.
A fence, i.e., a Palestinian state,
alongside an Israeli state, seems to be
the only just solution. We humanists
would prefer an undivided territory seen
as Israel by the Jews and Palestine by
the Palestinians. It could be seen also as
the land of Abraham, the mutual, biblical forefather of the Israeli and of the
Arab. The future may provide such kind
of solution, but for the moment, a border (a fence) is needed. This sad solution, however, seems an impossible task
as well. The present Israeli authorities
would never accept it. Even if it would
be forced by the UN, it hardly seems
realistic that the Israeli government will
be able to overcome the fanatical religious nationalists created and supported by it. As for the Palestinians, no
solution would be accepted without
their sole representative, the PLo. But
talks with the PLO seem impossible, as
the Israeli law sees the PLO as a "terrorist organization."
The Israeli liberal and left opposition
might lead such a dialogue, but it can
hardly do so when it is restrained by
such fanatical religious and nationalist
Austin, Texas

hysteria. The Israeli public seems deaf

to the fact that it is because of security
reasons that Israel must make peace
with its Arab neighbors and leave the
endless battle that is turning Israel into
an ill and debilitated state. Because of
the Intifada and constant preparations
for war with the surrounding Arab
states, Israel's economy is crippled, with
no money to spare for social and big
economic problems facing the mass
Jewish Soviet immigration. On top of
this, victory for Israel is not always a
certainty.
Case in point: No realistic solution exists. Israel cannot solve its own problems by itself. Israel needs help from the
outside. Yet the help given her by the
Israeli-American strategic agreements
steers Israel in the wrong direction. So
does the political and financial support
from a majority of the Jewish world
abroad, regardless of what Israel does,
with no comprehension that the security
does not depend solely on the number
of weapons.
The Jews' regard for the Holy Land
and the state of Israel would be more
understandable if Israel and Jerusalem
were to the Jews what the Vatican is to
the Christians. However, a country that
lives by the sword and a great arsenal
will continue to live by the sword. But

one day it might stumble, and the Israeli

people will be the ones who pay the
price with their blood and annihilation.
A state of no political solution pulls
both the Jewish and Palestinian people
to the extreme. The Israeli democracy is
not as stable as it appears from outside.
Civil war is not an impossibility in Israel.
If it occurs, which side will the Jews of
the world support? It is hard to imagine
what a catastrophe it would be to Israel and the world Jewish community if it
willbe forced to be divided as well. The
tighter the world Jewish community
binds itself to Israel, it must understand
that a solution of peace willbenefit it as
well.
I did not succeed in pointing to an
easy solution for peace, because, under
the present circumstances, there is no
such solution to which Israel can arrive
alone. All the forces within Israel that
strive for peace must all be granted massive external support so that they may
open a door for peace. Just as the Palestinians ask for the UN and the world
to defend them from Israel, so must I, as
an Israeli, and one of many, ask the UN
and the world to help defend me from
the insanity that pervades it. Ifthe world
does not do this, another war is imminent, and no peace will be found. ~

Where there's a will, there's a way

(to help Atheism)
Atheists who approve of the work of American Atheists and
desire to contribute to its continuance after their deaths, can
include American Atheists or the American Atheist Library in
their wills. Both corporations are tax-exempt. For information
regarding the best way to ensure that your intentions are
carried out, please contact:
American Atheist G.H.Q.
7215 Cameron Rd.
Austin, Texas 78752-2973
(512) 458-1244

February 1991

Page 29

Talking Back

For principle and country

What does one say to

the claim:
There are no Atheists
in foxholes?

So you're having a hard time dealing

with the religious zanies who bug you
with what you feel are stupid
questions? Talk back. Send the question you hate most and American
Atheists will provide scholarly, tart, humorous, short, belligerent, or funpoking answers. Get into the verbal
fray; it's time to "talk back" to religion.

Page 30

Eric S. Kees, Hospital Corpsman

First Class, USN, makes it clear:
Another of the many Christian myths.
I might not technically be in a foxhole;
however, I think that an aircraft carrier
off the coast of Iran might be a fair analogy. I am an Atheist. I am in the United
States Navy. I am on a combat vessel in
the Arabian Sea. Get the drift?
Paul Keller, a supervisor at a Minnesota Regional Treatment Center,
gives a little history lesson:
There were millions of Atheists in foxholes on the eastern front in World War
II who eventually crushed the Christian
Nazi hordes. The largest land invasion
in the history of the world was defeated
by Atheists. The Christian Nazis had
fifty thousand tanks, fifty thousand aircraft, and 4.5 million soldiers, and lost.
All of this in spite of the fact that their
troops all had "god is with us" imprinted
on their belt buckles and in spite of 4.5
million theists in foxholes and their families and friends praying for victory. Germany was 98 percent Christian in both
world wars and is responsible for the
death of 120 million people and untold
other suffering. Religion is certainly at
least irrelevant to morality. In the public
sectarian schools of Germany, which all
school children attended, in the front of
every classroom was a cross with Hitler's picture next to it. Clergy came in
three times a week and began their lesson with "Heil Hitler!" One-tenth of Germany's taxes went to the Vatican. The
Vatican signed an agreement with Hitler
to support the Nazis no matter what,
and it did. It supported the Christian
Nazis' exterminating people and helped
war criminals to escape.
Germany is still not a civilized country
because it persecutes people for blasphemy.

Provisional Marine Brigade. To say

"there are no Atheists in foxholes" is a
very stupid statement for any person to
make. When anyone is fighting, using
everything they have to save their life,
no one looks for a god nor do they stop
to pray. There is "no god in foxholes,"
merely frightened human beings desperately trying to stay alive. There was
no god at Auschwitz, or at the witch
burnings, or at the torture chambers of
Europe during the Inquisition, or at any
of the heinous religious acts of violence,
"but there were Christians."
Joe Wanner, a professional model
and magician, explains:
The statement implies that Atheist
soldiers, hiding in foxholes with bullets
flying overhead, immediately discard
their Atheism and pray that they won't
be killed. If only one soldier stepped forward to say he never "found god" when
his lifewas in danger, it would be enough
to disprove this accusation. However,
thanks to American Atheists, many
members of the military have acknowledged their Atheism, so this assumption
is obviously a lie.
What can we conclude about the religious soldier in a foxhole who begs god
to save his life? Wouldn't going to heaven be preferable to surviving a war? Of
course, but with death so near, the man
suddenly realizes that this lifeis the only
one he's got, and in desperation, prays
that he won't lose it. It would be closer
to the truth to suggest that there are no
theists in foxholes!

Reggie Ball, ex-Marine and Atheist,

replies:
By a coincidental quirk, I am one of
three humans alive from the original "C"
(Charlie) Battery, 11th Marines, First
February

1991

American Atheist

Roots of Atheism

Freethought and free love

harles
Grant Blairfindie Allen
(Grant Allen) (1848-1899), the
son of an Irish Protestant minister and notable scholar, was born at AIwington, near Kingston, Ontario, Canada, on 24 February 1848. He was partly
educated in America and France. In England he was at King Edward's School in
Birmingham, and later at Merton College in Oxford, graduating with honors
in 1871. He also studied in Europe. Two
years later, in 1873, he was appointed
Professor of Logic at Queens College,
Spanish Town, Jamaica. He also taught
philosophy, ethics, Latin, and Greek at
this college for Negroes. When its principal died, Allen took over and from 1874
to 1876 was the college's principal.
At one point, while on the island, he
took a brief holiday to the Blue Mountains. Since there were no hotel accommodations there, he put up at a store
kept by a mulatto woman. In the small
back room he occupied, there were a
few books which he picked up and read.
One was Darwin's Origin of Species and
the other was Edward Clodd's The
Childhood of the World. The latter had
in it the name and the address of the author. From that beginning Grant Allen
developed agnostic and radical views on
life, eventually becoming an ardent
socialist. He went to England in 1876 and
immediately looked up Mr. Clodd, with
whom he remained friends for the rest
of his life.
In England he then devoted himself to
journalism and letters. He quickly found
that there was no sale for science books
in the literary market. His first venture,
Physiological Aesthetics, left him 50 in
debt but did call him to the attention of
Herbert Spencer, the English philosopher, and Alfred Wallace, an English natura~ist. They in turn secured a hearing
for him with Sir Leslie Stephen. With
such sponsorship he was then able to
bring out a series of popular essays on
science. Mr. Clodd notes that in the
writing of these essays "he had few
equals and ... no superior." Another
contemporary described him then as

A minister's son, Grant

Allen immersed himself
in the most controversial issues of his time:
evolution, the history of
religion, and human
sexuality.

Atheism has long, underground

tentacles which reach deep into human
history. This feature in the American
Atheist uncovers them through the
lives of many of our spokesmen and
women and restores to you a sense of
the precious heritage they fought to
bequeath to our times.

Madalyn O'Hair
Austin, Texas

February

1991

becoming known by his popular expositions of Darwinism, a cultured exponent

of various aspects of the evolutionary
idea in biology and anthropology. Some
of his poetry was, in fact, supportive of
evolution:
Born into life, man grows
Forth from his parents' stem,
And blends their bloods, as
those
Of theirs are blent in them;
So each new man strikes root into
a far foretime.
Grant was, of course, an enthusiastic
disciple of both Darwin and Spencer. He
also wrote on many other subjects such
as practical science, evolution, sociology, literature - and religion, making
his a respected figure in the group of
late-Victorian agnostics. Although he
had much scientific knowledge, and had
a gift for expression, nonetheless profits
from such works were meager.
He was loath to turn to fiction and the
demands of a publisher; hence he frequently wrote under pseudonyms. At
one point he wrote under the name of
J. Arbuthnot Wilson. His first threevolume novel, Philistia, was written under the nom de plume Cecil Power. His
first sensational novel was The Devil's
Die written in 1888. Generally, his novels
were potboilers.
Grant Allen traveled frequently and
his Guide Book work paid him handsomely, giving him the monetary support and the time he needed to follow his
primary intellectual inclinations. His
Evolution of the Idea of God was characterized by the English Freethinker magazine as being
capable, painstaking, honest, and
really thorough. Even on the point
as to whether Jesus Christ ever
existed as a real person, Mr. Allen
expressed sincere doubts; and it
takes some courage to do that.
Charles

A. Watts, a British freePage 31

thought publisher, at this time was putting out the Agnostic Annual, which became sixty-four pages long in 1884.
Watts had persons such as T.H. Huxley,
Leslie Stephen, W E. H. Lecky, H. T.
Buckle, Herbert Spencer, J. G. Frazer,
Ernst Haeckel, Winwood Reade, Ludwig Buchner, Grant Allen, and Edward
Carpenter writing for him.
Additionally, in the 1890sVictorian respectability and morality were under
attack from such people as Havelock
Ellis, George Bernard Shaw, Thomas
Hardy, Walt Whitman, Henrik Ibsen,
Edward Carpenter, and Grant Allen,
although - generally - freethought
leaders tried to steer a moderate course.
There was in England, at this time, a
John Gott group of freethinker/socialists,
explained in one sentence by a freethought historian: "The libertarian anarchy of Grant Allen sums up much of the
philosophy behind Gott's group." There
was much ferment at the time over birth
control and liberalization of sexual standards.
In 1895 Allen's book The Woman
Who Did was published by John Lane in
London and by Roberts Bros. in Boston.
As a point of interest, a copy of the book

'One of Allen's closest associates was

banker and gentleman anthropologist
Edward Clodd (1840-1930), who served
as chairman of the Rationalist Press
Association from 1906 to 1913.
Page 32

was recently purchased for the

Charles E. Stevens
American Atheist
Library and
Archives from a
rare book dealer in
Baltimore, Maryland, who specializes in nineteenthcentury fine and
decorative arts,
fine press and
illustrated books.
The cover is
indeed handsome,
but the bookseller
had no idea what
the book was.
Allen, however,
wanted another
distinction for his
book - to make a
point - and he
prefaced his work
with a curious
dedication:

According to his friend Edward Clodd, Allen habitually twisted

"his platyscopic lens between finger and thumb" when talking.
Clodd also described him as "the quintessence of amiability,
but sometimes the worm turned."

Written at Perugia [Italy],Spring

1893, for the first time in my life
wholly and solely to satisfy my own
taste and my own conscience.
In the book Allen espoused, through
the life of the heroine, the concept of
free love without defining it as such that is, mutually responsible decisions
made by consenting adults: responsibility to each other, to their children, and
to the race, but not to the coercive maritallaws of the states. The book was successful since it touched on succes de
scandale and after its publication, was
followed by a number of cheap imitations. The publisher of his other works,
Watts, wanted to be more conventional
- divorce was as far as he would go.
Even G. W Foote defended marriage
against this novel. Allen's work was an
advocacy of free love, and "secularism"
had to be secure from it. Foote wrote in
the 3 March 1895Freethinker:
February 1991

We are not of those who use the

phrase "free love" as a reproach,
for love was never anything else
but free. It cannot be commanded.
It cannot be had to order. It is
spontaneous, like all our affections. Nevertheless, the freedom,
not of feeling, but of action, which
Mr. Grant Allen pleads for, runs
dangerously near to promiscuity;
or at least to an instability that is
almost as bad.
Fearful of the consequences of free
love, the Legitimation League was
founded in 1893 to campaign for legal
rights for illegitimate children. Almost
immediately a prosecution of the secretary of the League, George Bedborough,
was brought before the court for selling
a copy of Sexual Inversion by Havelock
Ellis. Since it was a promising test case,
a Free Press Defence Committee was
formed, the members of which included
Grant Allen, G. W Foote, George HolyAmerican Atheist

Below, left: Sir Leslie Stephen (18321904) was part of Allen's close-knit circle of agnostic friends which also included
naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (18231913).
Below, right: Philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) served as a catalyst for
Allen's theories on the origin of the godidea as ancestor-worship.

oake, George Bernard Shaw, Edward

Carpenter, and J. M. Robertson. The
arrest of George Bedborough rallied "all
sorts of radicals, socialists, freethinkers
and progressive individuals." There
were many arrests during this period for
the printing of "obscene" birth-control
literature and for blasphemy, so that the
bravery of Grant Allen was appreciated.
In fact, all approved when Allen, in the
March 1894 Fortnightly Review, in an
article entitled "The New Hedonism"
attacking Christian asceticism and selfsacrifice, wrote:

Other then-modern thinkers did not

agree, as Alfred Benn wrote:

It is our duty to think as far as

we can think; to get rid of all dogmas, preconceptions and prejudices; to make sure we are not tied
by false fears or vague terms; to
examine all faiths, all beliefs, all
fancies, all shibboleths, political,

Allen died at his home on Hindhead,

Haslemere, on 24 October 1899, one of
the English authors and philosophers of
the period who exerted an influence on
American readers: Leslie Stephen,
George Eliot, George Lewes, Winwood
Reade, and Samuel Butler. ~

religious, social, moral. . . . We

should each of us arrive at a consistent theory of the universe for
ourselves, and of our own place in
it.

Bibliography .

Allen was adamant in support of Herbert Spencer's theory on the origin of

religion:
I believe I have made it tolerably
clear that the vast mass of existing
gods or divine persons, when we
Austin, Texas

come to analyze them, do actually turn out to be dead and deified

human beings ....
I believe that
corpse worship is the protoplasm
of religion.

So far, however, as Spencer's

theory goes, ... [i]t has not, to my
knowledge, received the adhesion
of any independent thinker except
the lamented Mr. Grant Allen.

Allen, Grant. Charles Darwin. 1885.

--.
The Colour Sense: its Origin
and Development. Trubner & Co.,
1879.
--.
Colours of Flowers as illustrated
by the British Flora. Macmillan.
--.
The Evolution of the Idea of
God: an Inquiry into the Origins of
Religion. New York: Henry Holt and
Company, 1897.
--.
The Evolution of the Idea of
God. Thinker's Library edition. LonFebruary

1991

don: C. A. Watts & Co., Ltd., 1931.

The Evolutionist at Large. 1881.
Force and Energy. 1888.
The Hand of God and Other
Posthumous Essays together with
some reprintedpapers. London: Watts
& Co., 1909.
--.
Nature Studies. 1883.
--.
Physiological Aesthetics. 1877.
--.
Vignettes from Nature.
--.
"The New Hedonism." Fortnightly Review 55, no. 327 (1 March
1894): 377-92.
-[J. Arbuthnot Wilson, pseud.].
Reverend John Creedy.
-[Cecil Power, pseud.]. Philistia.
--.
The Devil's Die.
--.
The Great Ruby Robbery.
--.
Kalee's Shrine.
--.
The Lower Slopes.
--.
"and several novels." He also
edited the miscellaneous works of
Buckle.
Benn, Alfred William. The History of English Rationalism in the Nineteenth
Century. 2 vols. London: Longmans,
Green, and Co., 1906.
Clodd, Edward. Grant Allen: A Memoir.
1899.
--.
Memories. London: Watts &
Co., 1926.
--.
The Story of Creation, A Plain
Account of Evolution. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1888.
"Death of Mr. Grant Allen." The Freethinker 19, no. 45 (5 November 1899):
709.
Gould, Frederick James. The Pioneers
of Johnson's Court. London: Watts &
Co., 1929.
Herrick, Jim. Vision and Realism, a
Hundred years of The Freethinker.
London: G. W Foote & Co., 1982.
Royle, Edward. Radicals, Secularists
and Republicans, Popular freethought
in Britain, 1866-1915. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press,
1980.
Warren, Sidney. American Freethought
1860-1914. New York: Gordian Press,
Inc., 1%6.
--.
--.
--.

Page 33

Masters of Atheism

What is the object of life?

A nineteenth-century
Atheist examines the
reasons for living in the
absence of a cosmic
watchmaker.

The following essay originally

appeared in The Hand of God and
Other Posthumous Essays written
by Grant Allen and published in
1909 by Watts & Co., a Atheist publisher in London. The work was issued for the Rationalist Press Association, Limited.
Grant Allen (1848-1899) was a
Canadian-born writer of fiction and
popularizations of scientific material. As part of his advocacy of freethought, he wrote extensively on
the origins of religion, postulating
that the worship of the dead was the
basis of all religion.
rom

the modern

evolutionary

point of view, the very question

F "What
do we live for?" becomes,

Atheism has a long, proud history of

publishing and speech making. Unfortunately, however, much of that history
is inaccessible to modern readers, surviving only in rare booklets, books, and
pamphlets housed in scattered libraries and private collections. The American Atheist attempts to make some of
that literature more available to modern Atheists by reprinting essays by
yesterday's "Masters of Atheism."
These reprints are produced courtesy
of the Charles E. Stevens American
Atheist Library and Archives, Inc.

Grant Allen
Page 34

when abstractly regarded, in itself

superfluous and meaningless. For it implies that everything has an object or
purpose; implies, in fact, the old, exploded dogmatic fallacy that the cosmos has
been constructed upon a definite plan
and with a deliberate design, instead of
being merely, as we now know it to be,
the inevitable outcome of unconscious
energies. In order to see the true futility
of the naked question we need only ask
ourselves the exactly analogous and
parallel question, "What is the object of
the nebula in Orion?" or "What do the
satellites of Saturn revolve for?" The obvious answer is, that Orion's nebula and
Saturn's moons exist where they are,
and act as they do act, not for any profound and hidden cosmical purpose, but
simply because, in the ceaseless redistribution of matter and motion which constitutes the process of evolution, those
particular masses of cosmic material
were so conditioned as regards environing forces and energies that they had to
move in such or such particular curves
or orbits, and in no other. There is no
why in the case at all;there is merely the
fact, with nothing else behind it.
To suppose otherwise is to fall implicitly into anthropomorphic and anthropocentric error. It is to figure to one's
February 1991

self the universe as an objective totality,

worked upon from without by a vast and
idealised quasi-human artificer and designer, who moulds and models every
part and detail of his work with special
reference to its preordained place in his
projected scheme of a cosmical system.
Those who think in this manner think
anthropomorphically; they accept that
conception of the outer world which
Herbert Spencer! well describes as the
"carpenter theory of creation." More
than that, they think anthropocentric ally as well. For this whole idea of an object for everything in the universe has
been imported into the wider fields of
thought - into astronomy, for example,
and into ontology - from the theological
explanations usually given of small difficulties in the practical lifeof human beings. "What is the use of earwigs?" people ask, taking for granted that earwigs
and everything else must have a use;
and by a use implicitly meaning to say,
a definite purpose of good for the human species. Darwinism, however, has
conclusively taught us that in this sense
nothing is useful; the earwig exists for itself alone; every species of plant or animal is adapted solely for its own good,
and fills no place or sub serves no purpose (save incidentally) in the life of any
other species whatever, the human included. The seeds of wheat are not for
us to feed upon, but to perpetuate the
kind of the parent wheat plant. The fur
of the' ermine is not for us to make
judges' robes of, but to keep the ermine
himself snug and warm, and to enable
him to steal unperceived upon his prey
in the white snowfields of a northern
winter. We know now that every part of
every plant and every animal is designed, not to subserve any function "in
the wider economy of nature" (which
always means, on human lips, with ulti-

IHerbert Spencer (1820-1903), English philosopher, attempted to create a systemic

account of all cosmic phenomena, including
mental and social principles.
American Atheist

But, viewed abstractly, [the human race] cannot have any special purpose
to subserve in the scheme of the universe,
any more than the fungus of the vine-disease, or the maidenhair fern,
or the little green aphides that feed upon our rose-bushes; ...
mate reference to some purely human
want), but to subserve the needs and
functions of the species itself to which it
belongs, and no other.
Life as a whole, therefore, has no object, any more than the revolution of the
planets has an object,. or the double refraction of Iceland spar, or the particular flow of the black currents that swirl
and eddy below the spray of Niagara. All
these things are the necessary outcome
of pre-existent conditions; their laws of
sequence and causation can be investigated and proved; but the idea of an object as applied to them is philosophically inadmissible; for an object implies a
person who designs, a person who overcomes particular difficulties in the raw
material on which he works, by some
particular and cunning arrangement of
its parts and organs. But the power
which underlies the universe works on
very different lines indeed from these.
We only degrade it to our own puny level
of handicraft by conceiving of it (to use
Paley's famous analogy-) as we conceive
of a watchmaker making a watch. Life is
merely one particular set of correlated
movements occurring under the influence of solar radiation, in a certain peculiar group of material bodies on the surface of one small and unimportant planet, in a minor solar system, hidden away
on the skirts of a galaxy in some lost
corner of a boundless cosmos. Why on
earth should it have a purpose to subserve any more than the bubbles that
rise and fallaimlessly on the wave, or the
terrific commotions that rend and revolutionise the sun's photosphere?
Nor does human life,so far as science

2In Natural Theology, or Evidences of the

Existence and Attributes of the Deity Coilected from the Appearances of Nature
(1802),William Paley (1743-1805),an English
theologian, developed the famous analogy
of god as a superhuman watchmaker who
fashioned the machine of the world. He
argued that traces of an "intelligent maker"
are evident in the structure of the world.
Austin, Texas

can tell us, fall under any different category. The human race is one of the
most advanced groups of terrestrial
mammals, and, therefore, a highly
evolved final outcome of kinetic energy,
falling upon the aqueous and gaseous
envelopes of this particular earth's surface. But, viewed abstractly, it cannot
have any special purpose to subserve in
the scheme of the universe, any more
than the fungus of the vine-disease, or
the maidenhair fern, or the little green
aphides that feed upon our rose- bushes;
because, first of all, the universe has no
scheme; and, further, man is only a result of just the same local causes in a
petty satellite as all the rest of the living
creatures yet known to us. Pushed to its
very furthest term, the idea of a purpose
necessarily implies that the cosmos was
made by a sort of glorified great Man,
and that he made it all for the ultimate
benefit of the lesser men, created in his
own image, who occupy a fragment of
dry land in one of the tiniest and most insignificant of its component bodies. The
question of the object of life really descends to us from a time when men did
not in the least realise their own absolute and utter smallness in the hierarchy
of nature. They thought the universe
was made for them, as implicitly as the
London cockroach still believes that
London was built in order to afford a
convenient home, in its well-warmed
kitchens, for myriads of sleek and wellfed cockroaches.
So much for the abstract view of the
question. Lifeas a whole, and human life
in particular, can have no object at all,
looked at from outside, as component
factors in that vast assemblage of atoms
and energies that we call the cosmos.
No more has the sun; no more has the
milky way; no more has the little wingless parasite that lives between the close
and jointed armour of the honey-bee.
But, looked at from inside, as a question
of mere personal conduct, life has, of
course, an object of some sort for each
individual person; and in so far as the
race is made up of individuals, the averFebruary 1991

age object of all put together may be

looked upon as the object of the entire
aggregate.
Can we find any such objects common to the vast mass of individuals? Perhaps not. Two only seem to be fairly universal, and those two are, to a large extent, unconscious. They are, first, selfpreservation; and, secondly, race-preservation, as shown in the production
and care of children.
I know this is an unfamiliar view, but
it is one forced upon us by biological
considerations. Every species of plant
or animal knows, as a species, but one
main desire - specific continuation.
This desire produces two effects - devices for the preservation of the individual, and devices for the due production
and culture of new generations. The
sole purpose of humanity, as such,
therefore, seems to be its own continuous perpetuation. And, in effect, who
can doubt that such is really the main
central object of our race? Ifwe view humanity from outside, as objectively given to us in the street, the shop, the
house, the factory, do we not see it forever striving simply, through its millionfold embodiments, for daily bread for itself and its children? Is not hunger the
most imperative stimulus of the species,
and, after hunger, the need for warmth,
for fuel, for clothing? Supply these
needs, and what comes next? The instinctive impulse to take to one's self a
wife and family.Every man's first want in
lifeis self-maintenance; that attained, his
next want is marriage and children. The
profoundest ingrained feelings of the
race are the feelings that prompt, first,
to the preservation of the individual life;
next, to the perpetuation and propagation of the species. To some extent, indeed, the last aim, which is the most important for the race as a whole, outweighs the first one; for parents are frequently ready to sacrifice themselves on
behalf of their children; and in our existing industrial state a vast number of parents do, more or less completely, so sacrifice themselves, by working harder,
Page 35

Men live,
in the main, not for the objects that make life "worth living,"
but for the blind instincts and innate impulses
they can never get rid of.
longer, and more continuously than is at
all desirable from the point of view of individual preservation alone.
"But these two aims, the main central
aims of the human species, are not, for
the most part, consciously present to
men at all, as an integral portion of their
object in life." No, certainly not. They
are innate and inherent, not reasoned
and deliberate - physiological, not psychological. The question whether life is
worth living is a question which nature,
blind, dumb nature, never posits definitely to herself. If she did, it could have
no effect upon her. Suppose a certain
number of livingbeings - say the whole
human race - to have thoroughly convinced themselves of the pessimistic
position, to be quite certain of the undesirability of existence; and, in pursuance
of that conscious bit of ratiocination, to
set aside all the instinctive love of life,
and to commit one great unanimous
holocaust of universal suicide - what
would be the consequence? Why, simply
that the next highest remaining animals
would go on, under stress of circumstances, evolving to something much
like the human condition, and that history would, on the whole, pretty well repeat itself, barring the minor details of
special incidents. The creatures that
were not rational enough to kill themselves out and extinguish their race would
go on living, and would do so just in virtue of these instinctive "objects of life"
which underlie all our conscious wishes
and preferences. Men live, in the main,
not for the objects that make life"worth
living," but for the blind instincts and innate impulses they can never get rid of.
Nevertheless, there are purposes in
life which seem (fallaciously enough) to
the reasoning minority among us to constitute the sufficient ground (if any) for
continued existence. Why do we not all
commit suicide? That is, in fact, the real
inquiry which veils itself under all the
nebulous current pessimistic questioning as to the use and value and import
of life. The answers are various - various in the degree of human idiosyncraPage 36

sy. The vast majority do not commit sui- two apparently distinct objects, the uncide because they are restrained from it conscious generic aim, and the conby pure instinct. The natural clinging to scious individual aim, are at bottom
life is far too strong for them. And, in- practically almost identical. In other
deed, ifit comes to that, they have never words, what to the race is preservative
instinct is to the individual, in nine cases
even asked themselves the question,
"What do I live for?" Furthermore, they out of ten, the conscious pursuit of his
are mostly of opinion that suicide (or own happiness.
His own happiness I say advisedly, but
death generally, for that matter) does
not really terminate existence. They be- not necessarily to the exclusion of the
lieve they would be jumping, only too lit- happiness of others. Quite the contrary:
erally' out of the frying-pan into the fire. even in the lowest races some regard for
Of the remainder, the cultivated and ed- the happiness of wives and offspring enucated minority, some are, no doubt, ters into the concept of happiness for
more or less optimistic by nature; admit- the individual, and among the higher
ting the world to be (for us) far from per- outcomes of the highest races pleasure
fect, they are prepared, at any rate, to for others has become a necessary elemake the best of it. That is, perhaps, all ment in pleasure for self. One cannot
things considered, about the sanest and yet say that in humanity as a whole the
wisest philosophy left us. The final resid- object of life, as consciously appreuum, the pessimists pure and simple, re- hended, includes the idea of equal hapmain alive because it is so very trouble- piness for all, but an approximation is
some and difficult to commit suicide. ever being made in that direction. MisBesides, they always want to do some- ery for others, especially when brought
thing or other special to-morrow. The home to us, suffices to make most memplot-interest of life is sufficient to deter bers of the higher races thoroughly misthem. Usually it takes the form of wife erable, and the tendency is always to
and children, acquired, no doubt, before minimise as far as possible such misery,
the duty of checking the multiplication and to equalise as far as possible all
of the human race became quite appar- available means of pleasure. Such a conent to their emancipated understandsummation - the socialistic and Chrisings.
tian ideal - is continually retarded by
But if human life has in this very re- the as yet unconquered selfishness of
stricted sense any general object at all the mass of men, and it is also at least
- any conscious object present as a retarded equally by the existing bad
rule to the mind of the individual - that social arrangements and the blind conobject is undoubtedly happiness, and servatism of even well-meaning and philhappiness may be approximately de- anthropic people. But as an ideal goal,
fined as a decided surplus of personal
realised already by the chosen few of all
pleasure over personal pain. In the spe- nations, we may say that the aim and obcies as a whole, no such object is primar- ject of human life in its entirety, apart
ilyinherent; race-preservation is its sole from the conflicting aims and objects of
generic aim and purpose. But inasmuch
its several component elements, is the
as pleasure, on the whole, roughly coin- greatest total happiness of all, consiscides with race-preservative activities, tent with the equal individual happiness
and pain, on the whole, roughly coin- of each separately.
In our present confessedly imperfect
cides with race-destructive activities (as
I have endeavoured to show in Physio- moral state this ideal goal is recognised
logicalAestheticst? it follows that these by only very few; it is aimed at, it must
be feared, by fewer still. The actual object of life, as conceived by the vast
3A book by Grant Allen published in 1877.
February 1991

(See "Object of Life" on page 18)

American Atheist

Poetry

And It Came to Pass

Chromosomes

that in all the land

there arose phallic symbols
pointing upward toward the heavens.
And those who gathered beneath
knew not the meaning thereof
and did sing praises to ghosts
and to spirits; did exorcise devils,
eat the flesh of wafers, and drink
blood-wine.

Obeying solitary laws of DNA,

The bloody randomness of raw mutation,
Our chromosomes record five billion years of evolution
From automatic chemistry,
To spirited bacteria,
Perverse, seductive viruses,
Amoebae, insects, fish,
Frogs, reptiles, birds, and apes.

Flowers bloomed and died;

re-seeded, lay quiet in the earth.
Wind caressed the symbol;
whispered softly of freedom ....
The singers heard:
"believe, believe."

The PR man is time,

His press releases sheets of rock,
Written on in fossil hieroglyphics.
But the chromosomes record it all
In faded, fated texts of DNA
Whose message culminates in this
Warm hand against your cheek.

Angeline Bennett
Thomas A. Easton

Song For A Christian I Once Called Friend

Listen, Christian, I know you
what you are, and what you seek
you are no different than me
we both long for the same
we both know it cannot be

Our Father
Our father didn't tell us much;
he was the internal kind, unless
he drank too much coffee, his crutch,
and then he'd rant with mad excess.

For what is religion, any religion,

but a search for that which we all once knew?
Unconditional love, safety and warmth Childhood! Eternal, forever and ever
cradled, protected in Father's loving arms.

Our father went to early mass

every Sunday of his life
and gave a buck when they passed
the basket, for his Christian wife.

And, oh! how you hate me, because you know

I am one who has looked with uncovered eyes
at the truth, the truth that you know and deny:

I asked him once, before he died,

to tell me what he thought was true.
"When you die," he said, and he never lied,
"they put you in a ditch and bury you."

that childhood ends,

it always ends,
and growing up hurts,

Then he gulped his coffee and lurched

from the table, late for church.

It hurts.

Philip Asaph

Oh, it hurts.
Christine A. Lehman
Austin, Texas

February 1991

Page 37

American Atheist Radio Series

Arguments for god, historical

and contemporary

II

Countless pages have

been written to justify
the idea of god. The
basic arguments can,
however, be
summarized - and
disposed of - in a few
short paragraphs.

When the first installment of a

regularly scheduled, fifteen-minute,
weekly American Atheist radio series
on KLBJ radio (a station in Austin,
Texas, owned by then-President
Lyndon Baines Johnson) hit the
airwaves on 3 June 1968, the nation
was shocked. The programs had to be
submitted weeks in advance and were
heavily censored. The regular production of the series ended in September
1977,when no further funding was
available.
The following is the text of "American
Atheist Radio Series" program No. 10,
first broadcast on 5 August 1968.

Madalyn O'Hair
Page 38

he Society of Separationists, my
sponsor, sells booklets, and some
of these are authored by me. One
of them is titled Why I Am an Atheist.
This booklet is a capsule description of
what an Atheist is, what an Atheist accepts, and what an Atheist thinks about
religion.
A part of it deals with the so-called
"Arguments for God and His Existence." I would like to read some of this
to you tonight, for it is imperative that
you know that religious people of all of
the time of recorded history have admitted that there is no god.
You are not hearing things at all. They
have admitted this.
Where, when, who?
Just listen.
We all agree - you and I and all of the
religious people - everybody - on one
rule of logic when we discuss things logically.This rule is that when anyone postulates a theory, that person has the burden of proof.
He must show the proof of his theory.
The classic example is Newton.' When
he discovered a theory of gravity, which
later became a law, it was necessary for
him to prove that his theory was correct
before it was accepted by the world
community of scholars, and by people in
general.
It is not a surprise, then, to you to discover here with me tonight that the religiouscommunity, its scholars, teachers,
and theologicians, churchmen of every
kind, have admitted that god is only a
theory. They have admitted this by their
constant attempts to offer proof of their
proposition and theory. They put forth
more and different proofs in a constant
stream in order to do this. Now, if a god
really was, it would not be necessary for
them to do this. From the way they
define him, it is obvious that he would be
able to offer this proof and not leave it
to their puny efforts. He could just ap-

!Isaac Newton (1642-1727),English physicist

and mathematician.
February 1991

pear, just once, or give incontrovertible

proof in some set of laboratory conditions and that would end the arguments
for all times. He does not, of course, because there is no god. He can't be called
forth because he does not exist.
The theories, however, are interesting. The religionists have been putting
them forth for thousands of years.
Knowing that the burden of proof is on
them, the religionists have assumed that
burden.
We Atheists merely evaluate and categorize their arguments and decide ifwe
want to accept them or reject them. For
us, it is as simple as that. So any good
Atheist simply acquaints himself with
every argument that has been set forth
in support of the god theory since human history began.
This is impossible, you say? Not at all.
The arguments are not too good and
there are not too many of the basic arguments. There are elaborations on certain theme arguments, but the basics
are simple. It will surprise you to hear
that in thousands of years of arguments,
there have been only half a dozen basic
arguments. That's right: six of them.
But think of this a moment: why
would even six arguments be needed? If
there was a god, his existence would be
argument enough. There would be no
need to prove it half a dozen times,
would there? It is only when you lose an
argument that you need so much proof.
Isn't it curious that with all of this every
religious person says, "I believe in god."
He does not say, "There is a god." It only
indicates that the proposition is indeed
very tenuous even with the help of Aristotelian syllogistics.
I am sure you are impatient. What are
the possible arguments for belief in god?
First, I must give you those arguments
which have been abandoned.
The first group of arguments clusters
around the idea of direct sensory experience. This is the empirical argument.
Someone says he has actually talked to
god or heard him or saw him or smelled
him or touched him. Today when people
American Atheist

say this, the psychiatrists say they are

having hallucinations and classify the
hallucinations as auditory, visual, tactile,
or olfactory, but a hallucination no less.
Have you seen god? Have you personally talked to him? Well, you can trust
your own senses, if you are a normal
human being. If you have not seen him,
felt him, talked with him, smelled him,
you know no one else has. Included in
this category of arguments are the ideas
of "mystical insight," which "tells" you
there is a god, and of "intuition," which
does the same. The group of ideas concerned with direct sensory experience
(real or imagined) and insight or intuition
(real or imagined) has been abandoned
now for many years and is not any
longer considered as valid argument.
The second group of arguments has
to do with "faith." This is your accepting
someone else's having experienced the
first group of ideas, your blind acceptance of someone else's talking with god
or seeing him or having "insight" or
"intuition," which tells him that there is
a god. When two people share a delusion like this, the psychiatrist calls it
"folie a deux," and when a large group
shares this delusion, it is popularly
called "religion." For the most part, the
modern theologicians have abandoned
this argument too.
The third group of older arguments
had to do with authority and depends on
your acceptance
of that authority.
There are different kinds of authority
here involved. The authority of an institution, a book, an individual person. If
you accept the authority of an institution, this is the authority of a particular
church: the Moslem church, the Hindu
church, the pagan church, the Roman
Catholic church, your particular Protestant church.
You choose what you want to choose,
unless you live in an era when choice is
not approved, and then you have a certain religion rammed down your throat
whether you like it or not, by a powerful
institution. If you accept the authority of
a book, again you have a lot of choices:
Austin, Texas

the Koran, the Veda, the Old Testament,

the New Testament, the Apocrypha, the
Upanishads, the Torah.
Again, what would have happened to
you in old Mexico had you said that you
did not accept their holy book? The old
Aztecs would have torn your heart out
of your body on one of their altars. If you
accept the authority of a person, again
you have a lot of choices: Mohammed,"
Confucius," Buddha," Moses," Fatima,"
Christ," Quetzalcoatl." Authority, who2Abu al-Qasim Muhammad ibn Abd Allah
ibn Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim (ca. 570632), founder of Islam.
3Kung Chiu (551-479 SC.E), Chinese philosopher.
4'Buddha' means 'Enlightened One', title
applied to Siddhartha Gautama, legendary
founder of Buddhism.
sMoses, legendary Israelite cult leader.
6Fatimah (ca. 616-633), Arab religious figure,
daughter of Muhammad.
7'Messiah' is the title applied to Jesus, legendary founder of Christianity.
8Quetzalcoatl was a chief Toltec and Aztec
god.
February 1991

ever is in power, rules.

This is why this argument has been
abandoned.
The fourth group of arguments have
to do with rational and/or logical proofs.
The Roman Catholic church was the
longest holdout before turning to this
group. But now even that church expects arguments to be logical. The kicker in this woodpile is that these so-called
rational or logical proofs are based simply on 'a priori' grounds. This is a highfalutin way of saying that the religionists
start out with so-called self-evident
truths. One of these is "In the beginning
was the word." One then gets into nonsense, for that sentence has absolutely
no meaning at all. Understanding
this,
we can proceed with tongue in cheek.
Rational arguments can be reduced to
three main categories also: the cosmological, the teleological, and the ontological. Let's just look at these jawbreakers
for a moment.
The cosmological
argument
is the
most popular. This is the oldest argument
and was advanced by Thomas Aquinas.? It is based on the principle of cause
and is called the principle of "causality."
It holds that everything requires a cause
to account for its existence. John Stuart
Mill'? is the person who is credited with
having put the KO to this argument. He
tells the story that it was his little child
who revealed the truth to him.
He was holding forth on this argument one day about everything needing
to be caused, and his preschool-age
child was listening. He said that since
everything had to be caused, god caused
everything. His child interrupted
and
said, "Daddy, if everything is caused,
who caused God?"
At first sight, of course, the argument
does sound convincing, but a very brief
consideration
reveals that it offers no

9Tommaso d'Aquino (1225-1274), Italian

philosopher.
IOJohn Stuart Mill (1806-1873), English philosopher and economist.
Page 39

Atheists are very practical about this. We say simply, we do not know how
the universe came into being or what caused life at all.
Let us all admit our ignorance
and attempt to find out the answer through science and research.
real proof at all. That is, the theorist cannot solve his dilemma by postulating an
uncaused first cause when by his first
premise everything must have a cause.
That is to say, who gave god the wherewithal to begin everything? Who caused
god? Who is god's mother? The cosmological argument is worthless.
The old Indian myths were that the
world rested on an elephant, and the elephant rested on a tortoise (a huge turtle). And then a little Indian boy who
tended elephants said, "Well, what does
the turtle rest on?" and the great religious philosophers there said, "Let's
change the subject."
Atheists are very practical about this.
We say simply, we do not know how the
universe came into being or what caused
life at all. Let us all admit our ignorance
and attempt to find out the answer
through science and research.
Be man enough to say with us: we
don't know either.
The second argument, the teleological
argument, is also known as the natural
law argument. This was the favorite of
the eighteenth century, especially under
the influence of Sir Isaac Newton and
the cosmographists. Generally it goes
this way: as we look at the world around
us, we observe an order and a design
which makes the assumption of a planning intelligence unavoidable. Look at
the stars, the moon, the planets, the
seasons, day and night with rhythm.
Actually, though, the teleological argument lies open to such easy attack that
the modern theologians avoid it. What
very little evidence there is of a purpose
in this world is overwhelmed by the conspicuous lack of benevolent purpose.
The most unprejudiced mind can only
allow that the universe appears indifferent to the lifethat swarms over it. Surely
only a very evil deity, a very evil god,
would create and smile upon the diseases of man, war, earthquakes, defective children, floods, droughts, hurricanes, polio. The teleological argument
is worthless.
The ontological argument is the chief
Page 40

hope of the theologicians. This holds

that god's existence is implied by his
nature, which the theologicians define.
This is an argument by definition. If we
can define perfection, then it must exist.
Oh, come on now! It is impossible to
prove existence merely by the process
of definition. If I try to describe an elf to
you, or a leprechaun, no matter how
much detail can be given, this does not
make that elf exist. Dickens!' could describe his characters like no other
author. Yet this did not make David
Copperfield become a real live person.
The ontological argument is worthless.
Immanuel Kant" tried to introduce
the "moral" argument for god. This was
that goodness, justice, truth, love, and
wisdom flow from god, and therefore he
exists. However, it left unsolved the
problem of badness, injustice, untruth,
hate, and folly, and this argument fails
also. After all, if god is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnibenevolent - that is, all powerful, all knowing,
llCharles John Huffam Dickens (18121870), English novelist.
12Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), German
philosopher.

February 1991

all good, and always present - how

could he permit evil? This argument
fails.
The latest argument, coming from the
United States, is the pragmatic argument, and this asks us: Does it work? Is
mankind advanced or retarded by faith
in a god? Well, you have history to
answer that. Religion has caused more
misery to all men in every single stage of
history than any other single idea. I need
only recount human sacrifices, the use
of humans to build pyramids, the religious wars, the crusades, the crime of
the Inquisition, the burning of witches,
even here in America, the internecine
warfare between religious groups. Ifthat
does not answer this question, then we
propose that the question be asked: has
not the idea of Santa Claus alone brought
more happiness? Of course it has. The
pragmatic arguments fail.
We Atheists might be pleased to accept the idea of god if a god was invented who loved people, a kind and good
and honorable god. Until he is invented
someday by man, we merely look at
your arguments and your beliefs and
your conduct and say: this is not for us.
We want something better for people.
~

American Atheist

Me Too

What Atheists need to do

'm sixty-eight, female, alone, and an
American Atheist, and I'm very mad!
In fact, I'm fuming!I've been rereading
my American Atheist magazines and
have come to April 1986. Madalyn
OHair's "American Atheist Radio Series"
titled "Types of Atheism" really hit
home. I sure do agree, especially with
the second paragraph.

O
Looking back over her
five years of
membership in
American Atheists, one
member finds herself
quite angry.

fJi
~
..

..

"Me Too" is a feature designed to

showcase short essays written by
readers in response to topics recently
covered by the American Atheist or of
general interest to the Atheist
community.
Essays submitted to "Me Too" (P. o.
Box 140195,Austin, TX 78714-0195)
should be 650 to 1500 words.

Austin, Texas

Actually, I don't like Atheists very

much - at least, most of them because they are not motivated to
move into the community and to
attempt to correct the injustices
which are everywhere apparent
against them.
Rereading the magazines again, I find
that the same cry is going on now as it
was when Ijoined the American Atheists
in 1985, the cry being that money is
needed for one thing or another. That is
very reasonable. But why an organization that is fighting to save our freedoms
has to beg for years for funding is beyond me.
I don't feel free. In fact, I know I'm not
free. Our Constitution has been raped
so often, it's a joke now, Who raped our
Constitution is easy - Christianity! The
biggest parasitic organization in the
whole world. Yet Atheists who could do
something about it are sitting on their
celebrity status and doing nothing.
When I heard Madalyn OHair's 1990
Convention speech on C.SPAN, I got so
mad I haven't been able to see straight
since. So this letter.
When politicians and actors can give
only token support to our organization
and not come out and support it "all the
way" by shouting it from the highest
mountaintop, then I'm about to give up.
My only income is $472 a month, and
yet, besides yearly dues and buying
books and such, I contribute $20 every
month to American Atheists. Also I
have a big button pinned on my coat
that clearly says, I'm an Atheist. I go
everywhere with it on in plain sight. The
insults I get are returned. The loneliness
February 1991

for an Atheist in upstate New York is

beyond imagination, and of course that
I can't control.
Yes, I'm mad. IfI can give until it hurts
and then brag about it, I can't see why
the better-off Atheists can't give until it
hurts and let the world know about it
too.
I'm not blowing my own horn to get a
medal. I just hope someone with more
than I have gets on the bandwagon and
gives until it hurts and then brags about
it too. It feels great! In fact, it feels better
than great.
This organization needs to come out
and be recognized by the bigoted Christians as a force with which to be reckoned. We would be able to do that if we
can get people who are known to everyone, such as actors or politicians, to say,
"Yes, I'm an Atheist and proud," instead
of hiding behind Christianity. For I
believe if you're not with us (Atheists),
then you're with them (Christians).
As for me, I'm ashamed to even admit
that at one time I was a Christian (even
if it was a half-assed one). With the
known history of the Christian organization, I can't see how people can admit
their Christianity without being embarrassed. Is that why they lie about their
past? Could be!
Can you imagine how wonderful life
would be without religion of any kind? I
do imagine, and that is why my support
for the American Atheists will continue
and increase if and when possible.
My button and I will be inseparable.
Join me! Please! At times it's great fun
- like when a priest almost falls on his
face after reading the button. Or the
surprised looks on the faces of the people who knew you a long time ago and
now don't know what to say when seeing it.
According to a survey made in 1989
by the Roman Catholic news service,
there are 1.1 billion Atheists in the
world: 21.6 percent of the population.
I'm sure the United States is typical of
the world. Christianity has 1.7 billion, or
(See "Me Too" on page 44)
Page 41

Letters to the Editor

Bible ham and baloney

As an example of how biblical texts
can be twisted, stretched, shrunk, and,
in a word, manipulated to fit or force a
given interpretation, I've just found in
Psalms 105 and 106 what, in the mouth
of a fanatic Republican, may be a prophecy of our present administration.
Ps. 105:40 says, "The people asked,
and he brought quails .... " With a little
editing we would have: The people
asked, and he brought Quayle.
Ps. 106:22 talks of "Wondrous works
in the land of Ham." A little editing
would convert that into the land of ham,
and that will be us, U.S.A.
Then Ps. 106:33 says that "he spake
unadvisedly with his lips." Do those lips
ring a bell?
More or less that's what Christians
have done with the Old Testament in
their quest to see J.e. all over it.
Manuel Perdomo
Florida

The NC-17 rating

"Letters to the Editor" should be either questions or comments of general

concern to Atheists or to the Atheist
community. Submissions should be
brief and to the point. Space
limitations allow that each letter
should be three hundred words or,
preferably, less. Please confine your
letters to a single issue only. Mail them
to: American Atheist, P. O. Box
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Page 42

Ifind the religious community's uproar

about the adoption of the NC-17 rating
hilarious, especially the comment that
NC-17 is merely the attempt to disguise
an X-rated movie with a euphemism.
The religious community has been attempting to sneak religion back into the
public school system for years under
the disguise of "creationism" or "creation
science," both euphemisms for a nonscientific approach to encouraging acceptance of absurd propositions based
on their beliefs.
As the saying goes, "Turnabout is fair
play,"

Brent Yaciw
Florida

On Christian

immodesty

As right-wing religious zealots attack

funding for the National Endowment for
the Arts, we should recall Mark Twain's
very dim view of religion's moral sense
of bodily modesty.
February 1991

"The convention miscalled modesty

has no standard, and cannot have one,
because it is opposed to nature and reason, and is therefore an artificiality and
subject to anybody's whim, anybody's
diseased caprice," he wrote in Letters
from the Earth. He pointed out that
Indian ladies cover their face and breasts
and leave their legs naked from the hips
down, whereas refined European ladies
do just the reverse.
The quintessential Connecticut Yankee ridiculed the biblical Adam and Eve
myth in which god accomplishes the dubious achievement of making them
ashamed of their own bodies. He noted
that all enter the world naked, unashamed, and clean of mind. "They
have entered it modest. They have to
acquire immodesty and the soiled mind:
there is no other way to get it. A Christian mother's first duty is to soil her
child's mind, and she does not neglect
it," he wrote.
Twain also observed that "Many of
these people have the reasoning faculty,
but no one uses it in religious matters."
Jim Senyszyn
Connecticut

Sneezy blessings
About two years ago, some readers
raised the question of what to say (or
not to say) when a person sneezes, and
how to respond when someone blesses
you for sneezing. A coworker came up
with a snappy answer. She sneezes like
I do in the springtime - over and over.
After repeated blessings from our secretary, she finally said, "Can't you just
bless me once for the whole day?" Made
the poor woman feel silly.
We ended up discussing the origin of
this custom. The secretary (a Mexican
Catholic) insisted that a person's heart
stops when he sneezes, and you bless
him so he won't die! Also, get this, the
sneezer makes the sound "Heh-soos"
(Jesus), involuntarily calling on the
Savior (in Spanish).
Ever heard that one?
American Atheist

By the way - the only polite thing to

say after a sneeze is for the sneezer to
say, "Excuse me."
John M. Davis
California

Exercise your reason

A word of warning to allthose Atheists
who prefer to remain in the closet silence is acquiescence!
Exercise your right to dissent!
Victor St. John
Florida

Religion and sex

After reading volumes 1, 2, and 3 of
Soledad de Montalvo's Women, Food
and Sex, I finally learned something I
should have found out long ago: why the
Judeo-Christian religion has always had
such a "thing" against sex!
Like the French say, "Tres simple!"
Sex is the most powerful force and urge
in nature! Naturally, it's the survival of
the species!
If you can grab control of sex, you
have the boobs "by the balls," so to
speak!
Milan Rafayko
Kentucky

Therapy without gods

There is an area of American society
where American Atheists needs to do
some investigation.
I recently went for marriage counsel-

ing, and my therapist recommended I

read several books. First, it was suggested I read about children of alcoholic
parents. The last book recommended
was one by Melody Beattie, author of
the best-seller Codependent No More.
As I read Beattie's latest offering, Beyond Codependency, I kept running
into phrases like "I asked God to get me
out," "I was mad at God," and "intertwined with this process of changing our
behaviors is a Higher Power, God, as we
each understand Him." It became clear
to me where Ms. Beattie was coming
from.
Fortunately, while I tried to overlook
Beattie's pontifications, I was taking a
course in Japanese religions at the same
time. A required reading for the course
is a book by David K. Reynolds entitled
The Quiet Therapies. What fascinated
me about this little book is that the Japanese totally disregard Western psychology's emphasis on placing guilt on parents, lovers, or society for one's shortcomings or inability to cope with life.
Since Western psychologists are overwhelmingly Christian, many naturally
get caught up with their religious hangups. The Quiet Therapies offers this
case in point. "Christianity began by
postulating an impossible being called
God. This necessitated the development
of a theology to prove that God actually
exists. An elaborate philosophy had to
be devised to substantiate the claim of
God's existence. A philosophy with
logical inconsistencies is no philosophy,
so theologians of every persuasion lab-

ored to produce logicallyperfect systems,

thus laying the foundation of Western
civilization and European culture."
Japanese Naikan Introspection Therapy emphasizes the ability to control
one's behavior without relying on a higher power or casting blame on one's elders for the current crisis of identity.
Self-aggrandizement
or complaints
about treatment received from others
are considered self-centered and improper within this setting. What is
stressed is a method for reordering the
past as well as one's understanding of it
in a new light. While the Japanese patients are highly moved by reflecting on
their parents, Americans tend to be less
moved because of religious training
which emphasizes love for god above
love for parents. No wonder Americans
need therapy after they're told to love a
being they can't even see and love it!
her/him more than their flesh and blood
father and mother.
Christianity attempts to draw children
from their loving home and surround
them in a church family. The Japanese
have the good sense to know that one's
parents sacrifice much for the children's
benefit. Therefore, there is no prayer
that can help one to become a better
individual. One has to recognize himself
for who he is and change his life-style to
one of grateful self-sacrifice. Tremendous liberation of energy willoccur without a dependence on a god.
Gerald Lunderville
California

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Hemlock Society. P.o. Box 11830,Eugene,

OR 97440-3900. Telephone: (503) 342-5748.
Founded 1980. Nonprofit. Advises on, and
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in USA.

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Me Too
(Continued from page 41)

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32.9 percent. So it's more, until you realize that Christianity in 1982 had 20,800
different cults that are all included in
that survey. They unite only to gain control of the United States government.
That's when you should really watch
their fireworks, literally!
Publications
Why can't all Atheists in the United
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Catalog of American Atheist Press books
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politician, the scientist, the lawyer, rich
and poor, men and women, all the
The Church, the Enemy of the Workers
people who can't swallow the garbage
by Joseph McCabe tears into "Christian
that is being shoved down our throats
Socialism" and the racism of the church.
from every part of the media, by the
Original Haldeman-Julius booklet, pubgreatest and most vicious criminal orgalished in 1942as No. 14of "The Black International Series." 32 pp. Stock #5240. $4.50 nization the world has ever known ppd. AAP, 7215 Cameron Rd., Austin, TX Christianity.
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where, in all our schools, in all our news
phone orders accepted at (512)467-9525.
organizations. The First Amendment
isn't even being considered anymore,
~anizations
anywhere. Religion is behind this, but so
American Gay and Lesbian Atheists:
our so-called democratic government.
ao Box 66711, Houston, TX 77266-6711. Ifis the
time isn't now, then it's too late.
Serving the Gay & Lesbian Community.
Atheists, get out and be proud.
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Chicago: (312)255-2960.Publishes a monthly
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February 1991

- Irene Ayala
New York
American Atheist

suggested

American Atheist
introductory reading list

III
Literature on Atheism is very hard to find in most public
and university libraries in the United States - and most of
the time when you do find a book catalogued under the
word Atheism it is a work against the Atheist position.
Therefore we suggest the following publications which are
available from American Atheist Press as an introduction
into the multifaceted areas of Atheism and state/church separation. To achieve the best understanding
of thought in
these areas the featured publications should be read in the
order listed. These by no means represent our entire collection of Atheist and separationist materials.

1. All the Questions You Ever Wanted to Ask American

Atheists with All of the Answers by Jon Murray and
Madalyn O'Hair.

Paperback.

248 pp. #5356

2. The Case Against Religion: A Psychotherapist

$9.00

by Dr. Albert Ellis. Stapled. 57 pp. #5096

3. What on Earth Is an Atheist! by Madalyn

Paperback.

288 pp. #5412

$4.00
O'Hair.
$8.00

4. An Atheist Speaks by Madalyn O'Hair. Paperback.

pp. #5098

5. All about Atheists by Madalyn O'Hair. Paperback.

pp. #5097

View

321
$8.00
407
$8.00

6. Ingersoll the Magnificent by Joseph Lewis. Paperback.

342 pp. #5216

$10.00

7. Essays on American Atheism, vol. f by Jon G. Murray.

Paperback.

349 pp. #5349

$10.00

8. Essays on American Atheism, vol. II by Jon G. Murray. Paperback.

284 pp. #5350

$10.00

9. Essays in Freethinking, vol. I by Chapman

Paperback.

229 pp. #5052

10. Essays in Freethinking, vol. II by Chapman

Paperback.
II.

240 pp. #5056

Cohen.
$9.00
Cohen:
$9.00

Life Story of Auguste Comte by F. J. Gould. Paperback. 179 pp. #5132

$6.50

12. History's Greatest Liars by Joseph

back. 176 pp. #5524

13. Atheist Truth vs. Religion

Ingersoll.

McCabe.

Paper$6.50

Ghosts by Col. Robert G.

Stapled. 57 pp. #5156

$4.00

14. Some Reasons I Am a Freethinker by Robert G. Ingersoll. Stapled. 37 pp. #5184

15. Our Constitution O'Hair.

$4.00

The Way It Was by Madalyn

Stapled. 70 pp. #5400

$4.00

16. Religion and Marx by Rick B. A. Wise. Paperback.

267
$12.00

pp. #5521

17. Fourteen Leading Cases on Education, Religion, and

Financing Schools. Paperback. 273 pp. #5500
$5.00
18. Sex Mythology

by Sha

Rocco.

Stapled.

#5440

19. Women and Atheism,

Madalyn

O'Hair.

55 pp.
$4.00

The Ultimate Liberation by

Stapled. 21 pp. #5420

20. Christianity Before Christ by John G. Jackson.

back. 238 pp. #5200

$3.50
Paper$9.00

21. The Bible Handbook (All the contradictions,

absurdities, and atrocities from the Bible) by G.W. Foote, W.P.

Ball, John Bowden, and Richard M. Smith. Paperback.
372 pp. #5008
$9.00

22. The X-Rated Bible by Ben Edward

back. 428 pp. #5000

Akerley.

Paper$10.00

All of the above publications are available at a special set

price of $130.00 - a savings of $32.50 off the listed price.
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Amendment I
Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right
of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government
for a redress of grievances.

"0 Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to

bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their
smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead;
help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the
shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay
waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help
us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with
unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with
their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of
their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst,
sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds
of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring
Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it. ... "
- Mark Twain
The War Prayer