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From ai815@freenet.carleton.caFri Feb 24 23:18:36 1995
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 1995 05:21:14 -0500
From: Greg Erwin <ai815@freenet.carleton.ca>
To: ry94ad@badger.ac.brocku.ca, apabel@prairienet.org, perfecto@pcnet.com,
Eric.M.Kidd@Dartmouth.Edu, ftp@locust.cic.net, rblair@shl.com,
hbcsc056@huey.csun.edu, tmwe@maths.nottingham.ac.uk, kmc9@cornell.edu,
hammond@bigdog.engr.arizona.edu, timbo@frungy.cbr.fidonet.org,
mc.wilson@auckland.ac.nz, PITT_I@summer.chem.su.oz.au,
p01664@psilink.com, james.randi@genie.geis.com,
svsingh@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca
Subject: Jan 95 Nullifidian
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*The*E-Zine*of*Atheistic*Secular*Humanism*and*Freethought**
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###### Volume II, Number 1 ***A Collector's Item!***#####
################### ISSN 1201-0111 #######################
####################### JAN 1995 ###########################
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nullifidian, n. & a. (Person) having no religious faith or
belief. [f. med. L _nullifidius_ f. L _nullus_ none +
_fides_ faith; see -IAN] Concise Oxford Dictionary
The purpose of this magazine is to provide a source of
articles dealing with many aspects of humanism.
We are ATHEISTIC as we do not believe in the actual
existence of any supernatural beings or any transcendental
reality.
We are SECULAR because the evidence of history and the daily
horrors in the news show the pernicious and destructive
consequences of allowing religions to be involved with
politics and nationalism.
We are HUMANISTS and we focus on what is good for humanity,
in the real world. We will not be put off with offers of
pie in the sky, bye and bye.
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=><====><====><====><====><====><====><====><====><====><==
|| Begging portion of the Zine ||
==><====><====><====><====><====><====><====><====><====><==
This is a "sharezine." There is no charge for receiving
this, and there is no charge for distributing copies to any
electronic medium. Nor is there a restriction on printing
a copy for use in discussion. You may not charge to do so,
and you may not do so without attributing it to the proper
author and source.
If you would like to support our efforts, and help us
acquire better equipment to bring you more and better
articles, you may send money to Greg Erwin at: 100,
Terrasse Eardley / Aylmer, Qc / J9H 6B5 / CANADA. Or buy
our atheist quote address labels, and other fine products,
see "Shameless advertising and crass commercialism" below.
=><====><====><====><====><====><====><====><====><====><=
|| End of Begging portion of the Zine ||
=><====><====><====><====><====><====><====><====><====><=
Articles will be welcomed IF: (
they are emailed to: ai815@FreeNet.Carleton.CA; or,
sent on diskette to me at the above Aylmer address in any
format that an IBM copy of WordPerfect can read; ) and
they don't require huge amounts of editing; and
I like them.
If you wish to receive a subscription, email a simple
request to ai815@FreeNet.Carleton.CA, with a clear request
for a subscription. It will be assumed that the "From:"
address is where it is to be sent.
We will automate this process as soon as we know how.
1994-05-08 Yes, please DO make copies! (*)
Please DO send copies of The Nullifidian to anyone who might
be interested.
The only limitations are:
You must copy the whole document, without making any changes
to it.
You do NOT have permission to copy this document for
commercial purposes.
The contents of this document are copyright (c) 1994, Greg
Erwin and are on deposit at the National Library of Canada
You may find back issues in any place that archives
alt.atheism, specifically mathew's site at
ftp.mantis.co.uk. Currently, all back issues are posted at
the Humanist Association of Ottawa's area on the National
Capital Freenet. telnet to 134.117.1.22, and enter <go
humanism> at the "Your choice==>" prompt.
ARCHIVES
Arrangements have been made with etext at umich. ftp to
etext.umich.edu directory Nullifidian or lucifers-echo.
For America On-Line subscribers:
To access the Freethought Forum on America Online enter
keyword "Capital", scroll down until you find Freethought
Forum, double click and you're there. Double click "Files &
Truth Seeker Articles" and scroll until you find Nullifidian
files. Double click the file name and a window will open
giving you the opportunity to display a description of the
file or download the file.
And thanks to the people at the _Truth Seeker_, who edited,
formatted and uploaded the articles to the aol area.
/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\
Shameless advertising and crass commercialism:
\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/
Atheistic self-stick Avery(tm) address labels. Consisting
of 210 different quotes, 30 per page, each label 2 5/8" x
1". This leaves three 49 character lines available for your
own address, phone number, email, fax or whatever. Each
sheet is US$2, the entire set of 7 for US$13; 2 sets for
US$20. Indicate quantity desired. Print address clearly,
exactly as desired. Order from address in examples below.
Laser printed, 8 pt Arial, with occasional flourishes.
_________________________________________________
|"Reality is that which, when you stop believing |
|in it, doesn't go away." [Philip K. Dick] |
|Greg Erwin 100 Terrasse Eardley |
|Aylmer, Qc J9H 6B5 Canada |
| email: ai815@FreeNet.Carleton.CA |
|________________________________________________|
_________________________________________________
|"...and when you tell me that your deity made |
|you in his own image, I reply that he must be |
|very ugly." [Victor Hugo, writing to clergy] |
|Greg Erwin 100 Terrasse Eardley |
|Aylmer, Qc J9H 6B5 Canada Ph: (613) 954-6128 |
| email: ai815@FreeNet.Carleton.CA |
|________________________________________________|
Other stuff for sale:
Certificate of Baptism Removal and Renunciation of Religion.
Have your baptism removed, renounce religion, and have a
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Poster 8x11: WARNING! This is a religion free zone!
All religious vows, codes, and commitments are null & void
herein. Please refrain from contaminating the ideosphere
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Humanity sincerely thanks you!
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4. Ingersoll poster: "When I became convinced that the
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Neat books available from H.H. Waldo, Bookseller! Books by
Ingersoll! Henderson's 19th Century Freethought Cartoons!
Holy Hatred, by James A. Haught......................$21.95
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by Tom "Anti-Claus" Flynn............................$13.95
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by Tim M. Berra......................................$ 8.95
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and many, many more. Ever changing inventory. Friendly
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add $2 postage/handling for first book & 0.50 for each
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Send 2 first class stamps for H.H. Waldo's current catalog.
TO:
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P.O. Box 350
Rockton, IL 61072
or phone 1-800-66WALDO !!!
tell 'im: "that nullifidian guy sent me!"
============================================================
/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\_/=\/=\
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. The Redemptive Power of Human Suffering, by Greg Erwin
2. A few of the good old Patriarchs,
From _The Freethinker's Pictorial Text Book_
3. CAIRO CONFERENCE--SUCCESS OR FAILURE?
by Stephen D. Mumford Ph.D (from Freethought Today)
4. "Mysterious Dave" Mather, by Robert M. Wright
from _Freethought on the American Frontier_, edited by
Fred Whitehead and Verle Muhrer
5. Excerpt from '"W.": The West Turning Infidel
from _Freethought on the American Frontier_, edited by
Fred Whitehead and Verle Muhrer
6. Letter from TH.
7. From _The Language Instinct_ by Steven Pinker
8. Child Abuse and Christianity
9. Errata
===========================================================
|| BEGINNING OF ARTICLE ||
===========================================================
The Redemptive Power of Human Suffering
The redemptive power of human suffering is the formal name
of a Roman Catholic doctrine. The idea behind it is one of
the foundations of christianity. It also pervades certain
sects of Islam, and with a slight twist becomes karma in
Hinduism and Buddhism as well. It is one of the most
pernicious ideas ever invented, and one that every humanist
should be constantly fighting against.
It is one of those christian ideas that pervade and poison
large areas of western society, even those which are not
under church jurisdiction or even usually thought of as
religious. As Dr Wendell Watters showed so ably in _Deadly
Doctrine_, the perverted ideas of life-hating misogynists in
the early christian churches made the possession and
expression of normal sexuality nearly impossible for most of
those in western society, even those who are not formally
christians, for the last two millennia. Such "fall-out"
ideas as the inferiority of women, the debilitating effects
of sexual activity, woman as temptress, woman's "proper
place," women as naturally more emotional and less rational
than men are all due to myths based on judeo-christian
ideas.
Similarly, the magical idea of sacrifice, which is simply
the idea that you can influence a ghost (ghost is merely the
native Anglo-Saxon word for the Latin-based "spirit," they
mean the same thing) by destroying something valuable, is
the very foundation of christianity. In magic, the bigger
the favour that you want from your favourite ghost, the
bigger the sacrifice you should make. An ideal christian is
ready to kill his children if the ghost asks for it. So, as
destroying a human life is a large sacrifice, as was
demanded of Abraham, and as carried out by Japhtheh and
others in the Old Testament, following Yahweh's commands,
destroying an innocent life would be an even bigger
sacrifice, and killing a god would be the biggest sacrifice
of all. Of course, all of this is magical nonsense, thought
up by ignorant barbarians who had no idea what made crops
grow or rain fall from the sky.
The idea of the sacrificed saviour god had pervaded the
Mediterranean long before the beginning of christianity.
Mithras, Adonis, Dionysus, Tammuz, Horus and many, many
other gods had incarnated themselves, lived and been
sacrificed only to rise again, bringing eternal life to
their followers who sincerely believed the myth and swore to
practice the rules demanded of them. The incarnated god
basically a pagan idea and does not come from Judaism.
This idea was christianized by making the sacrifice of the
god an infinite sacrifice for everybody's sins. Of course,
you first have to convince everybody that they are guilty
and full of sin, just for being alive. That is the first
evil influence of christianity: its reliance on guilt, and
the desperate need to convince everybody that they are
utterly depraved and filled with sin.
Because of its reliance on guilt and its belief that the
torture-death of the messiah magically saved everybody, the
idea has come about that pain is a good thing, and has a
magical benefit. As anybody with sense can see that there
is no benefit visible here and now, the reward for your pain
is put off to the sky after you're dead. The resistance of
christianity to the use of anesthetic in the last century
was based on this idea: if the ghost wanted you to suffer,
you shouldn't be allowed to avoid it, especially women, who
were cursed by the ghost in the genesis myth to suffer
during childbirth. The ban on suicide is based on this idea
plus the concept of slavery: seeing that the ghost made
you, body and soul, you are his property, therefore if the
ghost created you for the purpose of suffering through a
lifetime of misery and pain, your only option is to endure
it. Suicide would be destruction of the ghost's property,
just like a slave running away, is theft. The current
resistance to assisted suicide is also based on this: the
ghost is not satisfied unless you have suffered to the full
extent that he wants to wring from you. Cutting the torture
short in any way is cheating.
Note that it is perfectly acceptable to get yourself killed
as long as it is not for your own benefit. There is nothing
in christian or catholic doctrine which prevents you from
becoming a bodyguard, or from throwing yourself on a grenade
during a war, or deciding to put all the other passengers in
the lifeboats first. You are only prohibited from killing
yourself with your own benefit in mind.
Many of our ideas about suffering and endurance are based on
this magical type of thinking, and should be discarded.
This is not to say that we cannot put off certain pleasures
in order to achieve a long-term goal, or simply enjoy
working hard in order to reach an end. However, there is
nothing to be gained by simply enduring pain; it is not good
for anybody to seek out pain, suffering is morally neutral,
the evil suffer as well as the good, and merely enduring
pain benefits no one in the real world.
I take this opportunity to wish everybody a Happy Year's
End, as we usher out the last week of the year (the seven
days from the 25th to the 31st) ;-) and a Happy New Year, as
we celebrate the beginning of the New Year. Let us put off
the superstitions and attitudes of the past, and make 1995 a
humanist year.
If I had a suggestion for anybody's resolutions it would be:
"get yourself excommunicated." Reduce the numbers of
officially religious people in the world.
=========================================================
|| END OF ARTICLE ||
=========================================================
"Everywhere in the world there are ignorance and prejudice,
but the greatest complex of these, with the most extensive
prestige and the most intimate entanglement with traditional
institutions, is the Roman Catholic Church." H.G. Wells
===========================================================
|| BEGINNING OF ARTICLE ||
===========================================================
A few of the good old Patriarchs,
>From _The Freethinker's Pictorial Text Book_
ADAM The original pattern after the image of Javeh. A
miserable coward who threw all the blame of the apple
difficulty on his wife.
NOAH The first drunkard on record. Cursed one of his boys
because he accidently saw his shameless debauchery.
ABRAHAM Tried to murder his son. Denied his wife.
Debauched his hired girl and turns her and his illegitimate
son out in the wilderness.
LOT Got so hilarious over his escape from Sodom and loss
of his wife, that he got blind drunk and piously assisted
his own daughters in their incestuous depravity.
JACOB Polygamist. Defrauds his brother, swindles his
father-in-law, and is criminally intimate with his serving
girls, like unto his Grandfather Abraham, only more so.
MOSES Murderer. Confidence man. Originator of the
infamous law against witches. Orders the slaughter of
innocent women and children, but saves all young girls for
immoral purposes.
JOSHUA A cold-blooded butcher with no more mercy in his
nature than an Apache Indian! [The Apaches, or at least
certain of them, were notorious for their cruelty towards
captives, and the notoriety seems to have been based on
actual occurrences. At least their descendants do not claim
that god endorsed their ancestors' behavior. --ed.]
DAVID Man after God's own heart. Polygamist. Adulterer.
wife stealer. Murderer of Uriah. Exterminates helpless
noncombatants, and owing to his unbridled lust is afflicted
with a nameless disease. (See Psalms xxxvii 5-7)
SOLOMON Reputed to be very wise, but whose wisdom was
chiefly expended in hunting wives and concubines. A man
notoriously licentious and who became a tyrant and an
idolater in his old age.
ELISHA A man of God who was so sensitive about his personal
appearance that he caused forty two innocent children to be
mangled because they made remarks about his bald head.
=========================================================
|| END OF ARTICLE ||
=========================================================
"The keystone dogma of the Christian ethics is the anti-
physical principle of Buddhism: Whatever is natural is
wrong. The mission of the Galilean ascetic, like the gospel
of Buddha Sakyamuni, was a declaration of war against
nature. According to the doctrine of Pessimism, our natural
instincts are our natural enemies; life is disease, and
death is it only cure; the pursuit of earthly happiness is a
chimera, and enjoyment in all its forms only serves to
strengthen the fatal delusion; emancipation from the bondage
of life is the summum bonum, and can be attained only by
mortifying our natural desires. The instinctive love of joy
is wrong--the path of self-affliction is the road to
salvation." Felix L. Oswald, "The Secret of the East"
quoted in _Freethinkers Pictorial Text Book_
===========================================================
|| BEGINNING OF ARTICLE ||
===========================================================
CAIRO CONFERENCE--SUCCESS OR FAILURE?
by Stephen D. Mumford Ph.D
Moments after the Cairo conference concluded, I overheard a
conference organizer in a corridor claim that the conference
was a huge success. Many others have now made similar
claims. While they may believe this themselves, I believe
they are doing humanity a disservice by making such claims,
whatever their motivations. I am convinced that the Cairo
meeting was a failure. Why?
According to the preamble of the conference document, the
stated mission of the meeting was to decide on a plan of
action for the next 20 years that would advance the goal of
population stabilization below the medium United Nations
projection of 9.8 billion in 2050. A Study published by the
_American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology_ on July 15,
1984, examined the abortion and population growth
experiences of 116 countries. This study showed that no
country has ever achieved a growth rate below 1% without
widespread use of abortion. By widespread use, I mean
abortion rates of 350 (in the few developed countries with
excellent contraceptive services and sex education) to 500
or more (mostly in developing countries) per 1000 live
births. (Approximately one-third of pregnancies in the
United States end in abortion and thus the U.S. rate
approaches the 500 abortions per 1000 live births.
The Cairo conference retained the 1984 Mexico City position
on abortion advocated by the antiabortion Reagan
administration. The position holds that: (1) women do not
have the "right" to choose abortion; and (2) that abortion
must not be recognized as a legitimate family planning
method.
Abortion *is* a family planning method. It is foolish to
claim that abortion is not a method of family planning as
Vice-President Al Gore did just prior to and again during
the conference. Sixty million women get abortions each year
for one reason--to control their fertility, and thus plan
their families. Women should have the right to have an
abortion. Abortion is not an immoral but a moral choice
both for the individual woman and for the rest of us--in
this overpopulated world of impoverished people destined to
become even poorer. These abortion issues were certainly
the two most important questions to be resolved by this
conference. The Vatican won on both counts.
What are the implications of this outcome for the stated
mission of the conference? First, there will be no
widespread use of abortion in most countries. Second,
abortion will continue to be strongly discouraged by law--
thus supporting the position that it is immoral. Abortion
is made unsafe by being illegal, further discouraging its
use. Without widespread use of abortion, population growth
rates cannot be pushed below 1% per year, and any hope of
stabilizing population growth is destroyed. So the goal of
stabilizing global population growth becomes unattainable,
and that was the stated mission of the Cairo conference.
The Holy See won and humanity lost. Conference organizers
should admit this.
The Vatican frankly dominated the Cairo conference. Most
attendees were shocked that the Holy See both had the power
to stop the conference in its tracks for six days, and had
the resolve to exercise this power so publicly. In my view,
this education of the participants was the most important
outcome of the meeting in Cairo.
Now it is time to examine more closely the Holy See's
motivations. Its claim that "morality" is driving its
behavior does not stand up to critical analysis. Most
Americans, including American Catholics, already reject this
claim outright and have widely accepted all family planning
methods and abortion for themselves. Even the Vatican's
Pontifical Academy of Sciences recently rejected this claim
and urged limits on family size to avert "insoluble
problems" cause by runaway growth, recommending that family
size be limited to about two children per couple. I believe
the Pontifical Academy position--and of Catholics and the
rest of us who plan our families--occupies the moral high
ground. Something else other than "morality" is really
driving the Holy See's behavior: Pope John Paul II himself
has identified an even more powerful motivation--
institutional survival.
The outcome of the conference brought to mind a statement
made in 1979 by Hans Kung, arguably the world's leading
Catholic theologian. Kung wrote, "The only way to solve the
problem of contraception is to solve the problem of
infallibility." In this single sentence, Prof. Kung
identified the core of the world's population problem.
When Vatican Council I, more than a century earlier, adopted
the principle of Papal infallibility in 1870, the
intellectual leadership of the Church objected on the
grounds that in due time the Church would find itself
inescapably down a blind alley, followed by inevitable self-
destruction for the Papacy.
In 1966, the Papal Commission on Population and Birth
Control submitted its report to Pope Paul VI recommending
that the Church change its position on birth control. A
minority report, recommending no change, became the basis
for _Humanae Vitae_, the 1968 papal encyclical banning birth
control. It was coauthored by Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, now
Pope John Paul II, and reads:
"If it should be declared that contraception is not evil in
itself then we should have to concede frankly that the Holy
Spirit had been on the side of the Protestant churches in
1930 (when the encyclical Casti connubii was promulgated),
in 1951 (Pius XII's address to the midwives) and in 1958
(the address delivered before the Society of Hematologists
in the year the pope died). It should likewise have to be
admitted that for half a century the Spirit failed to
protect Pius XI, Pius XII, and a large part of the Catholic
hierarchy from a very serious error. This would mean that
the leaders of the Church, acting with extreme imprudence,
had condemned thousands of innocent human acts, forbidding,
under pain of eternal damnation, a practice which would now
be sanctioned. The fact can neither be denied nor ignored
that these same acts would now be declared licit on the
grounds of principles cited by the Protestants, which Popes
and bishops have either condemned or at least not approved."
In a May 15, 1980 letter to the German Bishops' Conference,
John Paul II said, "I am convinced that the doctrine of
infallibility is in a certain sense the key to the certainty
with which the faith is confessed and proclaimed, as well as
to the life and conduct of the faithful. For once this
essential foundation is shaken or destroyed, the most basic
truths of our faith likewise begin to break down."
In these two quotes, Pope John Paul II acknowledges the
obvious. Birth control became the "blind alley" the
intellectual leadership so feared in 1870. (A chapter in my
new book has been devoted to this topic.)
Thus, in effect the Church cannot change its position on
birth control without the real prospect of destroying
itself. As a result, the institution has defined morality
in such a way as to attempt to prevent self-destruction--by
saying that birth control is morally wrong. Demands that
the teachings of the encyclical Humanae Vitae, which banned
contraception and abortion, be followed are made to insure
survival of the institution itself. In my view, it is
undeniable that institutional survival motivated the Holy
See to behave as it did at the Cairo conference.
***********************************************************
[Freedom from Religion] Foundation member Stephen Mumford
has authored a new book, _The life and Death of NSSM 200:
How the Destruction of Political Will Doomed a U.S.
Population Policy_ available from the Center for Research on
Population and Security, P.O. Box 13067, Research Triangle
Park for $18.95 plus $4 for handling.
=========================================================
The Freedom From Religion Foundation publishes Freethought
Today, an approximately monthly newspaper. Subscription is
$20/year. Membership in FFRF is $35, single and $40
household, and includes the subscription. The folks at FFRF
do a remarkable job of fighting freethought legal battles
all over the US. They have an impressive number of
successful legal challenges to municipal creches, ten
commandments, idol funding. Currently, they are challenging
the "god" motto on American money.
=========================================================
|| END OF ARTICLE ||
=========================================================
'Faith' means not *wanting* to know what is true.
[Friedrich Nietzsche]
===========================================================
|| BEGINNING OF ARTICLE ||
===========================================================
"Mysterious Dave" Mather, by Robert M. Wright
from _Freethought on the American Frontier_, edited by Fred
Whitehead and Verle Muhrer
[Robert M. Wright, born in 1840, was from Maryland, but
"took a notion" at age sixteen to go West, where he settled
on a farm near St. Louis, Missouri. Subsequently, he went
to Dodge City, Kansas, and became a contractor for cutting
hay and wood, and hauling grain. Achieving prominence as a
merchant, Wright served as postmaster, and then as a four-
term state representative from Ford County. Later
historians have tended to give "Mysterious Dave" the last
name of Mather, instead of Mathews, as Wright has it.]
_______________________
{From _Dodge City: The Cowboy Capital_ (Wichita, Kans.:
Wichita Eagle Press, 1913)}
Once upon a time, a long while ago, when Dodge was young and
very wicked, there came a man to town, an itinerant
preacher. In the present age you would call him an
evangelist. Well, anyway, he possessed a wonderful magnetic
power, he was marvelously gifted that way; he would cast his
spell over the people, and draw crowds that no one ever
dreamed of doing before. In fact, he captured some of the
toughest of the toughs of wicked Dodge, and from the very
first he set his heart on the capture of one Dave Mathews--
alias, Mysterious Dave--who was city marshal at the time,
said to be a very wicked man, a killer of killers. And it
was and is an undoubted fact that Dave had more dead men to
his credit, at that time, than any other man in the West.
Seven by actual count in one night, in one house, and all at
one sitting. Indeed he was more remarkable in his way than
the preacher was in his.
Well, as I said, he set his heart on Dave, and he went after
him regularly every morning, much to the disgust of Dave.
Indeed he was so persistent, that Dave began to hate him.
In the meantime, the people began to feel the power of the
preacher, for he had about him an unexplainable something
that they could not resist, and the one little lone church
was so crowded they had to get another building, and this
soon would not hold half the audience. finally they got a
large hall known as the "Lady Gay Dance Hall" and fitted it
up with boards laid across empty boxes for seats. There was
a small stage at the rear of the building, and on this was
place a goods box for a pulpit for the preacher. Now
whether or not Dave had become infected by the general
complaint that seized the people, or whether the earnest
persistence of the preacher had captured him I know not.
Anyhow, certain it was, he promised the preacher to attend
the meeting that night, and certain it was, Dave would not
break his word. He was never known to do that. If he
promised a man he would kill him, Dave was sure to do it.
It was soon noised around by the old "he pillars of the
church, and the "she pillars" too that Dave was captured at
last, and what a crowd turned out that night to see the
wonderful work of God brought about through the agency of
the preacher--the capture of Mysterious Dave.
Soon the hall was filled to its utmost capacity, and Dave,
true to his promise, was seen to enter. He was at once
conducted to the front, and given the seat of honor reserved
for him in front of the preacher, and Oh! how that preacher
preached straight at him. He told of how wonderful was the
ways of Providence in softening the heart of wicked Dave
Mathews, and what rejoicing there would be in heaven over
the conversion of such a man. Then he appealed to the
faithful ones, the old "he pillars" of the church, and said
to them, now he was ready to die. He had accomplished the
one grand object of his life. He had converted the
wickedest man in the country, and was willing now and at
once to die, for he knew he would go straight to heaven.
Then he called upon the faithful ones to arise and give in
their experience, which they did, each one singly, and said,
they too, like the preacher, were willing to die right now
and here, for they knew that they, too, would go right
straight to heaven for helping to carry out this great work.
In fact, most of them said, like the preacher, that they
wanted to die right now so they could all go to heaven
rejoicing together. Dave sat there silent with bowed head.
He told me afterwards, he never in all his scrapes was in
such a hot box in his life. He said he would much rather to
have been in a hot all-around fight with a dozen fellows
popping at him all at once, than to have been there. He
said he would have been more at ease, and felt more at home,
and I expect he told the truth.
Finally he raised to his feet and acknowledged he had been
hard hit and the bullet had struck a vital spot, and at last
religion had been poured into him; that he felt it tingling
from his toes through his whole body, every to his
fingertips, and he knew he had religion now, sure, and if he
died now would surely go to heaven, and pulling both of his
six shooters in front of him, he said further, for fear that
some of the brothers here tonight might backslide and
thereby lose their chance of heaven, he thought they had
better all die tonight together as they had so expressed
themselves, and the best plan, he said, would be for him to
kill them all, and then kill himself. Suddenly jerking out
a pistol in each hand, he said to the preacher, "I will send
you first," firing over the preacher's head. Wheeling
quickly he fired several shots into the air, in the
direction of the faithful ones.
The much-frightened preacher fell flat behind the drygoods
box, as also did the faithful ones who ducked down as low as
they could. Then Dave proceeded to shoot out the lights,
remarking as he walked towards the door, "You are all a set
of liars and frauds, you don't want to go to heaven with me
at all." This broke up the meeting, and destroyed the
usefulness of that preacher in this vicinity. His power was
gone, and he departed for new fields, and I am sorry to
relate, the people went back to their backsliding and
wickedness.
Review
This is a wonderful collection of early freethought. I can
testify that it is dangerous to possess for a confirmed
bibliophile, as it has resulted in my purchase of Vols I and
II of Watson Heston's cartoons (The Freethinkers' Pictorial
Text Book), and a subscription to _Freethought History_,
which is Mr Whitehead's quarterly newsletter, to contact
with the _Truth Seeker_, the oldest continuing freethought
magazine, and to compulsive orders from H.H. Waldo, see ad
above.
The religious right has managed a complete Stalinist-type
revision/rewriting of history, so that most people,
including most atheists, agnostics and freethinkers now
believe that the American past was more religious, more
puritanical and more church-going than the present. They
have also convinced us that everybody of importance was a
conventionally religious Christian in their own narrow mold.
Poems cited here from Carl Sandburg, Vachel Lindsay, even
Oliver Wendell Holmes, as well as letters to the editor,
editorials, folklore, cartoons, and articles, show the vigor
and acceptance of freethought during the frontier period,
and clearly show that the RRR version of history is nothing
more than hogwash.
We tend to forget that you cannot trust a christian when it
comes to matters dealing with what they perceive as
prestige. They will always choose a lie or a falsehood, if
it will advance their cause. The possibility exists, to be
fair, that they are merely ignorant and deceived.
You will probably enjoy all of this, certainly most of it;
and be left wishing for more.
You will also learn a new affection for direct frontier
language and turns of phrase. I particularly enjoyed: "If
we could trade our ham-fat preachers for Good Samaritans at
a ratio of 16 to 1, our brass-collar orthodoxy for pure
morality, and about three hundred thousand brainless bigots
and canting hypocrites for a yaller dog and lose him, Texas
would be infinitely better off." Allowing for inflation,
that would be 30 million brainless bigots and the entire
North American continent, but still just one yaller dog to
lose.
One more excerpt before we leave the topic.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Excerpt from '"W.": The West Turning Infidel
from _Freethought on the American Frontier_, edited by
Fred Whitehead and Verle Muhrer
If every freethinker in this country would boldly express
his sentiments, Christians would be compelled to look up to
us. They would be as cautious how they arraign us as we are
now to oppose them. They would fear that they would lose
our trade, even as we now keep silence lest we lose their
patronage. We should not wait for preachers to tell us that
the country is going to materialism. We should assert our
own individuality and impart the information ourselves.
It is no disgrace to say you are an Infidel. Say it and say
it proudly. To be known as an Infidel is not nearly so
dangerous as many imagine. If you come out boldly and
manfully about it, the masses will respect you and your
trade will suffer but little.
Last week the Supreme Medical Examiner of a great Fraternal
Insurance company for which I am local medical examiner,
visited me for several days. In the course of one of our
talks he said: "Doctor, to what church do you belong?" I
judged he was a pious man, and my first thought was to say,
"Well, I was raised a Methodist"; but then I thought, why
should I be evasive just for policy, and I replied: "I am
happy to say that I belong to the big church, the church of
the world, the church to which fifty out of the seventy
millions of people in this country belong. I am an Infidel,
an uncompromising Infidel. Now to what church do you
belong?
"Well," he said, "I am a Methodist!" "And are you not just a
little bit ashamed of it?" said I. "In this day of
enlightenment and progress are you fully in accord with your
best reason, when you say you are a Methodist?" The
conversation that followed proved that he was almost as much
a heretic as myself, and he respected my frankness, though
the bold admission at first shocked him. He was
unaccustomed to hear men speak out in such manner, but I was
glad I did, for he liked to talk on that subject when he met
a man with whom he could freely converse.
I will admit, my frankness might have cost me my position
with the company, but it didn't The fact is that a man's
trade is not greatly affected nowadays by the open
declaration of Infidel views.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
You can obtain the book from Prometheus Books, 700 E.
Amherst Street, Buffalo, NY 14215 phone (716) 837-2475 or
fax (716) 835-6901 for an order or catalog.
You can subscribe to Freethought History at Box 5224, Kansas
City, Kansas 66119, for US$10 per year.
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Letter from TH.
Message #19 (21 is last):
Date: Wed Dec 14 17:53:03 1994
From: h??t@gt??7.elan.af.mil (T???y H??t)
Subject: Re: Does God exist??
To: ai815@freenet.carleton.ca (Greg Erwin)
Real mail that we get (honest):
I have not put [sic] in where it might belong, because my
fingers would have gotten too tired, or I would have to have
written a [sic] macro.
TH: Key of Knowledge The Key to understanding Heavenly
things.....
In Luke 11:52, he says, "Wow,unto you lawyers for you have
taken away the key of knowledge." The lawyers at that time
were the Pharisees. Also, In Hebrews 8:5, it talks of a
tabernacle being a shadow of heavenly things. This
tabernacle was build under divine instruction by Moses in
the Wilderness. In Addition, 15 chapters in the book of
Exodus explain in great detail how this tabernacle was to be
made. This the key that is referred to by the messiah. The
Pharisees did not understand the importance of it nor due
the religious leaders today.
Without going into a long speach I will make this
explaination of the tabernacle brief....
GE: It is not brief. I will just note that anyone can take
a jumble of nonsense from just about any book at all, and
"prove" just about anything at all. You will note that the
Greeks did the same with Homer's poems, the Jews do it with
the OT, Christians do with the OT and NT, Muslims do it with
the Qur'an and Hindus do it with the Gita and Vedas and
Upanishads. If they all came to the same conclusion it
might mean something. However, their conclusions are all
remarkably different.
The Pharisees were not lawyers, they were the members of a
Jewish sect who believed in the strict observance of the
Law, as they believed it was given to them through Moses by
god. If you accept the truth of the fairy tales in the OT,
then you believe that these laws were given to Israel and
Judah directly by it, as well. If you suggested, back then,
that they were not divinely inspired, and should not be kept
in every detail, you would, according to those same laws,
have deserved to die. Jesus also said that not one "jot or
tittle" of those same laws should be changed or would be
changed. If later, he started saying that the Law should be
changed, then the Law which he had propounded before he was
born (according to myth) condemned him, and he deserved his
fate by the very Law which he had given to the Jews to live
by. Sounds to me, like you christians are going to have a
lot of explaining to do.
TH: The tabernacle is a three in one structure, consisting
of a Most Holy Place, Holy Place, and Court roound about.
Moses was told to make this structure according to what he
saw in the mountain (Exodus 25:9,10,40). This is the
pattern of all things. For example, an atom consist of
protons, neutrons, and electrons. Three parts, one atom. A
cell is a neuclus, neuclolus, and a cell body. Three parts,
one cell.
GE: But a tabernacle has four sides and a top and a bottom,
that's six. Oops, I forgot the inside and the outside. :-)
Sub-atomic particles consist of six kinds of quarks. There
are 100 odd naturally occurring elements. You forgot to
include plasma, the fourth state of matter.
TH: The earth is a core, a mantle, and crust. Three parts,
one earth. An apple is a core, meat, and skin. Three
parts, one apple. Man is a head cavity, a chest cavity, and
an abdominal cavity. Three parts, one man. Romans 1:19-20
talks about understanding the spiritual thing by looking at
the physical things. Most of all, the creator can be
understand by this pattern too. 1 John 5:7 says, "There are
three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and
the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. How do I
understand that??? Well, the Creator is Spirit and has the
ability to manifest in three states of existence:
GE: But nobody claims that the core is the whole apple or
the bowels make up an entire person (except for a christian,
maybe). Whereas this nonsensical claim is put forward for
the christian deity.
TH: 1) Pure Spirit - the source, substance, limits, and
bounds of everthing. No shape of form. Acts 17:28 says,"
Within him we live more and have our being." This is the
Father.
GE: If it has no shape or form, how did Moses see its butt?
How did it walk in the garden with Adam and Eve? How did OT
prophets talk to it "face to face"? How did it write the 10
commandments with a formless finger?
TH: 2) Incorporeal - Having shape and form of a man (angel)
no flesh and blood. This is the Word or Son.(Ezekiel 1:26,
Exodus 24:8-10)
GE: Sorry, "incorporeal", as any dictionary will inform you
[it could also help you with the spelling] means "having no
body" it has nothing to do with having the 'shape and form
of a man'. How would something that has no physical
substance have a form? Liquids and gases have no form of
their own. And while it is tempting to accept that JC is
incorporeal in the sense of being the figment of various
imaginations, somehow I don't think that this is what you
mean, and he is usually seen as quite corporeal. (In the
sense of having a body, not in your unique usage below.)
TH: 3) Corporeal - Having fleshly part.
This is the Holy Spirit.(John 1:14, 1 Tim3:16)
GE: That's a good one. The *SPIRIT* is the one with the
'fleshly part.' THAT makes a lot of sense! Does that make
Jesus pure spirit because he had a body? Am I a spirit
(holy or otherwise) because I mainly seem to consist of a
'fleshly part'? Spirits have fleshly parts; being
incorporeal means having a form; and things without form and
shape have faces, fingers and butts. It's all clear now.
TH: The Creator is one ETERNAL SPIRIT with three states of
existence.
One more example, H2O. H2O exist as a gas ( no shape or
form), liquid (shape of container), and ice (concrete); yet,
one substance.
GE: If god wanted to communicate the idea that matter was
composed of atoms and that atoms consisted of sub-atomic
particles, what was holding him back from saying so plainly?
You have found a number of threes. So what? The Temple has
four sides. Six if you count the roof and floor. Where are
the divine tetrities and sexities? Man has seven openings to
the outside world. Medieval christians were certain that
god had commemorated this significant piece of knowledge by
placing seven planets in the heavens. Most of your
analogies are nonsense anyway, an apple could just as easily
be said to be seeds, core, meat and skin. Cells have
membranes, vacuoles, mitochondria, DNA (which is a code
written with four amino acids). The universe is composed of
the four elements. There are two sexes. We've got two
legs, two ears, two nostrils, two eyes, two sets of two
cheeks. Good & evil, heaven and earth, dead and alive.
Numbers are all around, it is easy to pick all the threes,
or the fours or the fives or the twos and marvel at them,
but not particularly useful.
TH: By looking at the physical things we can understand the
invisible Creator. The Creator is not a TRINITY but AN
UNITY. The word "trinity" is not in the bible but the word
"unity" is.(Deut 6:4,Zech 14:9)
GE: By making up silly tales, we can play make believe
about the pretend characteristics of a nonexistent figment
of the imagination. Christian doctrine is that the creator
is both unity and trinity: 3=1 1+1+1=1 3-1=3. The word
trinity is not in the bible because nobody came up with the
concept until the 3rd or 4th century and started inserting
lines like the one you quote from John, if you've got a
doctrinal squabble to solve, tampering with 'holy' text
(certainly a form of lying, forgery) is nothing. Was god
lying to the Jews about his trinitarianness, or merely
concealing it when he had them proclaim, Shema Yisroel,
Adonai elohenu, Adonai ehud? Not one hint of trinitarianism
anywhere around. In fact, one gets the clear message that
the Oneness of God is the absolutely most important thing
that a believer should understand: no other gods, no semi-
divine beings, no worship for anything except the One. Yet
this is supposed to be necessary to one's salvation. Sorry
Moishe, you don't get in, you don't know that 1+1+1=1!
Christians finally settled this deep doctrinal question by
having a series of wars, and the Unity guys (Arians) lost
and were declared heretics by the Athanasians. Arians,
however, were in charge of various parts of Europe, such as
Iberia, well into the 7th century. If they had had better
generals, there would be no trinity, because it certainly
doesn't come from Judaism, or anywhere in the bible, but is
merely a concession to the polytheism of the Roman Empire,
as was the acceptance of Mariolatry as a substitute for the
various goddesses, and prayers to saints in lieu of all the
minor gods, along with a host of other baggage like adopting
the Saturnalia and the birthday of Mithras or _Natalis Solis
Invictus_ as the birthday of Jesus, and the spring festival
in honour of the resurrection of all the nature gods, as the
time of the crucifiction.
The basic difference between the Arians and the Athanasians
was expressed as: whether JC was of the same substance as
(homoousious) the Father, or of "like" substance to
(homoiousious) the Father. [My Greek transliteration may
not be exact] Over this literal "iota of difference" about
a million people were killed in the various conflicts.
Anyone who says that they understand the doctrine of the
trinity stands convicted of lying, as no one can understand
what does not make sense. It is like claiming to understand
the concept of colorless green or flavourless salt.
TH: In addition, The creator told man to build three
things:
GE: Only three? Should we stop now?
TH: 1. The Ark - it was made a Lower deck, Middle deck, and
a upper Deck. Three parts,One Ark.
GE: Port, Starboard, Fore and Aft, four sides, one Ark.
Two of each "kind", but seven of the ones fit to be
sacrificed. Do you really believe this fairy tale enough to
base claims on it?
TH: 2. The tabernacle - Most Holy Place, Holy Place, and the
Court-Around-About. Three Parts, one ark.
3. Solomon Temple - Porch, Oracle, and Santuary. Three
parts, one Temple.
Why are things like that?????????????
--
T???y H??t
Like Dave Barry says, "I am not making this up!"
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>From _The Language Instinct_ by Steven Pinker
'Computer parsers are too meticulous for their own good.
They find ambiguities that are quite legitimate, as far as
English grammar is concerned, but that would never occur to
a sane person. One of the first computer parsers, developed
at Harvard in the 1960s, provides a famous example. The
sentence _Time flies like an arrow_ is surely unambiguous if
there ever was an unambiguous sentence (ignoring the
difference between literal and metaphorical meanings, which
have nothing to do with syntax). But to the surprise of the
programmers, the sharp-eyed computer found it to have five
different trees!
1. Time proceeds as quickly as an arrow proceeds. (the
intended reading)
2. Measure the speed of flies in the same way that you
measure the speed of an arrow.
3. Measure the speed of flies in the same way that an
arrow measures the speed of flies.
4. Measure the speed of flies that resemble an arrow.
5. Flies of a particular kind, time-flies, are fond of an
arrow.
Among computer scientists the discovery has been summed up
in the aphorism "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like
a banana."'
*********************************************************
Often I feel like I am arguing with those whose
understanding is matched by the machine that decided that
the last four are likely interpretations of the sentence.
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Child Abuse and Christianity
It is no surprise that child abuse should occur in religious
institutions. Given the core of Christian doctrine it would
be a surprise to find a Christian institution that did *not*
harbor a large percentage of child abusers. Those who wrote
the Bible were undoubtedly familiar with child abuse,
however, their familiarity and sympathy seem to lie with the
abuser.
The mythological image of God the father is uncomfortably
similar to a typical child abuser's profile. He causes pain
and misery, yet insists he is acting out of love. During
the punishment, indeed, all the time, he insists on
expressions of adoration from the victims. He demands
absolute, unquestioning, instant obedience: kill your
children, divorce your spouse, leave home and travel
forever; no questions allowed, no hesitation permitted.
Trivial infractions receive punishment monstrously out of
proportion to the offence. Picking up sticks on the sabbath
is punishable by death. Daring to help steady the ark
results in instant death.
He is inconsistent, tolerating the gross misbehavior of
some, while punishing the trivial disobedience of others.
Actually, like a typical bully, God extends tolerance to the
powerful, and beats up on the powerless. Any hint of
rebellion, any suggestion that this situation is not
delightful, is immediately squashed. Like every bully, like
all tyrants, he is always surrounded by sycophants.
The offenses singled out for the worst punishments are those
which might indicate any feeling of autonomy, self-esteem,
or self-sufficiency on the part of the slaves. God and his
priests always call this the sin of pride and suppress it
severely. Heresy, which is self-sufficiency applied to
thinking about God, is likewise singled out.
This must lead to the victims suppressing in themselves all
feelings of self-worth and most rational thought, simply in
order to survive. Once you have taken the Bible as a model,
it is an easy step to use children to gratify your sexuality
and other needs. With the Bible for a model, it is easy to
justify beatings, abuse and torture to enforce your will.
In the myth of Lot, Lot knew that the visiting strangers
were angels in disguise. The mob wanted him to send them
out to be raped. Cowardly Lot offered them his daughters
instead. Later, he slept with his daughters. Do you
believe his story? Would you believe a father today who
said his daughters got him drunk and tricked him into
sleeping with them? Or might you think that the drunken
lout of a father, got drunk (again) and raped his daughters?
Of course, God in his wisdom, is not recorded as punishing
any of them, but killed whatshername (Mrs. Lot) for being
curious.
In the myth of Job, God lets Satan kill Job's seven sons and
three daughters, (as a test). At the end, Job gets seven
new kids. (Mrs Job's thoughts on enduring another seven
pregnancies are not revealed). Is it any wonder that
Christians might consider children as so many replaceable
property units?
Consider the charming music of Psalm 109: 'May his children
be fatherless, and his wife a widow! May his children
wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins
they inhabit! ... Let there be none to extend kindness to
him, nor any to pity his fatherless children!' Psalm 137:
'Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes
them against the rock!' How many beatings have be justified
by Proverbs 3:12, 'for the LORD reproves him who he loves,
as a father the son in whom he delights.'? Obviously, those
outside of God's magic circle don't count for much.
If you consider humanity as worthy of eternal damnation for
something a remote ancestor did; if you condemn normal
sexual feelings and other natural emotions as symptoms of
depravity; and if you believe that it is necessary to your
eternal salvation to mindlessly comply with nonsensical
rules and force others to do the same ... it is no wonder
that children in religious orphanages were beaten to death
for minor infractions, or that they were forced to serve
priests' perverted desires. The surprise would be
Christians treating children as equals, acknowledging them
as fellow human beings; encouraging them to think for
themselves and not taking advantage of their powerlessness.
When one fundamentalist actually calls for a minister to
have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into the
sea for the crime of child abuse, this will indicate that
they are coming around. It will never happen.
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Errata
"Errata", in the table of contents should read: "Erratum".
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Once again: ISSN: 1201-0111 The Nullifidian Volume Two,
Number 1: JAN 1995.
--
HUMANISM: an exaltation of freedom, but one limited by our need to
exercise it as an integral part of nature and society. --John Ralston Saul
If this is a humanist topic then I am President of the Humanist Association
of Ottawa. Greg Erwin. ai815@FreeNet.Carleton.CA
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