I

Vol.

No.

;J

MarcL,.

1984

50

Ceats

~,

" _OILI liT

lEI IE II ITiEIST'I

IOBERT BURlS

"

The American Atheist is published monthly by

The Freethought Society of America, Inc., a
non-profit corporation, Publication office is at
4547 Harford Road, Baltimore, "Maryland 21214.
Subscription rate is $5.00 a year; s tudents $3.00.
Ten copies of one issue: $2.50
Second class postage paid at Baltimore Maryland

News

Newscope
Death

17

Universe

The

Interlocking

The

Christian

Vegetation

to

Review

of

Mondo

Cane

18

Dictatorship

20

Century

Gods

Book Bargains
p oetry Vehicle
Letters

v,

and

22

Sun

Gods

24

26

of

Controversy

28

Editor

30

Ads

31

Cartoons

32

The Staff ..
Editor in Chief Assistant Editor
Madalyn

Murray

Garry

De

Young

Associate Editors
Robert
Jack

Anton
Brady

Ralph

Contrbuting Editors
Lou
Virgil

Alt
McClain

Wilson

Blois

Circulation
William'

Murray

Marian

Walker

Publisher: The freethought Society of America, Inc.

Printed by..
Gustav Broukal freethought Press

1,

The American Atheist is pubHshed monthly by

The Freethought Society of America, Inc., a
non-profit corporation. Publication office is at
4547 Harford Road, Baltimore, =Maryland 21214.
Subscription rate is $'5.00 a year; students $3.00.
Ten copies of one issue: $2.50
Second class postage paid at Baltimore Maryland

News

Newscope
Death

17

Universe

The

Interlocking

The

Christian

Vegetation

to

Review

of

Mondo

Cane

18

Dictatorship

20

Century

Gods

Book Bargains
p oetry Vehicle
Letters

v,

and

22

Sun

Gods

24

26

of

Controversy

28

Editor

30

Ads

31

Cartoons

32

The Staff ..
Editor in Chief Assistant Editor
Madalyn

Murray

Garry

De

Associate Editors

Young

Robert
Jack

Anton
Brady

Ralph

Contrbuting Editors
Lou
Virgil

Alt
McClain

Wilson

Blois

Circulation
William"

Murray

Marian

Walker

Publisher: The freethought Society of America, Inc.

Printed by..
Gustav Sroukal freethought Press

Baltimore,

The American Atheist

The news presented in these columns, which

fills approximately one half of the magazine, is
chosen to demonstrate to you, month after month,
that the dead reactionary hand of religion is always with you. It dictates how much tax you
pay, what food you eat and when, with whom you
sleep, if you should have children, if you die in
concentration camps, if you are segregated in
some manner from other human beings, what you
read, what movies you see, and what you should
or should not believe about life. Religion is
politics
and, always,
the most reactionary
politic s.
We editorialize
our news to emphasize the
above thesis. Unlike any other magazine or newspaper in America -- we admit it!

AND THEY SPAKE IN FORKED TONGUES

Maryland 21214

News
If I may have the attention of the chairman
of the Judiciary Committee, I should like to propound a question to him, because if my interpretation of the bill is incorrect I shall gladly
withdraw my amendment.
I would like to propound just one question. I
am thinking in terms of a private enterprise for
profit, which would be covered by this bill. A
man comes for employment and the employer is
honest enough to tell the applicant, while he is
otherwise qualified, he will not hire anyone of
atheistic
convictions.
The man then uses his
remedies provided by this measure. It is my interpretation of the bill that as a part of his civil
rights purported to be extended by this FEPC
title, he could allege he has been discriminated
against and proceed against the employer.

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
Proceedings and Debates of the 88th Congress,
Second Session, Washington, D. C.
Saturday, February 8th, 1964
Vol. 110, No. 24, Pages 2514 -2518:
Amendment offered by Mr. Ashbrook
MR. ASHBROOK. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment. (to the Civil Rights Act of 1963 - ed.)
The Clerk read as follows:

I wonder if the chairman of the Committee on

the Judiciary could give me his interpretation
of this. As I said, if I am wrong, I will gladly
withdraw my amendment.

Amendment offered by Mr. Ashbrook: On page

70, line 10, after the word "enterprise"
insert
a new section:

MR. CELLER. The bill provides there can be

no discrimination on the ground of religion. That
is the answer I have to give to you.

"(f) Notwithstanding
any other prOVISIOn of
this title, it shall not be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to refuse to hire
and employ any person because of said person's
atheistic practices and beliefs."

Mr. ASHBROOK. So if I do not want to hire

an atheist, I can be forced to hire one?

MR. ASHBROOK. Mr. Chairman, I have heard

it said time and time again that we are not endeavoring to include all types of discrimination
in this title and in this bill. However, we are
prescribing very definite and positive requirements on employers.

Mr. CELLER. Not necessarily.

It all depends
on the surrounding circumstances.
If the employer deliberately discriminates
against a person because of his religion, although he may be
otherwise qualified and all other things being
considered,
he may run afoul of the law. But
just because he is an atheist would be no reason why there should be any discrimination,
whether he be a Catholic, a Protestant,
or a

Page 1

The American

Jew. It all depends

stances in the case.

on the facts

A the is t

and circum-

There

21214

As our Nation grew, she pushed her boundaries across her frontiers and her men of God
were the keepers of civilization pending the formal planning of our political subdivisions.
The concept of a nation which respects
has continued to this very hour.

God

is no need for your a-

Mr. ASHBROOK. This would be a practice

which the employer could not do, according to
to what you said. He could not discriminate against a person because he is an atheist. Is
that correct?
Mr. CELLER.

Maryland

God We Trust."

Mr., ASHBROOK. I think you have answered

my question. I have stipulated
that the man
would be otherwise qualified and he has been
honestly told this is why he would not receive
the position.
Mr. CELLER.
mendment.

Baltimore,

That is correct.

Mr. ASHBROOK. That is what my amendment

would endeavor to do; that is, to say the employer could discriminate
because of the atheistic practices or beliefs of an applicant for a
job. My amendment would seem to speak for itself, and I certainly encourage everyone to support it. It seems incredible that we would even
seriously consider forcing an employer to hire
an atheist. This is one of the booby traps in the
bill which the sponsors have very glibly alleged
did not exist.
Mr. ELLIOTT. Mr. Chairman, I cannot but recall that when word spread that land was near,
the brave band of our forefathers
aboard the
Mayflower,
350 years ago, immediately met in
the hold of their ship and adopted an agreement,
now known as the Mayflower Compact, which
started with the words:
"In the name of God, Amen."
America started under God.
The United States of America has progressed
under God to the highest pinnacle of perfection
of any nation on this earth.
Her dedication to God in the early years was
inscribed upon all her basic documents, upon
her constitutions,
her declarations,
and her tablets of stone.
America wrote upon her coins of money "In

A few years ago I had the privilige as a Me mber of the U. S. House of Representatives
of
helping to write into our basic statutes the recitation in the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag
that we are "one nation under God".
In furtherance of that dedication we set aaside a prayer room in this Capitol where men
of all faiths might repair for communion with
God.
We erected the declaration "In God We Trust"
over the Speaker's chair of this very Chamber.
We stand today upon the very summit of the
world. Men of earth proclaim our greatness. It is
written upon the winds. Soon it will be reflected
upon the stars. Surely the God of all things has
directed us. Divine Providence has led us.
In the midst of it all is man. God put him
there. He gave him the wonderful attribute of
free choice of religion. We call it freedom of
religion. We protected that choice in the Constitution itself. America gave the atheist the
right of disbelief. It gives it to him today. But
surely, our America gives the employer the
right to reject an applicant for employment who
does not believe in God. Under this amendment
we are speaking of private employment. Today
the American employer has a right to insist that
his employees believe in God. Thi s amendment
insists that that right not be taken away from
the American employer if he desires to exercise
it.
There will be cries of anguish from those on
the other side of this debate that this amendment is abridging a freedom of free man. On
yesterday many of these same people voted to
give a swarm of bureaucrats the right to cut off
the very milk that goes into the mouths of little
schoolchildren
of whatsoever color. They voted
to uproot customs and habits that were more

Page 2

The American

Atheist

Balt imore,

than 300 years old in our America. They voted

to cut off the benefits of a hospital program
which is the envy of the world. They voted to
cut of aid in fields where that aid is necessary
and beneficial.

made by our President

last Thursday morning
when he spoke at the Presidential
prayer breakfast about his belief in God. He thought we
should have here in the Capital City a monument, a religious center--not paid for out of public funds. I do not think the President of the
United States would have any objection to this.

Here, we do not seek to take any right away

from anybody. We leave the right of the atheist
to believe, or not to believe, as may be his
choice. All this amendment does is preserve for
the American employer a freedom to insist that
his employees be under God. I think the amendment ought to be adopted.

I want to ask at this time the chairman of the

committee if he would be willing to accept this
amendment?
Mr. CELLER. Of course I cannot. How could
the Feceral Government give sanction to religious discrimination?

Mr. WHITTEN. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike

out the last word.

Mr. JONES
that.

(Mr. WHITTEN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)
(These remarks were
mendment. - ed.J

addressed

Mr. CELLER.
does.

to a prior a-

(Mr. JONES of Missouri asked and was given

permission to revise and extend his remark s.)
Mr. JONES of Missouri. Mr. Chairman, it is
very apparent that there is a lack of agreement
among members of the Committee. You will recall a minute ago I made the inquiry of the chairman of the committee, the ranking member of the
committee, who was not here. The gentleman
from Michigan gave me his interpretation that as
an employer I could require that an employee be
a member of a church. Yet, we have heard the
chairman of the full Committee say that this bill
would permit an atheist to go before this commission and making the point he had been discriminated against. I do not know how the rest
of you people feel about this. I am sorry that the
author of the amendment did not include Communists in here also.

,..t

is what the amendment

...,

[,'(ctt.t1

I still believe that the American people be~

lieve in God; that they have very implicit trust ./ ~
in God, and I do not want to have any of ou
laws weakened to the extent we do not recognize that this is a nation that believes in God.
I support the pending amendment,
will be adopted.

to a speech
-.

That

We are not doing

This is a nation that believes in God, a

nation that was established
under a belief in
God. We have put up over the Speaker's dais,
and I want to remind you of this, these letters,
661 n God We Trust," which were put there after
the Supreme Court decision. They were put there
to show, at least, that many Members wanted to
do something positive to indicate they did not
agree with or concur in the Supreme Court decision.

It would be interesting
to see how many
people are going to stand up here and be counted, and say they feel an employer is compelled
to give consideration to the hiring of an atheist,
when he is trying to run a business that is based on good moral groun~
your attention

of Missouri.

Mr. JONES of Missouri. What you are trying

to do is to give a preference to guarantee employment of atheists. That is what you are doing
if you fail to accept this amendment. I know you
try to get out of this, but we found out a lot of
things here today that have happened in connection with this section. There are still many more
amendments that are going to come. I would like
to find out what the position of the people is in
relation to atheists.

Mr. JONES of Missouri. Mr. Chairman, I rise

in support of the pending amendment.

I would invite

Mary land 21214

Mr. BROMWELL.
"'f'4

Mr. Chairman,

and hope it

I move to

The American

Baltimore,

A the is t

strike out the last word.

Mr. Chairman, I should like to make this comment on the recent remarks of the gentleman
from Missouri. Although I am reluctant to do so,
I disagree with the chairman of the committee.
While the debate was in progress here a moment
ago I looked in Webster's dictionary, and in my
opinion, discrimination on the ground of religion,
if we accept the definition in the dictionary
which we have in the front of this Chamber,
does not include atheists. It says that atheism
and religion are antithetical
terms. Hence, under the terms of this bill, one cannot discriminate among Methodists, Catholics, or Mohammedans, yet may discriminate
against an atheist
with impunity.
Mr. JONES of Missouri. If the gentleman will
yield, in other words, the gentleman would have
no objection to putting this amendment in the
bill ?
Mr. BROMWELL. I think in the circumstances,
under my view, it would be surplusage and unnecessary.

21214

-----)

'Mr. RODINO. Mr. Chairman,

out theIast word.

I move to strike

Mr. Chairman, I am opposed to this amendment. I was one of the original co-sponsors of
the proposal to include the words "under God"
in the Pledge of Allegiance.
I am a Catholic
by faith, but I respect the right of other people
to believe or not to believe. I do not see any
reason to discriminate
against a person on account of race, color, national origin, or religion.
If a person seeks not to believe in God, I believe it is his American right not to believe, although I would continue to adhere to my religion.
Believing that this Nation grew because it had
in its basic fabric a strong belief in God, nevertheless I as an American and as a Member of
this Congress feel that this amendment is entirely out of order. Therefore, I oppose it and
hope that the rest of the Members, feeling as
strongly as we do about this great country of
ours and about the right of every individual to
believe in his own religion, will vote down this
amendment.
Mr. GROSS. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike
out the requisite number of words.

Mr. J ONES of Missouri. In the light of what

the chairman has said in establishing this legislative history, that it could be, I should think
the gentleman would demand that this amend.
ment be adopted to conform to his belief.

(Mr. GROSS asked and was given permission

to revise and extend his rem ark s .)
Mr. GROSS. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the
statement made by the gentleman from New Je rsey, but he does not go to the root of this matter. That which is sought to be cured is the
compulsion upon an employer to hire an atheist.
That is the issue. It is not a question of how
the gentleman from New Jersey or the gentleman
from Iowa feels, but rather it is the compulsion
upon the employer to hire. That is why this amendment ought to be adopted.

Mr. BROMWELL. I think it to be unnecessary.

This is my view of the matter. I myself would
not see any reason to include it.
Mr. ASHBROOK. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. BROMWELL. I yield
from Ohio.

Maryland

to the gentleman

Mr. JONES of Missouri.

the gentleman yield?

Mr. ASHBROOK. Suppose an interpretation

were later made by the Supreme Court that would
say that atheism would be lack of religion?
They would not treat them in the same way.

Mr. Chairman,

will

Mr. GROSS. I yield.

Mr. JONES of Missouri. If we adopt the amendment and an employer wants to hire atheists
he could do it if he wanted to, but we leave it
in the discretion of the employer.

Mr. BROMWELL. I would hesitate to anticipate an opinion of the Supreme Court. It is entirely possible you would have a judicial construction
which would make the amendment
necessary.

Mr. GROSS. An employer who does not want

to hire an atheist should not be compelled to do
Page

The American

Baltimore,

Atheist

so for any reason, and by the same token he

should not be prohibited from doing so if that is
his desire.

21214

they give a crumb to those who were hungry.

Mr. Chairman, I have no quarrel with an

atheist simply because he is a godless person.
I would protect his right under the Constitution
to believe or not believe in God with all the vigor at my command.
Again I urge adoption of the amendment and
yield back the balance of my time.
- ---.
Mr. HOLFIELD.'
r. Chairman, I move to
strike out the last word.

So I say to these people who are religious,

and I am religious,
that there is something
wrong with your religion if you seek to impose
upon any man a specific form of religion or an
adherence to a religion of any type. That is
tyranny whether it is imposed by the sword or
by legislation.
True religion is a matter of personal conviction within the soul and the spirit
and the mind of man.
There is an inscription in the Jefferson
morial that quotes the words of Jefferson.
said:

Mr. Chairman, I think we have come to the

point where this subject of freedom of religion
compels me to rise and say a few words.

MeHe

I have sworn eternal hostility

against every)
form of tyranny over the mind of man. To enforce
the form of religion on a man against his will is
tyranny.

I want to say in advance that I am not an

atheist. I believe in a Supreme Being, so I am
not here protecting an atheist from the standards of my personal beliefs. I take exactly the
same position that the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. RODINO) takes. I happen to be a Protestant. I happen to believe in God Almighty, but
I say that any nation that protects freedom of religion has no right to impose compulsory religion on any citizen in this country. If any man
in this country wants to go to a church of any
denomination or stay away from one he has that
right under the Constitution,
and there is no
place in the Constitution that tells man to worship God in any fashion. This is a matter of individual decision. This is a matter of individual
conscience.
I can remember the teaching of the Holy
Scriptures, when the Saviour spoke to the people
of Jerusalem. He condemned the Pharisees
and
and the Sudducees for their adherence to the
forms of religion and their denial of the true
spiritual principles of religion.
I can remember that he condemned the Pharisees for making long prayers in the marketplace
where they could be seen by men and for the
purpose of being applauded for their false piety.
But the Saviour said they,
would not lift the burden of the
little finger, a burden that was
on some person who needed that

Maryland

the Pharisees,
poor with their
pressing down
help nor would

Page

There have been many crimes committed

throug hout the centuries of history in the name
of religion. Millions have died because of persecution in the name of religion. So I say, let
us not get so excited about whether a man believes in God or not that we are willing to embrace tyranny. That is his privilege under our
country's Constitution,
and it is not your job
nor is it my job to impose upon him any specific religion; or to punish him because he does
not have a religion.
Mr. HARDY. Mr. Chairman,
out the last word.

I move to strike

Mr. Chairman, I did not want to talk on this

subject, but we have gotten into some very fundamental discussions
here and I am afraid some
of my good friends are missing the point entirely.
There is not any imposition on a man to have
any kind of religion because an employer who
does not want to employ an atheist refuses to
employ him. The employer certainly should not
be compelled to employ the man. The compulsion is on the employer and not on the man who
is seeking a job. I do not feel any discrimination in my heart because of anybody's religion.
But I do not want anybody to say to me that I
have to employ an atheist if I should happen
not to want to employ one.

The American

Baltimore,

Atheist

I know some good, God-fearing business

people who are very, very strong in their convictions on this subject. If you say to one of
them, "You have to employ this fellow whether
you want him or not, and you have to ignore the
fact that he does not believe in God," that is an
impairment of the right of that businessman and
employer that is much more serious than the impairment of a man's right to have that job. ,---Certainly, the employer should have the same right
to de~ermine whom he will hire.llf ~ 'lI
It). ~ I
I

/">

Maryland

21214

Mr. BALDWIN. The theory of communism also

includes the theory of atheism. If the man identifies himself as a Communist, what is there in
the bill which would in sure to the employer that
if he denied employment on that ground the employer would not be accused of violating the
provisions of the bill?
Mr. FLYNT.
man yield?
J

Mr. Chairman,

will the gentle-

Mr. Chairman, this is a very, very shi~us

thing. No man ought to be compelled to hire a
(man
who I
n athei;t ir-he has strong rel ig.ioUYC~~vic!!.~~.
Th~ ~roblem would not arise in mg ifidustry but It could happen in a
small company and that is the place where the
danger really exists.

Mr. BALDWIN. I yield to the gentleman

Georgia.

from

Mr. FLYNT,. I say to the gentleman from California that I have an amendment at the desk
which I believe will answer the question the
gentleman from California has raised. I hope he
will support my amendment at the proper time.

Mr. Chairman, the amendment ought to be

adopted and I am surprised that the gentleman
from New York did not accept the amendment
when it was offered.

Mr. WHITENER. Mr. Chairman, I move to

strike the requisite number of words.

Mr. JOELSON. Mr. Chairman,

strike out the last word.

Mr. Chairman, I had not intended to inject

myself into this discussion,
but we have heard
so many pious phrases about freedom of religion
that I am reminded that perhaps more damage
has been done to the foundations of this Nation
throughout
history
with pious phrases
and
appearances of piety than has been done in any
other way.

I move to

Mr. Chairman, as a person with deep religious convictions personally,

I merely rise to
say I never dreamed the time would come when I
would hear it argued in the name of religion that
we would say to the children of a nonbeliever
that because your father is a nonbeliever, you
( shall not be given your daily bread.
Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance
time.

of my

Mr. BALDWIN. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike

out the last word.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to direct one question to the chairman, the gentleman from Ne w
York. (Mr. CELLER). If a person came to an employer and asked for employment and the person
identified himself as a Communist, if the employer denied him employment, would the employer be violating this act in its present form?
Mr. CELLER. This bill has nothing to do
with political affiliation. It would be the same
as if it were denied to a Republican, to a Democrat, or to a "mugwump".
Page

I rise in support of the amendment.

I do not attack any other Member, but I was

shocked to see a Member stand here a moment
ago and talk about taking the bread out of the
mouths of the children of an atheist, when that
individual diligently voted to take the bread out
of the mouths of innocent children who may live
in a community which might fall under the provisions of Title VI, which we sought to strike
out of the bill.
It is felt to be bad, by some, to defend the
fundamental faith of mankind, which
as made F..
t~nd
~flTi~felt'to-~.~.!
ter-_{ ~
rt- le thing to disagree
with the gentleman's
views of sociology in this country.
You would take the milk bottles out of the
lunchrooms of the parochial and public school
because someone does not agree with you on
the matter of segr egation, but you would say to

///
("

T he American A the is t

those of us who believe deeply in the power and

the necessity of preserving Christian beliefs in
this country that we should not have such a
right.
I yield to no man in the sincerity of my belief that we in this Nation will not survive unless we adhere to the principles of Christianity.
When we get to the heart of this proposition,
I believe we are not being honest with ourselves
or with our colleagues if we try to make this a
religious freedom amendment. This is an amendment which would give to an employer the freedom to select his employees, and to refuse to
emoloy an atheist. I say to you that no. man
should be required by his government to employ
anyone in contravention
of his own religious
and moral views.

As many of us know, we have not had an opportunity to talk about this fundamental matter.
This is the reason why I wish to take a few minutes to talk about the amendment of the gentleman from Missouri.
I am in favor of the amendment. It would not
deny a man a right of belief. It would not deny a
man a right to be an atheist. It would merely say
to a man who owns property, a man who has jobs
to give, "You do not have to give that man a job
if he is an athei st. "
I have gone about my district
that there are two fundamental
of life and that of communism.
our Nation was founded on a

immortal Declaration

We hold these truths to be self-evident,

that
all men are created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable rights."

Mr. WHITENER. I yield to the gentleman from

Virginia.

Mr. Chairman, when Thomas Jefferson wrote

the Declaration
of Independence
he said,
"These privileges come from God." Gentlemen,
they come from God. They do not come from man,
but they come from God. So if this Nation were
not founded on God, I contend we would not
have the kind of Nation we do.

Mr. TUCK. I ask the gentleman whether he

considers that in this country there is an alliance between atheism and communism.
Mr. WHITENER. Of course, the gentlemen
serves on the Committee on Un-American Activities, and I know he would agree with me that
the question answers itself.
Mr. MATTHEWS. Mr. Chairman, I move to
strike the requisite number of words.
Mr. Chairman, I had not intended to talk on
this particular amendment, but it may be the only opportunity that many of us in the Congress
will have to talk about some of the fundamental
things in which we believe.
con-

cerning the Supreme Court's decision on the

prayer and Bible-reading
cases than I have received on civil rights questions or on any other
question which has ever come before the Congress.

In Thomas Jefferson's
of Independence he said:

Mr. TUCK. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman

yield for a friendly question?

more communications

Maryland 21214

Mr. Chairman,
for years saying
between our way
The first is that
belief in God.

I say further to the gentleman

who has
spoken so eloquently that if tonight I were walking down the street and some man walked up to
me and said, "I am an atheist," I would ask him
to let me walk on or to get out of his presence,
because I do not wish to be in the presence of
such people, and I certainly do not wish to employ one.

I have received

Baltimore,

The other differentiation,

as I said, between
our way of Iife and that of communism is that we
believe in private property. We believe a man
ought to have the right to own his property and
to manage it within rules and regulations that
are not alien to the interests of the people. So
you see this is what worries me now about the
bill we are considering.
We are talking about
taking away a man,s property rights, and now
some of us say that a man who owns property
must hire an atheist and he seemingly practices
discrimination against the man because he is an
atheist.

Page 7

The American

Atheist

You know, I started out in life to be a

preacher, Mr. Chairman. Sometimes when I get
up to make a talk in the church after I finish,
someone says, "I can understand why you are a
good Congressman."
Then other times I try to
make a political
speech and someone says,
"Well, I can understand why you would make a
good preacher." But be that as it may, I cannot
for the life of me, Mr. Chairman, see why a man
who owns his property, and manages his property,
must hire an atheist.
Let me say it has nothing to do with the
right of that man to believe as he wants to believe.
Mr. GRANT. Mr. Chairman,
yield to me?

Maryland

21214

Mr. BEER MANN. I would like to say for the

benefit of my friend from Florida and my associate on the Agriculture Committee that for the
benefit of the House and his benefit I did not
want this opportunity to go by to recognize this
this amendment was sponsored by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. ASHBROOK), instead of the
gentleman from Missouri, and I congratulate you
for supporting it, Billy Matthews Graham.
Mr. MATTHEWS. I thank you. I am for the
gentleman's
amendment, as the gentleman from
Nebraska (Mr. BEERMANN) explained,
and I
think the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. JONES)
is also in favor of this amendment, as are others.
I will be delighted to yield to anyone else
who will say a kind word about me, Mr. Chairman, or for this amendment.

will the gentle-

Mr. MATTHEWS. I will be glad to yield.

Mr. SCHADEBERG.
strike out the requisite

Mr. GRANT. I would like to call the atten.

tion of the gentleman and the House to the
words above the Speaker's desk.

Mr. Chairman, I move to

number of words.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment of the gentleman from Ohio.

Mr. MATTHEWS. I want to thank the gentleman. And let me say again I believe every man,
every man, ought to have a right to his beliefs
as far as his religion is concerned, but at the
same time I do not believe that a man who owns
property, who has a business, should be made to
hire a man if he is an atheist.
Mr. JENNINGS. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield to me?
Mr. MATTHEWS. I yield to the gentleman from
Virginia.

I am not going to take 5 minutes, but just

make one short statement.
The issue in this
amendment is not whether or not anyone has a
right under our Constitution
to be an atheist.
The issue is whether or not under our Constitution a believer in God has a right to choose
whether or not he must hire an atheist. In other
words, if we do not have this amendment, our
Government is going to be in a position in which
it has the authority to interfere with a man's
right to make what he believes to be a moral
judgment. I think this is not the prerogative of
government.
Mr. WICKERSHAM. Mr. Chairman,
strike out the last word.

Mr. JENNINGS. I want to commend the gentleman for the fine talk he has made and to associate myself with his remarks and his beliefs.
Mr. MATTHEWS. I thank the gentleman very,
very much.
Mr. BEERMANN. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. MATTHEWS. I yield to the gentleman from
from Nebraska. There is no finer man in the Congress than he is. Is the gentleman going to agree with me?

Page

r;

Baltimore,

I move to

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the amendment. At this time I should like to ask the chairman of the committee a question with reference
to this section of this bill. Can the chairman assure the Members that this bill, as written, exempts fraternal orders in their daily activities,
as well as in the operation of Masonic homes,
Woodman homes, Moose homes, Elks homes, Odd
Fellows Homes, and in the operation of their respective lodges, orphans homes, and homes for
the aged?

The American Atheist

Mr. CELLER.

It exempts all fraternal

Baltimore,

ever I said I meant every word of it.

orders.

Mr. WICKERSHAM. All fraternal orders are

exempted. Thank you. That is the assurance
I
desired.
In connection with the pending amendment I
should like to say this to you: I agree with the
gentleman here that if you permit, if you require
those who are religious to hire those who are
not religious, you are interfering with the religious freedom on which this country was founded. I cannot see how any employer, including a
Congressman, should be required to hire a Communist, or an atheist or anyone else in that category whom he does not desire to employ, even
though such individual might meet all other requirements. You might even require the churches
and lodges, clubs and businessmen
and Congressmen to hire atheists
unless this amendment is accepted.
Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I am in thorough accord with the gentleman who offered the amendment. I urge the adoption of the amendment, and
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. RYAN of New York. Mr. Chairman, I move
to strike out the last word.

Maryland 21214

Mr. RYAN of New York. I do not think I misunderstood the gentleman.

Mr. ROBERTS of Texas.
the gentleman yield?

Mr. Chairman,

will

Mr. RYAN of New York. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. ROBERTS of Texas. If the gentleman
will refer back to the history of our country he
will find it was based on the premise of freedom
to worship God according to the dictates of his
own conscience.
Mr. RYAN of New York. That is fundamental
but I take exception to the false concept that
only one religion should be singled out as the
source of our greatness.
The CHAIRMAN. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Ohio
(Mr. ASHBROOK).
The question was taken, and on a division
(demanded by Mr. CELLER) there were - ayes
137, noes 98.
So the amendment was agreed to.

Mr. Chairman, this Nation was founded and

has been made great by people who were seeking religious
freedom. Our Founding Fathers
wrote the guarantee of religious freedom into the
Bill of Rights. Diversity has been our strength.
I was shocked a few moments ago to hear the
gentleman from North C arolin a -- I hope he did
not mean what he said - say there was only one
form of religion that matters in this country, and
that is the Christian religion. Many religions
and many diverse points of view have made up
this Nation. Our citizens belong to many faiths.
Mr. WHITENER. Mr. Chairman,
tleman yield?

will the gen-

Mr. RYAN of New York. I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina.
Mr. WHITENER. I will say to the gentleman
he either inadvertently
or purposely entirely
misconstrued what I said. I will say to the gentleman and to Members of the House that what-

There are ,~33 seats

House of Representatives.
seats due to death.

in the United States

There are 2 vacant

There were 198 House members who did not

vote on this bill.
This means that the bill was carried
31.42 percentage of the House members.

by a

The persons in the above drama - note their

state and party affiliations - were:
John M. Ashbrook
John F. Baldwin
Ralph F. Beermann
James E. Bromwell
Emmanuel CelIeI'
Carl Elliott
John J. Flynt Jr.
George M. Grant
H. R. Gross
Porter Hardy, Jr.

Page 9

Rep.
Rep.
Rep.
Rep.
Dem.
Dem.
Dem.
Dem.
Rep.
Dem.

Ohio.
Calif.
Nebr.
Iowa
N. Y.

Ala.
Ga.
Ala.
Iowa
Va.

The American Atheist

Chet Holifield
W. Pat Jennings
Charles S. Joelson
Paul C. Jones
D. R. Matthews
William M. McCulloch
Ray Roberts
Peter W. Rodino Jr.
William F. Ryan
Henry Carl Schadeberg
William M. Tuck
Basil L. Whitener
Jimmie L. Whitten
Victor Wickersham

N. Y.

Wisc.
Va.
N. Car.
Miss.
Okla.

WAR PSALM
It used to be, "They are playing our Song",
but today it comes out entirely different as we
combine God, War and Patriotism.

And, you can write to them thus:

, Congressman

from

(name)
House of Representatives,
United States Congress
Washington, D. C.

_
(state)

This bill is currently before the United States

Senate. Every free thinker in America must write
both Senators from their home state and urge that
this amendment be stricken from the Civil Rights
Bill.

LEAD

US NOT - INTO

THE

Maryland 21214

after his vigil and his appraisal of the newness

of the room after many years of "obvious nonuse" that this was one of the least used rooms
in the capitol and that the lawmakers were not
utilizing this, as set aside in 1955, to:
"provide a quiet place to which individual
senators and representatives
may withdraw a
while to seek divine strength and guidance."

Calif.
Va.
N. J.
Mo.
Fla.
Ohio
Texas
N. J.

Dem.
Dem.
Dem.
Dem.
Dem.
Rep.
Dem ,
Dem.
Dem.
Rep.
Dem.
Dem.
Dem.
Dem.

Baltimore,

PRAYER

ROOM!

In 1953 at the insistance

of the prayerful
few who thought they could get votes out of the
manueuver, a "prayer room" was approved for
the use of the Senators and Congressmen.
It
was completed in 1955, a simple nondenominational room with thick blue carpets, a single
stained glass window, and an unmarked door.
When the Supreme Court banned prayers in
public schools an enterprising reporter set up
an all day watch on the room to see if it was
being used by the members who were giving
vent to public indignation for the benefit of
their "publ ic image" and future votes.
He reports "the thick blue carpet is scarcely
worn. A large bible, opened to the 23rd Psalm,
rests on an altar. It shows no sign of wear."
Both chambers of Congress were in session on
this day of vigilance, 537 Senators and Congressmen were in the Capitol building and not one of
them appeared to use the room. He concluded

The Pentagon is my sheperd; I shall not want.

It maketh me to accept nuclear warheads; it
leadeth me in the cold war.
It owneth my soul; it leadeth me in the paths of
self-righteousness
for its name's sakes -Taylor, Le May, et al ,
Yeah, though I walk in the valley of incineration
and mas s death, I fear not; for every man is
with me; the nuclear rod and J oint Chiefs of
Staff, they comfort me.
The Pentagon preparest my funeral pyre in the
presence of no enmity; it annointeth my head
with fallout, though I runneth all over.
Surely goodness
and the Nobel Peace Prize
shall follow me all the numbered days of my
life and I will be blown to that House of
quiet oblivion forever.
my end.

DUEL OVER DUAL SCHOOLS

Rev. J. Blaine Fister, executive director of
the National Council of Churches' department of
of Church and public school relations, recently
told 2000 educators that "shared time" or "dual
school enrollment" would be one remedy-for the
growing pressure on church schools.
The shared time scheme of things is ingenuous. The church would continue to have its
schools, and children would share their time between the church school and the public school.
In the public school the children would be
taught mathematics,
sciences,
all the skills
necessary
to gain employment. In the church
schools they would be taught history, the social
sciences,
religion. The church schools would
grant the diplomas.

Page 10

Baltimore,

The American Atheist

The churches feel that they have the right to

slant "interpretative
subjects" such as history
to reflect the dogma of the particular church
but that the "precise"
sciences can be taught
in secular tax supported schools.
The churches have influenced educators in
twenty states to indulge in this sporting sharing
program, which they describe thus:
"In Detroit, 182 seventh and eighth grade
students are taking their "neutral" subjects at
a public school half a mile from the parochial
school were "value" subjects are taught."
Detroit and Flint, Michigan, and Pittsburgh,
and Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania are the cities
most often cited by the Catholic church as the
places with more 'enduring programs.'

LITTLE

BROTHER

I'S WATCHING

More and more "leaks"

are corning into the
news media these days about Little Brother
Bobby's big push to be President. He makes no
bones about it, as he indicates that the present
President is energetic, in a strenuous job, and
that Johnson has already suffered a severe
heart attack.
Stewart Alsop writing in the Saturday Evening
Post points out that Bobby's best chance - perhaps his only chance - is as Lyndon Johnson's
Vice President.
Tempers flared in the New Hampshire primary
campaign when a "write-in" of Bobby Kennedy's
name for nomination on the Democratic ticket was
started, apparently with Bobby's blessing.
But some hard facts were handed to Democratic leaders, as Bobby Kennedy began his
campaign, as usual, on two levels.
The upper level was a public harvesting of
good will toward the Kennedy family flowing
from the death of John Kennedy. The lower
level operation is the claim here presented:
There are at least 14 pivotal states where
the proportion of Catholics is large enough to
swing the national election.
The fourteen states
cited and the percentage of Catholic citizenry
are:

Maryland 21214

Rhode Island
Massachusetts ...
Conneticut
New York
New Jersey
Wisconsin
Illinois
Pennsylvania
Michigan
Minnesota
California
Montana
Maryland
Ohio
.

60%

50
49
40

39
31
30

29
24
24

22
22
21
20

These states represent 264 electoral votes only six less than needed "to win" the White
House in the big raffle corning up.
John F. Kennedy did not win a sing Ie farm
state and he lost the electoral votes of Florida
Kentucky, Mississippi,
Oklahoma, Tennessee:
Virginia and half of Alabama. Without the unprecedented 78% of the Catholic vote he would have
lost the big Eastern States with their large
electoral count - and the election. As it was
remember that John F. Kennedy won by less
than one tenth of one percent.
To take a detail, the 62 counties in the
decisive state of New York, for example, the
Democratic county committeemen in 57 were
Catholic.
The convention candidacies
hinge
on such details. Robert Kennedy is pushing the
a bove statistics
hard to win for himself the
opportunity to stand 'one heart beat from the
pre sidency. '
In this struggle to win a place as Johnson's
running mate, Brother Bobby is meeting a problem - Lyndon Johnson's well known conviction that the future of the United States should
never depend on Bobby Kennedy which conflicts
with tribal chieftain Joseph Kennedy's law that
'If something happened to his brother, Bobby
would take over.'

1964
Thousands of Hindus and Moslems in the
Gaya district of Bihar State, India, are trekking
to temples and mosques to pray day and night
for survival. Smallpox there has killed more than
300 in the last two and one half months.

Page 11

The American

Baltimore,

Atheist

MAE MALLORY

Maryland

21214

that she was being dragged

tried, but to be crucified.

back,

not to be

We find freethinkers everywhere - usually in

the thick of a fray fighting for sanity and justice.
Mae Mallory is one of these, a long time free
thought advocate. Her particular bout with The
Establishment
began, legally, in August, 1961.
At that time she decided to go along with Julian
Mayfield, a reporter for the York Gazette and
Daily Newspaper who was covering the Monroe
(North Carolina) integration story. Mrs. Mayfield
also went along. Mae Mallory is a New Yorker,
age 37, mother of two children, and she had experience in hospital and first aid work. She
thought she could be useful in household and
other chores for the integrationists
living in the
home of the local Monroe NAACP president,
Robert Williams.
Freedom Riders, Integrationists,
Segregationists, incidents, police, attacks and counter attacks mounted until white heat was reached.
A white couple, Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Stegail,
came to the Williams home and sought refuge.
Williams gave them refuge in his home, where
Mae was preparing supper for everyone. State
troopers were called to surround the home; chaos
ra igned and Williams, his family, Mae Mallory,
and Julian Mayfield and his wife escaped.
Robert Williams, his wife and' two sons fled
to Cuba. The Julian Mayfields fled to Ghana.
Mae Mallory fled to Cleveland Ohio. North Carolina charged them all with kidnapping Mr. and
Mrs. Stegail. Mae was arrested and jailed in
Cleveland,
and finally extradicted
to North
Carolina after a running legal battle of several
years. She was returned on January 10, 1964.
You all know how dangerous the se freethinkers are - that is why it took 25 members of the
FBI to arrest Mae; and why she was jailed dura great part of her two and one half year fight to
avoid extradition to North Carolina.
It was ironic that Mae Mallory, a fr ee thinker,
was brought back to Monroe to be tried. For the
Courthouse there is unique in one respect. It is
the only one we know of which is surmounted by
a cross, put there after considerable contention.
Some citizens thought it an inappropriate place
for a religious symbol, but it is there. The cross
was almost prophetic for Mae, for it appeared

This week (first of March) we received the

information that Mae had been found guilty and
sentenced to from 12 to 18 years in prison.
For those of you who are in sympathy with
her cause, she needs encouragement and funds
for her appeal to a superior court. She can be
reached by writing to her clo The Monroe Defense Committee, 605 Brown Street, Monroe,
North Carolina.

TROUBLE

IN PARADISE

There are Catholic "Seton" High Schools and

Colleges in many places of America, named after Mother Seton an American Catholic Saint,
who is moving toward canonization
now in the
Church mumbo jumbo.
Mother Seton, who died a century ago, has
rec enty cured a Baltimore girl of leukemia.
She interceded in the process of this usually
fatal disease
because the girl had directed
prayers for a cure to her personally.
On February 28th the students at Seton Hall
University in South Orange, New Jersey forgot
to pray to Mother Seton to interceded
in their
behalf, and they ran into fire hoses and brutality generally reserved for Negroes in our culture.
The student newspaper,
The Setonian,
was
rash enough to engage in that vile and un-Catholic activity "freedom of the press" by, among
other things, being critical
of school regulations. Bishop John J. Dougherty, Seton Hall
president,
after a morning conference with the
student editor of the paper, Rocco De Pietro,
announced a suspension
of the weekly newspaper. He stated, "There has been a growing
evidence that freedom of expression
is being
abused in the columns of The Setonian, that an
unwholesome spirit of cynicism has characterized too many of the articles."
Within an hour after the suspension notice a
thousand Seton Hall University students, shouting "Freedom of the pres s", poured into the

Page 12

The American

Baltimore,

Atheist

streets, blocked traffic, with a street sit down.

The police were called in and the students were
ordered to disperse. Then they threw a barrage
of snowballs. The firemen were called in and
high pressure water hoses were used on the students, while the Fire Chief, Joseph Allen explained, "We had to use the hose in self defense."
The university administration then announced
that they would not seek disciplinary
actions
against the students, but that the decree cutting
off the student publication would stand.

TOUCHBACK
Ten ministers last month were backing circulation of a petition on the campus of Oklahoma State University to ban public prayers at
starting of football games.
The ministers, representing seven denominations, said they were asking for the ban because they did not believe a football game was
"a proper place for prayer".
Within two nights the petition carried approximately 250 names from the university's
11,000
students. The question was debated in the Student Senate which concurred with prayer before
games. The 10 ministers, trying to have the students see the light issued a statement which
said, "Since the football audience is not a community which shares a common faith, there can
be no common worship. It is a misuse ... to
attempt to impose upon them (the spectators),
through a prayer, any particular form of worship"

When we advance two steps we retreat four

steps in the never-never land of thought control.
"Advance"
a New York youth organization
has just been ordered by Bobby Kennedy, under
the McCarran Act to appear before the Subversive Activities
Control Board for hearing.
The first charge against the organization
is
that it does not screen the members and leaders
to determine their political affiliation!
Page

21214

The second charge is that some of the policies of the organization are parallel to the policies of the Communist Party. We use one of
the specific charges as an example. One charge
is that Advance demands an end to all nuclear
tests by the United States. Since this charge
was made. the United States Senate ratified a
test ban treaty with the Soviet Union. Therefore,
using the same criteria, the United States Senate should also be appearing before the Subversive Activities Control Board.
George Meany, head of the AFL-CIO labor
movement recently called for a 35 hour work
week. This is also a platform of the Communist
Party. Is Meany then a McCarran Act suspect?
We use another charge against Advance as a
further example. They are cited as opposing the
McCarran Act! But, Harry Truman, when he was
President vetoed this Act and it went back and
passed the Congress over his veto. About a year
ago Mr. Truman reiterated his position against
the Act. Therefore, he should also be appearing
before the Subversive Activities Control Board.
At the first hearings against Advance, the
paid informers testified that they had spent part
of their time spying on such groups as the
N.A.A.C.P.,
SANE and the Unitarian Church.
For all you good anti-religonists
who feel
secure and hidden while you attend the Unitarian
Church, we will repeat that last statement. At
the hearings, paid informers testified that they
had spent part of their time SPYING ON THE
UNIT ARIAN CH URCH.

If enough signatures are obtained, the ministers will submit the petition to the Student Senate.

RETREAT

Maryland

HER ESY
A Danish artist, Asger J orn, recently astounded the art World by refusing to accept a
prize of $2,500 from the Guggenheim Museum of
New York. The Associated
Press interviewed
Mr. Jorn on January 17th and he stated that he
did not like the "authoritarian
mentality"
inspiring the donors of awards.
Searching further the AP found a relative in
Copenhagen who recalled,
"When Asger J orn
was a young and fighting artist, he contracted
tuberculosis
because of undernourishment.
At
that time he applied for support from various art
13

The American Atheist

foundations - but never received any. He never

forgot that."
And, so, it is not artistic temperament, but
rather the self respect of a man who has learned
to judge the patronage of The Establishment.

SUBVER'SIVE

ACTIVITY

We have received the following news item,

and although the news date on it is June, 1962,
we feel that it is fresh news since it speaks of
continuous activity.
"Five persons, having completed a year of
probation as novices in the Third Order of St.
Francis of As s is.i, will make their solemn profession at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen today.
"All will become members of the Franciscan
Fraternity of Mary Our Queen, established in
March 1961.
"The Lay Order of Saint Francis like the
the First Order, priests, clerics and brothers,
and the Second Order, nuns, was founded early
in the Thirteenth Century by Saint Francis of
Assisi.
"The Lay Order makes it possible for men
and women, who are unable to leave their homes
because of family ties and other duties, to join
a religious order. They pledge, without vows, to
to live a life similar to that of friars and nuns
as far as possible, still keeping their trades,
and professions.
"World membership of the order is now more
than 4,000,000 persons.
The occupations of the five taking the solemn
profession today are a lawyer, a Federal Bureau
of Investigation Agent, a real estate executive,
an editor and a publisher." ... from the Baltimore
Sun Newspaper, June 14, 1962.

NON KO'SHER KITCHEN

CASHIERED

A significant storm has been brewing in the

land of Milk and Honey (Israel) over whether two
kitchens shall be placed aboard the new Israeli

Baltimore,

trans-Atlantic liner Shalom. The Zim Company

had announced its intention to install both a
kosher kitchen and a non-kosher kitchen on the
boat in order to attract every possible passenger
to operate at a profit.
Almost immediately representatives of all the
orthodox rabbinical
organizations
in America
conveyed to the Israeli government their constirnation at such a heretical plan as to have a
non-kosher kitchen pollute the liner. The Chief
Rabbinical Council in Jerusalem gave the Zim
Company two weeks to abandon the kitchen before withdrawing its kashrut certification from
all of the Company's ships. Rabb i Joseph B.
Soloveitchik, of Boston, threatened to proc laim
a herem (boycott> of EI Al Airlines as well as
Zim if the non-kosher kitchen went in, despite
the fact that Rabbi Soloveitchik's followers do
not care to travel on a Jewish ship where Jews
will be working on the Sabbath in any event.
Ear ly this month, Zim capitulated and announced that the non-kosher kitchen would not be
installed on the liner.
Alex Hershaft, who writes for The League
for Religious Freedom in Israel unveiled the
underlying problem in his February 'Bulletin',
where he writes:
"The Shalom controversy and the associated
more-kosher-than-thou nonsense is no mere question of religious observance or rabbinical jurisdiction. It is a test of strength between the
forces of theocracy and the democratic process.
A test which pits the courage of individuals like
Messrs. Herman and Bar-Yehuda (of the Zim
Company) against the blatant blackmail of American Orthodoxy. A test which the free men are
doomed to fail unless they learn to stand up for
their hard-wi n rights.
" ... the kashrut license has always been the
Rabbinate's favorite weapon. It proved most effective in blocking hall rentals to Reform congregations, forcing EI Al to provide free flights
for "kashru t inspectors",
bringing recalcitrant
businessmen to heel, and bludgeoning the food
industry into hiring outrageous numbers of kashrut inspectors."
You may obtain information about The League for the Abolishment of Religious Coercion,

Page 14

!I

Maryland 21214

The American Atheist

and the League For Religious Freedom In Israel,

by writing to Alex Hershaft, at Post Office Box
2421, Washington 13, D. C. Subscription price of
'The Bulletin' is $2.00 a year.

KIRCHE,

KINDER,

KUCHEN

The Nazi philosophy concerning women was

put succinctly into three words, "Church, Children, Kitchen" and the good German woman knew
her place.

Baltimore,

Maryland 21214

They disclosed that six baboon to human kidney transplants

were conducted in Denver in
December and January. The Minnesota group
has studied the baboon intensively since 1960,
and believes that the animal is the sub-human
primate closest to man in its physiology. They
also point out that baboons are readily available.
Dr. Joseph Holmes said that fresh living kidneys offer better prospects of good results than
kidneys taken from a cadaver.

Well, here we go again!!! This week Soviet

Russia announced that during the last twenty
years 8.3 minion Soviet women have received
medals for raising five or more children.

The surgeons were noncommittal on whether

kidneys from human beings related to the
patient offer better prospects than baboon kidneys or kidneys from nonrelated human beings.

Tass news agency in making the announcement stated, "Motherhood and upbringing of
children in the USSR are regarded as an important service to the state."

Don Arwine, University of Colorado 'director of hospitals, said the identifiable hospital
costs of transplants
during the past two or
three years has declined from $12,000 to about
$5,000 to $7,000 for each operation.

NO DIVINE

PROTECTION?

Pope Paul was quite worried during his recent trip to the Middle East, and had special
precautions taken regarding his food because of
fears of possible hydatidosis infection.
Hydatidosis
is commonly known as Sheep
Herder's Disease, and Paul, the 'Chief Shepherd' knew damn well he was not immune. The
parasite which causes the disease is common to
that part of the world, and is transmitted through
food.
Prof. Carlo Sirtori, president of the Carlo Erba I nstitute, Rome, said that the disease was
"like malaria. It can invade any organ, from the
muscles to the brain, the bones, the lungs, the
liver, and, like malaria, it is a sickness of the
underprivileged
countries."
Well, if it is a
disease of the underprivileged, we wonder what
Pope Paul was worried about; that lets him out.

SPARE PARTS FOR GOD'S I MAG E

We don't know what God and religionists
will say about it but surgeons from Denver and
Minneapolis recently expressed a hope that a
majority of organ grafts for human beings will
some day come from animals.

ANOTH ER INVASION
The human mind is tempting territory
which
the authoritarian always desires to invade. Now,
we find that the Federal Government is charging
ahead into this field without restraint, and without due cause.
The Federal Government has been giving liedectector tests to thousands of its employes, often without observing formal regulations government regulations.
A study of this ordered by Representative
Cornelius E . Gallagher, Democrat of New Jersey revealed that Federal agencies own hundreds of polygraphs -- the technical name for lie
detectors - and use them frequently. Mr. Gallagher took an interest after a complaint from a
constituent, a single constituent wrote to him.
After an eight month investigation the following "preliminary" figures were reported.
During the year, June 1962-June 1963, (the
fiscal year) the Government carried out 23,122
lie dectector tests.
The Government owns 525 polygraphs,
which it paid $444,000.

Page 15

for

The American

Atheist

Baltimore,

Maryland

21214

Of the 25 agencies that permit use of lie detectors, only 7 have formal regulations governing their use.

The religion of our envoy is not significant but

because of certain rituals, a Catholic might
have certain advantages there."

There are 656 "authorized polygraph operators" ranging from high school graduates to
holders of Ph.D. 's in the Government.

There are two views freethinkers may take on

this suggestion. One is that the Roman Catholic
Church is a political state and should be recogized as such. Then, if the recognition is given,
it follows that aid to parochial schools in the
United States, and grants for building funds to
parochial colleges, and grants of federal land
to specific Roman Catholic Bishoprics in the
United States would need to be handled through
Foreign Aid Funds. Since most of our Foreign
Aid goes to military assistance for dictators of
one ilk or another, this would follow a pattern
established.

Five agencies do not make the results

able to employes tested.

avail-

The figures do not reflect use and ownership

of lie detectors by the Central Intelligence
Agency. Apparently the C.I.A. is the most prolific user of lie detectors. The agency says all
of its prospective employes are "afforded" liedetector tests. The FBI, "which has the most
skilled operators, does not use the machine for
personnel screening".
_There is a difference of OpInIOn among experts as to effectiveness
of polygraphs. Mr.
Gallagher said he was deeply disturbed by the
findings, particularly on two points: the lack of
uniform and carefully set down "ground rules"
throughout the government for protection of the
individual being tested, and the lack of "rigid
qualifications"
for operators.
Freethinkers are more deeply disturbed on
two points: (1) that Mr. Gallagher or any other
representative of the people should feel that any
technological aspects and ground rules should
be considered as mitigating the infringement on
our inherent right to freedom of conscience, and
(2) that any "peeping Tom" should be officially
considered for use, much less used, on the citizenry.

WHOSE ENVOY?
Senator Hubert Humphrey, a Protestant asked
the White House to appoint an envoy to the Vatican according to the Chicago American of Tuesday, February 25, 1964.
According to the story, Humphrey is quoted
as saying:
"It is in our self-interest to have regular regular representative at the Vatican. It is foolish
public policy for us to deny ourselves this vantage point at a crucial period in world history.
Page

A second view is that, in as much as we do

not recognize the temporal power of Prote stants
as political statehoods, we should not recognize
the claims of the Roman Catholic Church to be
the official government of all human activities.

ATHEISTS

CAN ADOPT

The Telegram, Toronto, Canada,

carried the two inch high, front
in red, on March 5th when it
'Children's Aid Drops Ban; Atheists

newspaper,
page banner
announced:
Can Adopt'.

"Metro Children's Aid Society has dropped

its ban on allowing atheists and agnostics to
adopt children.
"Society director L. S. Richardson, announcing this, emphasized that the new policy does
not include Roman Catholic adoptions.
"He told more than 300 at the society's annual meeting in Maurice Cody Memorial Hall
last night that adoption procedure would be based on the best home possible.
"The Child Welfare Act bans placement of
non-Catholic children in Catholic homes and
Catholic children in non-Catholic homes, he
said.
The Metro society is the first in Ontario to
alter policy permitting adoptions by atheist and
other non-Christian parents, he said after the
meeting.
"Mr. Richardson said the decision is part of
liberalism which is gradually altering adoption
proceedures. "
16

The American

Atheist

Baltimore}

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Newscope
Are the new Federal Reserve $1 bills, now
being put in circulation, legal tender? Representative Wright Patman (D., 'I'ex.), chairman of
the powerful House Banking and Currency Committee, doesn't think so.
He has ordered a full-scale investigation of
the Federal Reserve Bank's issuance of the new
paper bills to replace the Treasury's silver certificates. As a starter, Patman has ordered Federal Reserve Bank chairman William McChesney
Martin Jr. to furnish to his committee a report on
the Federal Reserve's authority to issue the
paper money. Before making the demand, Repre sentative Patman told a closed-door meeting
of his committee: "I have checked all the laws
and cannot find anywhere that Congress has
given the Federal Reserve Board the power to
issue these bills. I'm going to see that the issuance of this money is stopped."

the money they lend, even to the government."

In 1863, Congres s was caj oled, or threatened, or bribed into passing the National Banking
Act, from which the Federal Reserve Bank has
accrued so much power that it now issues paper
money backed only by the declaration on the bill
"In God We Trust".
Congressman Jerry Voorhis has proposed a
plan to have the government buyout the Federal Reserve Bank, and issue our own currency in
accord with the constitution (Art. I, Sec. 8, par.
5). Under the original charter provision of the
Federal Reserve Bank, the government could do
this for about $140 million, and take over all
the assets of the system, amounting to some
$29 billion.

In connection with the issuance

of this
paper money it is well to remember that the
name "Federal
Reserve Bank" and naming of
its head officer "Governor" was probably for
the express purpose of fooling the people into
believing that the Federal Reserve system is a
branch of the government, instead of a purely
private bank, from which the government receives no revenue, and in the management of
which it has no voice.

PATMAN

When Marriner Eccles, Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank appeared before a Senate Investigation Committee some time back, he said,
"When the banks take a billion dollars of government bonds as they are offered, they credit
the United States Treasury with a billion dollars, and charge their Government Bond Account
with a billion dollars; or, they CREATE, by a
bookkeeping entry, the money with which they
buy the bonds."

Any Congressman who would receive a hundred letters on the subject of the new $1 bill
would ask Representative Patman what goes on
and may even support him. We should praise
Allah when we find a Congressman with some
courage and some sense of the urgency of
retaining the democratic framework in which we
can still operate.

The Carter H. Harrison Company, Investment

Brokers, of Chicago, in urging their clients to
buy bank stocks, say, "It is essential only to
realize that all banks CREATE out of nothing,

Write to your Congressman and to Representative Patman. Every Congressman answers all
mail sent to him by his constituents.
You are
needed in this fight: WRITE TODAY.

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The American

Atheist

Baltimore)

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21214

Death Universe
A Review of Mondo Cane
Robert

An ton

Wilson

I don't want no more of your rotten old

Death universe ...
William Burroughs,

The Soft Machine

A man's arm appears on the screen, dragging

something on a leash. The camera pans downward and we see a dog struggling desperately.
On the soundtrack we hear the barking of other
dogs - hundreds, thousands of dogs, howling in
rage and anger. A gate opens and the dog that
we have been watching is brutally picked up and
thrown into a dog-pound. On the screen appears
the title, Mondo Cane ("A Dog's World.")
Not since the gruesome opening shot of
Dali's Andalusian Dog has a movie so frankly
and sensationally
yanked hold of the audience's
emotions. Mondo Cane, is indeed, much indebted to Dali's earlier exploration
of cinematic
morbidity; under the facade of "naturalism",
this new Italian film is as surrealistic as Dali's,
and, like Dali's, is primarily a cry of outrage
again st the fabric of reality itself.
I am aware that the critic in the Saturday ReMondo Cane as being merely
"tasteless
and sensational".
I am also aware
that Leo Tolstoy made the same idiotic remark
about King Lear. Mondo Cane, in my opinion, is
as serious and genuine a work of art as anything
I have ever seen on the cinema screen.
view has described

With great and Nietzschean

contempt for his
audience, the director has made this movie into
an imitation of the popular travelogues
of the
past thirty years, complete even to the moronic
narration that such epics usually have, skillfully "written down" to the 12-year-old level
Page

that the mass audience is supposed to possess.

The irony is poker-faced throughout; only once
or twice does it become broad enough to arouse
widespread laughter in the audience. The monotonous voice drones on, finding everything on
the screen either quaint or edifying or just
downright "cute";
but what we are seeing behind this voice is a carefully edited catalog of
unmitigated horrors. It is like touring through
Dante's Hell with the cheerful voice of Arthur
Godfrey chirping in your ears. It is, indeed, a
perfect symbol of the semantic jungle of the
modern world, as typified in America by the
Huntley-Brinkley
type of newscaster
with his
brisk detachment from the fallout figures and
other terrors which he is chronicling. Carried to
an extreme, this bright-eyed refusal to face real
horrors leads to schizophrenia.
The American
mass-communications
industry is a monument to
that kind of schizophrenia,
but Mondo Cane, an
Italian film, reminds us that the plague is now
nearly universal.
The editing of this film is of genius caliber.
After the opening shot of the condemned dog we
do not proceed immediately into other horrors,
but stop off first at a rather "light" and amusing vignette in the town where Rudolph Valentino was born. Several men of the town, conscious of the cameras, are deliberately imitating
Valentino's seductive half-feminine half-masculine pout: you can see in each of them the dream
that the movie crew will "discover"
him and
make him overnight as rich and famous as Valentino. The director has saved from the antics
of this group only the carryings-on of the ugliest
and most hopeless of these men. Each of them
arouses laughs from the audience and is, in fact,
a clown; each imagines that he is a handsome
and irresistable
Apollo. This spectacle of vanity and self-deception
is amusing enough, but
it is apt to become increasingly
depressing if
you think about it too long. It is the perfect introduction to the horrors that we will witness
18

The American

Atheist

as the movie proceeds. A few moments later we

are witnessing the ritual murder of some pigs by
an African tribe, one of the bloodiest and most
gruesome spectacles
ever shown on a movie
screen. The audience is forced to make a mental connection: is not this brutality caused by
the same vanity as the clowning of the soidisant Valentinos?
Is not man's idea that he is
so far superior to the pigs that he may murder
them with impunity a great and terrible vanity
indeed? Is there not the same lack of perspective in both groups? A bit later we see the barbaric feeding of the French geese specially
bred for pate de foi gras : pipes are rammed
down their throats and the food is pushed down
by sheer brute force. The idiot voice of the narrator cheerfully comments that in the old days
the geese's feet used to be nailed to the floor,
but we are more civilized now. Instead, the poor
birds are locked in hideous cages too small to
allow them to move.
Most of the sequences revolve around this
same theme of human vanity and man's barbaric
cruelty to the other animals on earth. One sequence suddenly reverses the image and we see
the armless and legless people of a Pacific island horribly plagued by sharks. This is, actually, the most important sequence in the film,
because it serves to remind us that man, alone,
did not invent evil. Evil is in the very fabric of
the universe; this is a "dog's world", indeed.
Such a thought is so uncomfortable that most
people never face up to it for a moment in their
lives. The last sequence shows how one typical group goes about evading this insight: a
tribe in New Guinea who worship cargo planes.
"Since the planes are in the sky, they are more
than human; someday they will land and bring
happiness to all of us." But the planes, of
course, never land; they are just passing over
on their way from China to Australia. The movie
ends with a group of cargo-cultists
sitting around a bonfire at night, watching the sky, hoping for the supernatural
deliverance
that will
never come. This cult is so absurd, and so pathetic, that it serves as a symbol of all religion
and of mankind's eternal desire to escape knowing what a "dog's world" this really is.

Baltimore,

21214

epic of sharkish brutalities,

Moby-Dick. Mondo
Cane is one of that handful of art-works which
dares to present a totally pessimistic
philosophy. The agony and sincerity of such a vision
is too brave a thing for me to have the affrontery to patronize it by claiming to know better
than these artists. The strongest sequence in
Mondo Cane is an island gone insane: standing
too close to Bikini, this island has got an overheavy dose of atomic radiation. Here sit birds
hopelessly trying to hatch eggs rendered sterile by fallout. More terrible, in a different way,
are the lunatic fish who have taken to living
in trees. Worst of all are the turtles who have
lost their basic instinct; after laying their eggs,
instead of returning to the sea, they head inland where they soon die of thirst, making futile
swimming motions in the water that isn't there.
This island of horror is a glorious vision indeed of what "human ingenuity"
can do to the
world, and it is a foretaste of what our whole
planet may be like in a few years if nuclear research continues. Anybody who wants to complain that the director of Mondo Cane is a cheap
cynic, or that art must always be affirmative,
would be well advi.sed to try to change the real
world first. Art, after all, is only symbolic. If
the symbols disturb you, friend, take a long,
hard look at the reality which inspired them, and
change that. The artist is only a recording instrument:
I am the Defense Early Warning Radar System
I see nothing but bombs
wrote the great American poet, Allen Ginsberg.
If you want modern artists to see something a
bit more cheerful, make a world a bit more cheerful for them to see.

Is there no ray of hope anywhere in Mondo

Cane? None, just as there is none in Euripedes'
Bacchanae, in King Lear, or in that other great

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The American

Atheist

Baltimore}

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21214

The Interlocking Dictatorship

William

A. Moore

One hundred eighty five years after the

Declaration of Independence,
a subtle tyranny
still hovers over this land and its people. It is
the tyranny of custom, of fear of disapproval, or
a self-defeating
search for inner security.1t
is
the antithesis
of democracy. It is a tangled
mess of associated - and revered - taboos that
cause men to worship Authority more than Freedom.
People are lazy thinkers; they prefer the tidy
and simple "black and white" concept to the
reality of a complex world. They impose upon
one another the notion of "good versus bad",
not in terms of practical
consequences,
but of
inherent nature. From earliest childhood a person may be condemned as "bad"
for merely
being clumsy or forgetful. This condemnation
simply makes the child more clumsy or forgetful
- more "bad" - so that he may grow up as disturbed as the parent who raised him thus; and
he will likely manifest this disturbance
upon
HIS children. And so it goes.
We live in a world that is dynamic, not static;
geometrical, not ari.thmetical. It is a world of
chain reactions in time from the first generation
to the last, sometimes from one individual to the
whole world. Ideas and human behavior
may
spread like the plague. The clumsy or forgetful
"bad" child may, in his frustration,
steal an
auto for spite, turn to drink for solace, or find a
dream world for escape. Prison or the mental
hospital then beckons. Both institutions
generally reinforce the individual's
sense of "badness" or inadequacy or defiance and the individual in turn contaminates his family and friends
and enem ies, and through newspaper notoriety,
to some extent most everyone.
Hostile,

fearful,

insecure,

the individual

bePage

comes an angry watchdog of what he considers

to be his interests. Within his family, he may be
spiteful, bickering and hateful, but JUSt let the
next door neighbor say one unkind word against
HIS child! By the same token he is for his city
against his state, for his state against his
country, for his country against his world. Since
other individuals
in other families,
cities,
states, and countries, have the same irrational
attitudes, the seeds for conflict are sown; and
we as individuals are trying to save ourselves
by destroying the world.
We "blame" the world's leaders, its influential men. Yet we - through our collective behavior in voting, buying one magazine in preference
to another, tuning in our TV sets, enforcing and
obeying "the law" - we put them where they are.
And we keep them there only so long as they
continue to serve or mis-serve, educate or miseducate us in the manner to which we are accustomed or addicted.
With the growth of mass communication,
provincialism
loses out to universalism.
For
individuals, the powers over them become more
awesome, and the price to change this situation
less and less "worth" it. Although provincialism may have been less "enlightened",
universalism is without other forces to challenge it to
keep its whims from solidifying into dogmas of
perpetual harm. We could become like the static
Chinese agrarian society of thousands of years,
or the African tribalism of millions of years before the outside influence of Western society
folted them in their thinking.
Democracy bestows upon the individual certain rights which no power must ever take away.
This is the one answer to universalism.
However, democracy is a relatively new idea and to
practically
all people it is no more than something to pay lip service to. It is a "respectable"
word and Russians and Americans alike employ
it frequently to separate the "good guys" from
the "bad guys". Rather than making legitimate
such things as individuality,
idiosyncrasy,
non20

The American

Atheist

Baltimore}

conformity, in its name we see the imposition

of Authority.

Maryland

21214

horrified to be seen in public wearing identical

dresses.
If it is the objective
of people to
please others - how impossible the task of conformist and non-conformist alike! We must be alike, but not alike; different, but the same; and
neither "superior"
nor "inferior".

Religion is defined as "the recognition of

man's relation to a divine or supernatural power
to whom obedience and honor are due". In other
words, it is the embodiment of Authority; that is,
the antithesis of democracy. The world is coming to be divided into two religions - Communism and our own as yet unsolidified varieties of
federations
of provincialisms.
Instead of one,
there are TWO universalities
in two worlds on
one planet.

Vague and impossible as are the whims of

conformism - how difficult to change them! How
comprehensively can "disturbing the peace" be
interpreted with the arrest of those who, by minding their own business in their non-confor.n ist
ways, may "disturb"
the fascist minded onlooker. How easily is a Biblical verse found to support the established
order (even to condemning
women who wear men's clothing!) - or in support of racism, aggression, exploitation,
or just
plain "disrespect".
How discretely is advertising withheld from media that would support a
view that is "unpopular";
how fearfully the subscribers themselves slink away when their cherished prejudices are persistently
challenged or sometimes merely contradicted
once. How
much is the world - are the minds of men - oppressed by the established
orders and the established thinking; and how bitterly men oppose
whatever arises to challenge the vested interests and vested delusions of "things as they
are" .

In a sense, we best learn by having the opportunity to study the fruits of the greatest contrasts in "ways of life". For example, if we
would, we could learn that the Christian god is
not concerned with who, or whatever religion or
lack of it, may go however high in the sky - the
story of the Tower of Babel notwithstanding.
We
could learn that large scale unemployment CAN
be eliminated by a government sufficiently determined to do so, and that capitalism is not the
only route to a rising living standard. The question arises, however, as to whether as we ind iduals will learn from our "enemies",
or merely
react shortsightedly - and hence become as "religious" in our way as they are in theirs.
What if, instead, we took the course of freedom and non-conformity?
A brilliant friend of
mine was once "railroaded"
to a mental hospital for a year for "disrobing in public". I must
confess I think he must have been a bit off if he
really expected to get away with it! - but whom
had he harmed? What had he shocked but conformity? And how was he cured by imprisonment? Another friend of mine is derided
because he sports a beard, the examples of Abraham Lincoln, Karl Marx, and Jesus Christ notwithstanding.

The world's people gripe because they do

not have pie in the sky, but they behave as
though they would shed their miseries only if
they were (1) based upon something so vaguely
presented
as never to offend any prejudices,
like descriptions of heaven, (2) were only to be
realized after death, when every earthly thing is
already lost, anyway, and (3) only if eternal
hellfire were the only alternative,
so there'll
still be "good guys" vel'S us "bad guys".
However, since the world IS dynamic and
geometrical, since reactions are chain by nature,
and since the forces of logic and reason are, by
definition, more logical and more reasonable the forces of authority, dictatorship,
and religion (all three words being synonyms) contain
within themselves
"the seeds of their own destruction" .

A blind man received a feature write up in

our local newspaper
because,
while passing
through town, he was seen sitting in the bus
station wearing strange Biblical
style home
made garb and staff. My co-workers joked about
the man for hours, as much as to say that anyone else who dared to dress like this would be
subject to the same ridicule.

And since TRUE freedom would

all other antitheses
to present their
the marketplace of ideas, once this
of ours breaks out of the tyranny of

Making international
news were two movie
stars who were (or were supposed to have been)

Page

21

encourage
cases in
old world
barbarism

The American

Atheist

Baltimore,

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21214

contentment.

and tribalism - and the jungle ignorance that is

our
inheritance, the world will truly flow with
milk and honey; even more, with happiness and

If, that is, we don't blow ourselves

meantime.

up in the

The Christian Century

towards religion. This satisfied the pagans,
irritated the Christian minority. Without the
itary help of the Emperor, Christianity could
conquer. It raged impotently and fought its
members. In the western half of the Empire
pagans held their own. Christianity did not
peal to them, especially after having tasted
earlier persecutions.

Blois
Part 2: Final Blow
Man does not give up his Gods easily. Many
pagans who adopted the new religion did so to
save their skins, and not through any intellectual conviction. It is wise to be a hypocrite
when one's life is in danger. The hero stands
alone, fights and becomes a martyr for the
cause. The coward runs and hides, but lives to
fight another day when conditions may be more
favorable to his side. And so it was that in 361
a Christian returned to the pagan faith of his
ancestors and became Emperor. Julian the Apostate was now Emperor of Rome. Had he made
known his aversion to Christianity it is very
likely that he would have been killed many
years before. As it was, Christianity was now
in too strong a position to remove quickly.
J ul.ian dare not remove the 50 years of imperial protection
too abruptly.
However, he
could help to restore some of the pagan temples
and property. With this start, in a few years the
tide could be turned. Unfortunately, Julian was
killed two and a half years later. And the dreadful march towards Christianity resumed.
By 375, in Constantinople
and the East, all
pagan churches had been closed for twenty
years and their-revenues
confiscated. Imagine if
that happened in the USA - few churches could
survive such a blow. Taxation of Church property will help - but that's another story.
The Emperors immediately following Julian
were Christian, but they followed a live and let
live policy. They observed a complete neutrality

Page

JJ

but
milnot
own
the
apthe

The final blow came. In Rome in 382, Emperor Gratian reversed the 'freedom to all religions' edict established
by Julian. Gratian confiscated the revenues and properties of the temples, annulled all privileges
of pagan priests
and Vestal Virgins, and had the Altar of Victory,
symbol of the Roman religion, removed from the
Senate at Rome. We are less than two decades
from the end of the century and the blow is coming fast.
In 376 A. D. a drought in Asia drives the
Huns upon the Germans. With only one direction
to go, the Germans break through the Romanized
Goth and Vandal lines and pour into the Roman
Empire. With Christianity
pressuring internally
and the Goths externally, it is a mute question
as to which will capture the Roman Empire first.
Valentinian II became Emperor in 383 and,
backed by a zealous Christian priest Ambrose,
he and the Eastern Emperor Theodosius proceeded to outdo the previous savagery. Christianity
was showing its true colors with a vicious vengeance. Theodosius tortured and punished Antioch. In Thessalonica,he
invited the public to
games in the Circus and then had his soldiers
massacre them. Estimates
run from 7,000 to
150,000 men, women and children murdered in
that massacre. A Jewish synagogue was burned
by a mob in Persia. The Prefect ordered it rebuilt; Theodosius confirmed the order. Monk Ambrose violently opposed this move and forced

22

The American

Atheist

the Emperor to withdraw. The monks and people

gaily set out to continue the devastation of nonChristian temples. Under the reign of Theodosius, the Christian Bishops gained complete control over the Emperors, religious funds, edifices,
laws, and all local and provincial authorities.
Theodosius declared, in 381, that backsliders from Christianity
could not leave a legal
Will, thus leaving the widows and children destitute. In 386 he sent an envoy to Egypt to
close the pagan temples. Under the protection
of soldiers, fanatical monks and Christian laymen razed temples, plundered and burned. Much
of the Alexandrian Library was burned by these
fanatics. Later this famous Library was to be
finally destroyed by Islamic fanatics. The wisdom of the ancients went up in flames. The
flames of fanaticism spread quickly.
I n 391 Theodosius
"Let none
offer innocent
defend statues
come guilty in
law."

issued

another decree:

befoul himself with sacrifices, or

victims, or enter the temples, or
made by human hand, lest he bethe eyes of both human and divine

The penalty for disobedience

was death.

In 394 two boy Emperors, Honorius and Arcadius, gave the Christian faith its golden opportunity. The Bishops gained control of the
Empire by using Honorius as a figure head. Honorius decreed that the last pagan temples should
be destroyed or converted to public use, and all
funds confiscated. Christian Bishops were given
powers to ensure that the law was carried out.
And so, Christianity triumphed by the simple expedient of killing off, or threatening to do so,
its opposition. It now had the power to enforce
its threat. This was in 408 A. D.
Constantine began the Christian Century in
312, and the Bishops finished it in 408. The
mighty Roman Empire was converted from pagan
to Christian in 96 years. Rome did not fall to
the Goths until 410. The Christians won the Empire a full two years before the Goths reached
Rome. Now it was a simple matter of absorbing
these barbarians into the Christian faith.
At the beginning of the fourth century the Empire had a postal system, free orphanages, free

Baltimore,

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21214

education,
free medical care, free recreation,
and free bread. These things perished with the
Empire. Christianity could see no need for them.
As Constantine's
chaplain,
Bishop Eusebius
put it,
"It is not from ignorance of the things they
(pagan scholars)
admire but from contempt of
their useless labor that we think little of these
matters and turn our souls to better things."
Apparently when you have Christ,
need knowledge.

you do not

While many of the good things of the Empire

perished, some things were retained. The gladiatorial games continued for nearly another 50
years until the weakening finances of the Empire could no longer support them. Even then,
good Christian warriors retained duels, tournaments, trial by ordeal, fights with savage animals and torture. Slavery as serfs became infinitely worse under Christianity
than slavery
under the Romans.
In making an historical
analysis
we are
forced to depend upon copies of documents, letters, firs t hand reports, and historical writings
of the period. As in the case of modern day controversy we often find conflicting
reports of
historical events. In some cases we have to depend on estimates and guesswork. For example:
the estimates for Christians in 300 A. D. vary
from five to fifty million; estimates
for those
killed in the Thessalonica
massacre vary from
seven to one hundred fifty thousand. Some areas
of history are par ticularly obscure. However,
taking these vagaries into account, we can be
fairly certain that the Roman Empire turned
Christian through force and not because of personal desire on the part of the converts. The
account I have given is not that usually accepted by most historians
as accurate - they just
haven't put them together in this manner. Too
embarrassing, I guess.
While I have not examined every religious
conversion in history, it does seem to me that
most countries
are converted by force. Islam
came to power with the sword of the Prophet.
Protestantism
would have remained obscure
without the aid of several Kings. Atheism in
Russia would be nothing without the endorsement of the ruling party. I do not know how Bud-

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dhism attained power, but I suspect it must have

been supported.by the ruling class. It does seem
to me that a nation will not change its religion
unless it is forced to do so by the ruling group.
Therefore,

Maryland

21214

will increase in direct proportion to the number

of Atheists in strategic jobs within the legal
and governmental structure of this country. I am
not suggesting infiltration, rather a concentrated
effort to educate and convert in certain areas.

I conclude that Atheism in America

7,
,II

Vegetation Gods and Sun Gods

Jack Brady
There are two principal types of savior-gods
recognized by hierologists, namely, vegetationgods and sun-gods.
The vegetation theory has been brilliantly
developed by Sir. James G. Frazer, in his
"Golden Bough", and by Grant Allen in "The
Ev"'olution of the Idea of God". This view point
is concisely summarized by the noted psychologist Dr. David Forsyth:
"Many gods besides Christ have been supposed to die, be resurrected and ascend to heaven. This idea has now been traced back to its
origin among primitive people in the annual
death and resurrection of crops and plant-life
generally. This explains the world-wide prevalence of the notion'.'
Among still more primitive tribes, as Grant
Allen showed, it is not yet understood that sown
corn sprouts because of the Spring sunshine,
and they attribute the result to divine agency.
To this end, these people are accustomed at
seed time to kill their tribal god - either in human or animal form -- and scatter the flesh and
the blood over the sown fields. They believe
that the seeds will not grow unless the god is
sacrificed and added to them in this manner.
When, therefore, the crop appears, they never
doubt that it is their god coming to life again.
It is from this erroneous' belief of primitive
tribes that the new religion we know as Christianity gets its belief in the Death and Resurection of Christ.

Page

According to the advocates of the solar myth

theory, the ancient crucified saviors were personifications of the Sun, and their life stories
were allegories of the sun's passage through
the twelve constellations
of the Zodiac. The
astronomical elements in the Christian Epic are
pointed out by Edward Carpenter with characteristic lucidity:
"The Passover,
the greatest feast of the
Jew s, borrowed from the Egyptians,
handed
down to become the supreme festival of christianity, is closely connected with the celebration of the Spring Equinox and of the passing
over of the sun from south to north of the equator, i. e., from his Winter depression to his Summer dominion. The Sun, at the moment of passing
the equinoctial point, stood 3,000 years ago in
zodiacal constellation of the Ram, or he-lamb.
The Lamb, therefore became the symbol of the
young triumphat God. At an earlier date - owing to the precession of the equinoxes - the Sun
at the Spring passage stood in the constellation
of the Bull; so, in the older religious worships
of Egypt, Persia and I ndia, it was the Bull
that was sacred and the symbol of god. In
the representation of the Zodiac in the temple
of Denderah (in Egypt) the figure of Virgo is
annotated by a smaller figure of Isis with Horus
in her arms; and the Roman Catholic Church
fixed the celebration of Mary's assumption into
the glory at the very date <15th of August) of
the said constellation's
disappearance
from
sight in the blaze of the solar rays, and her
birth on the date (8th of September) of the same
constellation's
re-appearance. Jesus Himself is
purported to have been born like the other sungods, Bacchus, Apollo, Osiris, on the 25th day
December, the day of the Sun's re-birth, i. e.
the first day which obviously lengthens after the
21st. of December. "

24

The American Atheist

Baltimore,

It seems that vegetation religious cults are

oldern than stellar or solar cults, but were later
blended' with them. In the primitive vegetationgod sacrifice, the victim was, it is believed
originally the King, or head-man, of the tribe or
clan. It was believed by ancient man that the
prosperity of the tribe depended on the wellbeing of the ruler. If the king became old and
feeble, it was considered a foregone conclusion
that the nation or tribe would suffer a similar
decline. So, the king, who was usually regarded
as a god in human form, was sacrificed, and replaced with a younger and more vigorous man.
After much passage of time, the son of the
king was substituted in the sacrificial rite and
being also the off spring of divinity, he' was
properly called the son of god. At a still later
period, the Ruling class got to where this human
sacrifice of the sons of god had lost its glamour,
and a condemned criminal was chosen in the
place of the Royal victim. This character was
given regal honors for a time, then put to death
via the sacrifice-to-the-gods
route. He was generally slain while bound to a sacred tree, with
arms outstretched in the form of a cross. After
being entombed he was believed to rise from the
dead within three days; the three-day period representing the return of vegetation. The question
naturally arises -Why three days? The answer
is, that the three day period is based on the
three day interval between the Old and New
moons. (See Frazer's: Folklore in the Old Testament).
According to Chaldean historian, Berosus,
there was a religious festival celebrated annually in ancient Babylon, known as the Sacaea. The
duration of the fete was five days, and for that
length of time the servants and masters exchanged places in society the servants giving
orders and the masters obeying them. The king
temporarily abdicated the throne, and a mockking, called Zoganes, reigned in his place. But
after the five days were over, the mock-king was
de-throned and scourged, and then either hanged
or crucified.
An eminent Egyptologist

has noted that:

"The victims of these human sacrifices were

generally crucified, or else killed and then 'hung
on a tree' until the evening. In this regard it is

Page 25

II

Maryland 21214

interesting to notice that in the Acts the writer

mistakenly speaks of Jesus as having been
slain and then hanged on a tree, as though this
were a common phrase coming readily to his
mind; and the word 'hanged' is frequently used
in Greek to denote crucifixion." (See The Paganism in Our Christianity).
In his "Evolution of Christianity",
L. Gordon Rylands contends that the name Jesus is
the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew Joshua.
Joshua, it seems, was an ancient Hebrew sungod, who was demoted to the status of man by
the priests of the Yahweh cult; however, the
worship of Joshua was continued in secret until the fall of Jerusalem.
The very name of the festival reflects its
pagan source, for Easter is variant of Eostre or
Ostara, the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of
Spring. The festival of St. George takes place
on April 23rd. It is a Christian replica of the ancient Parilia, or Birthday of Rome. St. George
was originally the Egyptian god, Horus, who
slew the Egyptian devil, Set, who was in the
form of a dragon. The Festival of All Souls is a
Christian copy of the ancient Egyptian Feast of
the Lamps.
And so it goes, until we are bound to accept
that old adage, at least so far as religion is concerned that, there is nothing new under the sun.

1/

The American

Baltimore,

Atheist

Please read this carefully: We have been very

fortunate in obtaining a very lim-ited quantity of
books written by one of the most outstanding
rationalists of all times, Joseph McCabe. These
books explain how many have been and are exploited by the few. We are so anxious to get
these books in circulation that we are making
this most unusual offer. This group of books include the following:

Maryland

21214

800k 8argain

THE CHURCH DEFIES MODERN LIFE

ROME PUTS A BLIGHT ON CULTURE
ATHEIST RUSSIA SHAKES THE WORLD
THE POPE AND THE ITALIAN JACKAL
THE PIOUS TRAITORS OF BELGIUM AND FRANCE
THE VATICAN BURIES INTERNATIONAL
LAW
THE POPE HELPS HITLER TO WORLD POWER
HOW THE POPE OF PEACE TRADED I N BLOOD
THE FRUITS OF ROMANI SM
THE WAR AND PAPAL INTRIGUE
ROME'S SYLLABUS OF CONDE MNED OPINIONS
MYTH OF CATHOLIC SCHOLARSHIP
With an order for these books, we will enclose,
without further cost, the following eight books,
if you will send us eight names and addresses
to whom we may send literature. Remember, all
the above books for only five dollars ($5,00),

BA'K TO <;'0]:>
AMENDMENTS

THE VATICAN'S LAST CRIME

THE JESUITS - RELIGIOUS ROGUES
THE DANGER OF CATHOLICISM TO THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
THE MUSSOLINI AND THE POPE
A DEBATE WITH A JESUIT PRIEST
GEMS AND GARBAGE
HI TLER DUPES THE VATICAN
FASCIST ROMANISM DEFIES CIVILIZATION

This offer positively

expires

April 20th, 1964.

Address book orders to:

Page

26

Virgil McClain
Freethought Society of America, Inc.
4547 Harford Road, Baltimore, Maryland 21214

The American

Atheist

Baltimore,

Maryland

21214

WE'RE NOW ACCEPTING ORDERS FOR

AN UNUSUAL 2RECORD ALBUM l~~~

Willi J 11m IIN Atlteist

DV
Madalyn Murray

The Murray's after their

appearance

before

the Supreme Court of

the United States,
February 27, 1963.

Orders are now being accepted for March delivery of a two

record album wherein America's foremost atheist tells why she is
an atheist and what she stands for. She tells what she has done
and is doing in behalf of the precious American heritage of freedom of conscience. She tells what she has done and is doing to
improve mankind's role and welfare. She challenges you to examine, to question, and to think for yourself!
Recorded on two Long Playing Records (33 YJ RPM) the
album is being sold at the modest price of $5.95 postpaid.

FSA/1/2
released

WHY I AM AN ATHEIST by MADALYN MURRAY (a 2-record

by THE FREETHOUGHT SOCIETY OF AMERICA, Box 4661,

Page

27

album)
Baltimore,

$5.95

POSTPAID

Maryland

21212

The American

Atheist

Baltimore,

Maryland

21214

Poetry
Vehic Ie of Controversy
Garry

Garry De Young is a 40 year old father of

seven children,
married to a school teacher. He
is himself an educator and a poet. His Master's
degree was in education
from Temple University.
He has taught in secondary
schools
in Vermont
and Maryland in the science
fields': Chemistry,
Physics,
Biology.
Garry has studied
at the University
of Maryland, the University
of Idaho, Utah State University,
Delaware
State
College,
Dartmouth,
Cornell,
University
of Delaware,
Temple,
and
the Univers ity of Pennsylvania.
Garry is currently
challenging
the constitutionality
of school Bible reading which is continuing
in Delaware
despite
the United States
Supreme Court ruling in June of last year.
His contribut ion to the free-thought
ment has been as a controvers ial poe t.

move-

No, poetry is not considered a "profitable

commodity" by the bookpublishers on Madison
Avenue. In fact, many publishers lose money
when they get involved in handling poetry.

Page

De Young

It is for this reason that the American poet

really has no alternative but to publish at his
own expense and take care of his own distribution. And, this is not a new thing in America.
Such well known poets as Vachel Lindsay and
J oacquin Miller, as well as Walt Whitman, had
an extremely difficult time getting their observations accepted. A prime example of the indictment that is America is the fact that it took
Robert Frost about twenty years from the time
he wrote his poetry to the time that he got it
published ..... and this was done in England.
The real tragedy of course lies in the fact
that poetry is a discipline in its own right. Yet
in America it is shunted into the department of
literature.Po etry is really applied social psychology. It is not merely a statistical
study (of
which we have too many already), but rather it
is the direct expression of a man who needs no
statistics to tell him how he feels. Perhaps the
best anology here is to point out that no statistics can express the sentiment of love.
Poets are lovers, and if God is Love, then all
poetry must come from God. If there is no God
then poetry still must remain in the realm of the
apex of the arts since nothing can surpass love.
Let us remember that hate never produces poetry,
but deep grief does. And, deep grief is nothing
but an intense expression of love. And, this is
worth our consideration. If love means nothing,
why then life means nothing.
But) let us stop for a moment and look back
into history. Let us think of Archimedes drawing the geometrical figures in the sand only to
be slain by a soldier for not doing something

28

The American

Baltimore,

Atheist

"useful".
Fortunately today we feel that mathematics is important. We have research grants
available to enable mathematicians to pursue
this field. However, we poets feel that today in
America the attitude prevails that we should be
doing something "practical",
that poetry is useless, a mere waste of time.
Certainly we don't agree. And the natural cadence of the poet that provides the emphasis to
what he is saying is not something that can be
mechanically structured.
Poets are thinkers; they are intellectuals;
they almost invariably are fully aware that formalized courses in college do not produce an
educated person. A poet tries to convey what is
really taking place in the society in which he
lives.
No, you don't teach a person to be a poet.
And poetry has absolutely nothing to do with
rank. Poetry more than anything else is freedom.
it is the rock bottom concern with life.
And, perhaps the greatest failing of a poet is
that he too is human.
We are in the midst of a social revolution.
And it is a violent revolution. Just look at your
daily newspapers with pictures of human beings
lying in the streets in Atlanta, with riots in
Cleveland, with school boycotts. Unrest is running rife. In years to come these pictures will be
published and people will wonder about those
horrible times of the sixties. Remember, in any
revolution there are towns and villages that do
not have open violence. It is when this violence
breaks out in your own neighborhood that it
really strikes home, that you fully realize that
we are in the midst of a revolution.
And all revolutions have symbols of open
defiance. All of us are very much aware of the
insulting intent of the St. Christopher medals
and the statues on the dashboard which as much
as proclaim , "I am a catholic, and what are you
going to do about it."
When people live under tyranny, it is the responsibility of the few that possess the flair of
courage to come up with an even more brazen
symbol. It is with this thought in mind, and harkening back to the age of the Cavalier Poets that
Page

Maryland

21214

we remember that these poets were in the forefront in the fight against the despotism of the organized religion of that day.
With this as the inspiring thought, I felt that
those Other Americans, the seventy some million
that are not superstitious,
should have something to sport. And I have come up with the suggestion that we wear gold berets. If you can't
locate a gold one, get a while one and dye it
with brilliant yellow dye. Once the word spreads,
it will be obvious who the wearers of the gold
beret are, and what they stand for.
So, stand for freedom, for freedom now!
And consider
Cavalier.

yourself

as I do, an Atomic

The atomic cavalier I am saluting this month

is Pe arl Cline. The salute is thrown for this
poem of hers:
Hymn of Hate

If I professed religion
I'd bring it up to date,
To its three cardinal virtues
I'd add the fourth one - Hate.
I hate the institutions
Of poverty, and war,
Disease, and every other sin
Of our festering social sore.
I hate the greed of profitsThe basis of all strife.
I hate its sacrifice of youth
Of beauty; Love and LIFE.
I hate the way the two per cent
Have robbed the ninety-eight,
-Old men who totter midst the spoils
Of wealth they don't create.
I hate the rank destruction
Of the things men need to live.
Its aftermath - the great white plague,
And the suffering it gives.
I hate - 0, how I hate
The cowardice of throngs
Who know, but dare not speak
Against these awful wrongs.
29

The American Atheist

Baltimore,

Maryland 21214

To Ye Editor

letters
Dear Ed.

Put answer in box.

Male

What happened to O.A. and all that?

Female

How old are you ?

Ralph Blois
Rockford, Illinois.

How many times have you been married?

I
How many childre n have you?

I
There are many people interested in the magazine and reading only. For those people, The
Freethought Society of America, Inc. puts out the
magazine, sells records, pamphlets and books.
For those persons
interested
in ACTION,
OA Inc. is involved in a series of suits and
reports on them in an "Lneider' Newsletter",
which supplements
this magazine, but is sent
to members of OA, Inc. only.

Are they reared a s Atheists?

I
I

What is your appr oximate annual income?

I
What type of work do you do?

I
If retired,

what t ype work did you do?

See the ad on the back of the magazine.

At what age did y ou become an Atheist?

Dear Ed,

Since I have been a member and a subscriber for several months and I have become
very enthusiastic
about the whole bit,
I begin
to wonder about the rest of the group. Who are
they? What makes them what they are? Where are
they?

In what religious

I
religious

or not religious?

How much religio us education

Paul F. King
25 Hancock Street
Bedford, Massachusetts

groups do you contribute?

What is your polit ical party?

Were you reared i n an urban, surburban or rural

area?

to me, at

I
do you have?

I
To what religious

inquiry.

questionnaire

I
somewhat

Please answer questions

for both husband,
and wife. Do not sign your nome. This is on

Mail the completed

my home address.

belief were you reared?

Were your parents religious,

I am not a sociologist nor a psychologist nor

a statistician.
I am only a Development Engineer
in an electronics plant who is overcome with curiosity and who thinks he can do good enough a
job to make some interesting reading in a subsequent issue of "The American Atheist."

anonymous

What is your high est level of education?

Were you reared i n the U. S. A. ?

Were your parents re ared in the U. S. A.?

Page 30

The American

Atheist

Baltimore,

Maryland

21214

To start the ball rolling, here are four (4)

books and I will send you more as I get them.

We must believe all of it - every sentence uttered in it - or none of it.) Perh aps no one but
Wilson was confused by his three sentences;
certainly Bertrand Russell never needed a special theory to deal with "Everything
that Cretans say is a lie". It is false because some
sentences
said by Cretans are not true, while
others including the' sentence under consideration, are false. A~. for the paradox of the liar,
and the Theory of Types, they are interesting
matters, but it is best not to learn about them
from movie reviews.

Evelyn Edwards
Bradshaw, Maryland

Richard P. Wiebe
Berkeley 4, Californ ia

Dear Editor,
I know that any minority
zine has a constant struggle
ancially.

viewpoint magato keep going fin-

Since the churches are always collecting

green stamp books from their members, why do
you not do likewi se?

The magazine
has never been on a self sustaining basis,
and cannot be until the circulation passes
the 12,000 mark. In the seven year
existence
of the magazine
it had been the policy
to send out letters to all subscribers
appealing
for funds twice a year. Usually a small percentage re s ponded with enough to keep the magaz ine
in circulation.
Your current editor has decided
not to issue
such appeals.
Instead
we raised the subscription rate to $5.00 a year so that our break-even
point will come with 6,000 paid subscribers
instead of 12,000. But the interim period
where
many of you are still riding on a $2.00 a year
sub is rough going for us. The lady is not funny
when she suggests
green stamps.
We can use
any money you can spare .. or stamps ..........
or anything you can think to send.

Dear Ed,
Had Robert Anton Wilson in "Why Does Hamlet Hesitate?"
been attempting to parody namedropping scholarship,
he could scarcely
have
dragged in more extraneous references than he
has in that review. It would then be unfair to
single out for criticism the portions of the review which are about 8%, but the asides deserve
closer scrutiny, if they deserve scrutiny at all.

This is a free thought journal. This means, at

least, that everyone has a right to his opinion.
Everyone has a right to advertise an idea in a
free market place of ideas. So, we will accept
advertisement
from anyone for any idea. That
the advertisement
appears nere reflects only
this philosophy.
Rates are 20 a word for per word advertisement. Block advertisement
is sold at the rate
of $100. per page.

Help Promote
GOVERNMENT-RUN

Reduce divorce, delinquency,

and
population pressures
that lead to war.

For example, Wilson seems to regard it as

paradoxical
that he can find three sentences
which are neither all three true nor all three
false. Has it escaped his notice that two of them
may be false and one of them true? (This "paradox" is related to his interpretation of the film:

Page

PROSTITUTION

Donate and receive

368M
31

GRP NEWS

South Laguna,

California.

The American Atheist

flfTI5.R THE. M ES$

-rIME! H~

Baltimore,

tiE ~ADE: LAST

WOUl-T>rfy

1>ARE R~TvR N.

Page 32

Maryland 21214

"Even as ye do unto the least of these,

ye do unto me."

THE FREETHOUGHT SOCIETY OF AMERICA. INC.

A Non-Profit and Non-Political Organization

THE AIMS OF THE SOCIETY

1. To stimulate and promote freedom of thought
and inquiry concerning religious beliefs, creeds
dogmas, tenets, rituals and practices.

6. To promote the study of the arts and sciences

and of all problems affecting the maintenance,
perpetuation and enrichment of human life.

2. To collect and disseminate information, data,

and literature
on all religions and promote a
more thorough understanding
of them, their origins and histories.

7. To engage in such social, educational,

and
cultural activity as will be useful and beneficial to the members of this Society, and to
society as a whole.

3. To ar'vocate , labor for, and promote in all

lawful wa- >, the complete separation of Church

The Atheist - materialist philosophy declares

that the cosmos is devoid of immanent conscious
purpose; that it is governed by its own inherent,
immutable and impersonal law; that there is no
supernatural interference in human life; that man
finding his resources
within himself, can and
must create his own destiny; and that his potential for good and higher development is for all
practical purposes unlimited.

and State, the establishment

and maintenance of
a thoroughly secular system of education avaiLable to all.
4. To encourage the development and public acceptance of a humane ethical system, stressing
the mutual sympathy, understanding and interdependence of all people and the corresponding
responsibility
of each individually in relation to
society.

5. To develop and propogate a social philosophy

in which man is the central figure, who alone
must be the source of strength, progress, and
idealism for the well being and happiness of
humanity.

Freethought may be defined as the mental attitude which unreservedly accepts the supremacy of reason, and aims at establishing
a system of philosophy and ethics verifiable by experience, independent of all arbitrary assumptions of a uthority or creeds.

THE TRADITIONAL SYMBOL OF FREETHOUGHT

PANSY
FRENCH ...
pensee: thought
oenser: to think
LATIN ...
pensare: to weigh, or ponder

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