December, 2001 (Volume III, Issue 12)
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- Promotion:
- Even though we're way late: Positive Atheism still puts the X back into X-Mas!
- Quotation:
- Many people genuinely do not wish to be saints, and it is probable that some who achieve or aspire to sainthood have never felt much temptation to be human beings. -- George Orwell
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian despot who wants to turn them into puppets. -- Eric Hoffer
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- Page 5
- What Do Atheists Look Like? by Mark Silgalis
- Quotation:
- The Credo of Empowerment
- All my life I have made it a rule never to permit a religious man or woman to take for granted that his or her religious beliefs deserved more consideration than non-religious or anti-religious ones. I never agree with the foolish statement that I ought to respect the views of others when I believe them to be wrong. -- Chapman Cohen
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- The Forgotten Founder (Thomas Paine) letter with Johan Grahn
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- "Salvation" by Langston Hughes
- "This is True" by Randy Cassingham
- Infighting
- Religious Tolerance, American Style (on page 9)
- Religious (In)Tolerance II (on page 9)
- Page 9
- "Coverage of the Inevitable Apocalypso" by Cliff Walker
- Man Cuts Off Penis in Fit of Religious Fervor by Woody Johnson
- Bullshit from the Sky by George Carlin (short excerpt from his new book, "Napalm & Silly Putty")
- Quotations:
- If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities. -- Voltaire [Again. It was so good, I tell you, we just HAD to forget to take it out of last month's template!]
- Organized religion, being founded on superstition, is, perforce, not scientific. And all that which is not scientific -- that is, truthful -- must be bolstered up by force, fear and falsehood. Thus we always find slavery and organized religion going hand in hand. -- Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)
November, 2001 (Volume III, Issue 11)
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- "GOD _LESS AMERICA" photo comic by Matt Edwards
- Quotation:
- If God has spoken, why is the world not convinced? -- Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Page 1
- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities. -- Voltaire
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- Won't Somebody Tolerate Me? by Elinor Goulding Smith
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- Atheists Come to Power by Cliff Walker
- Sidebar:
- "Kick Atheists out of US" Letter to the Editor of The Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle, October 22, 2001, from Gloria "Wendy" Ray, Aiken, South Carolina
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- Sidebar:
- "God, Country Gain Fragile New Toehold" editorial in USA Today by Kathleen Parker (excerpt)
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- Sidebar:
- "Family Unit Make-Up" chart by Cliff Walker
- Page 8
- Sidebar:
- "Americans with 'No Religion'" state-by-state chart by Cliff Walker
- "'The Truth' and 'The Rebuttal'" "Non Sequitur" comic by Wiley Miller
- Page 9
- "This is True" by Randy Cassingham
- Religious Tolerance, American Style,
- Infighting
- "News of the Weird" by Chuck Shepherd
- Deaf to Omen (Georgia state Rep. Dorothy Pelote of Savannah has psychic powers and saw Chandra Levy's dead body in a ditch. Speaker Tom Murphy told reporters he did not hear what she said)
- Creep to Safety (Yorba Linda, California, Catholic pedophile-priest settlement requires confessional doors with windows)
- He Just Spelled 'God' Backwards (Stephen Huneck opened a dog-themed church in St. Johnsbury, Vermont)
- Faith Basely (Former faculty at University of South Florida medical school settled religious discrimination lawsuits based on acts by Dr. James Rowsey who denied researchers equipment based on religious admonitions from his wife, whom he considered a prophet)
- Quotation:
- And to think of this great country in danger of being dominated by people ignorant enough to take a few ancient Babylonian legends as the canons of modern culture. Our scientific men are paying for their failure to speak out earlier. There is no use now talking evolution to these people. Their ears are stuffed with Genesis. -- Luther Burbank (on William Jennings Bryan) [we titled this bit, "The Price of Silence"]
October, 2001 (Volume III, Issue 10)
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- Quotation:
- This is a hard world to be ludicrous in, with so many human beings so reluctant to laugh, so incapable of thought, so eager to believe and snarl and hate. So many people wanted to believe me! (¶) Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile! -- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., "Mother Night"
- I certainly had no idea how little faith Christians have in their own faith till I saw how ill their courage and temper can band any attack on it. -- Harriet Martineau
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- As for Christianity's alleged concern with truth, Christian faith is to free inquiry what the Mafia is to free enterprise. Christianity may be represented as a competitor in the realm of ideas to be considered on the basis of its merits, but this is mere disguise. Like the Mafia, if Christianity fails to defeat its competition by legitimate means (which is a forgone conclusion), it resorts to strong-arm tactics. Have faith or be damned -- this biblical doctrine alone is enough to exclude Christianity from the domain of reason. -- George H. Smith
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- No Reason to Believe by Victor J. Stenger
- Page 7
- United We Stand? by Stuart Bechman, Spokesperson, Atheist Alliance International
- "This is True" by Randy Cassingham
- Step One: Pour Gasoline. Step Two: Light Match. Step Three:
- Carnalval
- Page 8
- Non Sequitur's Non Sequitur by Carey Sherrill
- "Sidebar: God Shed His Grace On Thee..." comic by Wiley Miller
- "News of the Weird" by Chuck Shepherd
- But Jezus Loves You! (Medical student Casey Moss, sweetheart Kara Price, held hands for the first time in their two-year "courtship": conservative Christians say no to premarital romance)
- Page 9
- Even Now, 'God Bless America' Are Fighting Words For Some by Michael Collins
- "Coverage of the Inevitable Apocalypso" by Cliff Walker
- Turnip: ''Sign From God'' (According to Ziua newspaper, Romanian prisoners in Satu Mare promise to behave after finding cross-shaped turnip. Jail Priest: Proof that God exists. But what do the millions of turnip-shaped turnips prove?)
September, 2001 (Volume III, Issue 9)
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- President, States, Courts Bound By First Amendment letter from Gene Garman
- Quotation:
- This atrocity was an attack on us all -- on people of all faiths and people of none. -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair (referring to the Day of Atrocity, the terrorism of 9-11-2001)
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. -- Oscar Wilde
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- Religion's Misguided Missiles by Richard Dawkins
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- Televangelist, Fundamentalists Believe their Strict Morality is the Only Answer by Don Lattin
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- Of Altruism, Heroism and Evolution's Gifts by Natalie Angier
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- "Thoughts On The The World Trade Center Attack" letter from Ruth Saunders, The United Kingdom
- HeroicStories by Randy Cassingham
- Why Not These Two? by Sheila Crosby; Canary Islands, Spain
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- Religion is a Natural When it Comes To Terrorism by Kevin Courcey
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- "Six Wrongs Don't Make a Right" parody of the popular Christian Internet Spam "Can we pray?" by Cliff Walker
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- "The Extraordinarily Rare Gift" letter from Landis Schmitt
August, 2001 (Volume III, Issue 8)
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- Hawaii School Board Routs Sneaky Creationists
- Quotation:
- The establishment of a rating system, voluntary or otherwise, opens the door to an endless parade of moral quality control programs based on things which certain Christians do not like. -- Composer Frank Zappa (to then-Senator Al Gore, 1985)
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; in many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient allies. -- James Madison
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- "Why Advocate For Individual Activists?" letter with Juan De Gennaro, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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- "Natural Law" by Robert Anton Wilson
- Quotation:
- Every pulpit is a pillory, in which stands a hired culprit, defending the justice of his own imprisonment. -- Robert Green Ingersoll
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- Zod's Version by Gary Sloan
- Quotation:
- Our contention is not for mere toleration, but for absolute liberty. There is a wide difference between toleration and liberty. Toleration implies that somebody falsely claims the right to tolerate. Toleration is a concession, while liberty is a right. Toleration is a matter of expediency, while liberty is a matter of principle. -- George W. Truett
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- Ten Reasons to Oppose Heliocentrism by S. R. Gould
- All My Children poem by Mary A. Gallagher Kaufman
- Quotations:
- It was not that I thought I was smarter. I had simply explored science and found what seemed to me a far more powerful authority. -- physicist Victor J. Stenger
- In a better world, science teachers would teach creationism along with evolution as an exercise in critical thinking. -- Katha Pollitt
July, 2001 (Volume III, Issue 7)
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- Survey: Most Americans Identify as Christians by Conrad Goeringer
- Quotation:
- I would say. Welcome infidelity! Welcome atheism! Welcome anything! in preference to the gospel, as preached by these Divines! -- Frederick Douglass
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- Atheism may be defined as the mental attitude which unreservedly accepts the supremacy of reason and aims at establishing a lifestyle and ethical outlook verifiable by experience and the scientific method, independent of all arbitrary assumptions of authority and creeds. -- Madalyn Murray O'Hair
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- Forum Q&A: "Atheist Groups: To Belong Or Not To Belong"
- Kevin Courcey, R.N.
- Bill Young
- Ken Hark
- Richard Mohley
- Chet Twarog
- Dave Clarke
- Nicole Kempler
- Bill Brown
- Carey Sherrill
- [name withheld]
- Ingrid
- L.C. Whittle
- Bryant Adams
- Eric
- Juan De Gennaro. Buenos Aries, Argentina
- Ken R. Whitley
- Joanna Hannigan Gaither
- Amy Wood
- Matt Montez
- Page 4
- "Why Most Atheists Will Never Join An Atheist Organization" by Jim Versluys
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- "Monitor Your Local Newspapers: Freethinkers' Letter-Writing Cooperative" by Hank Shiver with Blair Scott
- "Coverage of the Inevitable Apocalypso" News of the Weird by Chuck Shepherd (untitled pieces)
- program to teach public housing tenants varous occult and New Age mumbo-jumbo
- Louis Harewood Baptist preacher sends the women into voodoo-like hazes
- hajj-pilgrimage Muslims killed in Stone-the-Devil ritual in Mina, Saudi Arabia
- Cambodians communing with his spirit of heinous dictator Pol Pot
- "Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome" diagnosed by Dr. Michael Thorpy,
- "Pseudologia Fantastica" diagnosed for Judge Patrick Couwenberg's claim
- 3 million Chinese practice auto-urine (i.e., drink your own) therapy
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- "Bell's Theorem, As Explained By Phil's Science-Fair Project" letter from Landis Schmitt with Cliff Walker
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- Quotation:
- Whenever religion touches science, it gets burned. In the sixteen century astronomy, in the seventeenth microbiology, in the eighteenth geology and paleon-tology, in the nineteenth Darwin's biology all grotesquely extended the world-frame and sent churchmen scurrying for cover in ever smaller, more shadowy nooks, little gloomy ambiguous caves in the psyche where even now neurology is cruelly harrying them, gouging them out from the multifolded brain like wood lice from under the woodpile. Barth had been right: totaliter aliter. Only by placing God totally on the other side of the humanly under-standable can any final safety for Him be secured. -- John Updike, Roger's Version
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- The Lunar Hoax Hoax by Arthur C. Clarke
June, 2001 (Volume III, Issue 6)
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- Promo:
- July 17, 2001 The Day That Counts
- Airport named after John Lennon -- Airport logo declares: 'Above Us Only Sky' -- Yoko responds, adding: 'No Hell Below Us'
- Quotation:
- Government is contemptuous of true religion when it confiscates the taxes of Caesar to finance the things of God. -- Sen. Sam Ervin, Jr.
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be a true system. -- Thomas Paine, American founding father, on the teaching of Christ's redemption on the cross
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- "Emily Dickinson: Pagan Sphinx" by Gary Sloan
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- "To Dogmatize a Mystery" letter from Amanda Smith with Cliff Walker
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- "Fundamentalism: The Only Viable Christianity?" letter from Christine Lehman with Cliff Walker
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- "Remarks Ignore Filipino History" letter from Elena M. Lester
- "Sneeze Invocation: Sensible, Scientific" by Dr JohnPaul Slater
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- "Day of Reason Proclaimed in Portland" by Gerald Gage
- "Symposium Coverage a Joke" by Bobbi Fraguadas
May, 2001 (Volume III, Issue 5)
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- Symposium Blurb
- Quotation:
- The divorce between Church and State ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no Church property anywhere, in any state or in the nation, should be exempt from equal taxation; for if you exempt the property of any church organization, to that extent you impose a tax upon the whole community. -- James A. Garfield (1874)
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- Theist: Someone who denies that God doesn't exist. -- Robert Carroll The Skeptic's Dictionary
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- Snake Oil in the 21st Century by Gregory Tinkler
- Page 3
- Chuck Mental Baggage For A Good Belly Laugh letter from Val Henson
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- Lament for Douglas by Richard Dawkins
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- The Right-Wing Case Against Religionism by Jim Versluys
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- Coverage of the Inevitable Apocalypso -- This is True by Randy Cassingham
- "Coverage of the Inevitable Apocalypso" News of the Weird by Chuck Shepherd (untitled pieces)
- Chad Gabriel DeKoven's law-suit against the Standish prison in Bay City, Michigan
- stabbed to death at the command of God and a Ouija board
- hacked to death ordered by God
- torching a theater on the com-mand of God
- stuffs car with truck spill of processed chicken "the work of God"
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- Bush Hosts National Day of Prayer Event from Americans United
- Faith-Based Drug Rehab Boasts of Converting Jews To Christianity from Americans United
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- Azuh -- Uhhga -- Ah-tchooey! (Whew!) letter from Carey Sherrill with Cliff Walker
- Cashew To You, Too! letter from Andy Prescott
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- Comics
- Genesis Big Bang Theory: "Gabriel, Pull My Finger" by Wiley
- "Well, Suppose there's no aferlife" Calvin and Hobbes
April, 2001 (Volume III, Issue 4)
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- Symposium Blurb
- Quotation:
- Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive is owed not just to ourselves but also to that Cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring. -- Carl Sagan
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
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- A Photograph of God? by Andrew Newberg, M.D.
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- Newberg Book Explains Rather Than Bolsters Mystical Claims letter from Gilbert De Bruycker with Cliff Walker
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- Why Non-Sequiturs Won't Go Away by David Eller, Ph.D.
- The 41 'D'-Directives by Steven McCarty
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- 'God Imprinting' Idea Still Vacant by Steve Locks
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- Michael Shermer's 2¢
- Villagers Kill Woman Seen As Witch (Reuters)
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- The 'Science Myth' Myth Bill Garrett
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- Atheists Just Want Freedom From Religion by Richard A. Busemeyer
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- Koenig's Claims Don't Reflect His Own Data by Kevin Courcey, R.N.
- Sidebar: The Templeton Foundation Connection by Kevin Courcey, R.N.
- Quotation:
- I admit that reason is a small and feeble flame, a flickering torch by stumblers carried in the star-less night, -- blown and flared by passion's storm, -- and yet, it is the only light. Extinguish that, and nought remains. -- Robert Green Ingersoll
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- David Roland Waters Gets 20 Years -- Ellen Johnson's Statement in Austin
- Quotation:
- "The neighborhood children, of course, were forbidden by their parents to play with my little boy, Garth, so I finally got him a little kitten to play with. A couple of weeks later we found it on the porch with its neck wrung." -- Madalyn Murray, 'Playboy' Interview (October, 1965)
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- Birla Award Given To Saraswathi Gora by Dr. Goparaju Vijayam
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- Quotation:
- Hiding behind the smoke screen of untouchability is something religions have been allowed to get away with for too long. -- Richard Dawkins
March, 2001 (Volume III, Issue 3)
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- Symposium Blurb
- Quotation:
- Scientology, how about that? You hold on to the tin cans and then this guy asks you a bunch of questions, and if you pay enough money you get to join the master race! How's that for a religion? -- Frank Zappa (1969)
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- There are two things which cannot be attacked in front ... ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion. -- Lord Acton
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- "Confessions of a Lonely Atheist" by Natalie Angier
- Page 5
- Coverage of the Inevitable Apocalypso -- News of the Weird by Chuck Shepherd
- The Road-Test of Faith: Jehovah's Witnesses breakaway group test faith by standing in traffic
- "The Parable of the Generous Man" by John Paul Slater
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- "Did Jesus Exist ... and Does It Matter?" by Gary Sloan
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- Coverage of the Inevitable Apocalypso -- News of the Weird by Chuck Shepherd
- Shirking Work: Gnanasuravi Raveendran prunes cursed hedge
- Shirking Work: Imara "business intuitive" with an MBA cashes in on superstition
- Shirking Work: Brazil's Roman Catholic Church issued"shares" on the Rio de Janeiro stock exchange
- Entrepreneurial Spirit: Seek Ye First lingerie shop in Louisburg, North Carolina appeals to Baptist women
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- "Robertson Faults Bush's 'Faith-Based' Plan" by Thomas B. Edsall The Washington Post
- Atheism in Music
- "Hymn Song" by Utah Phillips
- Coverage of the Inevitable Apocalypso -- This is True by Randy Cassingham
February, 2001 (Volume III, Issue 2)
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- "Baptist Ministers Led Prayer At Public School Assemblies" by Conrad Goeringer
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- "One must keep in mind that religious liberty did not come easily. It did not simply ripen and fall to non-Christians as a gift. It had to be fought for in the legislative halls, in constitutional conventions and in the courts. What has been achieved, easily can be lost." -- Morton Borden
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- "The Failure of Christianity" Emma Goldman
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- "Justice William H. Rehnquist's Abuse of History" by Gene Garman
- Sidebar: James Madison's Veto Message, February 28, 1811
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- Sidebar: James Madison's Veto Message, February 21, 1811
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- Bush Starts Off by Defying the Constitution by Alan M. Dershowitz
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- Dershowitz Piece Misleading: Many Presidents Flaunt Our Constitution by Larry Judkins, Religion Page Editor, Sacramento Valley Mirror
- Coverage of the Inevitable Apocalypso -- This is True by Randy Cassingham
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- "Bush 'Faith-based' Plan Meets with Media Skepticism at White House Press Conference" Americans United for Separation of Church and State
- Sidebar: Thomas-Bush Sparring Match with Helen Thomas and George W. Bush
- Coverage of the Inevitable Apocalypso -- News of the Weird by Chuck Shepherd
- Latest Patron Saints: Matthew patron saint of tax police; Thomas More patron saint for politicians
- Cavalcade of Hypocrisy: moralist Matthew Glavin caught trolling for anonymous male sex partners in park
- Cold Fusion: Religious Faith: obsessive belief in "cold fusion" protected as "religious" discrimination
- On Taking Sports Way Too Seriously: Rev. Oliver Lewis Wood, youth referee, stabs coach at basketball game
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- Coverage of the Inevitable Apocalypso (unknown)
- On Taking Religion -- and 3.2% Beer -- Way Too Seriously: Wasatch beer billboard: "The other local religion" and "baptize your taste buds."
- Quotation:
- There is no law that mandates the teaching of evolution, and there should not be, yet it is practically universally taught in universities and colleges around the world. The theory of evolution is what is taught because it is what best explains the data in a rational manner. -- Tim Berra Professor of Zoology, Ohio State University
January, 2001 (Volume III, Issue 1)
- Page 0
- "Coverage of the Inevitable Apocalypso"
- "News of the Weird" by Chuck Shepherd (untitled pieces)
- John Paulk, "religion cures homosexuality" caught reveling in a gay bar
- Darryl Bruce McDowell, uses a wooden rod to discipline the wife and her children
- Italian Bishops Conference in Turin: exorcisms must be conducted in Latin
- Fraud case psychic hotline to hire only people who swore that they had psychic powers
- Rev. Nelson W. Koscheski, seen scattering salt under tables of gays at national Episcopal convention
- Riverside, California boys chained to a bedpost; father cites Proverbs
- Lewis County, Washington, prosecutor to subpoena Ramtha as witness to murder confession; J. Z. Knight balks, was "in trance"
- church-approved comic books on the life of Pope John Paul II
- Massachusetts Judge Kenneth Nasif ordres pregnant woman jailed so she won't refuse medical attention if needed
- Quotation:
- "To himself every one is an immortal. He may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that he is dead." -- Samuel Butler
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- Cliff Walker's Monthly Column
- Quotation:
- "Is it the duty of a deist to support that which he believes to be a cheat and imposition? Is it the duty of the Jew to support the religion of Jesus Christ, when he really believes that he was an imposter? Must the papist be forced to pay men for preaching down the supremacy of the pope, whom they are sure is the head of the church? Government has no more to do with the religious opinions of men than it has with the principles of mathematics.'' -- Rev. John Leland (1754-1841)
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- "The Methodology of Atheism" by George H. Smith, from his book Why Atheism?
- Page 6
- "Let's Go To The Atheist Page Just For Laughs" letter from Rich Zawadzki
- Page 9
- The Inevitable Apocalypso -- This is True by Randy Cassingham
- Spellbound
- You're On A Mission from God