Re: "The school prayer issue in Texas." "We recognize, Lord, that all authority comes from you," said the Rev. Roy Duncan as students stood in the bleachers at an event featuring Gov. Rick Perry.
Why do I have this strange feeling that the same words were uttered (in Arabic) in the planes crashing into the Twin Towers on Sept. 11?
R.L. Fredrickson
California
As an atheist for over 60 years, a freethought author of dozens of articles, and an active atheist (now retired), I congratulate you on your October issue.
I have read almost everything on every aspect of freethought and have done just about everything an atheist should do to combat ignorance, and this issue is really, really good since it does not hash over old material--even updated old material. What is "old" to me will of course be new to the younger freethinkers. By "old" I mean the crimes of the clergy, contradictions of the Bible, arguments against God, etc.
Richard Dawkins is superb ("Time to Stand Up").
All the best--keep fighting.
Ralph S. Blois
Oregon
Being surrounded by flags, "patriotism" and "God Bless America" (all of which have become a pain in the neck), I just want to tell you what a relief the October issue was. It was an island of sanity in a swamp of ignorance, arrogance, bigotry and stupidity. Thanks!
Dr. Eric T. Pengelley
California
Hi everyone there in Madison!
It was so good to receive the October issue and read what nontheists are thinking about the terrorist attacks. Your newspaper has always been a gust (not merely a breath) of fresh air!
Wish I could have been at the convention. Hopefully someday.
Cathy Groves
Massachusetts
It was interesting to read the "anti" mail that Ms. Gaylor shared (October 2001). It reminded me so much of notes I've received that I began to think of them in terms of a pattern. The misspellings and grammatical errors suggest both lower intelligence and a parochial education. This, along with the bumpersticker logic and mismatched stationery, is not surprising considering the source. The profanity is also a common element and points in the same direction. If you want to express an opinion but have only limited verbal ability, swearing is almost as good as shouting. They also capitalize, underline and use exclamation points with what can only be described as a manic frenzy.
But something else I've noticed is that god people can never seem to write in a straight line; going into the margins, up and down the sides. It's this last feature that makes me think in terms of actual neural damage. The Bender Gestalt is a psychological test used to determine the extent of lesions to the brain caused by blunt trauma and/or a disease process. It involves asking patients to copy a series of drawings and then noting any distortions they introduce. So I have to wonder, is it possible that god people may all be suffering from the same neurological disorder and that their helter-skelter letters are clinically significant evidence for the same?
Perhaps one or more readers may be aware of some research that has been done along these lines.
Dr. S.B. Mason
California
I started reading Dan Barker's Losing Faith in Faith minutes after the driver brought the package. I had it finished by the next day. I only put it down if I had to, and then to go to sleep.
I used to be a very closed-minded Christian and started researching the scientific aspect one day. I came upon some of Dan's chapters, which are on the web, and it started me on my quest. Only a few days after reading extensive information, I knew I was a deconvert. (I had never known that word existed up to that point.)
Now my husband and I have done skeptic bible study almost every day and can't believe how easy it is to continually find flaws with the unauthentic bible. We are especially appalled by the violence and brutality, and can't understand how we never saw this before.
I don't understand why there isn't a network on television to counteract the damage of TBN and other programs, which go on perpetuating the Christian myth.
My husband and I went to see Benny Hinn last November, before our change of heart. He was one of the reasons we really started questioning things. He said God would kill him if he ever got out of the ministry. I couldn't imagine a loving God killing anyone. The seed of doubt had been planted there and then.
In Chapter 2 of Dan's book, he mentions the ripples from faith to reason, and how they may have radiated out much farther than imagined. My husband and I are one of his ripples, in a very big way. I commend him for his courage to speak the truth.
We have become members of FFRF. Count us in.
Rhonda Haffner
Virginia
I am so sad for us humans. How did we ever get this brutal? And the old wounds are open again.
One senator compared the terrorist attack with the terror bombings of London. And I think of Hiroshima, Dresden, and the other German cities; 251 bombers firebombed my hometown on 12/4/44. Twenty percent of the population died. Children, women, old men, birds, cats, dogs, horses, were afire, human torches. Humans looked like charred tree limbs.
And god is in his heaven stoic forever.
Goethe's mother said you can find a little happiness and pleasure every day if you just find a violet to savor.
May I ask for more?
Trudie Hays
Louisiana
The Star-Spangled Banner secular?
The article on the last page entitled "Pledges, God & Country" (October 2001) identifies the national anthem as secular. We can only make that mistake because no one ever seems to get to the fourth stanza. There we find:
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
Could this be the original source of the "In God We Trust" motto on our money?
Robert Bascle
Louisiana
Re: Richard Dawkins' fine speech ("Time to Stand Up," October 2001), we can all raise our dissent to this blind hysteria of religion and citizenship. My professional organization recently instituted invocation and pledge of allegiance as agenda items, and then in the latest newsletter had the phrase "God Bless America." I called the secretary and complained, then received a call from the president.
I reminded him that his personal feelings should be noted as his and not the membership's. He stated he would continue in the present mode. I then resigned from the group.
One of my charities came out in its newsletter with the same phrase, saying the prayers of the membership were with the victims. I called the member service number and was assured that prayers are nonreligious (and we question the ability of airport screeners).
Let us be heard and let us exercise our economic power.
John J. Schmidt
California
The shortest day of the year is the Winter Solstice, which now occurs on Dec. 21. However, according to the calendar developed by the astronomers of Julius Caesar, about 40 B.C.E., the Winter Solstice fell on Dec. 25. The time of the Winter Solstice in those pre-Christian Roman days was the occasion for a great feast in honor of the "rebirth of the Sun." It was originally a three-day celebration later extended to seven days. This celebration was called Saturnalia, in honor of Saturn, the old Roman god of agriculture. The celebration involved the suspending of all public business in favor of festivals, parties, gift-giving and great merriment. However, these parties sometimes turned into drunkenness and licentiousness on the part of rowdy citizens, not unlike the excesses that sometimes occur at Christmas office parties today.
The celebration of Saturnalia was a great stumbling block to converting the Romans to Christianity because it had become so deeply ingrained in their society. Finally the church leaders decided to adapt Christianity to this celebration by choosing the date of the Winter Solstice, Dec. 25 by the Julian Calendar, as the official birthday of Jesus. They did it with a clear conscience because nowhere in the New Testament is a date given for the birthday of Jesus. The practice by which a new religion, seeking converts from an older religion by adopting some of the traditions of the latter, is known as syncretism.
We see then that the major religious holidays are actually rooted in the Solstices and the Equinoxes which are basically scientific and secular.
Sol Abrams
Florida
Faith is not supposed to be divisive, and yet too often its expression hardens hearts against life and enslaves minds to mythology. At its best it provides comfort; at its worst it excuses ignorance and cruelty. And so we are moved now to scrutinize the skewed dogma that convinced some young Islamic men they could honor their God and their homeland by killing themselves and thousands of Americans.
Similarly, some fundamentalist Christians in our country have taken advantage of this fearful time to escalate their long-standing, violent campaign against women's health clinics, believing their illegal actions are justified by the Bible and rewarded in Heaven.
The rules of social courtesy ask us not to point out the common denominator here, but if the violence is ever to be stopped and if the victims of Sept. 11 are to be honored we must: it is religion.
The idea that there is another world than this one, an afterlife where redemption washes away sins, gives some people the faith that they can do wrong to others in this life with relative impunity. The mind-control to which the hijackers were subjected taught them that a special hereafter awaits religious martyrs who kill and die in Allah's name.
Born-again Christians, such as our president and others in his administration, share a similar belief that the faithful are punished or rewarded in the hereafter; some of them also believe that the battles now fought in the Middle East may be an overture to the biblically foretold Apocalypse. It is not difficult, then, to see how some believers can justify retribution as a "crusade" and shrug off the loss of innocent lives as unfortunate "collateral damage." They may be fighting a "war" they think is their religious destiny and justifying the cause with foreign policies that fueled the conflicts in the first place.
The religious request that "God Bless America" now appears everywhere wrapped in the stars and stripes as a motto of support for U.S. military action in the Middle East. Some Americans have declined to display the flag in recent weeks for fear that once-general patriotism might now be construed as a specific support of a retaliatory approach to justice, and/or of a specific religious interpretation of right and wrong. It is a very sad thing to think that the symbol meant to unite Americans of all persuasions has become a logo of war or of one religion's viewpoint. My country, 'tis of thee I'm frightened.
If our country does not grasp this crucial opportunity for self-examination--if bigotry and cruelty are always what others do; if America is governed as if only Christians vote; if we match hatred with hatred--then we are doomed to destruction from within and without.
Anonymous
Indiana
There is a great play at Lincoln Center in New York City called "QED" starring Alan Alda, a virtual one-man show about the late physicist Richard Feynman. In the play he mentions that "neither my father nor I believed in god." The play, sadly, will have only a limited run.
Dennis Middlebrooks
New York
Balboa Park in San Diego is currently displaying an exhibit about the Inquisition and the approximately 30 torture devices used. It was challenging to endure the exhibits; my stomach was in knots. I have seen a great many things in my short life and this was one of the most gory imaginable.
I hope anyone in the Southern California area makes the trip. To actually see this for yourself gives the Inquisition a whole new meaning. Throughout most of the illustrations there is someone holding a cross or crucifix over the persecuted. That should be enough for all of us to see how religion has played a role in history.
Mark Simons
Texas
An ad appeared in the 10/18/01 edition of the Seattle Weekly, placed by Grace Seattle Presbyterian Church, reading: "What we all dread most is a maze with no center. That is why atheism is only a nightmare.--G.K. Chesterton."
I sent this email to the newspaper, inspired by the Grace Seattle attack ad:
"Now that you are printing ads that attack belief systems, I'd like to get a price on an eighth-page ad. The text: 'Christians have killed more humans than all other believers combined. Crusades, Inquisition, Pogroms, WWI, Northern Ireland, etc. Thank you Jesus.'
"I think you've hit on quite a lucrative advertising revenue stream.
"Back to my nightmare--Doug Sharp."
The newspaper letters column editor emailed back asking if they could publish my letter. I agreed.
I think the Sept. 11 tragedy may result in more attacks on the godless heathen minority as churches scramble to capitalize on people's confusion and search for easy answers.
Doug Sharp
Washington
There are atheists in foxholes. I was one. Unfortunately I couldn't get "none" on my dog tags. I had to settle for "no preference."
Other than having to attend church services in boot camp (OK, you didn't have to, but the alternative was a cleaning detail), there wasn't much religion in the Navy. During my time in the Tonkin Gulf, I never saw anyone with a bible. There were shipboard services at Christmas and Easter, but as I recall, they were not very well-attended.
There may be a lot more religion in the military these days simply because there is a lot more religion in American culture overall than there was in the 1960s and 1970s. However there are Atheists (yes, it should be capitalized) who served and continue to serve the United States proudly and honorably. The media should not dismiss their sacrifice by repeating stereotypical platitudes.
Steve Trunk
California
It is with great sadness that I realize the events of September 11, 2001, are a direct result of an irrational belief in a nonexistent god mixed with political aspirations to impose this idea on the rest of the world. They are a very strong argument in favor of atheism and for the strict separation of church and state.
Someday, perhaps, human beings will understand what a fallible and devious entity the human mind is. It evolved to protect us individually, but to do that it fools us and deludes us with convictions that make us feel good and feel that we are "right." We all face the challenge of keeping reason, not emotion, as the basis of our actions. We must maintain a focus on what is factual and provable in the scientific sense, and avoid relying on myths and delusions of the mind.
When people act only on the basis of their beliefs or do not question information which is distorted, it can lead to irresponsible acts of violence against others such as we have witnessed in New York and Washington. As a fantasy creation of the human mind, religion is certainly not a foundation for logical political interaction in a modern world.
John D. Boenke
Virginia
Some years ago a congressman responded to a request from me by saying something like this: "I have been in politics for 25 years. I get lots of mail on almost any subject of any interest you can imagine. And I take calls every day and it's my business to help every constituency any way I can. But until today I didn't know I had an atheist constituent."
He didn't know we exist and it's our fault.
Did you ever know a Methodist who wouldn't look you in the eye and say, "I am a Methodist?" Try substituting for Methodist: Mason, VFW member, Boy Scout, dog lover, etc. Can you find anything that doesn't fit besides atheist?
The question is why? The answer was obvious when heretics were burned alive. Why are we still so intimidated, so willing to remain under the control of the religious? It is my contention that if only a few would speak out many would follow and, ipso facto, we would find ourselves free of control by the religious.
Let's hear from atheists.
Don Hirschberg
Arkansas