December, 2000 (Volume II, Issue 12)
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- Promo
- Positive Atheism puts the X back into X-Mas!
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- "You never see animals going through the absurd and often horrible fooleries of magic and religion.... Dogs do not ritually urinate in the hope of persuading heaven to do the same and send down rain. Asses do not bray a liturgy to cloudless skies. Nor do cats attempt, by abstinence from cat's meat, to wheedle the feline spirits into benevolence. Only man behaves with such gratuitous folly. It is the price he has to pay for being intelligent but not, as yet, quite intelligent enough." -- Aldous Huxley
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- "Introduction," S. T. Joshi, Introduction To His 2000 book Atheism: A Reader
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- Heroic Stories
- Mother's Motto #158
- Let the Sun Shine #3
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- "What Do You Know About the Separation of State and Church?" Freedom From Religion Foundation
- "This is True" by Randy Cassingham
- "A Different Kind Of Throne" (Chruch's stained-glass window honors Thomas Crapper and his invention -- affectionately known as "the crapper")
- "Naughty Or Nice Is Just A Matter Of Opinion" (Man's Christmas decoration shows reindeer mating -- shocks the sensibilities of religous folks everywhere)
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- News of the Weird" by Chuck Shepherd
- "Why Perjury is Wrong" (Judge James T. Ryan tells Diane Tuzzolino's daughters that "If you lie [on the wit-ness stand], you will go to hell")
- "What Bottoms are For" (Rev. Marvin Munyon of the Family Research Forum shows how to administer corporal biblical punishment)
November, 2000 (Volume II, Issue 11)
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- Quotations:
- "Actually, I don't like Atheists very much -- at least most of them -- because they are not motivated to move into the community and attempt to correct the injustices which are everywhere apparent against them." -- Madalyn Murray O'Hair
- "They keep their free thinking to themselves because of the prevalence and customary acceptance of religious rites and church doings as established institutions, the foundations of which it would be unpopular to openly contradict or oppose.... When the people's presidents, governors, legislators and political party conventions declare their dependence upon God for their guidance, surely the uninformed wanderer in intellectual darkness is encouraged to do the same, while unbelievers assent to the procession by maintaining silence." -- California Governor Culbert L. Olson (1876-1961)
- Opposing Church's Ballot Initiative an Act of 'Hate' by Cliff Walker
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- "Faith, fanatic faith, / Once wedded fast / To some dear falsehood, / Hugs it to the last. / Ye shall have miracles, / Aye, sound ones too, / Seen, heard, attested, / Everything but true." -- Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
- "If your Bible is a bundle of rods, or a license for adultery, the loss of it will be a blessing." -- Lucy Colman
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- "Morals Without Religion" by Margaret Knight
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- Heroic Stories
- A Gift From a Good Teacher #157
- Just Keep Talking #162
- Marshmallows and White Hoods #83
- Looking for the Win-Win #69
- The Waltz #17
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- Quotations:
- "Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life." -- Aristotle
- "Shrines! Shrines! Surely you don't believe in the gods. What's your argument? Where's your proof?" -- Aristophanes
October, 2000 (Volume II, Issue 10)
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- Display Quotation:
- "There is no heresy or no philosophy which is so abhorrent to the church as a human being." -- James Joyce
- Normal Quotation:
- Before accepting any belief one ought to follow reason as a guide, for credulity without enquiry is a sure way to deceive oneself. Celsus (ca. c.e. 170)
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- "Like God, nuclear weapons are free creations of the human mind. Unlike God, nuclear weapons are real." -- Martin Amis
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- "Is There A God?" Bertrand Russell
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- "News of the Weird" by Chuck Shepherd
- "Diocese Plans Novel Defense" (ruse to hold other victims of Fr. Edward McKeown's priestly molestation adventures accountable for not talking)
- The Jesus Mysteries by Tim Freke and Peter Gandy (book excerpt)
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- "CLU Persuades National Park Service to Remove Christian Cross from Mojave Preserve Site" from the American Civil Liberties Union
- Quotation:
- "What you should say to outsiders is that a Christian has neither more nor less rights in our Association than an atheist. When our platform becomes too narrow for people of all creeds and of no creeds, I myself shall not stand upon it." -- Susan B. Anthony, responding to complaints against allowing Christians to join the suffrage movement; Anthony insisted it be open to all who were sympathetic to their cause
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- "Scopes Event Dramatizes Evolution Debate in Kansas" by Jeremy Leaming from People for the American Way
- "Extremist Creationists Sent Packing in Kansas Election" by Conrad Goeringer, from American Atheists
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- "The Rationalistic Fallacy" by Massimo Pigliucci. Department of Botany. University of Tennessee
- Quotation:
- "Freedom is to be obtained in spite of the government rather than through it." -- Riaard Robinson, An Atheist's Values (1964), p. 219 This entire book lives on our website. Read it!
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- Quotation:
- "Nothing is so convenient as a decisive argument ... which must at least silence the most arrogant bigotry and superstition, and free us from their impertinent solicitations." -- David Hume
September, 2000 (Volume II, Issue 9)
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- Quotation:
- "If you want to get together in any exclusive situation and have people love you, fine -- but to hang all this desperate sociology on the idea of The Cloud-Guy who has The Big Book, who knows if you've been bad or good -- and CARES about any of it -- to hang it all on that, folks, is the chimpanzee part of the brain working." -- Frank Zappa
- "Governments Should Not Erect Religious Displays" by Cliff Walker, from PanGaia Magazine
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- "A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side." -- Aristotle
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- "Reconstructing Christian Origins" by Robert M. Price
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- Sidebar:
- From the Introduction: "Jesus Christ as the Effect of Christianity -- Not the Cause" by Robert M. Price
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- "'See You at the Pole' Prayer Events Legal If Schools Remain Neutral" from Americans United for Separation of Church and State
- "'See You at the Pole' Flops" by Conrad Goeringer
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August, 2000 (Volume II, Issue 8)
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- Quotation:
- "I worship nothing. Not a good lie nor a dark one. If nature is proof of God's amazing creation then I have truly seen the light, and the light is black. Nature is genius at its most cruel and savage. No benevolent God could have come up with such an outrage." -- Gary Numan
- Announcement:
- "Counter 'Christian Nation' Revisionism: Copy and Distribute Special Section Inside!"
- "Why don't you just be an atheist?" by Austin Cline
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- "The death of dogma is the birth of morality." -- Immanuel Kant
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- "Theistic Anthropic Principle Refuted A Survey of Arguments Against the Theistic Anthropic Principle" by Victor Gijsbers
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- This is True by Randy Cassingham
- "We the People..." (City Council of Palos Heights, Illinois, votes to give Muslim group $200,000 to drop plans to purchase a place to worship)
- "In Order to Form a More Perfect Union" (Colorado Board of Education has votes to encourage schools to post "In God We Trust" in all schools)
- Pages 1-P to 8-P (pullout section)
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- "'God Loves Me, So Evolution Can't Be True': Creationist Psychology Revealed" by Joyce Arthur
- "Atheists Enjoy Online Forum" by Lisa Millegan, Modesto Bee Staff Writer
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- "South Park Cartoon Takes On Alternative Medicine" by Kevin Courcey
July, 2000 (Volume II, Issue 7)
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- Quotation:
- "Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning." -- Bill Gates
- "What's Wrong With These Questions?" excerpt from a dialogue with Trene Valdrek and Cliff Walker
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- "Faith is powerful enough to immunize people against all appeals to pity, to forgiveness, to decent human feelings. It even immunizes them against fear, if they honestly believe that a martyr's death will send them straight to heaven." -- Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene
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- "The Atheist Bongo of Love!" by Matt Edwards"
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- "Thermodynamics, Entropy, & Creationism" by Kelly Jowett, WSU Chemistry
- Sidebar: from particle physicist Victor Stenger
- "Atheists Enjoy Online Forum" by Lisa Millegan, Modesto Bee Staff Writer
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- "Positive Atheism Letters Section: Very Amusing" from Tom Scanlon
- "Which Ten Commandments? These!" from John Love-Jensen
- "God Have Mercy On Your Soles" from Richard Celata, Jr.
- "Yo Gonna Burn In Hell!" (unsigned)
June, 2000 (Volume II, Issue 6)
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- Quotation:
- "Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones." -- Bertrand Russell
- "Aw, Go To Hell!" by Cliff Walker, review of Randy Cassingham's "Get Out Of Hell Free" cards
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- "If churches want to play the game of politics, let them pay admission like everyone else." -- George Carlin
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- "Free Speech? Yeah, Right!" by Conrad Goeringer, exclusive to Positive Atheism
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- "Cities Grapple With Pre-Meeting Prayer: Council Trend Spreads, Despite A Recent Ruling June 30, 2000" by Amy Klein
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- From the Mailbag:
- "Atheism, Agnosticism, Theism, And Keeping A Level Head" with Johan Grahn and Cliff Walker
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- "The Randi Files: The Art of 'Cold Reading'" by James Randi
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- From the Mailbag:
- "One Sunday, 1969" by Kenneth Ray Whitley
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- News of the Weird by Chuck Shepherd
- "Wrestling For Jesus" (wrestlers work for free; altar call and prayer after final match)
- "Fasting Cult Membership Wanes" (they starved to death)
- "Religion: Does It Help?" (all untitled)
- (11,000-volt cable breaks during Hindu ceremony in Daltenganj, India, electrocuting 28 followers)
- (Baghdad, Iraq, four vigilantes kill 19 men who were with their girlfriends in a lovers' lane)
- (deadly meningitis outbreaks in four countries introduced from pilgrimage in Mecca -- traces of cholera were found in barrels of holy water)
- (Tokyo executive, upset at Bridgestone Tire Co.'s downsizing commits ritual hara-kiri in conference room)
- (Labor activist Dan Craig, protests layoffs by playing "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes for four hours)
- This is True by Randy Cassingham
- "I See Great Transfer Of Wealth" (New York program provides welfare recipients training as psychics to get them off the dole)
- Quotations:
- "There is no heresy or no philosophy which is so abhorrent to the church as a human being." -- James Joyce
- "I would never want to be a member of a group whose symbol was a guy nailed to two pieces of wood." -- George Carlin
May, 2000 (Volume II, Issue 5)
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- Quotation:
- "I do occasionally envy the person who is religious naturally, without being brainashed into it or suckered into it by all the organized hustles." -- Woody Allen
- News of the Weird by Chuck Shepherd (all untitled)
- (Boy kills his parents for not letting him go on a church field trip)
- (Oslo, Norway, okays Muslim loudspeakered prayers on Fridays provided atheists may shout "God does not exist.")
- (China has a government-sanctioned UFO research organization)
- (science class at Tennessee High School creatrs Nativity scene out of dissected cadavers of cats)
- (Brigham Young University students organize Fight Club)
- (Mary Koehler loses race for mayor of Lake Forest Park, Washington despite a divination of victory from her pendulum; admits to brain damage)
- (The Hanoi Vietnam Institute of Social Sciences says many menturn sex with pregnant prostitutes to release evil spirits)
- (Slaughterhouse owner Sang Lee says of Hmong-American community: "we have to sacrifice animals a lot")
- (Henk Otte, unemployed construction worker in an Amsterdam, Netherlands, housing project, is also the reincarnated king of about 40 villages in Ghana)
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- "Just because I'm openminded, doesn't mean I practice what I tolerate in others." -- Pamela Cunningham
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- "James Madison, The Baptists, And Religious Liberty" by Paul D. Simmons
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- This is True by Randy Cassingham
- "Look Into My Eyes" (Police in Cilacap, Java, arrest a shaman who tricked female patients into having sex with him)
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- "Just A Touch -- But Not Really" by John Woestendiek
- This is True by Randy Cassingham
- "I See The Light!" (British Tomato Growers' Association upsets Christians by encouraging its members to try using feng shui)
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- "Remembering Jyoti Shankar" by Sanal Edamaruku
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- "Brief Biography of Jyoti Shankar" by Sanal Edamaruku
- Excerpts from Jyoti Shankar's contributions to Positive Atheism Magazine
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- "School Officials Deny Seizing, Trashing Bibles" by Conrad Goeringer
- "A Statement Regarding the Murray-O'Hair Murder Trial" by Conrad Goeringer
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- "Dear Dr. Laura:" (anonymous)
- "IRS Can Reject Tax Exemption of Overtly Political Churches, Federal Appellate Court Rules" from Americans United for Separation of Church and State
- "Jesus Videos Returned" (unsolicited mass mailings of religious sales pitch backfires as residents return them postage due) from American Atheists
April, 2000 (Volume II, Issue 4)
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- Quotation:
- "Please, with the God talk. Hate to break it to you, but there is no God." -- Howard Stern, April 23, 1999, during a show discussing the Columbine massacre
- "From The Moral Majority To Tinky Winky: A Short History Of The Falwell Follies" from People for the Ameican Way
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- "... there are at least three themes which are utterly taboo as far as most American publishers are concerned. The two others [besides pedophilia] are: a Negro-White marriage which is a complete and glorious success resulting in lots of children and grandchildren; and the total atheist who lives a happy and useful life, and dies in his sleep at the age of 106." -- Vladimir Nabokov's Nov. 12, 1956, Afterward to Lolita
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- "WWJD: What Would Jefferson Do?" from Americans United for the Separation of Church and State
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- "Jefferson and the Danbury Baptists The Interaction between Baptists and the Nation's Founders"
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- "The Psychic Follies" by H. L. Mencken
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- Songs of Self-Responsibility
- "Man In The Mirror" by Michael Jackson
- "My Way" made famous by Frank Sinatra
- "When I Was A Young Boy" by Savoy Brown
March, 2000 (Volume II, Issue 3)
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- Third Oregon Symposium: July 29
- Quotation:
- "Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived." -- Oscar Wilde
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- "A precept claiming infallibility should certainly possess the universality of the law of gravitation and the perfection of the arithmetical table. If it fails to possess these undeviating qualities, its imperfection is self-evident and its value either greatly diminished or useless." -- Joseph Lewis
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- This is True by Randy Cassingham
- "He's Probably Turning In His Grave" (Catholic priest Fr. Marcelo Rossi of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has dancing services featuring the "Jesus Twist")
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- This is True by Randy Cassingham
- "Modern History" (British schoolchildren unclear about roles of authority figures; confuse Prime Minister Tony Blair with God)
February, 2000 (Volume II, Issue 2)
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- "Positive Atheism Wins Britannica Award" by Encyclopaedia Britannica staff
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- "Fuck God / Fuck Satan / We're Atheists" -- T-Shirt Seen on a Punk Rocker
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- "Vicarious Atonement" by Helen H. Gardener
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- "Is Religion the Answer to School Violence?" by Stephanie Brenowitz
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- "Public Wants Evolution, Not Creationism, in Science Class, New National Poll Shows" from People for the American Way
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- "My Lunch With Sparky" by David Templeton (Charles Schulz calls himself "a secular humanist")
- "Textbook Evolution Disclaimer Thrown Out in Oklahoma" (more "It's just a theory" crap rejected) Reuters
- News of the Weird by Chuck Shepherd
- Prepared For Christ's Return" (city of Christchurch, New Zealand has legislated preparedness)
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- Songs of Doubt
- "And When I Die" by Laura Nyro
- "Sky Pilot" by The Animals
- "Sympathy For the Devil" by The Rolling Stones
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- From the Mailbag
- Unsigned trick question about entropy
- Franklin D. Nichols in prison
January, 2000 (Volume II, Issue 1)
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- From the Mailbag: Hari, son-in-law of Dr.Samaram of Atheist Center, Vijayawada; Valerie Hawks, friend of schoolyard assassin Michael Carneal, Paducah, Kentucky
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- "If you're only going to have ten rules, I don't know if adultery should be one of them." -- Ted Turner, suggesting that the Ten Commandments are "a little out of date."
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- "Our Complex Approach To Spirituality" by Scot Lehigh The Boston Globe
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- "Al Gore on Arrogant Atheists" by James Still
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- "Leaps of Faith are No Substitute for Real-World Proof" by Wendy Kaminer
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- Correction:
- Linus Torvalds interview permission statement had been omitted