Issue #140           May 2001              Price: 50¢

AAI Convention calls for Local Action & Growth
By Marie Alena Castle
    The Easter Weekend Atheist Alliance International (AAI) convention in Atlanta was a great success, judging by the large turnout of nearly 200. The hosts -- Atlanta Freethought Society -- said they were extremely pleased with the results of their efforts. There will be a full report in the July-September Secular Nation magazine. 

     The speakers were both varied and excellent. For example, the presentation by  William Sierichs, Jr., "The History of Christianity," was a compendium of the innumerable instances of fables, force and fraud used to create and sustain Christianity.  This history alone is enough to destroy the system's  credibility. Paul Kurtz, the keynote speaker, emphasized the need for activism. Massimo Pigliucci demonstrated the superiority of a rational approach to ethics as opposed to the incoherent mess religion produces.  Marie Castle and Ed Buckner's workshop on "The Etiquette of Religion-Bashing" was both hilarious and instructive for the standing-room-only crowd. 

     August Berkshire proved to be an ambassador of good will extraordinaire in bringing seven members and leaders of La Libre Pensée to the convention from France. They were welcomed as colleagues and full participants. One, Philippe Besson, sat in on the AAI board meeting.  Another, Claude Singer (pronounced Sang-jay) reported on their organization's progress when AAI member societies gave their reports. Their president, Christian Eyschen, spoke to the convention and urged attendance at the AAI-La Libre Pensée international conference in 2002 in Paris. 

     August also brought Robert Buckman, president of Humanist Association of Canada -- a compelling speaker. All participated in a panel discussion on the value of international cooperation. 
 The AAI annual board meeting, always held in conjunction with the convention, was especially productive.  Because AAI is a grassroots organization run by unpaid volunteers, it is now is a position to provide financial assistance to member societies to help them grow and develop their own outreach projects. 

     The board voted to set up a matching funds program using 50% of its net revenue per year. The program will start small to test it out.  A basic grant of about $200 will be available to member societies with minimal eligibility requirements. In following years, a "challenge" grant will be added that is expected to provide larger amounts on a competitive basis.  A grant committee has been selected, representative of the 25 U.S. member societies' geographical distribution and varying sizes. 

     The Atheist Alliance was founded specifically to help form and develop democratic atheist organizations in every state. With the matching funds program, this goal is becoming a reality. 

     The AAI board also voted to encourage its member societies to form state secular councils patterned after the Minnesota Secular Council, which was successful in meeting with Gov. Jesse Ventura. It's at the local level where action really counts. Metroplex Atheists, Dallas-Ft. Worth, volunteered to host the 2002 convention. The 2003 convention will be in Madison, Wisconsin, hosted by Atheists & Agnostics of Wisconsin.
Upcoming Events

       AAW will meet on Sunday, May 13th at the
     Social Justice Center. 1202 Williamson Street
Madison, WI

We will discuss the 2001 AAI Convention
and how it will impact AAW.
The meeting will begin at 10:30 am.

For information contact Jim Dew at (608) 244-1948
Atheists and Agnostics of Wisconsin (AAW)
P.O. Box 259257  Madison, WI  53725-9257
e-mail: aaw@atheistalliance.org
Website: http://www.atheistalliance.org/aaw/

Atheists & Agnostics of Wisconsin is a member society of
the Atheist Alliance International and the Council for Secular Humanism
Spielberg Leaves Boy Scouts Board

    On Monday April 16, 2001, Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg stepped down  from the advisory board of the Boy Scouts of America, saying that he could no longer associate with a group that engages in "discrimination."  Although the Boy Scouts targets gays and atheists, media attention focused on the issue of homosexual discrimination, though Spielberg's statements did not.

     In the announcement Spielberg said, "The last few years in scouting have deeply saddened me to see the Boy Scouts of America actively and publicly participating in discrimination. It's a real shame." 

    "I thought the Boy Scouts stood for equal opportunity and I have consistently spoken out publicly and privately against intolerance and discrimination based on ethnic, religious, racial and sexual orientation. 

     "To avoid any further misunderstanding, I have chosen to decline another term on the advisory board while continuing to encourage -- for the good of scouting -- efforts to end this intolerance and discrimination once and for all. 

     "Once scouting opens its doors to all who desire the same experience that so fully enriched me as a young person, I will be happy to reconsider a role on the advisory board."

THE BUSH YEARS:
Confessions of a Lonely Atheist:  Part III
By Natalie Angier

     The capacity for religious sentiment subserves so many human interests as to suggest it may be innate. "Religions have a strong binding function and a cohesive element," de Waal says. "They emphasize the primacy of the community as opposed to the individual, and they also help set one community apart from another that doesn't share their beliefs." 

     Certainly those in authority have long recognized the power of religion as a quick-and-dirty way of getting everybody on the same meta-bandwidth, at once focused and aroused and prepared to do battle for a putative "greater good." President-elect Bush has sought to tap into this unifying, exultant spirit in his call for a replacement of all those sterile and secular government welfare programs with a host of new "faith-based" charities. 

     In their coming book, Why God Won't Go Away, the neuroscientists Andrew Newberg and Eugene d'Aquili (who died after the book was completed) argue that the "promises of religion" protected early humans from the "self-defeating fatalism" and "soul-sapping" despair of the Ingmar Bergman variety. "By providing us with helpful gods, and showing how to appeal to those gods, religions armed our ancestors -- and continue to arm us -- with a feeling of control," they write. "As long as we have the methods to propitiate the gods, or solicit their interest, or appeal to their sense of fairness and justice, or to connect with the presence of an eternal unity, we feel that an underlying order and purpose exist in a seemingly chaotic universe."

     In his book Consilience, Edward O. Wilson of Harvard states that "the human mind evolved to believe in the gods. It did not evolve to believe in biology."

     I'm not so sure. Religion may be innate, but so, too, is skepticism. Consider that we are the most socially sophisticated of all creatures, reliant on reciprocal altruism for so much of our success. We are profoundly dependent on the good will and good behavior of others, and we are perpetually seeking evidence that those around us are trustworthy, are true to their word, are not about to desert us, rob us blind, murder us as we sleep. It is not enough for a newcomer to tell us: "Open your door. Trust me. I'm a swell citizen -- really." We want proof. The human race resides in one great Show Me state. If we are built to have faith, we are threaded through, as well, with a desire for proof that our faith is well placed -- as Bruce Monson doggedly puts it when he asks his Christian colleagues why Jesus can't step down from on high just once to bring back to life one of many children he has  seen die in the line of duty.

     Believers and doubters alike will always be with us -- and it's just possible that we need each other more than we know. As Kevin McCullough, a member of the Fellowship of Christian Firefighters, told me of his debate with the doubting Monson: "If he's seeking the truth, I don't think he's there yet. But he makes me think, and he brings up good points, and that's good for me. It helps strengthen my own beliefs."

     From my godless perspective, the devout remind me that it is human nature to thirst after meaning and to desire an expansion of purpose beyond the cramped Manhattan studio of self and its immediate relations. In her brief and beautiful book, The Sacred Depths of Nature, Ursula Goodenough, a cell biologist, articulates a sensibility that she calls "religious naturalism," a profound appreciation of the genuine workings of nature, conjoined with a commitment to preserving that natural world in all its staggering, interdependent splendor. Or call it transcendent atheism: I may not believe in life after death, but what a gift it is to be alive now.

(reprinted from The New York Times Magazine  Jan. 14, 2001)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 20th: 
Summer Solstice in the
 northern hemisphere

    June 23rd: 
AAW's Summer 
Solstice Potluck!

Dubya Speak
"Tyrants and dictators will accept no other gods before them.  They require disobedience to the First Commandment. They seek absolute control and are threatened by faith in God. They fear only the power they cannot possess -- the power of truth. So they resent the living example of the devout, especially the devotion of a unique people chosen by God." 
     --George W. Bush,  April 19, 2001


The weakest link....

Speaking about Dubya

"I am sure there is a place for young George Bush somewhere.  However in light of his grades on the LSAT exams, that place is not the School Of Law at the University of Texas." 

-- Page Keeton, Dean of the School of Law at UT

Religious Oppression
     According to the Taliban's culture minister in Afghanistan, "All statues will be destroyed."   Therefore destruction of the historic giant Buddhas, carved in sandstone 1600 years ago, were begun in March, 2001.  "They should be destroyed so that they are not worshiped..." despite the fact that no one has been worshiping them and that they have historic value.  Could this ever happen in the U.S.?

     Last year, a number of citizens in the Comfort, Texas area formed a committee that planned, designed and raised money for a monument to the town's founders, a group of immigrant freethinkers.  The town's government approved the plans and only private money was raised to fund the monument. 

     Then the town's religious residents then found out that a number of atheists partly funded the monument and that the founders were irreligious.  The upset residents protested and demanded that the monument, a large stone, be removed.  They ultimately got their way.  In December, the 32-ton monument was forcibly removed.

     What happened to the Comfort rock -- intended as a tribute to the German Freethinkers who founded the town -- is an example of the religious bigotry those pioneers came to Texas to escape.

See:  www.auschron.com/issues/ vol18/ issue12/pols.comfortrock.html
and also, www.atheistalliance.org/fact/ activism.htm     ~~~~~~~~~
What Is Blasphemy?
By Robert G. Ingersoll

 "To live on the unpaid labor of others.
To enslave the bodies of men.
To build dungeons for the soul.
To frighten babies with the threat of eternal fire.
To appeal from reason to brute force, 
from principle to prejudice, 
from justice to hatred.
To answer argument with calumny.
To beat wives and children.
To reward hypocrisy.
To persecute for opinion's sake.
To add to the sum of human misery."
~~~~~~~~~~
Words of Wisdom
— from Mark Twain

 "The so-called Christian nations are the most enlightened and progressive ... but in spite of their religion, not because of it. The Church has opposed every innovation and discovery from the day of Galileo down to our own time, when the use of anesthetic in childbirth was regarded as a sin because it avoided the biblical curse pronounced against Eve. And every step in astronomy and geology ever taken has been opposed by bigotry and superstition. The Greeks surpassed us in artistic culture and in architecture five hundred years before Christian religion was born."


New 2001 Freethought Directory Now Available!

     The 2001 edition is now available for sale. It's 282 pages, with a color cover, maps, smooth white text pages, a few thought-provoking ads, and some new sections, such as Speakers & Debaters and Conventions -- more than 1000 entries.

     The retail price of the 2001 edition is $13. Buy 2 or more and pay by check, and your price is $11.50 per copy.  Then donate one to your public library!

      Single copies can be purchased on the Atheist Alliance Web site www.atheistalliance.org with a credit card. Discounted copies must be paid for by check sent to: Freethought Directory, AAI, P. O. Box 242, Pocopson, Pennsylvania 19366.  All prices include shipping and handling, worldwide.   ~~~~~~~~


Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

     Here's how the GOP plans to win its battle for vouchers: The "far right" wing of the Republican majority in Congress demands President George W. Bush pay-up by including voucher subsidies for religious schools in his education package; Bush calls for requiring states to step up student testing to better identify "failing" schools; House Majority Whip Tom DeLay calls for a vouchers "pilot" program concealed as a "compromise" plan; Education Secretary Rod Paige adds further cover by calling for "charter" schools and "portability" measures; Vouchers advocates in Congress push a bill that features the "portability" concept to allow students in "failing" public schools to take federal funding under the Title I program and use it to transfer to religious "charter" schools. Mission accomplished!

--  Dennis Coyier

Dear Editor,

     How sad that 72 administrators of the University of Wisconsin have, in essence, repudiated the "sifting and winnowing" tradition enunciated by the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents in 1894 when its eloquent statement affirming the principle of academic freedom ended the attempt of Superintendent of Public Instruction Oliver Wells to get Richard T. Ely fired from the faculty for what were essentially "heretical" views concerning political economy.

     Those administrators repudiated a philosophy of freedom, debate and discussion which the people of Wisconsin have long been proud and even boastful about as they observed attempts in this country and abroad to discourage and crush views that were out of favor with the prevailing orthodoxy.

     It is obvious from the advertisement placed in THE BADGER HERALD that those Caspar Milquetoasts of academia are afraid of ideas. They are afraid of ideas that might challenge their ideas.  They hope to invoke a form of censorship based upon the dubious principle of "sensitivity." Faculty and students of the great University of Wisconsin are no longer encouraged to engage in honest debate and discussion in the pursuit of truth. Truth can go lynch itself lest someone's feelings are hurt according to the gang of academic clowns and silly chuckleheads now running the University of Wisconsin.

     It would appear they have never heard of the following ringing quotation affirming academic freedom from the 1894 Regents report:

     "Whatever may be the limitations which trammel inquiry elsewhere we believe the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found."

     It is time that the university's heritage of free thought is again asserted not only by everyone at the University of Wisconsin but by everyone in the State of Wisconsin as well.

-- Robert E. Nordlander

"Teaching about Religion" Web Site
Helps Teachers Deal with Troublesome Topic

     SACRAMENTO, CA - May 2, 2001.  Religion is fast becoming subject matter in pubic education.  California and many other states now mandate it in curricula.  Textbook publishers are aboard.  Religion, though, is a bramble patch for the classroom teacher, who rarely gets adequate guidance.  A new web site for educators focuses on teachers entering or caught in this thicket.  "Teaching about Religion with a View to Diversity" sets the theme for the resource material offered at the site.  The site provides background basics on world religions, but it takes a different slant on the bramble patch.  Site material spurs teachers to focus on pluralism and civic justice.

     "Teachers need an all-encompassing perspective of our nation's religious diversity," say site developers Drs. Paul Geisert and Mynga Futrell.  "Public schools serve all students.  It's important to be sensitive to constitutional implications."

     Public school teachers by law must treat religion as an academic topic.  That may sound simple, but it generates dilemmas.  The issues touch parents and students as well as school personnel, and they extend well beyond the school community.  Secularists envision breaching of the wall of separation of church and state.  Many are fearful that teachers will preach rather than teach.  Christians delight that their religion is entering the classroom, but frown on time given to "those other religions."  Some activists want religious ways of thinking introduced into science classes.  Smaller religions' adherents are frustrated that there is no time to include them.

     The nonreligious community feels unjustly treated because schools ignore the fact that it is the second largest worldview group. (In the U.S., Christianity is a hefty first and Judaism a far-off third.).  Teaching about religion in public schools is legal and in theory a good idea.  The reality, however, is disquieting.  Controversy seems intrinsic to the enterprise.

     Dr. Futrell, a long-time curriculum developer, is no stranger to this thorny topic.  She tangled with the subject matter before when, in 1999, she authored a pamphlet for educators.  "It was to promote objectivity in teaching about religion," she says, summing up the experience: "I really struggled in researching and writing that booklet. Objectivity in this arena is a nice-sounding goal, but it is terribly hard to obtain.  I became less sure that we are aiming at the real subject matter.  So, I have changed my message to public school teachers who teach about religion.  Worldview education is the name of the game."

     "That's what this web site is all about," offers Dr. Geisert. "The worldview concept is quite useful.  It offers teachers a more inclusive way to frame their teaching about religion.  The understanding in principle encompasses every person equally.  Religion is a prickly arena.  Public school teachers need to operate within a neutral conceptual framework.  They can better surmount religious differences with academic integrity."  "And with constitutional integrity," adds Futrell.

     The Supreme Court has ruled that school programs and lessons must be religiously neutral. Adherents of a particular worldview are to be neither outsiders nor insiders in the school society.  Everyone is to be fully a member of the community; no one is to be favored.  Says Geisert:  "The curriculum on religion typically falls short of this civic ideal. Its neglect of nonreligious worldviews privileges religion. Freethinking children's outlook is ignored, if not belittled or ridiculed.  We made sure the website upholds a neutral stance."

     Teachers seldom get training on religious neutrality.  Most who teach about religion have had no such preparation.  For now, this web site strives to fill gaping holes in a professional and unbiased manner.  The site is especially mindful of diversity and committed to civic pluralism.  Its educational resources encompass religious and nonreligious worldviews, complement current practice, and fully appreciate the constitutional separation of religion and government that is a foundation of public education.

www.teachingaboutreligion.org


National Day of Prayer Prayer

Oh Lord, please don't burn us,
Don't grill or toast your flock,
Don't put us on the barbecue,
Or simmer us in stock,
Don't braise or bake or boil us,
Or stir-fry us in a wok...

Oh please don't lightly poach us,
Or baste us with hot fat,
Don't fricassee or roast us,
Or boil us in a vat,

And please don't stick thy servants Lord, In a Rotissomat...

- Monty Python
The Meaning of Life


 
 
 
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