American Atheist Magazine (First Quarter 2015)

American Atheist
A JOURNAL OF ATHEIST NEWS AND THOUGHT
Charlie Hebdo and the Dangers of Sanctifying Religion
Also in this issue:
Display until May 18
Should an Atheist Accommodate or Confront?

How to Prove That Prayer Doesnt Work
Rewriting the Ten Commandments
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AMERICAN ATHEIST
A Journal of Atheist News and Thought
1st Quarter 2015
Vol. 53, No. 1
ISSN 0516-9623 (Print)

ISSN 1935-8369 (Online)
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Pamela Whissel
PWhissel@Atheists.org
LAYOUT and GRAPHICS EDITOR
Rick Wingrove
RWingrove@Atheists.org
On the cover: Since our last issue, ten people who worked at another Atheist periodical were shot dead in their
Paris office. In their coverage of the murders at Charlie Hebdo, a French magazine of satirical cartoons, some
U.S. news organizations refrained from reproducing even one drawing from that publication. Their reason? To
not offend anyone. American Atheist is proud to say Je Suis Charlie and mean it. (Cover image: Wikimedia
Commons and Charlie Hebdo. Image above: Charlie Hebdo.)
In This Issue
PROOFREADERS
Gil and Jeanne Gaudia
Shelley Gaudia
Special Section: CHARLIE HEBDO and the Danger of Sanctifying Religion
AMERICAN ATHEIST PRESS

MANAGING EDITOR
Frank R. Zindler
Editor@Atheists.org
Charlie Hebdo and Anything but Islam | Dan Arel

The Latest Threat to Thomas Jeffersons Hobby of Old Age |
Eric Wojciechowski
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When Mockery is Worse Than Murder | J.T. Eberhard
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Censorship in Louisiana | Gregory Alexander
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Acknowledging My Atheism | Djenne Thomas
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Rewriting the Ten Commandments | M. Dolon Hickmon
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The Top Ten Reasons for Belief | Bob Fliegel

Should an Atheist Accommodate or Confront? |
Gil Gaudia, Ph.D.
The Real Story from an Ex-Mormon Missionary, Part One |
Greg Hawkins
How to Prove That Prayer Doesnt Work | Marshall Brain
The Dread Word Purpose | Dale DeBakcsy
The Holy Bible: Forgeries Upon an Original Fiction |
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Why I Am An Atheist | Peter Santalla
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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
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1ST QUARTER 2015
Special Section: CHARLIE HEBDO and the Dangers of Sanctifying Religion
When Mockery is
Worse Than Murder
by J.T. Eberhard
Members of other religions, through

their commentary on the murders, have
demonstrated their own moral confusion.
he January 7 attack in Paris that killed eleven members of the

French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, as well as a police officer, was
the work of terrorists murdering in the name of Islam. No further
commentary needs to be made about the certainty that some Muslims will
become violent when anyone ignores the prohibition against drawing a
picture of the prophet Mohammed. One thing that does deserve a lot
more discussion is the way that members of other religions, through their
commentary on the murders, have demonstrated their own moral confusion.
Catholic League President Bill Donohue, who has made a hobby of
embarrassing himself across from American Atheists President David
Silverman,* wasted no time in the wake of the attacks to assure the world
that religiously thin skin does not afflict only Muslims. Though he constantly
asserts and defends his own right to mock non-believers, Donohue had this
to say about one of the murder victims: It is too bad he didnt understand
the role he played in his tragic death, and Had he not been so narcissistic,
he may still be alive. Offense, it seems, is a greater crime than murder when
possessed by the proper flavor of the merciful Catholic religion.
Pope Francis was no better. In his response to the slaughter, he said,
There are so many people who speak badly about religions or other
religions, who make fun of them, who make a game out of the religions
of others. They are provocateurs. And what happens to them is what
would happen to [someone] if he says a curse word against my mother.
There is a limit.
Wrong! Freedom of speech exists to protect speech that would
otherwise be censored simply because it offends someone. And consider
the hubris of the Pope here. The Catholic Church has an unchanging
and persistent message that has survived all the Churchs alterations over
the centuries: If you dont believe our story of a guy rising from the dead,
youre going to burn for all eternity, and you deserve it. We godless folk,
after hearing this threat over and over again, are supposed to respect it and
the people issuing it.
Mockery is disrespect via mere expression. It neither involves nor
threatens physical harm, and it never asserts that its subjects deserve infinite
tortureor even short-term suffering. Nonethelss, both Donohue and
Francis maintain that it is reasonable to expect a violent reaction. After all,
people have been offended!
This asinine double standard deserves about as much consideration as
tales of someone walking on water and rising from the dead. You dont get
to view yourself as a moral authority when you threaten me, and others like
me, with eternal torture and then act like its we who have crossed a moral
line by laughing at you.
This is not a departure from past sanity for Christianity. After the Dutch
newspaper Jyllands-Posten published thirteen cartoons of the prophet
Mohammed in 2005, Muslims around the world rioted in response to the
perceived insults to their pedophilic founder. They beat innocent people,
burned buildings, and issued death threats against just about everyone.
Both the Archbishop of Canterbury and Pope Benedict XVI condemned
the cartoons, not the overreaction.
Or consider 25 years ago, when the Ayatollah Khomeinei publicly
offered money for the murder of Salman Rushdie after his novel The Satanic
Verses was published. Instead of condemning the agent of the fatwa, both
the Vatican and the Archbishop of Canterbury condemned the novelist
who dared to create a work of fiction that contained some words that
certain religious people did not like. Let me be perfectly frank: if you think
murder is a lesser crime than blasphemy, youve been morally warped by the
influence of your church.
The Catholic Church was not alone in using Charlie Hebdo as an
opportunity to display some bizarre moral priorities. When it reported on
the million-strong January 11 rally in Paris in support of Charlie Hebdo and
free speech, the Israeli newspaper The Announcer ran a photo of some of
the world leaders who participated. The problem is that the paper, drawing
from the misogyny of fundamentalist Judaism, photoshopped out all the
women. This time it was the presence of women marching in support of
free speech that was offensive.
The miasma of religious influence on peoples minds extends far
beyond these terrorists, and it extends beyond Islam. It is commonplace
for religions to attempt to control people with fear. This is why threats of
hell are so effective. Cant believe someone rose from the dead? Well, if you
dont, youll burn forever. And for those who are unmoved by promises of
punishment in the afterlife, there are plenty of people willing to administer
punishments in this life. Whether its harassment from neighbors,
discrimination at work or school, disowning a child, or murder, its drawn
from the same sentiment: When religious people dont get their way, theyre
allowed retribution. We should be disgusted by all of it, not just the times
when the tiny seeds we tend to ignore grow into horrible tragedies.
J.T.s blog, What Would J.T. Do?, is at Patheos.com/Blogs/WWJTD.
He previously worked for the Secular Student Alliance, where he
was their first high school organizer. He is the co-founder of the
Skepticon conference and served as the events lead organizer for
its first three years.
*David Silverman: Atheism is NOT Satanism! YouTube.com,
posted January 7, 2014, by CRUCIE FICTION (YouTube.com/
watch?v=wibrkVq5jBg).
Catholic League President to Atheists: Youre Good for Nothing,
YouTube.com, posted October 31, 2013, by TheCurmudgen
(YouTube.com/watch?v=-HlIekJY6S0).
Mockery is disrespect via mere expression.

It neither involves nor threatens physical harm.
1ST QUARTER 2015
Danthropology
A Column by Dan Arel
and
Anything but Islam
n January 7, two Islamic extremists stormed the offices of the French

satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. They separated the men
from the women and announced the names of the cartoonists they
intended to kill.1 Their shooting spree left twelve people dead. Two
days later, they took several hostages in a printing warehouse outside
Paris and killed four of them.
With no shortage of strategic targets to

attack, the terrorists deliberately chose a
satirical paper because of a cartoon.

1ST QUARTER 2015
Those who are looking to blame anything

but Islam need you to believe that Charlie
Hebdo is racist in order to push that narrative.
As with most events like this, everyone started looking for answers
and wanted to know who was to blame. The main culprits emerged
immediately. Islam and religion were to blame, politics were to blame,
and a magazine was to blame for printing images mocking the prophet
Mohammed.
According to the click-hungry web site Salon.com, Atheists like
Richard Dawkins are probably also somehow responsible. Just moments
after the news broke of the shooting, Salon, instead of providing a news
report, first posted a piece that critiqued Richard Dawkins first tweet
about the event.2 Dawkins said, They shouted, We have avenged the
Prophet Muhammad. Some useful idiot will claim it had nothing to do
with religion.3 Dawkins continued, No, all religions are NOT equally
violent. Some have never been violent, some gave it up centuries ago.
One religion conspicuously didnt.4
Salon neglected to address the content of Dawkins tweets, opting
instead to post a headline suggesting that he blames all Muslims for the
attacks. In doing so, they sided with Medi Hasan, Reza Aslan, and C.J.
Werleman in adopting the premise that Islam is innocent, and foreign
policy and racism are to blame.
I have never been shy of blaming the foreign policies of the U.S.
and other countries for their roles in Islamic extremism, but when a
magazine is attacked and its journalists murdered over the publication
of satirical cartoons, you will be stretching facts a long way to pretend
that you can plant this firmly on foreign policy and ignore the massive
role of religious dogma and fundamentalism.
Charlie Hebdo was attacked for insulting the prophet Mohammed,
not for Frances policies on foreign relations. With no shortage of
strategic targets to attack over this issue, the terrorists deliberately chose
a satirical paper because of a cartoon. Ignoring this fact will only cause
more damage as we look for ways to prevent something like this from
happening in the future.
I will happily discuss foreign policy with you in the event of an
attack on a military base or other strategic target in France or any other
country. But this attack was on a satirical magazine and its journalists,
the demise of whom would neither unsettle the French government nor
change Frances policies overseas or even inside its own borders.
In fact, this Salon piece, and pieces that followed, did exactly what
Dawkins predicted: they claimed the attacks had nothing to do with
religion, regardless of the fact that Al Qaeda actually took credit for the
attacks and the terrorists shouted, Allahu Akbar! (God is greatest!),
and, Weve taken revenge against the prophet!

Many charged that Charlie Hebdo, though undeserving of a terrorist
attack, was a racist magazine that incited violence by depicting racist
imagery mocking Muslims and black politicians. Those making such
claims showed an amazing level of intellectual laziness by not taking the
time to research the meaning of these images.
Charlie Hebdo is a satirical magazine and a radical left one at that. It
stands up for immigrants and womens rights and stands against racism,
Frances National Front, and fascist right-wing parties. The magazine
prints images to mock those attempting to oppress minority groups. A
quick Google search will explain how each of its covers is a commentary
on a specific issue in French politics or culture. What may look racist
to ethnocentric American eyes is not in the least bit racist in French
culture, especially when understood in the context of who is printing
the images and why.
However, those who are looking to blame anything but Islam need
you to believe that Charlie Hebdo is racist in order to push that narrative.
If they can convince you the images are racist, then theyve shut down
the argument that the attacks were invoked to silence free speech and
shut down anti-extremism.
The anything but Islam squad immediately claimed this attack
had nothing to do with free speech. As bloggers and journalists ran to
Islams defense, two things happened. First they justified the terrorists
actions. Second, they blamed the victims. Claiming that the journalists
would still be alive today if they had not printed satirical images is the
equivalent of asking a rape victim what she was wearing and blaming
the short skirt.
Writing for Huffington Post UK, Mehdi Hasan even went so far as
to suggest that mocking religion is not a free-speech right, even though
he did not condone the terrorists actions. He said, I disagree with your
seeming view that the right to offend comes with no corresponding
responsibility; and I do not believe that a right to offend automatically
translates into a duty to offend.5
No one has said that your right to offend comes with no responsibility,
but what sort of responsibility do the journalists at Charlie Hebdo have
here? A responsibility to possibly defend their cartoons? Maybe, but
they dont have a corresponding responsibility to pay with their lives.
And how do they not have a duty to offend? Charlie Hebdo calls out
crimes against humanity, racism, and social injustice, thereby offending
right-wing fascists in France all the time. Should they be careful not
The anything but Islam squad

immediately claimed this attack had
nothing to do with free speech.
1ST QUARTER 2015
I am sure some Charlie Hebdo readers found

the images of Mohammed offensive, but
so what ? Offense is taken, not given.
to offend those people? Or is Hasan only against offending Muslims
because he doesnt want to be offended by images that confront the
villainy inside Islam?
I am sure some Charlie Hebdo readers found the images of
Mohammed offensive, but so what? Offense is taken, not given. Anyone
who blames the magazine fails to appreciate the context in which the
cartoons are represented.
Islamic apologist Reza Aslan, like all members of the anything
but Islam squad, blamed something other than religion. Speaking on
CNN, he said:
Europe is facing nothing short of an identity crisis. Look, the
fact of the matter is there have been these seismic changes
on the continent, culturally, racially, religiously, politically.
And thats resulted in this intense anti-immigrant, and more
specifically, anti-Muslim backlash. In France, one of the
largest parties, the party of Marine Le Pen, The National
Front, is a virulently anti-Muslim party and very well may
win the next elections. You have the UKIP party in the UK,
the Pegida [party] in Germany. This is a party whose sole
platform seems to be, Lets get rid of all Muslims. They have
had, for the last few months, every week, thousands and
thousands of supporters marching in Germany in this notion
that Muslims are some internal enemy. In Sweden weve had
three mosque attacks over the last week. So this has created
this sort of intense tension among the Muslim population in
Europe and non-Muslim population.
He was then asked directly about the Charlie Hebdo attack and
continued:
Well, its not a justification by any means at all, but what
Charlie Hebdo represents for a lot of people in Europe is
precisely this clash of civilizations. Look, the editors of Charlie
Hebdo would unapologetically say that they make fun of
everybody, every religion, and they make fun of Muslims for
a very specific reason to sort of show, or maybe demonstrate,
that look, if you maybe want to be in this country, if you want
to be in France, then you have to deal with these French
values, you have to rid yourself of your own values, ideals,
norms, and you have to take on French values. And there have
been a number of laws passed not just in France with regard

to prohibitions on Islamic dress, but throughout Europe about
whether you can build mosques, about whether you can
build minarets, et cetera. And this tension, this polarization,
Im afraid, has led to a lot of acts of violence. Not just the
tragedy yesterday. . .
. . . Charlie Hebdo was representative of this distinctly
French value and an argument that unless you agree with
that value, well, then you are not really French. And thats
an argument that a lot of young Muslimsand particularly
young immigrants who come from different culturesthey just
dont buy into it and enough of them feel angryperhaps
threatenedenough to actually take up violence.
. . . And particularly in France, an aggressively secularizing
country that has never really tolerated multiculturalism or the
kind of cultural religious diversity that is the hallmark of the
United States, you can see how that would create the kinds
of tensions that would bubble up occasionally into acts of
violence on both sides.
By being quick to first blame the magazine for its imagery and for
making fun of Muslims, Aslan demonstrated that he doesnt understand
the covers or the cartoons inside the magazine, something that five
minutes of research on the internet would remedy. But he then went
on and blamed a lack of tolerance of Muslim beliefs and a lack of
multiculturalism. Aslan is correct in part of his assertion that violence
and oppression against Muslims in France and Europe is abhorrent. But
that does not mean that harmful beliefs carried by some Muslims must
be tolerated in the name of multiculturalism.
Biologist Jerry Coyne noted this exact sentiment on his blog:
What is wrong with multiculturalism? That depends on how
you define it. If you mean tolerating or celebrating the customs
of people from another land, its fineand desirable. The
U.S. would be bland and uniform without its many immigrants,
their celebrations and holidays, their food, their politics, their
philosophies, and so on. But when multiculturalism involves
importing antidemocratic ideas into a democratic culture,
then it becomes problematic. The kind of multiculturalism
that Charlie Hebdo opposed, and wished to be dissolved
This rule of anything but Islam does

not seem to transfer to all religions, making
the argument even more spurious.
1ST QUARTER 2015
by French values, was Islams veneration of sharia law, its

institutionalization of the subjugation of women, its calls for the
death of apostates, gays, and adulterers, its belief in corporal
punishment for criminals, and the Muslim habit, in some
places, of patrolling the streets, looking to find and admonish
young Muslims partying, drinking, listening to music, dancing,
and associating with members of the other sex. Fun is a no-no.
In other words, the more enlightened French are
uncomfortable with those tenets of Islam that conflict with
the values of the Enlightenment; and its just too bad if
asking Muslims to conform to those values makes them
uncomfortable. By all means keep your Ramadan, your
delicious food, your clothing (except, perhaps, the veil),
your prayers, your mosques, and so on. But dont you dare
try to quash freedom of speech, beat your wives, kill your
daughters, or try to practice sharia law in France.
It surprises me that Aslan cant fathom that multiculturalism
can be seen in several different ways, some of which are
commendable and others odious. Actually, Im sure he can, but
hes so committed to Islamic apologetics that he wont admit
that anything about Muslim culture is inimical to democracy.
It is no surprise that the attack was more than just revenge for images
of Mohammed, something Coyne didnt miss:
. . . It was a combination of the magazines publication of
images of Muhammad (proscribed by many interpretations
of the Quran), a perception that the journal was a beacon of
Islamophobia (it wasnt; it shone its light on Islamic perfidy),
and, most important, a general hatred of the West and its
democratic (and perceived anti-Islamic) values.6
Yet this combination of things does in fact lead back to Islam. I do

believe, as others have pointed out, that if Islam didnt exist, militants
still would. Theyd just be fighting under another ideology. But that
provides no excuse for the ideology they are fighting for. The ideology
of Islam is what made Charlie Hebdo a target. If the ideology chosen by
the terrorists was not religious, especially Islamic, these images would
not have incited violence, and the extremists would have been more
interested in political targets, not journalists.
Yet writers like C.J. Werleman claim that the blame for such
radicalization lies solely at the hands of both Western governments and
governments inside the Middle East. Writing for the web site Middle
East Eye, Werleman said:
The fixation on religion as the root of the worlds problems is
completely at odds with reality. In fact, its utterly delusional.
What is at fault in the Middle East is not Islam, but despotic,
autocratic regimes that rule with the benefit of Americas
patronage. What is at fault in the West is not Christianity
but free-market fascism: free trade, mass pollution, climate
change, income inequality, wealth disparity, racism, and
immigration overflow from countries that have descended
into social chaosmany as a result of Western policies (free
trade, climate change, war on terror, and the drug war).7
Hes right if you simply cherry-pick only the issues at hand.

However, the Christian Rights stance against same-sex marriage or
abortion rights in the United States has little to do with the free market
1ST QUARTER 2015
and everything to do with religious belief. Werleman is even right about

much of the Middle Easts problems, but he ignores things like honor
killings, female genital mutilation, and blasphemy laws, all of which
are rooted in religious belief and have little or nothing to do with the
despotic, autocratic regimes that he is so eager to blame.
Sure, Saudi Arabias government is solely at fault when it executes
someone for speaking out against it. But you cant blame the government
alone for Saudi blogger Raif Badawis sentence of 1,000 lashes and ten
years in prison for the crime of insulting Islam. To do so is an insult to
Badawi and the countless others killed in the name of blasphemy, like
those at Charlie Hebdo.
Werleman knows politics, and he is often correct about the political
climate in the US and elsewhere. He is also often correct about the
steps we need to take politically to ease tensions and remove a powerful
recruitment method from these extremists. But he seems too wrapped
up in his own ideological position to see the damage done by ignoring all
of the problems of Islam, thereby exempting it from any responsibility.
While there seems to be a growing number of non-Muslim Islam
apologists, this rule of anything but Islam does not seem to transfer
to all religions, making the argument even more spurious. When
Christians attack an abortion clinic and say they were inspired by
religious belief, we take them at their word and rely on moderate, liberal
Christians to speak out and condemn such actions. But when Muslims
chant religious text while blowing themselves up or gunning down a
magazine staff, and then religious terrorist groups take credit for the
attack, the faux-liberal Islamic apologists claim religion had nothing to
do with it. Anyone who claims otherwise is racist and Islamophobic.
If we continue to ignore religions influence on Islamic extremism
we are allowing these groups carte blanche to exploit religion as one of
the most effective recruitment tools in their struggle for power.
Lets remember that most victims of Islamic extremism are other
Muslims, and we owe it to them to address both the political and
religious problems that cause their continued victimization. We cannot
claim to fight for social justice if we neglect to put Islam on the list of the
causes of oppression.
Dan Arel, author of Parenting Without God, is a freelance journalist for
AlterNet and The Huffington Post. He blogs at Danthropology.net.
Endnotes
1. Charlie Hebdo Attack: It was a Slaughter, Edition.CNN.com,
January 7, 2015.
2. Richard Dawkins Goes on Anti-Islam Rant: Blames Charlie Hebdo
Massacre on Entire Religion, Salon.com, January 7, 2015.
3. Twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/552840997739454464
4. Twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/552844234689372160
5. Hasan, Mehdi. As a Muslim, Im Fed up with the Hypocrisy of the Free
Speech Fundamentalists, HuffingtonPost.co.uk, January 13, 2015.
6. Reza Aslan Blames Charlie Hebdo Massacre on Frances Inability to
Tolerate Multiculturism, WhyEvolutionIsTrue.com, January 11, 2015.
7. Werleman, C.J. New Atheisms Islam-Obsessed Rape and Rescue
Fantasy, MiddleEastEye.net, January 16, 2015.
The Latest
Threat to
Thomas
Jeffersons
Hobby of
Old Age
by Eric Wojciechowski
Damien Lee Thorr
he tombstone of the third president of the United States reads: Here was buried
Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Virginia
for Religious Freedom, and father of the University of Virginia. To Jefferson, who
personally designed his headstone, these were the three accomplishments he was most
proud of, even more than his presidency. Both the Declaration of Independence and the Statute of
Virginia for Religious Freedom were achieved by the time he reached middle age, but it wasnt until his
final years that he saw the fruition of the University of Virginia.
Most Muslims are no different than their

Jewish and Christian kin, in that they
never actually read their holy book.

1ST QUARTER 2015
Institutes of higher education in the

United States are caving to Muslim
demands to self-censor.
Jefferson referred to setting up an American educational system as
the hobby of my old age. This system, to be set apart from the European
way of restricting educational privilege only to royalty, aristocracy, and
clergy, was long in the making. When he served in the Virginia General
Assembly, Jefferson attempted to pass bills to authorize a public education
system, but they never garnered enough votes. And while serving as
Ambassador to France, he still held on to his vision. In 1786, he observed
in a letter to George Wythe that, I think by far the most important bill in
our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people.
No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom,
and happiness. If any body thinks that kings, nobles or priests are good
conservators of the public happiness, send them here. It is the best school
in the universe to cure them of that folly.
Jefferson recognized that limiting access only to the privileged classes
undermined a good educational system. He also frowned upon a limited
curriculum. His goal was to establish a university where there was no set
course of study, allowing students the freedom to read, debate, attend
lectures, conduct experiments, and enrich themselves in whatever subject
they saw fitapart from theology, which Jefferson completely forbade
on the campus. And to make a point of keeping out an aristocracy or ageold authority, no church or chapel was included in the plans. Instead, the
focal point was the Temple of Knowledge, the library. The surrounding
trees and landscaping creating an Academical Village instead of the
traditional large works of architecture to house it all.
When it opened in 1819, the University of Virginia was, in essence,
the first of its kindone without an underlying seminary, one that
placed the real sciences, real experiments, and student choice above
clergy order. Since its founding, the University of Virginia has been a
model for American universities open to no set curricula, where students
and professors are allowed to pursue their own areas of study without
interference. But even schools with set curricula have at their core the
principles of free inquiry and the open exchange of ideas.
These ideals have been under attack recently by those who take the
Quran at face value, and institutes of higher education in the United
States are caving to Muslim demands to self-censor. In March 2014,
the University of Michigan-Dearborn and the University of Illinois at
Chicago were both scheduled to screen the documentary Honor Diaries
but canceled the events at the behest of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR). What was the problem? Honor Diaries documents
the testimony of nine Muslim women as they recount genital mutilation,
honor killings, and female submission in the name of faith. Under the
exploited charge of Islamophobia, CAIR demanded that the screenings
be canceled. CAIR could have taken this opportunity to denounce
these practices so that Islam can move beyond the brutality, but they did
not. Their choice to yell loud enough until the showing was canceled
demonstrates complicity and approval of, I repeat, genital mutilation,

honor killings, and female submission.
Qanta Ahmed, M.D., one of the experts consulted in the making
of Honor Diaries, had this to say regarding the cancellations: Perhaps
better than anyone else, Americans understand the sanctity of separation
of church and state and defend the right of all who take shelter here to
freely express their religion. But what many Americans forget, to the great
benefit of the political Islamist, is that the right to religious expression
does not mean that one faction can encroach upon and dominate
public space. Public space can be shared only if it is defended for all, not
conceded to some.1
Good point. These universities are not the only ones canceling events
due to Muslim outrage. On May 18, 2014, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of the
bestselling autobiography Infidel and a contributor to Honor Diaries, was
scheduled to receive an honorary doctorate from Brandeis University.
Hirsi Ali is a well-known critic of Islam and a supporter of women wishing
to escape the restrictions imposed on them by that religion. And, because
of this, said degree was not awarded to her. At the helm of this campaign,
again, was CAIR and other Muslims who scaredI find this to be the
only proper expressionBrandeis into bowing out. Yet again, instead of
taking the opportunity to apologize, commit to change, and move into
the twenty-first century, the most vocal fanatics still living in the Bronze
Age won the day.
Hirsi Ali also wrote the screenplay for the 2004 film Submission.
Directed by Theo Van Gogh, the film shows Muslim women abused
through the practices of Islam. In came the death threats, and while Hirsi
Ali remains alive, Van Gogh was not so lucky. On November 2, 2004, he
was assassinated at the hands of a Muslim man who took his holy book
much too seriously.
In the age of the internet, a university is no longer confined by
geography. This is something Jefferson could not have foreseen. But his
vision remains alive in cyberspace. Students can attend university classes
from anywhere in the world, if the chosen university is equipped. Yet the
medieval perspective is still able to creep into our telephony and cabling.
Last year, Rokomari.com, the first online bookstore to be based
in Bangladesh, received death threats for carrying the book The Virus
of Faith by Avijit Roy, a Bangladeshi engineer and writer living in the
United States, who received his own death threats for writing the book.
Rokomari eventually pulled all of Roys books from their inventory. But
the censorship didnt end there. Rokomari issued the following statement:
After the recent controversies, we received a strong message. . .A review
committee has already started working to shape a policy under which no
book that raises controversy will be shown on our site.2
Why is Islam so different, so quick to rush to death threats, when
Mohammed or Islam itself is insulted? The answer is in the Quran.
As the youngest of the three great

monotheisms, Islam has yet to
shed its violent baggage.
1ST QUARTER 2015

Read where the faithful are expected to put terror into the hearts of
the unbelievers (3:151) and kill them [unbelievers] where ever you
find them (2:191), and then youll know why. The book itself could
be considered one big instruction manual on how to abstain from
friendships and alliances with unbelievers and punish people who ignore
the revelations.
The vast majority of Muslims do not engage in such atrocities. In
fact, most are no different than their Jewish and Christian kin, in that
they never actually read their holy book, and they attend services out of a
sense of ritual and tradition more than a desire to seek deeper knowledge
or answers. But there exists a growing population that has enough power
to change the course of university teachings and cause free inquiry to be
The magazine
routinely lampoons
Mohammed. Never
mind that they poke
fun at every other
sacred cow as well.
stifled. As the youngest of the three great monotheisms, Islam has yet
to shed its violent baggage, which is upheld, directly or indirectly, by its
major organizations.
As of this writing, the most recent attack on free speech and human
life itself occurred in Paris on January 7, when two gunmen yelling Allahu
Akbar! (God is greatest!) stormed the offices of the satirical French
weekly Charlie Hebdo and slaughtered twelve people. Their reason?
The magazine routinely publishes articles and cartoons lampooning
Mohammed. Never mind that they poke fun at every other sacred cow as
well. Mere drawings were enough for two people who take the Quran way
too seriously to end the lives of twelve others who didnt. Not deterred
in the least, the surviving staff carried on and published their next issue
right on schedule. On January 11, over a million people, including more
than forty presidents and prime ministers from around the world, poured
into the streets and marched through Paris in a show of solidarity. Many
held black and white signs bearing the slogan that had become ubiquitous
around the world for denouncing this attack on free speech: Je Suis
Charlie (I am Charlie).
But are we? To be Charlie means to continue to practice despite threats
to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Many American publications
and broadcasters have refused to reproduce the Charlie Hebdo cartoons
not out of fear of violence, but out of a reluctance to offend. As a result,
Islamic censorship is winning.
Thomas Jefferson was an eyewitness to the events in Paris on
July 14, 1789, which included the storming of the Bastille. It was the
beginning of the French Revolution, which he supported, although he
criticized the violence that it brought. This revolution, coupled with the
American Revolution that preceded it, was the beginning of the end of
ruling monarchies and theocracies worldwide. Jefferson retired from his
ambassador role and left France for good in 1789. If there had been the
equivalent of a Je Suis Charlie t-shirt back then, I suspect he would have

worn one on his voyage home. Because of the way he faced terrorism in
his own day, and the way he carried on to turn his ideas into reality despite
the odds, I believe he was like Charlie.
In 1820, the year after the establishment of the University of Virginia,
Jefferson wrote a letter to William Roscoe. In it, he said, this institution
[University of Virginia] will be based on the illimitable freedom of the
human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may
lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.
Most American universities and media outlets consider themselves
aligned with these ideals, so why are they backing down in the face of
a challenge from the Bronze Age? And while it is true that Judaism and
Christianity also impose their will in higher education and the media, it
is only Islam that does so at the point of a (insert your choice of weapon
here).
As a father of two, Eric Wojciechowski is working to pass on to them a
world based on reason and logic. He is ready to assist in ushering the
Abrahamic gods into a retirement home.
1. Qanta Ahmed, Honor Diaries: Silence Speaks

Volumes, NationalReview.com, April 4, 2014.
2. Bangladesh Online Bookstore Drops Author after
Death Threats, UCANews.com, March 18, 2014.
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1ST QUARTER 2015
Censorship in Louisiana
How the secular media shunned a novel
critical of the Catholic Church
by Gregory Alexander
s I reflect on the year since the publication of my

novel, The Holy Mark, I think now that perhaps
it was nave of me to expect that a book with
the subtitle The Tragedy of a Fallen Priest would
be met with enthusiasm by media outlets in
predominantly Catholic Southern Louisiana.
But early signs were hopeful. Within weeks of its February 2014
publication, reviews and notices began appearing in newspapers
across the northern half of the state and into Mississippi. The
Natchitoches Times profiled me and the Monroe Free Press ran a story
on the front page. Publishers Weekly even weighed in, declaring the
book disturbingly memorable.
Unfortunately, such was not the case in the southern part of my
state, where magazine and newspaper editors seemed to find the
bookor at least its premisemore disturbing than memorable.
Perhaps it was because the story hit a bit too close to home in some of
the communities they serve.
In the early 1990s, New Orleans was scandalized when videotapes
1ST QUARTER 2015
of explicit sex featuring Father Dino Cinel, a priest at St. Ritas Catholic
Church, and various young men (at least one of whom was under age)
became public. The tapes had been discovered by a fellow priest two
years earlier, but their existence was hushed up by the Archdiocese
of New Orleans in an unholy partnership with the district attorneys
office. By late 1991, when a local television station got ahold of the
story, the pornographer priest was long gone, his only penance being
a new teaching position at Tulane University and then later at the City
University of New York.
In the years immediately following that scandal, I was writing short
fiction for the literary magazine market and thought that a character
study of a fallen priest might make an interesting piece. Taking the
videotape angle and pretty much fictionalizing everything else, I wrote
a short story, The Holy Mark, which Emory Universitys Lullwater
Review published in 1998. I expanded the story into a novel, and Mill
City Press published it.
Because the book exposes the true nature of the Church itself, I
expected the Catholic media to react negatively to my book, or even
Both Louisiana State University and

Tulane University have added it to their
Louisiana collections. Loyola University,
however, ignored my requests.
ignore it altogether. The narrator is the deeply flawed and disturbed the offices of the American Press repeatedly ignored my e-mail queries.
Father Tony, who uses his Catholic faith to rationalize his actions as he The influence of the American Press extends well across the state line
is shuffled from one assignment to another by a church hierarchy that into Texas, so a review there was particularly important to me. Imagine
puts its own best interests before the safety of any potential victims.
my frustration when I did get in touch with the entertainment editor,
My intent was to create a psychologically compelling study of who apologized for ignoring my e-mails. Ill level with you, he told
a deviant mind, something the secular
me. If it were up to me, Id print your
media should be interested in, no matter
press release, but this is a very conservative
what the characters religion. And if the
Catholic population, and Id probably get in
verdict of critics and reviewersincluding
trouble. What could I do but thank him for
some of the most prominent clergy-abuse
his honesty?
researchers in the countrycan be trusted,
Roughly one hundred miles east of Lake
I succeeded.
Charles, in the Cajun south-central part of
In all fairness, my hometown did not
Louisiana, lies the city of Houma. When I
completely turn its back on me. The New
contacted the Houma Courier, I was told by
Orleans Advocate eventually printed a
Managing Editor Dee Dee Thurston that
positive, though somewhat muted, review
the paper only covers local books. I had
four months after the book came out.
gotten similar responses from other small
New Orleans Living was actually the first
papers, but always with the alternative offer
publication to run a review the very month
to run a story if I managed to schedule an
of publicationbut even that story has a
appearance in their area. Thurston made no
stunning twist, as well see in a moment.
such offer, and when I did try to contact her
Gregory Alexander
Ambush Weekly, the citys leading LGBT
a few weeks later, after I scheduled a library
publication, ran one of the lengthiest and
appearance in her area, she neither replied
most intelligent reviews the book has received. But then again, what to my e-mails nor returned my calls.
does the gay community have to fear from the Church? If youre going
I thought I was having more luck with another Houma publication
to burn in hell anyway for your abominable lifestyle, why not read when a very talented local writer, whom Ill call B, informed me that
whatever you want?
she had read my book and wanted to review it for Point of Vue (POV), a
While I was canvassing the state, hustling notices and reviews, very popular lifestyle/culture magazine serving the Houma area. When
I gradually realized that I was having far more luck in the north than POV solicited B to write a review of a Louisiana book, she chose mine.
in the south. Demographically, Louisiana can be divided into two But when she turned in her review of The Holy Mark, POV declined to
parts: the Protestant north, which is virtually indistinguishable from run it, citing the books subject matter, which might be objectionable to
Mississippi or Arkansas, and the Catholic south with its French, their Catholic readers. I want to point out here that my book contains
Spanish, and Italian influences. In all, seven Catholic dioceses cover the virtually no profanity and absolutely no graphic sex; it is simply the
state, five in the south and two in the north. So my lack of success in the story of a sinful priest. B ended up posting her review on Amazon and
south first struck me as counterintuitive, since I was still under the nave Goodreads, but her point of view was of no interest to POV. Totally
assumption that a novel narrated by a Catholic priest would resonate in disgusted with their cowardly decision, B fulfilled her obligation to the
a region where half of the counties (or parishes, as we call them down magazine by reviewing a book that was published six years earlier.
here) are either named after saints (Landry, John the Baptist, Helena,
The Times of Acadiana was another paper that I was certain would
etc.) or miraculous events etched in Catholic dogma (Ascension and give me a review. The paper serves Lafayette, the fourth-largest city in
Assumption).
Louisiana and the site of one of the earliest and most egregious clergyI was wrong. In Lake Charles, the largest city in southwest Louisiana, abuse scandals, the case of Father Gilbert Gauthe, who was eventually
If youre going to burn in hell anyway

for your abominable lifestyle, why
not read whatever you want?
1ST QUARTER 2015
imprisoned in the 1980s. After repeated e-mails, Entertainment Editor

Dominick Cross finally informed me that he was turning over my
information to the papers book reviewer, but my follow-up e-mails were
ignored. Apparently the Times didnt want to reopen those old wounds.
Lake Charles, Lafayette, and Houma are not only three of the ten
biggest cities in Louisiana. They are also the headquarters to three of the
seven Catholic dioceses in the state. Bishop Glen John Provost presides
in Lake Charles, Bishop Michael Jarrell in Lafayette, and Bishop Shelton
Fabre rules in Houma. In an interview with Underground Book Reviews,
I consider the attitude of the American Press and POV to be an insult to
all of their readers, Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
POV was not the only media outlet in Southern Louisiana to back
out of a commitment to The Holy Mark. As I stated earlier, my books
first print review occurred in the February 2014 issue of New Orleans
Living, but heres the unhappy twist: A few weeks after that review
appeared, I e-mailed the magazines publisher, Maria Muro, about a
possible guest spot on her local, prime-time television program, also
called New Orleans Living. The program airs weekly on WLAE-TV, a
Ill level with you, he told me. If

it were up to me, Id print your
press release, but this is a very
conservative Catholic population,
and Id probably get in trouble.
local educational public television station. When Muro responded

within just a few hours, enthusiastically inviting me to appear on her
show and quickly arranging for the taping of the program, she told me
that she produces the shows and books the guests herself.
But before I even had the chance to reply to her email, I received a
second one from her. In it, she stated that after further discussion with
her producers, it was decided that my book would not be a good fit for
the program, as they prefer to avoid the topics of politics and religion. I
didnt think it would do any good to remind her that she had just told me
she produces her own shows, nor did I believe it would be of any use to
point out that I had already been interviewed by three newspapers and
two web radio shows (Conversations Live with Cyrus Webb and The
Happy Hour on ItsNewOrleans.com), and none of those conversations
were about religion. Those conversations were about literature and the
writing of a novel set in New Orleans. To presume that a book narrated
by a priest has to be about religion is as obtuse as insisting that a book
with a doctor as its main character must be about medicine. Of course
it was all mootespecially after I discovered that the Chairman of the
Board of WLAE-TV is Reverend Thomas Chambers, a Catholic priest.
Ive had far greater luck with public libraries, which seem to be
immune from Church pressure, even in Louisiana. In fact, almost every
parish library system in Southeastern Louisiana has The Holy Mark on
its shelves. The State Library Committee was so impressed with the
book that they invited me to give a talk on it at the State Book Festival
last November. Both Louisiana State University and Tulane University
have added it to their Louisiana collections. Loyola University, however,
ignored my requests. Loyola is run by the Jesuits. In my novel, that
religious order fares very poorly, even in the eyes of Father Tony, my
deeply flawed but nevertheless charismatic protagonist.
1ST QUARTER 2015
New Orleans is often touted as an Old World city. But nothing is

more illustrative of that than its three prongs of power and influence:
the rich, the politicians, and the Church. A recent front page photo in
the Times-Picayune spoke volumes to that phenomenon. The photo
commemorated the downtown unveiling of a statue of Tom Benson,
owner of the New Orleans Saints. Along with Benson and his wife were
Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Governor Bobby Jindal, and His Excellency
Gregory Aymond, Archbishop of New Orleans.
Media outlets like the American Press, Point of Vue, and WLAE-TV,
as well as Catholic libraries like Loyolas, can always use the pretext of
looking out for their conservative Catholic audiences to censor books
like mine. But its really not Catholics that they are afraid of offending.
Catholics are reading my book and loving it. Its that third prong of
power that they fear. Just as the New Orleans DA refused to bring
charges against that priest whose story inspired my novel twenty years
ago, they just cant bear to embarrass Holy Mother Church. And Holy
Mother Church certainly doesnt want anyone to read about people like
Father Tony. Nor to talk about them. Nor to even know about them.
A former Catholic school teacher, Gregory Alexander has degrees in
psychology and American literature, both of which figure prominently in
The Holy Mark. His short stories have appeared in literary magazines
across the country.
by Bob Fliegel
WHY THEY BELIEVE
I marvel at the willingness of the faithful to suspend disbelief

in exchange for whatever they are getting in return.
had four imaginary friends as a child: Beddle Bahbahtch, Reachover Sweeney, Lem
Keg, and God, but I havent had a conversation with any one of them for more than
sixty years. Theism fascinates me. I marvel at the willingness of the faithful to
suspend disbelief in exchange for whatever they are getting in return, and every now and then,
I reflect on the probable reasons behind it all. Here are my top ten.
1. The alternative is unacceptable.

To be godless remains anathematic in our society. Atheists are
viewed as the epitome of arrogance and their denial of gods existence an
offensive assertion that believers are willing dupes. I think of agnostics
as closet Atheists who are uncomfortable defending the unequivocal
non-existence of god.
2. Belief is admirable.
Most of the people I know who are intelligent, kind, and moral
believe in God, they think, and Id like to be associated with their ilk.
Im convinced that people in positions of great powerour president
comes to minddisplay their faith as a means of disabusing their
constituencies of the notion that they regard themselves unaccountable

to a higher being.
Christians not only use their god as a device to preempt and
disparage human arrogance, but also to further buttress the illusory
premise of American egalitarianism with rationales like, We are all
equal under the law pursuant to the Declaration of Independence and
the Constitution, and also in the eyes of God.
3. A refuge in extremis.
Much of humanity seems hardwired to reach out to a theistic entity
when nothing else offers acceptable answers, fills a void, or delivers
relief. In other words, whatever works. I call it the Dr. Phil argument. On
1ST QUARTER 2015
I think of agnostics as closet Atheists

who are uncomfortable defending the
unequivocal non-existence of god.

his television show, pop psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw asks his hapless
guests, Hows that working for you? after listening to them describe
futile efforts to deal with some major life issue. When theists perceive
their beliefs to be working for them, the question of whether their god
exists, whether that major premise is valid or bogus, is irrelevant. Hey, if
the sham works, whats the big deal?
4. The argument of Pascals Wager.
French philosopher-mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
put it this way: If you believe in God and turn out to be incorrect, you
have lost nothing, but if you dont believe in God and turn out to be
incorrect, you may suffer for it in the afterlife. It is, therefore, foolish to
be an Atheist. Pascal ran the first spiritual hedge fund.
5. A necessary foundation for an ethical system.
Theists cannot trust that ethical behavior will be the norm in the
absence of a carrot-and-stick god to guide humans onto a righteous path
and keep them there. The carrot: the approbation of fellow believers.
The stick: the promise of Judgment Day.
6. The mysteries of first cause and human consciousness.
How did this complex universe of ours come into being? An
accidental Big Bang or a purposeful Big Divine Decision? And what
about the phenomenon of human consciousness, of self awareness?
Believers ask, How could we have possibly been endowed with
such extraordinary capabilities unless they had been part of a divine
blueprint?
7. An epiphany.
This is the congregants equivalent of a ministerial or priestly
calling, more common to born-again evangelicals than to adherents in
the non-charismatic wings of mainstream sects.
8. Fear of oblivion after death.
Humans have a terrible time internalizing death as oblivion.
The prospect of being turned off like a light bulb or having ones life
ratcheted down to nothing by the rheostat of aging or disease is often
just too much to handle. Theists are quite content to suspend disbelief
for gods promise of an afterlife, and they want to envision that afterlife
as one in which they are granted some semblance of the self-awareness
theyve enjoyed in their earthly lives. Otherwise, how would they know
they were there?
9. Purpose, community, serenity, and culture.
Believers assume that god put them here for a divinely
envisioned purpose, one more admirable than any they might set for
themselves. Otherwise, whats it all for? They also seek and find in
their faith both a communal identity among like thinkers and a kind
of transcendental serenity. The latter is similar in intent and effect to
what is experienced by those practitioners of yoga and tai chi who
manage to achieve it without the baggage of a supernatural or divine
premise. And when theism is deeply woven into a national, ethnic,
or family ethos, the thought of disavowing the belief component
brings the fear of undermining the culture as a whole.
10. Believing in believing.
An expression of what Plato called a noble lie and similar to a
Hollywood screenwriters intent to foster a suspension of disbelief,
this reason may well define the majority of theists. It includes an
implicit admission that no, I dont really believe in God, but I believe
in believing in God because I like the trappings of comfort, piety, and
societal admiration that come along with it.
As Tina Turner might ask, whats logic got to do with it? And as
Elaine Benes would most certainly reply, absolutely nuthin.
Fathered by a Jew, born of and baptized a Lutheran, and raised as a
Christian Scientist, Bob Fliegel is a secular humanist who has lived his
life pursuant to the highest standards of ethical behavior of which a
misguided pagan is capable.
Believers assume that god put them here

for a divinely envisioned purpose, one
more admirable than any they might set for
themselves. Otherwise, whats it all for?
1ST QUARTER 2015
Should an Atheist
Accommodate
or
Confront?
by Gil Gaudia, Ph.D.
ccommodationism, a term that mesmerizes

some nonbelievers, could become the great
Atheist sellout of the twenty-first century if
allowed to go unchallenged. An example of
accommodationism carried to extreme is the placement of an engraved
sign at the entrance of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
Countya public museum. The sign read, The Nature Lab is a gift
to Los Angeles to celebrate all of Gods creatures and enable NHM to
broaden our understanding of the natural world through the process
of scientific discovery, Anonymous Donor 2013. Apparently the
director of the museum felt that it was appropriate to accommodate
some wealthy theist by declaring that God was behind the museums
artifacts, exhibits, and displays.
This incident is reminiscent of the hooey proposed by the late
Stephen Jay Gould, a biologist who could not divest himself of his godbelief. He went to absurd lengths to accommodate it with his idea of
Non-Overlapping Magesteria. He proposed that the the domain of
science and the domain of religion are both real and can coexist because
science explains what the world is made of and religion explains why the
world exists. Goulds decision to play nice with theists has long irritated
many Atheists. Why on Earth would a world-class scientist propose

a strategy that, if followed by most Atheists, would probably result in
the return of Atheism to the whispered confessions and euphemistic
descriptions that were characteristic of a century ago?
Enter Jerry Coyne, a University of Chicago biology professor and
apparently not an accommodationist, who wrote to the museums
director to say that the inscription was misleading the public because it
implied that the museum was giving its scientific imprimatur to the idea
that animals are Gods creatures. As a result of Coynes confrontational
approach, the museum removed the inscription. Afterward, they tried
to account for why they installed and then removed the inappropriate
message by saying, The decision to remove the quotation was made
because of its potential to cause confusion.
Confusion is an understatement, because despite its own websites
proclamation that the museum protects over 35 million specimens,
dating back 4.5 billion years, the inscription implied an agreement with
the creationist belief that the world is a mere six thousand years old.
That a natural history museum would install such a concession to
religion in the first place is baffling to me, but it provides a stunning
example of how accommodating rather than confronting religious belief
Is it right to walk out, as some of us did? Or

should we politely accommodate and suffer
in silence in the face of unexamined arrogance?
1ST QUARTER 2015
works against science, thwarts our efforts to de-stigmatize Atheism, and

creates the impression that god and his activities are part of the natural
worldor at least compatible with it.
I began confronting as a ten-year-old when I said to a proselytizing
Christian teacher in a public school in front of the entire class, I dont
believe that stuff. Seventy-five years later, I am still convinced that there
are myriad situations where it is entirely appropriatedesirable, in fact
to confront rather than accommodate others. I was proud that my wife
Jeanne and I, along with two or three others, recently did something to
confront, and yes, even antagonize. I would do it again as well as every
time I find myself faced with the same kind of situation in the future.
The retirement community where Jeanne and I live offers many
programs and activities. A recent newsletter described an upcoming
concert this way, The [ music trio] have become a [residence] favorite.
Their love for music along with their vast repertoire makes them truly
special. It sounded like an event we would like to attend.
Accommodating, rather
than confronting
religious belief, works
against science and
thwarts our efforts to
de-stigmatize Atheism.
Jeanne occasionally needs to go places in a wheelchair, and on
the day of the concert she got seated as comfortably as one can be on
a canvas seat. I then pushed her through the buildings long corridors,
rode the elevator down to more corridors, and then finally reached
the performance hall. I then muscled a few of the fifty or so folding
chairs that were set up for the audience and rolled her wheelchair
into position to enjoy the entertainment. Friends and acquaintances
nodded and smiled, pleased to see us on one of our infrequent outings.
A few came over to chat.
The trios leader took the microphone, waited for the audience
to quiet down, and smilingly, without any preamble, announced that,
Today we celebrate the most important day in the history of the
worldthe glorious day when Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was
crucified, sacrificing Himself for our sins and after three days arose from
the dead to be with God in Heaven.
What in the world are we about to hear? I thought. The answer
came very quickly, as the vocal strains of Alas! and Did My Savior
Bleed was followed by the melodic Blessed Redeemer. But before the
lead singer got to the second line, I whispered softly into Jeannes ear,
Shall we go? A nod from my non-confrontational and gentle wife of
63 years was quickly followed by me standing up, unlocking the wheels
of her wheelchair, and pushing off through the assembled crowd. There
were many turned heads and stares as well as some accusatory glares.
After all, the singer was in the midst of her tribute to Our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ, and I am sure many of the Christians there were
1ST QUARTER 2015
moaning in heavenly bliss.

The following morning, still seething over the arrogance of
fundamentalist Christians who think it is perfectly acceptable to preach
about Jesus without knowing anything about their audience, I dashed
off an email to the manager of our facility which read in part:
Dear [Manager],
Why wasnt it made more clear in the newsletter that
the [trio] program was going to be a Christian sermon set to
music? I am tired of being waylaid by Christian proselytizers,
whether it be at the dinner table or in a concert that I never
suspected was going to be a tribute to Our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Yet once again, we found ourselves faced with
the decision to suffer in silence or get up and walk out on
a performance that is decidedly not meant for a general
audience.
There is a sizable population of secular humanists,
freethinkers, agnostics, Atheists and other non-believers at
this facility, and this is demonstrated by the number of people
who regularly attend our Nones meetings. Their feelings are
totally dismissed by the arrogance of Christians who think
it is perfectly acceptable to preach Jesus to an audience as
though it were a given that everyone present will be receptive
to their fanatical sermonizing.
If I were to announce in the [newsletter] that a speaker
would be giving an informative lecture on philosophy and it
turned out to be a glorification of Atheism, you can be sure
that I would be criticized as having entrapped, insulted and
assaulted all the believers who were present. I felt entrapped,
insulted and assaulted by this trio of melodious evangelists.
The manager called me immediately to apologize for the misleading

announcement and the trios program. She also informed me that she
had received numerous complaints from other residents, some of whom
were theists. She assured me this would not happen again.
Should Atheists and other freethinkers accommodate when
fundamentalist Christians campaign for their Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ under the guise of entertainment in situations outside of
churches and known religious gatherings? Did the trio cross a boundary
by assuming that everyone at our facility is a fundamentalist Christian?
Is their behavior not confrontational to us? Is it right to walk out, as
some of us did? Or should we politely accommodate and suffer in
silence in the face of unexamined arrogance?
Im sure many members of the audience who did appreciate
the public glorification of their god to a mixed audience found our
behavior confrontational and even insulting. They were right, and I
am fine with that.
Gil Gaudia, Ph.D., is a professor emeritus at State University of New
York and an editorial assistant at this magazine. He resides in Eugene,
Oregon, with Jeanne Gaudia, his wife of 64 years. He is an amateur
astronomer and still plays handball.
References
WhyEvolutionIsTrue.Wordpress.com. Religious
Accommodation in a Public Museum, Dec. 4, 2013.
SCPR.org. Natural History Museum Removes Quote Referring
to Gods Creatures Amid Controversy, Dec. 16, 2013.
LATimes.com. Natural History Museum in L.A.
Removes Reference to God, Dec. 17, 2013.
The Real Story

from an
Ex-Mormon
Missionary
Part One
by Greg Hawkins
ost people around the world will occasionally get a knock

on their door from a pair or group of missionaries from the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). These
young men and young women, always dressed modestly and wearing
name tags, are typically cheerful, excited people, eager to give you a
lesson about Jesus Christ. Most non-Mormons politely decline the
invitation, but occasionally curiosity wins out and the missionaries
(always in pairs or threes) are invited inside.
I am a former Mormon who served a mission in the Philippines.
For this series in American Atheist , Ill be taking you through each of the
six gospel lessons that missionaries are trained to share with you once
youve let them through the door. Ill be including lots of information
that the missionaries may leave outor may not even be aware of
themselves. My purpose here is to help you make an informed decision
with critical knowledge about the Mormon church and its teachings.
For an even deeper look at the process of training missionaries, have a
look at Preach My Gospel , the official missionary guidebook published
by the LDS Church.
In order to understand the religious lingo a little better, there are
some basic terms that youll need to know. A missionary is one who
Joseph and Emma and Greg and Katie: Ex-Mormon Greg Hawkins
and his only wife, Katie, in front of a statue of Joseph Smith and
Emma, one of his forty wives.
invites others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored
gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance,
baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.
Missionaries typically spend 18 to 24 months knocking on peoples
doors, teaching people lessons about the church, and giving service to
those in need. When missionaries provide service, it usually happens
through spontaneous projects within their assigned area. For example,
if someone is sweeping their porch or doing some home landscaping,
the missionaries are likely to stop and ask if that person needs help.
Missionaries will also plan service projects, where they will make plans
with someone to help them move, fix their car, repair their roof, etc.
Missionaries are not allowed to give money or shelter to those who
do not have money to spend or a place to sleep. They are, however,
required to make a monthly monetary donation to the church, even
though they are not allowed to earn an income. (The entire cost of
a missiontravel, food, clothing, housingis usually covered by
the missionarys family.) Money for these fast offerings comes from a
missionary foregoing two meals and turning over the money that would
have been spent on that food. The money does not stay in a missionarys
community; it goes to a central fund managed by the LDS Church.
Because missionaries are taught to stick to

the script, they are unprepared to deal with
any meaningful or intelligent deviation.
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A lesson is what the missionaries typically teach. Investigator is the

term for a non-Mormon who has agreed to sit through a lesson presented
by a missionary. The head of the LDS Church is called the prophet. He
(its never a woman) is the one who receives Gods revelations for the
church. He is also in charge of all the churchs earthly assets.
Each lesson opens with a prayer followed by a discussion on a single
religious topic (prayer, reading the scriptures, etc.). Before reciting the
closing prayer, the missionaries will make an affirmative declaration, or
testimony, that they have knowledge of the truthfulness of the Mormon
Church.
Missionaries are taught high-pressure sales tactics: be very attentive,

share personal stories, and include you in the discussion as much as
possible. Since missionaries always travel in pairs, one partner will
always affirm whatever their companion, or missionary partner, says.
They will adjust the lesson according to your personal situation. A
single mother working as a teacher, for example, will receive a very
different lesson than a corporate litigation attorney, even though the
core message will be the same.
Before they even knock on a door, missionaries know that they are
at odds with their investigators. For example, most Christians believe
in a trinitarian God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost as stated
Lesson One: The Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
in the Nicene Creed. Mormons, however, believe that Heavenly Father,
This is the first lesson that missionaries will share with you, once Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three separate individuals that
youve let them into your home. This is the lesson missionaries are the comprise a Godhead that is one in purpose but not in being. The Holy
most well-versed in, since very few investigators are interested in having Ghost is an incorporeal spirit with no real qualities of which to mention.
you back for Lesson Two. Lesson One is comprised of eight sections, Jesus is the son of the Heavenly Father, whose name is Elohim (Satan is
presented in this order:
Elohims son, too, by the way).
Moving on to families, Mormons believe that living according to
1. God is Our Loving Heavenly Father
the gospel of the Church provides families with blessings that include,
2. The Gospel Blesses Families
but are not limited to, financial stability and overall happiness. But
theyre very particular about the exact definition of family. A family is
3. Heavenly Father Reveals His Gospel in Every Dispensation
a married man and woman and their children. If an unmarried couple
4. The Saviors Earthly Ministry
conceives a child out of wedlock, they are encouraged to get married
in the Mormon temple before the child is born. If that isnt an option,
5. The Great Apostasy
then the baby should be put up for adoption. Thats what happened to
6. The Restoration of the Gospel of Christ
me. I was born to a young woman who was, at the time, a member of
7. The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ
the Church. She was pressured to allow the LDS Social Services find
adoptive parents for me. Gay couples arent allowed to get married
8. Pray to Know the Truth through the Holy Ghost
in a Mormon temple, and acting upon homosexual feelings is strictly
In a nutshell, the spiel goes something like this: God is our father forbidden by the Church.
Even though most missionaries have never read the Bible, this
in Heaven, and we are his children. God loves us, and we can talk to
him through prayer. The family is central to Gods plan. He wants to first lesson will include talk about Jesus and his earthly ministry
bless every family unit because the LDS Church is one giant family. He and atonement. The Book of Mormon claims that Jesus, after his
gave his gospel to strengthen families so that we, in our intact family resurrection, came to ancient America to mingle with a group of
units, may return to Him. Because of Gods immense love for us, he people called the Nephites and taught them many of the same things
sends us prophets to reveal his word. These prophets help us know he taught in the New Testament. Typically, a Mormon missionarys
and understand Gods will. They help us follow the correct church. conversational knowledge of the New Testament comes just from
Sometimes, a prophet is martyred for preaching Gods word to the reading the Book of Mormon, not the Bible. The Book of Mormon is
people. Jesus was the prophet who was born after the dealth of Malachi, a missionarys first priority, and the Bible takes a clear back seat. The
the final prophet in the Old Testament. Jesus also came as a sacrifice LDS Church acknowledges the existence of the Bible only because
for our sins. With his twelve apostles to aid him, he set up the original Jesus is a biblical figure, Joseph Smith studied the Bible avidly, and the
church. He preached, baptized, suffered, died, and rose again into Mormon Church spends millions on ad campaigns trying to convince
theyre just like other Christians. Most missionaries have a
heaven. After Jesus atonement and resurrection, the truth
faded
away people that
In La
Fond-Jeannette,
Haiti
as people shunned the apostles and altered the contents of the Bible. As few memorized Bible verses up their sleeves, but thats it. In my mission,
a result, there was no true church on Earth, and there were no prophets almost no one had read any of the Bible, let alone the New Testament.
or apostles who held the priesthood or the power to act in Gods name. Quiz a missionary on basic Bible trivia, and chances are they wont
This period of time is known as the Great Apostasy, which lasted know the answers.
Because missionaries are taught to stick to the script, they are
until 1820, when Jesus and an angel named Moroni appeared in Palmyra,
New York, to a young boy named Joseph Smith and called him to be the unprepared to deal with any meaningful or intelligent deviation. This is
prophet who would restore the one true church. Since the Bible had where you have a real opportunity to get a missionary to apply critical
mutated so much during the Great Apostasy, Joseph was provided with thinking to their faith. Its probably the first time in their life that theyve
a supplement called the Book of Mormon, which is proof that Joseph ever been asked to do so. I know that a direct, calm, determined, nonSmith was a prophet of Christ and his church. If you have faith, it will be confrontational exchange can change lives. There are a few topics that a
revealed to you through prayer that the LDS Church is the true church, missionary will probably not be prepared to discuss.
For example, when a missionary brings up Joseph Smith, ask
that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, and that the Book of Mormon is
about his marrying 14-year-old Helen Mar Kimball. Ask about the
the word of God.
Still with me? Yeah, I know, it can get a little tiresome, but when a brass Kinderhook Plates forged by two men to fool Joseph Smith, who
good missionary is doing the talking, the lesson is slick and polished. declared them to be an authentic account of a descendent of Noahs son
1ST QUARTER 2015
Ham. Ask about the four men shot and wounded by Joseph Smith when
he was incarcerated in Carthage, Illinois. Ask about the First Vision.
This question is particularly fun since there are ten different conflicting
accounts. Ask about the lost Book of Lehi.
When I was asked any of these questions, Id say something like,
Thats a very interesting observation. I dont know a lot about it, but
Ill try to study up on it more and get back to you later. Now, as we were
saying Missionaries are given a lot of creative license in how they
present each lesson, but the core script is the same, and they are taught
to teach a certain doctrine and only that doctrine.
Getting them to question their own literature is one of the fastest
ways to get them thinking about their faith more critically. Ask them
about the ethical implications of Nephi beheading Laban despite Gods
commandment against murder. Ask about the Book of Mormons
anachronisms like honey bees, chariots, and steel. Ask them about the
translation tactics Joseph Smith used (he looked into a hat with stones
in it) and from what language he translated the original golden plates.
(It was Reformed Egyptian, whatever that is.)
If theyve successfully reached the end of the lesson, they will then
ask you to pray with them. Mormons try to play down the fact that their
prayers differ from other Christian sects, so ask them about that. The
wording is very specific. You must begin by addressing Heavenly Father,
not God or Lord, and you must end with in the name of Jesus Christ,
Amen. I like to ask the missionaries how they protect themselves against
confirmation bias when they think their prayers have been answered.
During the few times Ive been visited by missionaries since I left,
Ive told them about my status as a former member. Theyll ask me why
I left, and Ill give them my laundry list of reasons, including their silly
method of gauging ones level of warm, positive feelings to determine
if something is true. I have seen and read countless tales of missionaries
falling away after they start researching the questions posed to them by
informed investigators. My friend John (not his real name) is a good
example. During his mission, an investigator asked him very similar
questions to the ones Ive provided. Although he finished his twoyear commitment to his mission, he remained full of questions that
were never fully addressed during that time. Once he started to study
Mormon history and doctrine on his own, he concluded that none of it
was true. He is now an Atheist.
Most missionaries are like John. They dont know the full story of
Mormonism, and the LDS Church has no plans to teach it to them. Its
important that you ask your questions in a non-confrontational way to
get the missionary to think and not just defend their claims. Theres a
chance that you just may help someone in a way that they will appreciate
for the rest of their lives.
In the next issue: Lesson Two - The Plan of Salvation.
Greg Hawkins officially renounced his faith in 2013. He is studying
political science and campaign management at the University of Utah
and plans to be an attorney.
1ST QUARTER 2015
Acknowledging My Atheism
by Djenne Thomas
When I did make friends

with other Blacks, theyd stop
talking to me whenever I told
them I was an Atheist.
ts half past ten in the morning, and my mom and I are headed
to a weekend meeting of Black Nonbelievers, Inc., a group she
founded in 2011. As she drives, I gaze at the stagnant gray clouds
and count the number of black cars that pass24, 25when suddenly,
I see a peculiar license plate. It reads: God s me.
Bewildered, I turn to my mother. Hey, did you see that?
See what? she asks.
I point to the blue sedan. My mom sighs, we look at each other, and
then continue toward our destination. I can only think that this is just
another person looking for attention.
That was the day a little over a year ago when I seriously began
thinking about what it means to be a nonbelieveror at least that was
when I became aware. I remember a much earlier time when I felt like a
multi-colored fish in a dull, black ocean. For example, when I was five, I
attended a private school that offered a wide variety of activities such as
karate, piano, and dance. It had a friendly vibe in an overachieving learning
environment. However, one thing stood out the most. At lunchtime, we
couldnt eat until we prayed: God is great, God is good. Let us thank
him for our food. By his hand we all are fed, give us Lord our daily bread.
Amen. I never understood what this meant, and why we said it was never
explained to me. So I would wait until it was over, then hungrily eat my
food. As much as I didnt want to, I had to stand up with the others and
join in the prayer.
What I love most about my family is that we are skeptical. Our larger
world often embraces religion, and we question the religious practices
that seem to interfere with the daily lives of others. We live in Forest Park,
Georgia, which could be described as a typical American suburb, but weve
traveled to many places, from the blue-green beaches of the Bahamas to
the lively, spectacular city of New York. When we eat, we never pray over
our food, nor is there any mention of any god at any given time.
My mom started Black Nonbelievers, Inc., (BlackNonBelievers.
Wordpress.com) by drawing from her experiences of growing up Black
Nationalist and also being exposed to religion in various aspects. I support
her by going to some of the meetings, and I have learned new things about
her and what it means to be an Atheist.
Recently, I saw the documentary film Contradiction about how
religion affects African American culture. It taught me many new things.
For example, religion was used as a tactic to mentally restrain slaves. As I
watched the film, I learned that many other races have that same problem.
1ST QUARTER 2015
Djenne Thomas (left) and her mom, Mandisa Thomas
Its as if the real world is a box of colors, but because religion keeps the box
from being opened, the world is dull instead. After learning this, I was able
to picture how many cultures were transformed once they were exposed
to Christianity.
Transitioning to a new environment is never easy. You have to get used
to new routines and people. When I transferred from public to private
school in third grade, the students werent all Black or African American.
And I felt happier as a result. Seeing people from different races and
cultures made me feel completely comfortable with myself. Even now,
I feel extremely apprehensive if I find myself surrounded by one race or
culture in particular at any given time.
Also, I find it hard to cope with being unable to get along with many
of my fellow African Americans. It started as a joke, but I went to my room
one day, closed the door, sat down, and brain-vomited all of my thoughts.
What kept coming to mind were the times I saw Blacks committing
themselves to a higher deity. And the more I pondered, the more I
couldnt help but feel a sense of frustration with it all because when I did
make friends with other Blacks, one thing would eventually distance us:
religious belief. Theyd stop talking to me whenever I told them I was an
Atheist. When I told them I was bisexual, theyd stop talking to me for
that, too. I find it much easier to talk with my peers from other races. In
fact, more of them are Atheist, just like I am.
In a world filled with extravagant things and adventures, I never
thought too hard about religion. I accept people for who they are as long
as they accept me for who I am. My mom is my role model. She is able to
overcome obstacles head-on and still keep a smile on her face, even when
someone tells her to go to hell. To me, being an Atheist isnt worshipping
the devil or even declaring that god doesnt exist. It means that Im an
adventurer who is a skeptic and feels free. As I travel and meet new people,
I question and explore whatever I want. I expect a straightforward answer
and never stop looking.
If I had one thing to say to my friends who are believers, it would be
to keep an open mind. And I would say the same to my friends who are
Atheists. There is so much to learn beyond what is shown to us by our
parents, teachers, and even what we may see for ourselves. We just cant
be afraid of the journey.
Djenne Thomas recently started an LGBT club at Forest Park High School
in Georgia, where she is a senior.
How to Prove That Prayer Doesnt Work

Excerpted from the New Book
How God Works by Marshall Brain
Marshall Brain is the founder of HowStuff Works.com and the
creator of the web sites WhyWontGodHealAmputees.com and
GodIsImaginary.com. After having reached millions of people
through these web sites and a YouTube channel, he has just
published the book How God Works. Its goal is to help people
understand, with certainty, his core message that god is imaginary.
One good way to uncover gods imaginary nature is to examine
prayer. This book contains six chapters on the subject. Each one
examines from a different angle how belief in prayer is a superstition.
The book also demonstrates that the Bible is a collection of myths
and that every relationship with god is a fabrication. This is an
excerpt from Chapter 5, Does God Answer Prayers?
n the Christian faith, God and Jesus answer prayersthis is a

consistent message. There are many places in the Bible where
Jesus makes the claim. And people believe these claims. If you
go to Google and type in prayer as your search term, there
are tens of millions of results. Amazon shows tens of thousands of
books on prayer. YouTube has millions of videos on the topic. Prayer
is everywhere, and Christians overwhelmingly believe in the power
of prayer.
But what if these billions of Christians are wrong? What if the
effectiveness of prayer is imaginary?
Lets start at the beginning. What, exactly, is prayer and what does
the Bible have to say about prayer? The dictionary defines praying as to
speak to God especially in order to give thanks or to ask for something.*
That seems simple enough, but there is quite a bit more to it. Its
actually quite amazing what prayer can do according to the Bible. For
example, in Matthew 7:7, Jesus says:
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock,
and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh
receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that
knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you,
whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he
ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil,
know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much
more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to
them that ask him?
Matthew 17:20 says this: And Jesus said unto them, Because of
your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of
mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder
place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
Matthew 21:21 says, Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I
say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this
which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain,
Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.
The message is reiterated in Mark 11:24: Therefore I say unto you,
What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them,
and ye shall have them.
In John 14:1214, Jesus says:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the
works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these
shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever
ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may
be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name,
I will do it.
In Matthew 18:19, Jesus says, Again I say unto you, That if two of
you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall
be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
James 5:15-16 says, And the prayer of faith shall save the sick,
and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they
shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one
1ST QUARTER 2015
Prayer simply does not work
the way Jesus says it does in the Bible. With

simple, easily reproducible experiments,
we have proven it conclusively.
for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much.
In Mark 9:23: Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things
are possible to him that believeth. In Luke 1:37: For with God nothing
shall be impossible.
These statements are clear and straightforward. They are not
vague, ambiguous, or wishy-washy. The Bible dictates that Christians
believe in a perfect God, who never lies, and this God speaks through
Jesus, his perfect son, when he says that, You may ask me for anything
in my name, and I will do it. He says, For with God nothing will be
impossible. There is no ambiguity. There is no allegory. We have not
taken these clear statements out of context. These are positive claims
of effectiveness.
There is no difference between these positive claims for prayer
and the positive claims of effectiveness that a drug manufacturer
would make for a new drug. Therefore, we can test these claims for the
effectiveness of prayer just like we test a manufacturers claims for the
effectiveness of a drug.
A Simple Experiment
Given what we now know about the Bibles claims for prayer, what
would we expect prayer to do during a coin toss? According to the
claims in the Bible, prayer should have an obvious, measurable effect
Jesus is quite clear about this.
So, lets imagine that you are a Christian who believes in the power
of prayer. Here is a simple experiment that will show you something
very interesting about your faith in prayers effectiveness. Take a coin
out of your pocket. Now pray sincerely to Jesus, like this: Dear Jesus,
I have great faith that you hear and answer prayers as you promise in
Bible verses like John 14:12-14. I am going to flip this ordinary coin fifty
times, and I am asking you to cause it to land tails side up all fifty times.
In your name I pray, Amen.
Now start flipping the coin. There is a fifty-percent chance that it
will land tails on the first flip. There is a twenty-five-percent chance that
it will land tails again on the second flip. There is a 12.5-percent chance
that it will land tails again on the third flip. After the fifth or sixth flip,
the coin will have probably landed heads at least once. The chances of
getting fifty tails in a row are exceedingly smallapproximately one
in one quadrillion. This chance is so low that if it were to happen, we
would suspect that the coin is rigged and has tails on both sides.
But if Jesus and God answer prayers as claimed in the Bible, we
should be able to pray and have a fifty-tails run happen whenever we
wish. After all, Jesus says in Mark 9:23, If thou canst believe, all things
are possible to him that believeth. In Luke 1:37 he says, For with God
nothing shall be impossible. In John 14:14: If ye shall ask any thing in
my name, I will do it.
1ST QUARTER 2015
If prayer is effective, as promised by Jesus in the Bible, and if the

attributes of God are true, then prayer should affect a coin toss in
obvious, measurable ways. We should be able to see clear statistical
patterns emerge when we pray about a coin toss.
Here is another experiment to try: flip the coin a thousand times,
praying to Jesus on each flip for it to land tails. Record the way the coin
lands each time. If the Bibles claims about the efficacy of prayer are true,
we would expect the coin to land tails every time. If we flip it and dont
pray, we would expect the coin to follow the regular laws of probability.
Perform the experiment yourself. Regardless of how you pray or
how much you pray, you will find that the coin lands heads or tails in
exact correlation with the normal laws of probability. Our prayers to
Jesus have absolutely no effect on the coin no matter how much we pray.
Even if we find hundreds of Jesus most faithful believers and have them
all pray together for the coin to land tails, these prayers are ignored. The
normal rules of probability always prevail.
This is such a simple experiment and the results are transparently
clear. Prayer simply does not work the way Jesus says it does in the
Bible. With these simple, easily reproducible experiments, we have
proven it conclusively. And if you extrapolate just a bit, that clarity
extends worldwide. Its not like there are two laws of probabilityone
for religious people who pray and the other for people who are not
praying. Theres only one law of probability and it works the same way
for everyone, everywhere, all the time, regardless of how much prayer
is involved.
Even if prayer worked just a tiny bit, the effect would show up
statistically and statisticians would be required to account for it. Instead,
we know with certainty that there is no effect. You can repeat the
experiment right now if youd like. The Bible says, You may ask me for
anything in my name, and I will do it. Here we are asking, but nothing
happens. Why might that be?
Rationalizations
If you believe in God and the Bibles promises about the power of
prayer, you are probably coming up with one or more rationalizations
to explain why God did not respond to any of the previously mentioned
prayers:
Its not His will.
He doesnt have time.
I didnt pray the right way.
Im not worthy.
I dont have enough faith.
I cant test the Lord like this.
Its not part of His plan for me.
Theres only one law of probability, and
it works the same way for everyone,

everywhere, all the time, regardless
of how much prayer is involved.
Those verses in the Bible do not apply to coin tosses.

One must read the entire Bible and synthesize its true meaning.
And on and on and on.
You may say to yourself, Well, of course Jesus doesnt answer me
when I pray about a coin toss, because it would be too obvious. Where
does this rationalization come from? If a Christian prays for a cure
for her cancer and the tumor disappears, that is completely obvious.
In fact, any time a Christian claims an answered prayer, the result is
usually obviousotherwise, the claim could not be made. Christian
inspirational literature is full of stories of answered prayers, most of
them obvious.
In addition, if you read what Jesus says about prayer in the Bible,
Jesus does not ever say, Do not pray to me about coin tosses, or Do
not pray about obvious things. Jesus clearly says he will answer your
prayers, and he puts no boundaries on what you may pray about. There
is nothing confusing about, You may ask me for anything in my name,
and I will do it. Coin tosses certainly qualify as anything.
One common rationalization is, Jesus does answer prayers, but
only occasionally, so statisticians cannot detect it. A statement like this
shows a remarkable level of delusion. A critical thinker understands
that if statisticians are unable detect the effects of prayer, that inability
is the proof that prayers are having no effect. This rationalization is
specifically designed to ignore the truth represented by the evidence.
Another common rationalization is, Jesus didnt mean what he said
in the Bible. Hes not a vending machine operated by prayer. But this
contradicts statements like the one in John 14:14, where Jesus says, You
may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. Jesus stipulates
here that he is a vending machine operated by prayer. We could convene
a conclave of Christian leaders and theologians to try to interpret what
Jesus actually meant with his clear, unambiguous statement. But we
would run into one big problem that any critical thinker immediately
sees: a perfect being who never lies could not make a statement that
is untrue. A perfect being would speak the truth at all times, without
ambiguity. For example, if what Jesus meant was, You can accomplish
some things if you put your mind to it and circumstances happen to
turn out in your favor, then as a perfect being, he would have said that.
God has said in the Bible that we can pray to him and get results, but
this simply is not true. You can easily prove it to yourself in your living
room anytime you like by praying for things like these:
1. Ask God to let you defy gravity and fly through the air like
Superman.
2. Ask God to make a billion dollars in gold bars appear on the
floor in front of you.
3. Ask God to write down the next fifteen winning lottery numbers
on a sheet of paper for you.
These things are all impossible. Therefore, they never happen, no
matter what the Bible says and no matter how much you pray.
It does not really matter what you ask for. Do the experiment,
correctly tabulate the results, and see what you discover. If what you
pray for is impossible, it will not happen (that is the definition of
impossible), despite what Jesus says in the Bible. If it is possible, it will
happen at the same statistical rate to you that it would happen to anyone
else, regardless of whether or not you pray. In other words, no matter
what you pray for or how you pray for it, there will be no measurable
effect in the real, physical universe. If you take the time to track and
measure the results of any prayer of intercession in the same way that
an unbiased scientist would, you can easily prove the true nature of our
world to yourself. Prayers of intercession have no effect in the real world.
What does the failure of prayer say about God? The Bible, which
defines God and his attributes and is purportedly written by a perfect
God who cannot lie, contains statements about prayer that are clearly
and provably wrong. Simple experiments and observations of the
real world all demonstrate the same thing to critical thinkers willing
to examine the evidence without bias: God and Jesus do not answer
prayers. The inability of believers to think critically blinds them to the
truth of the real world they live in.
* Merriam-Webster.com/dictionary/pray,
Accessed June 23, 2014.
If statisticians are unable detect the effects

of prayer, that inability is the proof
that prayers are having no effect.
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by Dale DeBakcsy
or the scrambling and harried purveyors of world

religion, purpose is the last, tenuous redoubt. No
longer able to hawk protection from demons or the
guaranteed intercession of angels, their hell out of
sync with a less vengeful age and their heaven finally being
recognized for the extended juvenile fantasy fugue that it is,
priests and holy men are in a mad whirl to find something that
they, and particularly they, can offer.
For some, that answer is community, but the smart ones have
already forfeited that ground for purpose, which is something
less tangible and therefore more manageable. Purpose, in bold
and italic with a little star over the letter i that isnt even there,
is a get-out of-obsolescence elixir that theyve been brewing for
a few thousand years now and finally have cause to use. Whats
more, by slowly and insistently foisting extra metaphysical
baggage onto an already loaded word, theyve been able to
make everybody else use it, too. The peddlers of religion say,
We know your purpose, your reason for existence. We Atheists
should know better than to enter the fray, but too often natural
combativeness or pride overcomes our better guiding lights. Not
to be outdone, we counter-clamor, No, weve got a much more
sublime purpose for you. It comes complete with contemplation
of the universe, and the joys of shared human experience! And
its narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson!
Being an Atheist is pretty awesome, but to start listing all of
the ways that Atheism gives you a sense of purpose is to have
Religion has made a disease where

before there was only a question.
1ST QUARTER 2015
Unlike purpose, goals are generated

from within and they change
with time and disposition.
already lost. It lets religion reinforce the notion that our actions
are not legitimate unless they are sanctioned from outside our
merely personal sense of social industry. Mired in that lexicon,
we must be either charmingly insincere (I know I dont mean
purpose, but Ill say it anyway for the cameras to keep those
Christians from scoring a point) or honestly uninformed, and
neither of those bode well for the long game.
The fact is, purpose is a cloying term that radiates the illusory
light of freedom and fulfillment in order to mask a basic need
for control. Originating in honest curiosity about the nature of
human life, purpose has since been metaphysically refurbished
to restrict individuality by mandating the boundary between
normal and perverse. This is a legitimate purpose of life, that
is not. Its very existence calls priests, as the grim arbiters of
purpose, into being. And as long as we believe in purpose as an
evaluative category, so will the godly castes be there to wave its
tattered banner in our faces.
But gosh, lifes gotta have a purpose, dont it, Mister?
Well, kids, its like this. As primates with a gregariousness
turned up to eleven, we humans are chemically addicted to each
other. Our brains, like those of our bonobo and chimp cousins,
are elegantly wired to internally model everything we see each
other doing. We live the lives of those we observe almost as much
as we live our own. We find absolute delight in the laughter of
others and, so long as we havent been conditioned against it
by the massive machinery of theology, relive keenly the pain of
others. We help each other, feel comfortable with each others
casual and even insistent presence, and feel inhuman when
deprived of it because, chemically, we cannot do otherwise.
We seek out professions and relationships based on our
chance strengths and random opportunities, all under distinctly
determined and thoroughly lovely laws in which we have
positively no say. Those of us who respond to talk of purpose are,
more likely than not, already in the process of turning around
on our own steam. And for those of us who, by circumstance
or basic nature, never quite make a go of life, the chant find a
purpose will do little but breed resentment and despair.
Goals, on the other hand are good. Unlike purpose, goals
are generated from within and they change with time and
disposition. Goals bring with them a vocabulary far less heinous.
You can fail to reach a goal, but you cant betray it. You can lack
goals at the moment, and be perfectly fine, but to say you have
no purpose is to put yourself in a class of sub-humanity that, in

all theologically sponsored accounts, ends in a drunken shamble
towards self-destruction. After having pumped up the term with
such supernatural power and significance, religion has made a
disease where before there was only a question. Its the primary
rule of advertising: Create a need, and then make people ill for
the want of it. Only in this case, the illness isnt a passing yearning
for a Skeletor with Rotating Battle Damage, but a civilizationspanning, unquenchable malaise hypocritically serviced by its
creators.
Human life is something that happensas does gravity,
as does the emission of a photon when an electron drops to a
more stable orbitand purpose is a shabby fit for all three. Life
comes pre-loaded with its own satisfaction mechanisms that
Christianity has spent the better part of two millennia feverishly
attempting to snuff out in order to place church-approved
purpose in its place. And theyll continue to do so as long as
the concession is made that purpose is something worth talking
about.
Pursue yourself, to the subtlest drive and the most tantalizing
neurosis, because, sorry, youre stuck with the brain you came
with, and there will be no refunds on the unused portion thereof.
Pursue other people, because unless you are a fascinating
mutant (and some of us are), that will take care of everything
your needy primate brain hungers for.
Pursue goals that match you and the people youve
surrounded yourself with and, if you succeed, then your brain
will reward you. If you fail, nothing crucial has really changed.
If we pursue a purpose above and beyond our actual
selves, were playing somebody elses game while begging for
recognition from indifferent idols. Through it all, we will have
only recognized ourselves dimly, as something foreign to be
lived down in the pursuit of something weve been told we must
have, by pundit and priest alike. But oh, the times are changing.
Maybe once we stop seeking impossible approval, the remaining
reality will be something we can at last follow to the full measure,
knowing it is ours, along with the glory of its pursuit.
Dale DeBakcsy is the author of Godless Nerdistry, or How to Be a
Bag of Chemicals and Still Have Fun, and The Illustrated Women in
Science: Year One. There is a ronto on his desk.
Listing all of the ways that Atheism gives you a

sense of purpose is to have already lost.
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DOGMA WATCH
Religion has had an enormous impact on the world. In this series, Michael B.
Paulkovich examines dogmas, myths, and religious notions past and present.
The Holy Bible:
Forgeries Upon an Original Fiction

by Michael B. Paulkovich
f course, it comes as no surprise today that the stories in the Bible

arent true. What may come as a surprise, though, is the fact that over
time, these original tales of fiction were modified in various ways
by those who had an agenda for their sacred scriptures. Today, the
English language boasts hundreds of versions of the Holy Bibleall in disharmony. While
many versions of the Bible have retained the altered segments, at least the publishers of
some versions are honest enough to indicate, often subtly and even cryptically, that certain
passages have been interpolatedthat is to say modified, forged, falsified.
The longer ending to Mark is one of

the most damaging and perhaps most
deceptive and forceful collection

of mendacities in the Bible.
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The resurrection narrative is
not present in the original gospel.

Shall Ye be Damned?
One of the most compelling examples of interpolation is in the
Gospel of Mark. The New Oxford Annotated Bible (NOAB), which uses
the NRS (New Revised Standard) Bible version as its text, provides
this footnote to the end of Chapter 16: 16:9-20: Two attempts to
provide a more satisfactory ending to the Gospel of Mark. The shorter
ending. Although present in some manuscripts, this ending is clearly
different from the rest of Mark in style and understanding of Jesus. The
annotation then mentions the existence of the longer ending, possibly
written in the early second century and appended to the Gospel later in
the second century.
The NOAB contains another footnote regarding this scripture,
which admits that some of the most ancient authorities bring the
book to a close at the end of verse 8. One authority concludes the
book with the shorter ending; others include the shorter ending and
then continue with verses 9-20 In the NOAB, the phrase ancient
authorities means that the earliest and most reliable physical scriptures
that still exist today are altered versions of the original.
The NOAB brackets the shorter ending, indicating its questionable
authenticity: [And all that had been commanded them they told briefly
to those around Peter. And afterward Jesus himself sent out through
them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of
eternal salvation.]
Bible scholars largely agree that both the shorter and the longer
endings are interpolations. The most reliable and oldest sources of Mark
end at 16:8, and the reason should be clear why some shifty copyist of the
second century added a fictional narrative after the original closing verse:
So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had
seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
This is the reason the NOAB theorizes that both the shorter and
longer interpolations are attempts to devise a more satisfactory ending.
This scene comes after some women have visited the tomb of Jesus,
where they encounter a young man who claims that Jesus has been
raised and tells them to report what they saw to Peter. Yet they said
nothing to anyone. If the original Mark 16:8 claimed that they looked
into the tomb but told nobody what they saw , then how could the
author of the Book of Mark know that? And thus at least two redactors
tried to fix this obvious work of fiction, one penning the longer ending
and another writer in the second century inventing the shorter.
The longer ending to Mark is one of the most damaging and perhaps
most deceptive and forceful collection of mendacities in the Bible. Here
is the text of Verses 16-20, the longer ending, as it appears in the King
James Version (KJV), translated from its original Greek:
Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week,
he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had
cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been
with him, as they mourned and wept. And they, when they
had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her,
believed not. After that he appeared in another form unto
two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. And
they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they
them. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at
meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness
of heart, because they believed not them which had seen
him after he was risen. And he said unto them, Go ye into
all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that
believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow
them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they
shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents;
and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them;
they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So
then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received
up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they
went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with
them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.
In his 1930 book, Forgery in Christianity, Joseph Wheless has this

to say about Mark 16:16 (He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.): It should be a
relief to many pious Hell-fearing Christians to know that their Christ
did not utter these damning words, and that they may disbelieve with
entire impunity; that they are priestly forgeries to frighten credulous
persons into belief and submission to priestcraft. Wheless was quite
the optimist. I have never met a Christian who was aware that Mark
16:9 onward was long ago exposed as complete forgery.
Mark was the earliest of the four Gospels and yet the original
version says nothing about a post-crucifixion appearance of Jesus! The
original also contained no edicts damning you for not believing or not
being baptized. That is not to say that the Jesus character would not
damn you for other things, such as blasphemy against the Holy Ghost
which puts you in in danger of eternal damnation (Mark 3:29). He
also threatens that a pretense of long prayers will cause you to receive
greater damnation (Mark 12:40). Then we have Jesus cautioning
against calling someone a fool, an offense that might be met with hell
fire (Matthew 5:22).
One cannot know who added the fraudulent longer ending to Mark,
but it was probably some unscrupulous individual who had compelling
reasons to frighten people into joining the newly invented religion.
No Casting the First Stone
The NOAB sets off the verses of John 7:53-8:11 in double-brackets
(thus indicating interpolation) and adds this footnote: 7.53-8.11:
The Encyclopedia Biblica states that John 21 is
beyond question a later appendix.

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Today, the English language boasts

hundreds of versions of the Holy
Bible all in disharmony.
The woman caught in adultery. This episode is not found in the most
authoritative manuscripts This is the story of men who bring an
unfaithful woman to Jesus with plans to stone her to death for adultery
(mandatory under Hebrew law). Jesus then utters the famous line, He
that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. Well,
Jesus said no such thing. This passage does not exist in our earliest and
most reliable copies of the scriptures. In addition, these verses also
contain the only reference to Jesus ever writing anything, which he does
in the dirt. Some Christians use this as proof that Jesus wasnt illiterate.
But this is an interpolation, so the proof goes poof.
No Nor the Son
In Matthew 24:36, Jesus says this about the end of the world: But
about that day and hour no one knows, not the angels of heaven, [nor
the Son,] but only the Father. Although the words nor the Son are
included in some early Greek manuscripts, the phrase does not appear
in the KJV. The NOAB notes: Other ancient authorities lack nor the
Son. I take this to mean that the translators of some Bible versions,
KJV included, recognized the logical contradiction: Jesus is omniscient,
so if God knows something, Jesus should, too. The KJV text says, But
of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but
my Father only.
No Resurrection
The entirety of John 21 is a later add-on. In Misquoting Jesus, Bible
scholar Bart Ehrman notes that the chapter seems to come to an
end in 20:30-31 ... and the events of Chapter 21 seem to be a kind of
afterthought The Encyclopedia Biblica states that John 21 is beyond
question a later appendix and does not come from the same author as
the rest of John. The NOAB agrees, even including most scholars in its
conclusion. The resurrection narrative is thus not present in the original
gospel. It is another tale of a post-crucifixion appearance that claims to
record a fictional third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples,
after that he was risen from the dead ( John 21:14).
No Even the World Itself
In his 1920 book A Commentary on the Holy Bible , John
Dummelow notes that in John 21:24-25, the verses are really doubtful
and ...may possibly have been added by the Ephesian elders, who first
put the Gospel in circulation after the death of the Apostle, and who
wished to testify to its genuineness and trustworthiness...to correct a
popular belief that the beloved disciple would not die before our Lords
Second Advent.
This corrupted Bible section contains the following fantastic handwaving tale: And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the
which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world
itself could not contain the books that should be written ( John 21:25).
Not Carried up into Heaven
Bible scholars agree that Luke 24:51 is a much later interpolation.
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The fraudulent version reads, While he was lessing them, he withdrew

from them and was carried up into heaven (NRS). The NOAB admits
other ancient authorities lack and was carried up into heaven. The
original version of Luke 24 says, While he was lessing them, he
withdrew from them. Thats it. No mythical and fictitious ascent to
heaven. A quick note on heaven: If sin is an outcome of free will, and
Christians claim that there is no sin in heaven, does that mean there is
no free will in heaven? Are people just robots there?
No Shutting up of Women
The text of 1 Corinthians 14: 34-35 is easy to cite as one of the many
examples of misogyny in the Bible, but these particular commands are
likely to be forgeries as well. The NOAB footnote for these verses reads,
Since these statements silencing women in the assembly are found
in two different places in the ancient manuscripts, between 14.33 and
14.36 and after 14.40, they may be a marginal gloss later interpolated
into the text; similar wording occurs in 1 Tim 2.311-12. Pauls epistles
as published in most Bible versions suffer from textual corruption. In
A Short History of Christianity, published in 1902, John M. Robertson
remarks that 1 Corinthians 11 and 15 have every mark of interpolation.
No Jesus in the Form of God
There is a hymn that was inserted into Philippians 2:6-11 declaring
that Jesus, being in the form of God, acquired the figure of a servant
and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. This
hymn, which contains several words found nowhere else in the New
Testament, comes out of nowhere and breaks the flow of Pauls letter.
Thats because it was not written by Paul.
No Driving Us Out
In 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15, Paul mentions the followers of Jesus being
driven out from their homeland: For you, brethren, became imitators of
the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured
the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they
did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and
drove us out (NASB). Paul was dead a decade before this occurred, so he
surely did not pen these words. Moreover, nowhere else does Paul blame
the Jews for killing his imagined Christ. Yet another interpolation.
Thus, we have the Holy Bible for what it is: a work of fiction in its
original form, forged and re-forged at the whim of early Christians who
added even more threats and magical events and wickedness. And do
you know, there are actually people today who believe all the stories in
the Bible to be true?
Michael B. Paulkovich is an aerospace engineer and freelance writer
who also contributes to Free Inquiry and Humanist Perspective. He is a
contributing editor for The American Rationalist and the author of No
Meek Messiah. His next book, Beyond the Crusades, will be published
this year by American Atheist Press.
Rewriting the
Ten Commandments
A conversation with Lex Bayer and John Figdor,

authors of Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart
by M. Dolon Hickmon
n Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart, authors Lex Bayer and John

Figdor attempt to answer two questions: What should one
believe after abandoning faith and what are the positive
principles of Atheism? The authors solution to both is
suggested by their subtitle: Rewriting the Ten Commandments for
the 21st Century. In the book, Bayer and Figdor share the list they
created and encourage readers to treat their solutions as mere
examples: We invite you to correct our errors, overcome our
deficiencies, and construct your own top ten list of beliefs. The
result is that, rather than creating a book that argues their own
moral leanings, they have designed a manual that each of us can
use to identify and clarify our own set of ethical beliefs or Noncommandments.
I took their advice and spent several long evenings at my
keyboard hashing out the whys and wherefores of my own ethical
beliefs. My list differed from theirs in important ways. As the
authors note in Chapter 12, The inner resolve, clarity, and comfort
that arise from reaching a state of self-understanding cannot be
overstated. And for me, the work was well worth the effort. I can
see this exercise as an especially good one to share among a small
group of like-minded friends, particularly those who are in a phase
of re-evaluating inherited cultural and familial beliefs.
Unexamined beliefs are dangerous.
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Authenticity is about making your words,

your values, and your actions align.
Last year, Bayer and Figdor created the ReThink Prize, which
challenged non-believers to reimagine the biblical Ten Commandments
as secular principals for living a reasonable, happy, and ethical life
without god. They called it crowd-sourcing the Ten Commandments
for the 21st century. They received more than 2,800 submissions. The
finalists were selected by popular vote, and the winners were chosen by
a panel that included American Atheists President David Silverman,
Adam Savage of Discovery Channels Mythbusters, National Medal of
Science recipient Gordon Bower, and Richard Dawkins Foundation
Executive Director Robyn Blumner. The winning entries are posted on
AtheistMindHumanistHeart.com.
Bayer is the head of business
development
at
AirBNB.com.
Culturally Jewish, he spent his
childhood in South Africa and was
formally educated in engineering
and technology entrepreneurship at
Stanford University. Figdor is a native
New Yorker who was raised in the
United Church of Christ. He studied
at Harvard Divinity School and is
currently the humanist chaplain at
Stanford University. He is also the
author of Spiritual Guidance across
Religions.
In my interview with them, we
talked about what Atheism is and
what it is not. We also discussed
the subjectivity of morality and the
increased acceptance of non-belief.
The book begins by clarifying
the differences between Atheism,
agnosticism and humanism. Which of
these labels do you apply to yourselves,
and what do they mean to you?
There are far more similarities
here than differences. Each term just
emphasizes a different aspect of nonbelief. Both of us apply all three labels
to ourselves.
Atheism means a lack of belief
in a god or gods. Agnostic means
there is insufficient evidence to claim
definitively that god exists. Humanism is the belief that science is the
best way to understand the natural world, and ethics are predicated on
the needs of humans, not the commands of gods or supernatural entities.
An agnostic is sometimes incorrectly assumed to mean a person who
thinks there is a fifty-fifty chance that god exists. But in practice, people
who identify as agnostics tend to lean strongly towards non-belief. An
Atheist is often misunderstood to mean that a person has conclusive proof
that god doesnt exist. In practice, most Atheists simply dont believe in god
because they find the evidence for such a belief wanting. Humanism isnt
a well-known term to the general public. People who identify as humanists
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tend to be secular with a focus on social-justice issues.

If we focus on the larger perspective, it becomes clear that these terms
unify a group of people who dont believe in god and justify their ethical
principles based on the needs of their fellow human beings.
What are some of the tools youve created to assist people in developing
their own lists of Non-commandments?
We recommend a number of different tools, but lets look at one of
them here as an example: Take the importance of finding the starting
assumptions that your beliefs are based upon. How do you discover what
these core beliefs are? When you ask
yourself why you believe in X, your
answer will typically take the form of,
Because I believe in Y. To get down
to your most fundamental beliefs,
keep asking yourself why. Eventually
youll reach a core belief which doesnt
rest on any other beliefs. These core
beliefs are, in essence, the starting
assumptions for your philosophy. It is
essential that you discover and deeply
question your starting assumptions,
because these form the foundation of
your outlook on the world.
Some of the other tools we
recommend include writing your
beliefs down, ordering the beliefs
by importance, explaining why and
how you arrive at each belief, testing
out your beliefs in practice in the real
world, sharing them with others to get
feedback, and revising and improving
them as you learn more and as your
ideas evolve.
Atheists often criticize the
religious for holding unexamined
beliefs, yet as I read through the book,
I realized how hazily defined many of
my own ethical ideas actually were.
Why should we pin our ethical systems
down when it seems so effective to
navigate by feelings?
Unexamined
beliefs
are
dangerous. They often mask mistaken assumptions. Thats why its
important to apply the same level of critical thinking that goes into the
question of belief in god to the questions of ethics. By doing so ourselves,
we found that ultimately our moral understanding and ethical perspectives
became clearer. Socrates once said that the unexamined life is not worth
living. Well, we think that the unexamined belief is not worth holding.
Lets consider an example. Say someone thinks that life seems easier
to bear if you believe that god will look after you. An Atheist would reject
a claim like this and say that it is unwise to reason about the world as you
wish it would be. Instead, one is better off facing the world as it really
An Atheist is often misunderstood to

mean that a person has conclusive
proof that god doesnt exist.
is. Now, if we apply the same type of thinking to an example of moral
thinking, we can realize the value of self-reflection and examining our
moral sensibilities.
For instance, when we were younger, we both were in favor of the
death penalty. We thought that the deterrent effect of capital punishment
justified its use. However, after reading studies on the efficacy of the
death penalty as a deterrent and learning about the significant number
of innocent people who have been wrongly convicted and executed, we
realized that our initial beliefs were in error, and
so we altered them.
Ultimately, discovering and fully articulating
ones ethical principles is about being authentic.
Authenticity requires that we know what our
values are and why they are what they are.
Authenticity, in this sense, is about making your
words, your values, and your actions align.
analyzed each category, however, no code was able to establish sufficient

evidence for why it should be the objective moral truth.
For example, we considered human-designed moral codes, like
Benthams utilitarianism, Kants categorical imperative, and Rawls veil of
ignorance. While aspects of each of these philosophies might be useful
in analyzing ethical situations, they each lack evidence for why their
particular perspective is objective while the others are not. What would a
Kantian say to a Utilitarian to move him away from the principle of utility?
How could a Utilitarian convince a Rawlsian that
morality isnt a matter of protecting individual
rights?
We noticed that we kept running into a core
problem. Objective morality means morality
without regard to human opinion. When we
debate moral values, we are discussing human
opinions about what people do and do not want
to have happen to them. Because the underlying
Many humanists embrace the ethic of
data is dependent on human opinion, it inherently
reciprocity or The Golden Rule, which states that
cannot be objective.
we should treat others as we wish to be treated.
Some Atheists feel we should say that morality
This is not one of your Non-commandments.
is objective, as a rhetorical move to avoid charges
Why?
of relativism, because if morality is a matter of
Lex Bayer
The Golden Rule expresses an idea so basic,
opinion, then it is sometimes falsely assumed that
so central to the idea of morality, that every society
all opinions are equally valid. However, ethical
has developed some version of it. Indeed, we
subjectivism is not the same thing as crude moral
build the idea of the Golden Rule into our moral
relativism. Just because we believe that there
system through the importance of cooperation.
isnt one right answer when it comes to morality
In our perspective, morality evolved as a system
doesnt mean that every opinion is equally valid.
of cooperation when human beings realized that
For example, just because we dont believe that
they could accomplish more by working together
there is one perfect cookie recipe doesnt mean
and cooperating than by remaining isolated. By
that all cookie recipes are equally good or that you
cooperating, human beings found themselves
can put anything you want in a cookie. Chocolate
in situations which comingled both self-interest
chip might not objectively be the best cookie
and group-interest. In those situations, the idea
recipe possible, but its better than a cookie made
of treating other people in your community the
with sardines and broccoli.
way you would want them to treat you is a basic
So, too, with morals. Even without one correct
John Figdor
tenet of cooperation.
answer, we can still debate how certain behavior
In the study of game theory, players in games like Tit for Tat fare will lead to different outcomes, and which outcomes are preferable for
better when they decide to cooperate. Players that pursue sneaky and society.
crafty strategies to exploit their opponents generally fare poorly in the
long run as their opponents punish them for not playing nicely.
What are your thoughts on why Atheism and other forms of non-belief
are gaining popularity today? Do you think this is likely to continue?
Chapter 9 confidently declares, Having failed to find even one
The growing trend towards secularism is encouraging. According
objective basis for moral truth, we are left to conclude that morality is to the American Religious Indentification Survey, the number of nonsubjective. Many professional philosophers disagree, and one even religious Americans ...more than doubled in numbers from 1990 to
challenged you on this in an online debate. Can you explain how you 2008.1 Then Gallup released polling data in October 2012 that found
arrived at your conclusion?
that 32% of people under the age of 30 are non-religious.2 A later Gallup
At first, we examined potential reasons for why morality might poll from March 29, 2013, showed that 31% of all Americans are nonbe objective. However, as we started looking for an objective basis for religious, where non-religious is defined as, saying religion is not an
morality, we kept finding problems. We looked at five main categories important part of their daily life and that they seldom or never attend
of moral codes: god-created moral codes, leader-created moral codes, religious services.3 The most recent polling data comes from Barna.
consensus moral codes, human designed moral codes, and duty. As we org, a Christian polling firm, which found that, Nearly two-fifths [sic]
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To get down to your most fundamental

beliefs, keep asking yourself why.
of the nations adult population (38%) now qualifies as post-Christian
(measured by 15 different variables related to peoples identity, beliefs and
behaviorsIn other words,more than one-third of Americas adults
are essentially secular in belief and practice.4 We think there are many
factors driving this trend, but a few major ones include:
1. Scientific explanations have replaced religious explanations
for natural phenomena, and this is only exacerbated by
the fast pace of scientific advancement. Increasingly,
religion and religious explanations are less attractive
because science is able to answer questions like, What
causes disease? and What causes earthquakes?
2. The internet has made huge amounts of information
publicly available and offered us a way to check facts
easily. The spread of scientific knowledge and ease of factchecking act as antidotes to faith-based perspectives.
3. Relatedly, the internet has also helped Atheists find community
with each other online, allowing non-believers to feel more accepted
socially and more comfortable expressing their own perspectives.
4. Millennials are more naturally skeptical because they have
grown up in a world where technology has empowered them to
gather proof more readily, from snapping digital photos at events
(pics, or it didnt happen) to searching Google on their moble
phones. Popular TV shows like CSI and Mythbusters have further
emphasized the role of evidence when confronting lifes mysteries.
How can this group be defined by what they believe in, rather than
what they do not believe in?
That is one of the central reasons for writing the book. We wanted to
educate people about some of the positive principles of non-belief that
are not directly related to the question of whether or not god exists. Of the
list of ten Non-commandments that we came up with, only one related
to the god question. The rest are principles related to living a reasonable,
ethical, and happy life based on Atheist and humanist principles.
We think the community can do better in describing what we do
believe in and what we stand for when engaging in dialogue with others.
Atheism can become as synonymous with being pro-science as it is with
being anti-religion. We should be as comfortable talking about our positive
beliefs and principles such as our commitments to reason, science, critical
thinking, compassion, and empathy as we are talking about the challenges
religion has with confronting the problem of evil.
John, what does your position as a humanist chaplain at Stanford
involve? Why are many colleges and universities hiring humanist
chaplains?
I have three main duties. First, Im there to support and counsel
students and to advocate for their perspective from within the Office
for Religious Life. This ensures that campus religious programming
is respectful of non-believers and that the non-religious perspective is
part of the dialogue. Second, I host events with people such as Richard
Dawkins, Greta Christina, and Richard Carrier to educate the campus and
the public about humanism and Atheism. Third, I help coordinate public
service projects such as blood and bone marrow donation and participate
in charitable fundraisers such as the Leukemia and Lymphoma Societys
Light the Night walk. Additionally, I officiate at weddings, funerals, and
baby-namings from a humanistic, non-religious approach.
1ST QUARTER 2015
I think colleges and universities are hiring humanist chaplains because

they recognize that an increasingly large share of their students are nonreligious. For example, this year, 22% of Stanfords and 36% of Harvards
incoming classes are non-religious.5,6 Elite colleges and universities
have been aware of this trend for some time, perhaps because they have
higher rates of secular students than other schools. As other colleges and
universities begin to realize this trend, I expect to see increased hiring of
humanist chaplains.
When I started my training as a humanist chaplain in 2007, Harvard
and Columbia were the only schools that had humanist chaplaincies. Now,
in 2015, there are eight humanist chaplains, serving colleges from coast
to coast. With our society becoming so much more secular so quickly,
institutions that wish to better serve this demographic will increasingly
offer a secular alternative to religion.
Lex, what has been your experience meeting other Atheists and
humanists in Silicon Valley? Why do you think this region may find
Atheism particularly attractive?
From the roots of Silicon Valleys origins in semiconductors to the
development of the latest electric cars, innovation and technological
advancement stem from the application of the scientific mindset. For
this reason, the Valley is a very science-friendly region. Since science is an
evidence-based approach to life, many scientifically-minded people also
tend to be non-religious, and so non-belief is common in this part of the
world.
Furthermore, the ethos of the Valley is one that encourages the
questioning the traditional ways of seeing the world and welcoming
people who, as one of the Apple mottos goes, Think different. As a
result, Californiain particular Silicon Valley and San Franciscois
generally more tolerant towards all types of non-traditional ways of living,
including living without a belief in god.
Author and activist M. Dolon Hickmon is also a columnist for The
Freethinker. His novel, 13:24, a Story of Faith and Obsession, was
included in the Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2014 issue. The novel
examines the role of religion in perpetuating the generational cycle of
child abuse.
Endnotes
1. B27.cc.TrinColl.edu/Weblogs/AmericanReligionSurveyARIS/Reports/ARIS_Report_2008.pdf
2. Nones on the Rise, PewForum.org, October 9, 2012.
3. Provo-Orem, Utah, is Most Religious U.S.
Area, Gallup.com, March 29, 2013.
4. Five Trends among the Unchurched, Barna.org.
5. On Schooling Souls, Alumni.Stanford.edu, September 10, 2014.
6. Features.TheCrimson.com/2014/Freshman-Survey/Lifestyle
1ST QUARTER 2015
From the author of the Dogma Watch series in this magazine

Religion, especially Christianity, has
enjoyed unwarranted respect for far
too long. Jesus did say a few nice
things, but he was no humble or wise
prophet. How do we know?
Its in the Bible.
Available at
NoMeekMessiah.com
1ST QUARTER 2015
NEW LIFE MEMBERS
ince the last issue of this magazine, 16 members of American Atheists increased their commitment by becoming
Lifetime Supporters or by upgrading their Lifetime Supporter memberships. Thanks to the following for their continued
support to further promote our shared goals and values:
LIFE
SILVER
GOLD
PLATINUM
Robert Blanton
Timothy Blaylock
Ephraim Fithian
Mark Fortin
Gerlinde Nattler
David Schmidt
Robert Stepan
Sanford B. Sternlieb
(Members at this level receive free admission

for life to our annual convention.)
(Members at this level receive two free

admissions for life to our annual convention.)
Brenda Glendenning (upgrade)
George Davis
Zorin Dobson
Charlies Marley
Andy Seidl
Jonathan Trantham
Thomas Dinwiddie
Jeremy Rishel
Stand with us by making an investment in the future of American Atheists by becoming a Life Member today.
Call 908-276-7300, email Nick Fish at NFish@Atheists.org, or visit Atheists.org/Life-Membership.
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Contact PWhissel@Atheists.org
1ST QUARTER 2015
AMERICAN ATHEISTS NAMES NEW

REGIONAL DIRECTOR FOR TENNESSEE
Sarah Green
m an out-and-proud Atheist living in what some consider to

be the buckle of the Bible Belt. I was raised Southern Baptist in
a very religious family. I was a believer up until I was fifteen, but
my doubts started at around age ten. Once I fully realized that the
pieces making up my faith just didnt fit together, I still stayed silent
about my non-belief for a long time. Ive only recently come out to my
friends and family, and the reaction has been mixed. Ill butt heads with
co-workers and family, but most of my friends have no problem with
it at all. There are always funny looks and raised eyebrows when my
Atheism gets mentioned to a person who doesnt already know. I do get
the occasional note on my car (apparently, my bumper stickers irk one
of the neighbors), and it generally takes longer for me to earn someones
trust. I have heard, Youre really nice for an Atheist, too many times.
It hasnt been all bad. My brother, who is religious, reacted in the
best way possible and supports me unconditionally in my pursuit of
an authentic life. Living authentically has been worth all the changes.
Now that Im openly Atheist, I can contribute to a community without
having any reservations about doing so. Throughout my life, I actively
volunteered and participated in my Baptist community, but I was never
doing it honestly. My conscience was always telling me that I was

supporting things that I didnt believe were right or true. Once I came
out as an Atheist, that nagging feeling disappeared.
Living in a metropolitan area like Nashville has been a plus. Rural
Tennessee is religious to a feverish degree, so many people cant be as
openly Atheist as I am. On the flip side, Ive discovered a wonderful
community locally and across the state. Nashville hosts a Sunday
Assembly, as well as a number of meet-ups. The Secular Student
Alliance has chapters at most of Tennessees big colleges, including
Vanderbilt in Nashville and my alma mater, Austin Peay State University
in Clarksville.
Im very committed to changing the perception of Atheists in
Tennessee and am ready to fight to protect the rights of non-believers.
Tennessee is one of seven states that still ban Atheists from serving in
public office. In the year 2015, that is unacceptable. I want to encourage
people to live openly and am looking forward to connecting nonbelievers with each other in any way I can.
Contact Sarah at SGreen@Atheists.org.
REGIONAL DIRECTORS
For detailed information, visit Atheists.org/State-Directors or contact Ken Loukinen at KLoukinen@Atheists.org.
DIR. REGIONAL OPERATIONS

Ken Loukinen (S. Florida Reg. Dir.)
KLoukinen@Atheists.org
FLORIDA (SOUTH)
Ken Loukinen
KLoukinen@Atheists.org
MILITARY DIRECTOR
Thomas Faulkner
TFaulkner@Atheists.org
GEORGIA
Scott Savage
SSavage@Atheists.org
ALABAMA
Chuck Miller
CMiller@Atheists.org
IOWA
Randy Henderson
P.O. Box 375
Ankeny, IA 50023
RHenderson@Atheists.org
ARIZONA
Don Lacey
P. O. Box 1161
Tucson, AZ 85641
DLacey@Atheists.org
CALIFORNIA (NORTH)
Larry Hicok
LHicok@Atheists.org
CONNECTICUT
Dennis Paul Himes
P. O. Box 9203
Bolton, CT 06043
DPhimes@Atheists.org
FLORIDA (NORTH)
John Porgal
JPorgal@Atheists.org
1ST QUARTER 2015
MISSOURI
Carla Burris
P. O. Box 722
Columbia, MO 65205
CBurris@Atheists.org
SOUTH DAKOTA
Amanda Novotny (Interim)
ANovotny@Atheists.org
NEBRASKA
William Newman
WNewman@Atheists.org
NEW YORK
Michael Dorian
MDorian@Atheists.org
KENTUCKY
Jim Helton
JHelton@Atheists.org
NORTH CAROLINA
Sincere Kirabo (Interim)
SKirabo@Atheists.org
MASSACHUSETTS
Zach Bos
P. O. Box 354
Boston, MA 02125
ZBos@Atheists.org
OHIO
John Welte
JWelte@Atheists.org
MINNESOTA
Randall Tigue
RTigue@Atheists.org
OKLAHOMA
William Poire
WPoire@Atheists.org
RHODE ISLAND
Brian Stack
BStack@Atheists.org
TENNESSEE
Sarah Green
SGreen@Atheists.org
TEXAS
AronRa Nelson
AronRa@Atheists.org
UTAH
Dan Ellis
DEllis@Atheists.org
VIRGINIA/D.C.
Rick Wingrove
RWingrove@Atheists.org
WASHINGTON
Wendy Britton
WBritton@Atheists.org
WEST VIRGINIA
Charles Pique
P. O. Box 7444
Charleston, WV 25356
CPique@Atheists.org
AFFILIATES AND LOCAL PARTNERS
For the most up-to-date list, visit Atheists.org/Affiliates or contact Greg Lammers at GLammers@Atheists.org.
State
Group Name
City
Site
LOCAL PARTNERS
FL
FLASH - Florida Atheists and Secular Humanists
Orlando
http://www.meetup.com/Critical
GA
Atlanta Freethought Society
Peachtree City
http://www.albanygeorgiaatheists.com/
IA
Iowa Atheists & Freethinkers
Des Moines
http://www.meetup.com/Iowa-Atheists-and-Freethinkers
MN
Minnesota Atheists
Minneapolis
http://mnatheists.org
OK
Atheist Community of Tulsa
Tulsa
http://www.ACTOK.org
PA
PA Non-Believers
York
http://www.panonbelievers.org
TX
Metroplex Atheists
Arlington
http://www.metroplexatheists.org
AFFILIATES
AK
Alaskan Atheists
Anchorage
http://www.meetup.com/AlaskanAtheists/
AL
Auburn Atheists & Agnostics
Auburn
http://www.facebook.com/groups/auburnatheistsandagnostics/
AL
Birmingham Atheists Meetup
Birmingham
http://www.meetup.com/atheists-132
AL
Marshall County Atheists & Agnostics
Marshall
http://www.themcaa.org
AL
Montgomery Area Freethought Association
Montgomery
http://www.montgomeryfreethought.org
AL
North Alabama Freethought Association
Huntsville
http://www.meetup.com/thenafa
AL
UA Alabama Atheists and Agnostics
Tuscaloosa
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2234029305
AL
UAH Non-Theists
Huntsville
http://www.facebook.com/uahnontheists
AL
West Alabama Freethought Association
Tuscaloosa
http://www.meetup.com/westalabamafreethought
AR
Arkansas Society of Freethinkers
Little Rock
http://www.ARFreethinkers.org
AR
ArkLaTex Freethinkers, Atheists, Agnostics & Humanists
Texarkana
AZ
Tucson Atheists
Tucson
http://www.meetup.com/Tucson-Atheists/
CA-N
Atheist Advocates of San Francisco
San Francisco
http://atheistadvocatesofsanfrancisco.com/
CA-N
Atheists and Other Freethinkers
Sacramento
http://aofonline.org
CA-N
Central Valley Alliance of Atheists and Skeptics
Fresno
http://www.cvaas.org
CA-N
Contra Costa Atheists & Freethinkers
Pleasant Hill
http://www.meetup.com/Contra-Costa-Atheists-and-Freethinkers/
CA-N
East Bay Atheists
Oakland
http://www.eastbayatheists.org
CA-N
San Francisco Atheists
San Francisco
http://www.sfatheists.com
CA-N
Santa Cruz Atheists
Santa Cruz
http://santacruzatheists.org
CA-S
Atheist Coalition of San Diego
San Diego
http://www.atheistcoalition.org
CA-S
Humanist Fellowship of San Diego
San Diego
http://goo.gl/K2koj
CA-S
Atheist Society of Kern
Bakersfield
http://goo.gl/K2koj
CA-S
Backyard Skeptics
Villa Park
http://www.backyardskeptics.com
CA-S
Humanist Society of Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara
http://www.santabarbarahumanists.org
CA-S
New Atheists of East County
Jamul
http://www.meetup.com/New-Atheists-of-East-County/
CA-S
Orange County Atheists
Orange
http://www.ocatheists.com
CA-S
Riverside Atheists and Free Thinkers
Norco
http://goo.gl/K2koj
CO
Atheists and Freethinkers of Denver
Denver
http://athofden.tripod.com
CO
Boulder Atheists
Boulder
http://www.boulderatheists.org
CO
Metro State Atheists
Denver
http://metrostateatheists.wordpress.com
1ST QUARTER 2015
CO
Western Colorado Atheists & Freethinkers
Grand Junction
http://westerncoloradoatheists.org
CT
Atheist Humanist Society of CT and RI
Norwich
http://atheisthumanist.org
CT
Connecticut Valley Atheists
South Windsor
http://www.cvatheists.org
DC
American University Rationalists and Atheists
Washington
DC
Washington Area Secular Humanists
Washington
http://www.wash.org
FL
Central Florida Secular Alliance
Dunnellon
http://cfsecularalliance.weebly.com
FL
Florida Atheists, Critical Thinkers & Skeptics
Longwood/Orlando
http://www.meetup.com/Critical
FL
Gator Freethought (UF)
Gainesville
http://www.gatorfreethought.com/
FL
North Florida Atheists
Starke
http://www.meetup.com/north-Florida-atheists
FL
Ocala Atheists
Ocala
http://www.meetup.com/Ocala-Atheists/
FL
Rebirth of Reason
Orlando
http://rebirthofreason.com/Florida
FL
Sarasota-Manatee Atheists & Secular Humanists (SMASH)
Nokomis
http://goo.gl/K2koj
FL
Secular Student Association at Univ. of Central FL
Orlando
http://ssaucf.com
FL
St. Petersburg Atheists Freethought Group
St. Petersburg
FL
Tallahassee Atheists
Tallahassee
http://www.tallahasseeatheists.com/
FL
Treasure Coast Atheists
Stuart
FL
Williston Atheists
Morriston
http://goo.gl/K2koj
GA
Albany Georgia Atheists
Albany
http://www.albanygeorgiaatheists.com/
GA
Black Nonbelievers of Atlanta
Atlanta
http://www.blacknonbelievers.org
GA
Fayette Freethought Society
Peachtree City
http://www.meetup.com/Fayette-Freethought-Society
GA
Kennesaw State U. Student Coalition for Inquiry
Kennesaw
http://www.facebook.com/ksusci
GA
Macon Atheists & Secular Humanists
Macon
http://www.meetup.com/georgiamash/
IA
Atheists United for a Rational America
Iowa City
http://rationalamerica.com
IA
Iowa Atheists & Freethinkers
Des Moines
http://www.meetup.com/Iowa-Atheists-and-Freethinkers
IL
Chicagoland Freethinkers
Chicago
http://www.meetup.com/chicago-freethought/
IL
The Chicago Freethought Project
Chicago
http://www.facebook.com/thechicagofreethoughtproject
IL
IL/WI Stateline Atheists Society
Rockford
http://www.meetup.com/statelineatheists
IL
IWU Atheist, Agnostics, and Non-Religious
Bloomington
IL
The Secular Segment
Mt. Vernon
http://www.secularsegment.com
IN
Atheists of Northern Indiana
Mishawaka
http://atheistsofnorthernindiana.webs.com
KS
U of K Society of Open-Minded Atheists & Agnostics
Lawrence
http://www.kusoma.org
KY
Humanist Forum of Central Kentucky
Lexington
http://www.facebook.com/groups/kyhumanists/
KY
Lexington Atheists
Lexington
http://www.meetup.com/The-Lexington-Atheists-Meetup-Group
KY
Louisville Atheists and Freethinkers
Louisville
http://www.louisvilleatheists.com/
KY
Tri-State Freethinkers (KY, IN, OH)
Union
http://www.meetup.com/Tri-State-Freethinkers/
LA
New Orleans Secular Humanist Association
New Orleans
http://nosha.org
MA
Atheists of Greater Lowell
Lowell
http://www.meetup.com/lowellatheists
MA
Boston Atheists
Boston
http://bostonatheists.org
MD
Freethinkers Union at McDaniel College
Westminster
<none>
Annapolis
http://www.mdfreethinkers.com
MD
Maryland Freethinkers
1ST QUARTER 2015
AFFILIATES AND LOCAL PARTNERS

MI
Atheists @ Oakland University
Rochester
http://www.facebook.com/AtheistsAtOU
MI
Michigan Atheists
Detroit
http://michiganatheists.org
MI
Mid-Michigan Atheists & Humanists
Lansing
http://www.mmah.org
MN
Atheists for Human Rights
Minneapolis
http://atheistsforhumanrights.org
MN
Campus Atheists Skeptics & Humanists
Minneapolis
http://cashumn.org
MO
Black Freethinkers of Kansas City
Kansas City
http://www.meetup.com/Black-FreeThinkers-of-KC/
MO
Columbia Atheists
Columbia
http://www.meetup.com/The-Columbia-Atheists-Meetup-Group
MO
Joplin Freethinkers
Joplin
http://www.joplinfreethinkers.org
MO
Kansas City Atheist Coalition
Kansas City
http://www.kcatheists.org
MO
MU Skeptics, Atheists, Secular Humanists & Agnostics
Columbia
http://muSASHA.org
MO
OFallon Freethinkers
OFallon
http://www.meetup.com/OFallon-Freethinkers
MO
Rationalist Society of St. Louis
St. Louis
http://www.rssl.org
MO
Secular Student Alliance @ UCMO
Warrensburg
http://www.centralskeptics.org
MO
Springfield Freethinkers
Springfield
http://www.meetup.com/SpringfieldFreethinkers
MO
St. Joseph Skeptics
St. Joseph
http://stjosephskeptics.org
MO
We Are Atheism
Grandview
http://goo.gl/K2koj
MS
Humanist Ethical Atheist Rational Thought Society
Biloxi
http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/HeartsOfTheSouth
MS
Great Southern Humanist Society
Biloxi
http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/southernatheist
NC
A-News
Raleigh
http://www.apartmentJ.com
NC
Charlotte Atheists & Agnostics
Charlotte
http://www.charlotteatheists.com
NC
Hickory Humanist Alliance
Claremont
http://goo.gl/K2koj
NC
MASH Ft. Bragg
Fayetteville
http://www.mashfortbragg.org
NC
WNC Humanists
Fairview
http://www.wnchumanists.org
ND
Red River Freethinkers
Fargo
http://redriverfreethinkers.org
NE
Lincoln Atheists
Lincoln
http://www.lincolnatheists.org
NE
Omaha Atheists
Omaha
http://omahaatheists.org/
NJ
Camden County Humanists
Blackwood
http://goo.gl/K2koj
NJ
New Jersey Humanist Network
Somerville
http://njhn.org/
NJ
Secular Student Alliance @ Montclair State Univ.
Montclair
http://secularstudents.org/montclair
NJ
South Jersey Humanists
Oceanville
http://goo.gl/K2koj
NJ
William Paterson Univ. Secular Student Alliance
Pompton Lakes
https://www.facebook.com/SSA.WPUNJ
NM
Roswatheists
Roswell
http://www.meetup.com/Roswatheists
NM
Atheist Community of Santa Fe
Santa Fe
http://goo.gl/K2koj
NV
Reno Freethinkers
Reno
http://www.RenoFreethinkers.org
NY
Freethinkers of Upstate New York
Syracuse
http://www.funygroup.org
NY
Hudson Valley Humanists
Saugerties
http://hudsonvalley.humanists.net
NY
New York City Atheists
New York
http://nyc-atheists.org
NY
Westchester Atheists
Chappaqua
OH
Free Inquiry Group
Cincinnati
http://www.gofigger.org
OH
Freethought Dayton
Dayton
http://www.meetup.com/freethoughtdayton
1ST QUARTER 2015
OH
Humanist Community of Central Ohio
Columbus
http://www.hcco.org
OH
Mid-Ohio Atheists
Mansfield
http://midohioatheists.org
OK
Atheist Community of Tulsa
Tulsa
http://www.ACTOK.org
OK
Oklahoma Atheists
Oklahoma City
http://www.oklahomaatheists.com
PA
NEPA Freethought Society
Wilkes-Barre
http://www.nepafreethought.org
SC
Piedmont Humanists
Greenville
http://www.PiedmontHumanists.org
SC
Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry
Charleston
http://www.lowcountryhumanists.org
SC
Upstate Atheists
Boiling Springs
http://goo.gl/K2koj
TN
Memphis Atheists
Memphis
http://goo.gl/K2koj
TN
Memphis Freethought Alliance
Memphis
http://memphisfreethought.com
TN
Nashville Secular Life
Nashville
http://www.meetup.com/secularlife
TN
Rationalists of East Tennessee
Knoxville
http://www.rationalists.org
TX
Atheist Community of Austin
Austin
http://atheist-community.org
TX
Corpus Christi Atheists
Corpus Christi
http://www.meetup.com/CCAtheists
TX
Denton Atheists
Denton
http://www.meetup.com/The-Denton-Atheists-Meetup-Group
TX
El Paso Atheists
El Paso
http://www.elpasoatheists.com
TX
Freethinkers Association of Central Texas
San Antonio
http://FreethinkersACT.org
TX
Freethought Oasis of Amarillo
Amarillo
http://freethoughtoasis.org
TX
Golden Triangle Freethinkers
Beaumont
http://goldentrianglefreethinkers.org
TX
Houston Atheists
Houston
http://HoustonAtheists.org
TX
Kingwood Humble Atascocita Atheists
Atascocita
http://www.kha-atheists.org/
TX
Lubbock Atheists
Lubbock
TX
Secular Humanist Society of East Texas
Nacagdoches
http://goo.gl/K2koj
TX
UNT Freethought Alliance
Denton
TX
Wise Free Thinkers and Skeptics
Wise
http://www.meetup.com/Wise-Free-Thinkers-and-Skeptics
UT
Atheists of Utah
Salt Lake City
http://atheistsofutah.org
UT
Salt Lake Valley Atheists
Salt Lake City
http://nowscape.com/a
VA
Beltway Atheists
Leesburg
http://www.meetup.com/Beltway-Atheists-Inc
VA
NOVA Atheists
Leesburg
http://www.meetup.com/NOVA-Atheists
WA
Seattle Atheists
Seattle
http://www.seattleatheists.org
WA
Tri-City Freethinkers
Pasco
http://www.tricityfreethinkers.org
WI
Southeast Wisconsin FreeThinkers
Milwaukee
http://swiftnow.org
WV
Kanawha Valley Atheists and Agnostics
Charleston
http://goo.gl/K2koj
WV
Mountain State Freethinkers
Martinsville
http://www.meetup.com/Mountain-State-Freethinkers
WV
Morgantown Atheists
Morgantown
http://www.morgantownatheists.com
US
Atheist Nexus
http://www.atheistnexus.org
US
Black Atheists of America
http://www.blackatheistsofamerica.org
US
Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers
http://www.militaryatheistsorg
Intl
Southeast Asia Freethought Association
Intl
Atestas de Puerto Rico
Intl
Philippine Atheists and Agnostics Society
1ST QUARTER 2015
San Juan
http://goo.gl/K2koj
http://www.patas.co
AIMS AND PURPOSES
merican Atheists, Inc. is a nonprofit, nonpolitical, educational organization dedicated to the complete and
absolute separation of state and church, accepting the explanation of Thomas Jefferson that the First Amendment
to the Constitution of the United States was meant to create a wall of separation between state and church.
American Atheists is organized:

To stimulate and promote freedom of thought and inquiry concerning religious beliefs, creeds, dogmas, tenets,
rituals, and practices;
To collect and disseminate information, data, and literature on all religions and promote a more thorough
understanding of them, their origins, and their histories;
To advocate, labor for, and promote in all lawful ways the complete and absolute separation of state and church;
To act as a watchdog to challenge any attempted breach of the wall of separation between state and church;
To advocate, labor for, and promote in all lawful ways the establishment and maintenance of a thoroughly secular
system of education available to all;
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 individual in relation
to society;
To develop and propagate a social philosophy in which humankind is central and must itself be the source of
strength, progress, and ideals for the well-being and happiness of humanity;
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To engage in such social, educational, legal, and cultural activity as will be useful and beneficial to the members of
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Definitions
A
A
theism is the comprehensive world view of persons who are free from theism and have freed themselves of supernatural
beliefs altogether. It is predicated on ancient Greek Materialism.
theism involves the mental attitude that unreservedly accepts the supremacy of reason and aims at establishing a lifestyle and ethical outlook verifiable by experience and the scientific method, independent of all arbitrary assumptions of
authority and creeds.
aterialism declares that the cosmos is devoid of immanent conscious purpose; that it is governed by its own inherent,
immutable, and impersonal laws; that there is no supernatural interference in human life; that humankind, finding
the resources within themselves, can and must create their own destiny. It teaches that we must prize our life on earth and
strive always to improve it. It holds that human beings are capable of creating a social system based on reason and justice.
Materialisms faith is in humankind and their ability to transform the world culture by their own efforts. This is a commitment
that is, in its very essence, life-asserting. It considers the struggle for progress as a moral obligation that is impossible without
noble ideas that inspire us to bold, creative works.
aterialism holds that our potential for good and more fulfilling cultural development is, for all practical purposes, unlimited.
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Why I Am An Atheist
by Peter Santalla
The efforts of people saved

menot prayers, faith, or belief
in a god who isnt there.
ome of us need everything to be stripped away before we realize

how amazing this one life is. I took it all for granted before it was
all taken away from me. I made the mistake of thinking that it
would all be there after it all ended. My Christian faith told me that all I
had to do was believe and repent my sins; the rest would sort itself out in
the afterlife. But it was the fight to hold on to this life that showed me true
salvation.
Before my fight began, I was complacent about my life. I had a good
family and many good friends. I loved them all, but because I assumed
we would all be together in paradise one day, I didnt love them as if this
life were the only chance I would ever get. That thought process led
to some drinking, a lot of smoking, and even more eating. By age 32, I
weighed 670 pounds.
One day, in September 2007, everything changed when I began to
have trouble breathing. The fear of having to confront a grave illness or
even death kept me from calling 911 at first, but I finally did. I dont recall
anything that happened nextnot my trip to the hospital, not being
intubated, not the dialysis, not my tracheotomy. But those were the very
things that saved my life, not the prayers pouring in from family and friends.
Six weeks into my stay, I met someone who would make a profound
impact on me: my nurse Tom. Whenever he came by, he would share his
own recovery story with me. He hadbarelysurvived a motorcycle
accident that broke his back, and for a while, was paralyzed. Listening to
Toms story became the center of my universe. It helped get me through
each terrible, painful minute, hour, and day. I looked forward to hearing
it every night.
I didnt realize it at the time, but the compassionate way he related his
struggle to my own laid the foundation that would eventually bring me to the
conclusion that faith, hope, and prayer werent going to save me. Recovery was
going to take effort and hard work, and if he could do it, then I could do it.
So as the doctors handed out orders, I did everything in my control to fight
through the pain and get off the machines that were keeping me alive.
After a couple of months, I was finally moved out of ICU. Shortly
thereafter, I was able to speak for the first time, thanks to a device fitted to
my tracheostomy. I had only been using it for a few days when I developed
a dangerous infection. I was moved to a better-equipped hospital. I died
several days later, on three different occasions. My trips to the other side
were never filled with family, friends, or any of the images or sensations
Christianity tells you will be there. At times it was darkness, silence, and a
very peaceful nothingness. Other times, the pain killers and a chemically
induced coma gave me exactly what I wanted. Whenever I was periodically
pulled back from my bliss, I would realize who was waiting for me.
Eventually, I began opening my eyes more often and staying in the real
world longer. But I was worse off than before. I couldnt talk, I couldnt
walk, and I couldnt move. For a while I just wanted my medications so
that I could go back to sleep, and it would all go away. As I wallowed in

self-pity, the nurses kept working, the doctors kept visiting, and my family
and friends stayed by my side. Once again, the efforts of people saved
menot prayers, faith, or belief in a god who isnt there.
Once I was completely out of the coma, everything started all over
again: the breathing machine, the rectal tube, the catheter, the bed sores,
the tears. I spent a few more weeks in the hospital before moving back
to a long-term care facility to start physical therapy and to re-learn how
to walk. I fought, I argued, I complained, but I kept working. So did my
doctors, nurses, therapists, family, and friends. Eventually, machines were
unplugged and medications were stopped.
On the day I stood again for the first time seven months, all of my
therapists were in the room as I pushed myself to the limit and was finally
able to stand. As the emotions poured from me, I sat back down on the
bed crying. I looked up and I saw one of my therapists crying, too.
My next hurdle was the oxygen that I had to carry around with me.
My doctor was of the opinion that my lungs were too damaged to be able
to function without it. But the support I had around me emboldened me
to refuse to accept that conclusion. The following day, I began to take the
oxygen off for as long as I could tolerate it. The feeling of being unable
to breathe is horrible. But I continued to try every day and even more so
during therapy. Two months later, the tube was removed. By this time, I
was taking daily walks with a walker through the hospital. I went outside
and felt the sun on my face for the first time in a year.
I finally left the hospital for good in August 2008. Through it all,
people cared for me, supported me, and loved me. They collectively
showed me what true love and compassion really are. For some of them, I
was a complete stranger whose life they were fighting to save. For others,
I was family or a close friend. For all of them, I was a lost cause at some
point. My own humanity took me down, and the humanity of others
brought me back up. That humanity did more than any book of faith
could ever do or any god ever will do.
Having the best and worst of myself held up under a magnifying
glass has led me to question my entire way of living. In the years since
my near-death experience, I came to realize that I lacked direction. That
realization brought me to authors like Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris,
Lawrence Krauss, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Bart Ehrman,
and Richard Carrier. By applying their words to my experience, I found
the direction I needed. And I love my family, friends, and myself much
more, now that I know I only have this one chance to do so.
Peter Santalla owns and operates a state-licensed facility in California for

adults with severe autism, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and mental retardation.
Before acquiring the facility twelve years ago, he worked as a direct care
staff member for eight years.
Why are you an Atheist? We are soliciting submissions that answer this question in 800 to 1,000 words. Send them to
PWhissel@Atheists.org. Essays may be subject to revision, and publication is at the sole discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.
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American Atheist

A JOURNAL OF ATHEIST NEWS AND THOUGHT

Charlie Hebdo and the Dangers of Sanctifying Religion

Also in this issue:

Display until May 18

Should an Atheist Accommodate or Confront?

FIRST QUARTER 2015

Two ways to watch Atheist TV!

Roku devices start at $50 and are available from Roku.com

Watch Atheist TV online for free at www.Atheists.tv.

ISSN 0516-9623 (Print)

Special Section: CHARLIE HEBDO and the Danger of Sanctifying Religion

AMERICAN ATHEIST PRESS

Charlie Hebdo and Anything but Islam | Dan Arel

When Mockery is Worse Than Murder | J.T. Eberhard

Censorship in Louisiana | Gregory Alexander

2015 American Atheists Inc.

Acknowledging My Atheism | Djenne Thomas

Rewriting the Ten Commandments | M. Dolon Hickmon

All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part

The Top Ten Reasons for Belief | Bob Fliegel

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

1ST QUARTER 2015

Special Section: CHARLIE HEBDO and the Dangers of Sanctifying Religion

Members of other religions, through

he January 7 attack in Paris that killed eleven members of the

Mockery is disrespect via mere expression.

www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 5

Special Section: CHARLIE HEBDO and the Dangers of Sanctifying Religion

Anything but Islam

n January 7, two Islamic extremists stormed the offices of the French

With no shortage of strategic targets to

satirical paper because of a cartoon.

1ST QUARTER 2015

Those who are looking to blame anything

and, Weve taken revenge against the prophet!

The anything but Islam squad

www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 7

Special Section: CHARLIE HEBDO and the Dangers of Sanctifying Religion

I am sure some Charlie Hebdo readers found

been a number of laws passed not just in France with regard

This rule of anything but Islam does

1ST QUARTER 2015

by French values, was Islams veneration of sharia law, its

Yet this combination of things does in fact lead back to Islam. I do

Hes right if you simply cherry-pick only the issues at hand.

and everything to do with religious belief. Werleman is even right about

www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 9

Special Section: CHARLIE HEBDO and the Dangers of Sanctifying Religion

Damien Lee Thorr

Most Muslims are no different than their

never actually read their holy book.

1ST QUARTER 2015

Institutes of higher education in the

demonstrates complicity and approval of, I repeat, genital mutilation,

As the youngest of the three great

shed its violent baggage.

1ST QUARTER 2015

www.atheists.org | AMERICAN ATHEIST | 11

Special Section: CHARLIE HEBDO and the Dangers of Sanctifying Religion

12 | AMERICAN ATHEIST | www.atheists.org

equivalent of a Je Suis Charlie t-shirt back then, I suspect he would have

1. Qanta Ahmed, Honor Diaries: Silence Speaks

Support American Atheists every