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Transcript of American Atheist Magazine Oct 1991
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7/26/2019 American Atheist Magazine Oct 1991
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Vol. 31, No.10
A Journal of Atheist News and Thought $2.95
The
Mos ow
InteEnational
Book
FaiE:
Cathedral onion domes tower over
the Kremlin: A symbol of religions
new position in Soviet society.
What place
will
Jltheism
have in the
Soviet
Union?
lImeri an
lit heist
Press
found out
while
exhilliting its
wares in the
heart of
Mos ow
-
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2/48
isa nonprofit, nonpolitical,educational
organization dedicated to the com-
plete and absolute separation of
state and church. We accept the
explanation of Thomas Jefferson
that the First Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States
was meant to create a wall of sep-
aration between state and church.
American Atheists, Inc. is or-
ganized to stimulate and promote
freedom of thought and inquiry con-
cerning religious beliefs, creeds,
dogmas, tenets, rituals, and prac-
tices;
to collect and disseminate infor-
mation' data, and literature on all
religions and promote a more thor-
ough understanding of them, their
origins, and their histories;
to advocate, labor for,and promote
in all lawful ways the complete and
absolute separation of state and
church;
to advocate, labor for,and promote
in all lawful ways the establishment
and maintenance of a thoroughly
secular system ofeducation available
to all;
to encourage the development
A m e r i c a n A t h e i s t s I n c
and public acceptance of a human
ethical system stressing the mutual
sympathy, understanding, and inter-
dependence of all people and the
corresponding responsibility of each
individual in relation to society;
to develop and propagate a social
philosophy in which man is the cen-
tral figure, who alone must be the
source of strength, progress, and
idealsfor the well-beingand happiness
of humanity;
to promote the study of the arts
and sciences and of all problems af-
fecting the maintenance, perpetua-
tion, and enrichment of human (and
other) life;
to engage in such social, educa-
tional, legal, and cultural activity as
willbe useful and beneficial to mem-
bers of American Atheists, Inc. and
to society as a whole.
Atheism may be defined as the
mental attitude which unreservedly
accepts the supremacy of reason
and aims at establishing a life-style
and ethical outlook verifiable by ex-
perience and the scientific method,
independent of all arbitrary assump-
American Atheists, Inc. Membership Categories
tions of authority and creeds.
Materialism declares that the cos-
mos is devoid ofimmanent conscious
purpose; that it is governed by its
own inherent, immutable, and im-
personal laws; that there isno super-
natural interference in human life;
that man - finding his resources
within himself - can and must cre-
ate his own destiny. Materialism re-
stores to man his dignity and his in-
tellectual integrity. It teaches that we
must prize our life on earth and
strive always to improve it. It holds
that man is capable of creating a
social system based on reason and
justice. Materialism's faith is in
man and man's ability to transform
the world culture by his own efforts.
This is a commitment which is in its
very essence life-asserting. It con-
siders the struggle for progress as a
moral obligation and impossible
without noble ideas that inspire man
to bold, creative works. Materialism
holds that humankind's potential for
good and for an outreach to more
fulfillingcultural development is, for
all practical purposes, unlimited.
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All membership categories receive our monthly Insider's Newsletter, membership card(s), a subscription to the American
Atheist, and additional organizational mailings (such as new products for sale, convention and meeting announcements).
American Atheists, Inc. P.O.Box 140195 Austin, TX 78714-0195
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A m e r i c a n A t h e i s t
A Journal of Atheist News and Thought
Cover art and design
by
Greg Anderson.
Austin, Texas
Editor s Desk
R. Murray-O Hair
Director s Briefcase 4
Jon G. Murray
Anticlericals, Secularists, and Athe-
ists and others who are in dissent to
religion exist in every country in the
world. But their priorities and projects
differas greatly as the challenges they
face in protecting the rights of non-
believers.
Moscow International Book Fair 13
MadalynO Hair
It was not a case of bringing coals to
Newcastle when the American Athe-
ist Press went to Moscow to exhibit at
one of the largest book shows in the
world. If anything, more Atheism is
needed in that city.
The Day I Said Good-bye 29
John Williamson
To love one's parents, must one be
faithful to their religion? In this short
story, a young woman finds that she
cannot follow in her mother's foot-
steps.
Vol . 3 1, N o. 10
Vol. 31, No. 10
3 Masters of Atheism 31
Robert G. Ingersoll
The eloquent agnostic answers the
question Should Infidels Send Their
Children to Sunday School?
Talking Back 33
Atheists, long accustomed to defend-
ing science classes from Christian
missionaries, take on creationism in
Biology and Bible Myths.
Poetry 34
American Atheist Radio Series 35
Madalyn O Hair
Spain was once renowned for its reli-
gious tolerance and enlightenment.
Torquemada tells the story of the
man who changed its reputation for-
ever and made it a center of Christian
repression.
Dial-An-Atheist Directory 38
Under the Covers 39
In a book that became a bedrock cri-
tique of dissent to religion, a Jesuit
puts Atheism Under the Knife.
Letters to the Editor 42
Classified Advertisements 44
Page 1
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A l l e r i c a n A t h e i s t
Editor
R. Murray-O'Hair
Editor Emeritus
D r.
Madalyn O'Hair
Managing Editor
Jon
G.
Murray
Poetry
Angeline Bennett
Non-Resident Staff
Margaret Bhatty
Victoria Branden
MerrillHolste
Arthur Frederick Ide
John G. Jackson
Frank
R.
Zindler
The American Atheist ispublished by Amer-
ican Atheist Press.
Copyright 1991by American Atheist Press.
All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole
or in part without written permission is
prohibited. ISSN: 0332-4310.
Mailing address: P. O. Box 140195,Austin,
TX 78714-0195. Shipping address: 7215
Cameron Road, Austin, TX 78752-2973.
Telephone: (512) 458-1244. FAX: (512) 467-
9525.
The American Atheist is indexed in IBZ
(International Bibliography of Periodical
Literature, Osnabruck, Germany) and Al-
ternative Press Index.
Manuscripts submitted must be typed,
double-spaced, and accompanied by a
stamped, self-addressed envelope. A copy
of American Atheist Writers' Guidelines is
available upon request. The editors assume
no responsibility for unsolicited manu-
scripts.
The American Atheist Press publishes a va-
riety of Atheist, agnostic, and freethought
material. A catalog is available for $1.00.
All Christian Bible quotations are from the
King James Version, unless otherwise
noted.
This magazine is printed on recycled paper.
The American Atheist is given free of
cost to members of American Athe-
ists as an incident of their member-
ship. Subscriptions for the American
Atheist
alone are $25 for twelve issues
($35 outside the U.S.). Gift subscrip-
tions are $20 for twelve issues ($30
outside the U.S.).
The library and in-
stitutional discount is 50 percent.
Sustaining subscriptions are $50 for
twelve issues.
Page 2
Membership Application For
American Atheists Inc.
Lastname _
First name _
Address _
City/State/Zip _
This is to certify that I am in agreement with the Aims and Purposes and
the Definitions of American Atheists. I consider myself to be Materialist or
Atheist (i.e.,
non-theist)
and I have, therefore, a particular interest in the
separation of state and church and American Atheists' efforts on behalf of
that principle.
I usually identify myself for
public
purposes as (check one):
D
Atheist
D
Freethinker
D
Humanist
D
Rationalist
D Objectivist
D
Ethical Culturalist
D
Unitarian
D Secularist
D Agnostic
D
Realist
D
I evade any reply to a query
D
Other: _
I am, however, an Atheist and I hereby make application for membership in
American Atheists, said membership being open
only
to Atheists. (Those not
comfortable with the appellation Atheist may not be admitted to membership
but are invited to subscribe to the
American Atheist
magazine.) Both dues and
contributions are to a tax-exempt organization and I may claim these amounts
as tax deductions on my income tax return. (This application must be dated
and signed by the applicant to be accepted.)
Signature Date _
Membership inAmerican Atheists includes a free subscription to the journal
American Atheist
and the free monthly
American Atheist Newsletter
as well as
all the other rights and privileges of membership. Please indicate your choice
of membership dues:
D Life, $750
D
Couple Life, $1000 (Please give both
names above.)
D Sustaining, $150/year
D Couple/Family, $75/year (Please give
all names above.)
Upon your acceptance into membership, you will receive a handsome gold-
embossed membership card, a membership certificate personally signed by Jon
G. Murray, president of American Atheists, our special monthly
American
Atheist Newsletter
to keep you informed of the activities of American Atheists,
and your initial copy of the
American Atheist.
Life members receive a specially
embossed pen and pencil set; sustaining members receive a commemorative
pen. Your name willbe sent to the Chapter in your local area if there currently
is one, and you willbe contacted so you may become a part of the many local
activities. Memberships are nonrefundable.
D Individual, $50/year
D
Age 65 or over, $25/year
(Photocopy of ID required.)
D Student, $20/year (Photo-
copy of ID required.)
American Atheists, Inc., P.O. Box 140195, Austin, TX 78714-0195
Vol. 31, No. 10 American Atheist
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Editor s Desk
m
purpose of the American
Atheist
~ is to present the history, views,
personalities, positions, heroes,
and goals of Atheism as the mainline
media cannot and willnot. Simply put,
ifwe expect the story of Atheism to be
fairly told we must tell it ourselves and
not rely upon those blinded by religious
dogma or harnessed by the demands of
the commercial media.
In some issues of the American
Athe-
ist,
this purpose is even more compel-
ling.Events which gravely concern us as
Atheists are ignored entirely by the out-
side media - for instance, Bush's com-
ment that Atheists cannot be consid-
ered citizens of the United States. If
such incidents are to be discussed at all,
they must find their forum within these
pages. At other times, Atheist happen-
ings or issues are indeed handled by the
mainline media - but in a distorted or
malice-filledmanner. It is the task of the
American
Atheist
to paint a truer pic-
ture of them.
Though my work involves righting
these journalistic wrongs of omission
and commission, I am rarely angered by
them. As a member of America's most
written about Atheist family, my hide
has grown somewhat thick. I have seen
our movement's best spokespersons
treated by the media with more con-
tempt and less objectivity than would be
accorded a confessed child molester.
But then stories both subtly and overt-
1yhostile are what one may expect from
a culture saturated in a viewpoint op-
posed to one's own. One might as well
expect Iran's state press to carry fair
coverage of the Methodist church.
The most unfortunate aspect of this
tainted media handling is the tendency
of the American public - even those
persons sympathetic to or inagreement
with Atheism - to lend credence to any
media report. We all know the old ca-
nard Why would they print it if it
weren't true? but rarely realize the ex-
R. Murray-O Hair
Austin, Texas
Undoing deceptions
tent to which people believe that. They
give the reporter the benefit of the
doubt, rationalizing that his story per-
haps has a grain oftruth ( Well,he istall,
though I myself wouldn't have called
him a 'genetic freak' ).
But would the media disseminate de-
liberate lies?That isa notion from which
allof us in the United States try to avert
our eyes. It is unthinkable. In our nation
the press is a sanctified institution, ad-
ministered by Clark Kent and Lois
Lane, overseen by selfless though de-
manding editors. Its goal is to serve the
public and present the truth; it is pro-
tected by and protects the First Amend-
ment. Itact inmalice? Itbe motivated by
market economics? Perish the thought;
we Americans know that the press
serves the people.
The fact is that it does not. Our news-
papers, radio stations, and television
networks are owned by corporations
devoted to profit, not charity - to stock
holders, not truth. And Superman, in
the guise of mild-mannered Clark Kent,
isn't in the press poo\. Instead it's an
ordinary human being, with ordinary
biases and ignorance and the usual con-
cern for retaining his job.
Nonetheless one media story about
American Atheists shocked me - and
that was a
Los Angeles
Times report on
the American Atheist Press exhibit at
the Moscow International Book Fair in
October
1989.
The story was also sent
on the wire service, appearing in many
other papers.
As part of the usual bit of misrepre-
sentation, the _article never mentioned
the name of the press. The stand was
only identified as Madalyn Murray
O'Hair's booth - this is the standard
media game of pretending that there is
no American Atheist movement, that
there isonlyone lone Atheist inthe Unit-
ed States. (A mistake on the reporter's
part? Signs announcing American
Atheist Press infivelanguages appeared
prominently on the exhibit.)
From the first line, ofcourse, the arti-
cle portrayed the American Atheist
Vol . 31 , No. 10
Press exhibit as a failure. The reporter
authoritatively stated no one stopped
to browse through her [O'Hair's] litera-
ture. Our translator intended to help
Soviets with questions, sat idly. Having
laidthis groundwork, the article launched
into an extensive description of the
smashing success ofthe religious booths
at the Fair. The
Los Angeles Times
arti-
cle was not run as an opinion piece but
a news report. These were the facts,
ma'am.
That at times the American Atheist
Press booth was so crowded we couldn't
move wasn't part of the story. Or that
once, when we were passing out litera-
ture and free pens, Noel Scott and I
were almost trampled by the eager
crowd didn't make it into print either.
That our
two
translators were exhausted
by their work at the end of the day also
slipped through the cracks offair report-
ing.
I have thought that perhaps the arti-
cle should have had a caption stating
that it was provided as a free service for
Christian fund-raisers, for it served that
purpose. Even before American Atheist
Press representatives were back in the
United States, Christian fund-raising let-
ters had been sent out, using the article
as a source for the information that
given a choice of god and godlessness,
Soviets went en masse for religion.
But, as I said, I have grown accus-
tomed to misstatements and misrepre-
sentations concerning Atheism from the
press corps. What shocked me about
this article, what I had not fully under-
stood before, is the ease with which the
press can, if it wishes, deceive us con-
cerning events in foreign lands. For who
is there back home to contradict the re-
ports? The truth is inaccessible, isolated
across borders and language barriers.
Because of production problems and
scheduling delays, this issue of the
American
Atheist
has long been post-
poned. But even wrongs on the back
burner eventually come to boil and the
needed correction is now being issued
here in August of 1991 . ~
Page 3
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Director's Briefcase
Around the world,
those in dissent to
religion face vastly
..differing situations in
their struggle for
intellectual freedom in
their nations.
Their responses vary as
greatly as the
challenges which face
them.
A graduate of the University of Texas
at Austin and a second-generation
Atheist, Mr.Murray is a proponent of
aggressive Atheism. He is an
anchorman on the American Atheist
Forum and the president of American
Atheists.
Jon G. Murray
Page 4
The outreach began as far back as
1%9, when Dr. Madalyn O'Hair, found-
er ofAmerican Atheists, invited GORA
(Goparaju Ramachandra Rao) of India
to the United States. Since that time
American Atheists has sponsored nu-
merous visits of leaders of foreign Athe-
ist and freethought groups to this coun-
try, and the leadership of American
Atheists has journeyed abroad to seek
out other groups on their home turf.
Inyears gone by, visits by representa-
tives from groups inIndia, Great Britain,
Finland, Australia, New Zealand, Israel,
Austria, West Germany, France, Canada,
and Ireland have been hosted. Since
1976,these visitors have come chiefly to
participate in annual national conven-
tions of American Atheists. In addition,
the Murray-O'Hairs have journeyed to
Great Britain, Ireland, Spain, France,
Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark,
(former) West Germany, (former) East
Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy,
Finland, Sweden, the Soviet Union,
Hungary, Greece, Turkey, Iran (under
the shah), India, Thailand, Japan, China,
Australia, New Zealand, Kenya, Tanza-
nia,ElSalvador, Mexico, and Canada. In
their travels they have never failed to
meet at least one fellowAtheist leader.
American Atheists has participated in
international Atheist conferences in Vi-
jayawada, India (1980)and Helsinki, Fin-
land (1983), and in a freethinkers' con-
gress in Lausanne, Switzerland (1981).
Inmore recent years, American Atheist
Press has sponsored literature exhibits
in both Moscow, U.S.S.R., and Frank-
furt, West Germany.
This issue of the American Atheist is
devoted to a report on the Moscow In-
ternational Book Fair exhibit of 1989. I
shall not delve into the specifics of that
Fair,since that topic is covered so thor-
oughly elsewhere in this issue.
Anticlericals, secularists,
and Atheists
A
merican Atheists has known for
many years that there are Athe-
ists inother countries ofthe world
besides the United States. In fact, Athe-
ism was alive and well as a point of view
in opposition to religion in Europe and
Asia for hundreds of years prior to the
colonization of the North American
continent. We suspect that there were
also Atheists present in the cultures of
Africa and South America for centuries
before America was established, but it
is difficult to find persuasive historical
evidence to support that assumption.
From time to time, I have found myself,
as I wager most other Atheists have,
wondering ifIwas the onlyAtheist inthe
world or if there were indeed others
out there like me. That feeling can be
compared to the wonder of a stargazer
on a clear night who supposes that there
must be life as we know it on at least
one of those many, many points of light
inthe visible expanse of a nighttime sky.
In the case of the lonely Atheists,
though, it is more like a question of
whether there isindeed other
intelligent
life out there in the world somewhere.
To no surprise of my own, I have
found over the years that indeed there
are other Atheists in the world. Not just
Atheists either, but Atheist activists.
International outreach
American Atheists has made a point
of trying to contact both Atheist groups
and individualAtheists invarious nations
around the world. The motive behind
this international outreach was to deter-
mine whether those Atheists of other
lands view religion, its philosophical
content, and its sociological effect just
as we do inthe United States. There was
a second motive, though, which was to
foster enduring contacts with those of
similar viewpoint and life-styleso that an
exchange of ideas could result. Perhaps
Atheists abroad were facing the very
same fight as American Atheists was in
its own country. Ifso, perhaps we could
exchange battle plans and learn from
one another's successes and failures.
Vol . 3 1, N o. 10
A mixed bunch
What we have found in our meetings
with Atheists of other lands, both on our
soil and theirs, is of great interest and
may come as a surprise to many Amer-
American Atheist
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Below: During his 1969 visit, GORA, the
founder of the Indian Atheist Center,
was interviewed on the American Athe-
ist Radio Series by Madalyn O Hair.
Right: The Thirty-ninth Congress of the
World Union of Freethinkers included
leaders of Atheist, anticlerical, and free-
thought groups from almost every Euro-
pean country.
ican Atheists. Inthe beginning we naive-
ly assumed that others who were with-
out religion would share all, or most, of
our points of view. That turned out not
to be the case. Infact, we found very few
individuals to whom we could strictly
apply the term Atheist. Most of the per-
sons we met were anticlerical, agnostic,
humanist, freethinking, Unitarian, Ethi-
cal Culturist, or rationalist. I willexpand
on those categories a bit, but I must
preface that attempt with a disclaimer
that many of the individuals I have met
could be placed in more than one cate-
gory.
The anticlerical
The anticlerical is one who mayor
may not be certain, or even have an
opinion, as to the existence ofa god, but
for whom the clergy are the enemies of
mankind. With some ofthe anticlericals,
this opinion extends to all clergy, of ev-
ery denomination. The majority of this
category, however, aim their criticisms
at the clergy of the Roman Catholic
church. Most of the anticlerical types I
have met are from countries which have
been dominated by the Roman Catholic
church throughout most oftheir history.
I have also usually found that anticleri-
cals have had a bad personal experience
with a priest or nun whilegrowing up, or
in regard to a marriage or a funeral or
some other church rite. Anticlericals
are primarily concerned with what I call
clergy bashing, and what could be
other separation of state and church or
civil rights concerns often take a back
Austin, Texas
seat to that desire to pound away at the
institution of their upbringing from
which they have fled.
The agnostic
The agnostic is truly one, in layman's
terms, who does not know if there is a
god. He cannot bring himself to say
that god is make-believe, because he
harbors doubts about that fact. Most
cling tenaciously to Pascal's wager.
*
The bulk ofthe agnostics Ihave encoun-
tered internationally deem themselves
to be intellectually superior to Atheists
because they take a nonposition on the
god idea. They hold that a non position
is the only intellectually tenable position
because one cannot prove that a god
does not exist. Agnostics are usually
those either schooled in or enamored of
philosophy. They adhere to the same
unflinching line as their counterparts
*Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), French philoso-
pher, mathematician, and physicist. Pascal's
wager is an argument propounded by this
philosopher which is roughly as follows: If
I live my life as if there is no god, and I die
and find that there is a god, then I have lost
everything because (a) my life has been
wasted livingwithout god and (b) I will cer-
tainly be damned to eternal hellfire for not
believing in god. On the other hand, if I be-
lieve in a god now, if i t turns out in the end
that there is one I am covered because I
have believed all along and I have lost noth-
ing during my life. If it turns out in the end
that there is no god, then Ihave also not real-
ly lost anything for being a silent believer.
Vol.
31 ,
No.
10
within the American Atheist organiza-
tion. Agnostics have an inner fear, inmy
opinion, of just saying no to the god
idea. They cannot bring themselves to
go all the way because they fear some-
thing - which is obviously that they
could be wrong in denying God.
The humanist
The humanist loves his fellowman -
not in a solely sexual sense, of course.
The humanist is friend to the world, in-
cluding religionists. The humanist wants
allpeople, theist and Atheist, to work to-
gether as one big happy family for the
good of mankind. The fact that this has
not ever been possible, even within the
ranks of a particular denomination of
belief, much less interdenominationally,
does not faze them in the least. Dia-
logue is the humanist buzzword. Hu-
manists feel that if both sides of any
viewpoint could just sit down and work
things out, lifecould be harmonious, not
to mention homogeneous. What the hu-
manist does not realize is that no dia-
logue is possible between the Atheist
and the theist because they are operat-
ing from different premises.
The freethinker
The freethinker is usually more ad-
vanced in age and from the old school of
principally European biblical criticism.
To think freely to freethinkers means
mostly one thing: to be able to think
freely about (or criticize) the Bible. They
cling to the idea that biblical criticism is
the essence of fighting religion. If they
Page 5
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could just personally convince, they
think, every Bible believer on earth (pre-
sumably one at a time) that their pre-
cious book is flawed, the theists would
allabandon it at once. This is hardly the
case, but the thought is what counts to
the freethinker. The European anti-
church movements are particularly
filled with freethinkers who still recall
the great war as being World War I.
The Unitarian
The Unitarian is somewhat related to
the humanist, though he does not always
mix well. The European Unitarian be-
lieves in god, all of them at once instead
of any particular one. The Unitarian also
adheres strongly to the notion that
things done in a group, in unison, in
quasi-religious-rite format, are more
meaningful than individual accomplish-
ments. The Unitarian champions the
form of religionwithout, necessarily, the
content. Perhaps it is just an expression
of the herd instinct or, more likely,a de-
sire to preserve what they liked about
traditional church (the music, the com-
radeship, the stained-glass windows,
the opportunity to dress up, the so-
cialization) without retaining the theol-
ogy which bored or disgusted them.
Page 6
count the number of really hard-core
Atheists whom I have met internation-
ally on the fingers of both my hands. I
am not discouraged by this. On the con-
trary, I know that it means that there
must be more of the same out there who
just do not know ofthe existence oftheir
comrades.
Left: The second World Atheist Meet was held in Helsinki, Finland. Representatives
came from as far as India to attend.
Below: In 1984, American Atheist leaders met representatives of the Atheist Society
of China. Left to right are Madalyn O Hair, Zhang Xin Ying (librarian for the Athe-
ist Society of China), Jon Murray, and Professors Gao Wamghzhi and Li Fu-hua,
The Ethical Culturist
The Ethical Culturist is out to prove
a specific point: he can be just as good
as a religionist without the religion.
These individuals want to be thought of
as fine, moral, ethical, and productive
members of the community despite
what the religionists say is their handi-
cap - not participating intraditional re-
ligion in one of its more popular forms.
The rationalist
The rationalist has before him the
task of rationalizing religious dogma and
ritual, but not necessarily allowing a fail-
ure to accomplish that goal to be cause
to abandon it. The rationalists desire to
approach religion with their noses held
high, rational at all times, with no of-
fense given to the religionist at any cost.
They desire to be critical of religion, but
in a nice way.The application of human
reason to religion is fine as long as it
does not go so far as to come to the con-
clusion that religion is not at allgermane
to the human equation.
The current situation in
France, Australia, and New
Zealand is that the word
rationalist
but not the philos-
ophy of rationalism is in cur-
rent use. So oppressive has
religion been against propo-
nents of Atheism that they
have often been forced to
adopt a pseudo-identity, the
least offensive of which ap-
peared to them to be ratio-
nalist. It is also indicative of
the history of many of the freethought/
Atheist groups. At the time organized
dissent to religion was forming down
under, for example, the dominant
group in this field in England was one
which called itself rationalist. This appel-
lation was chosen by the new groups -
at least in part - to indicate their affil-
iation with the English movement.
In my many travels I have met very
few persons who are in general dissent
to religion who do not fallinto one of the
aforementioned categories. I could
Vol . 31, No. 10
Different countries,
different problems
In dealing with the various groups of
persons in dissent to religion outside of
the United States, I have come across
quite a variety of interesting situations.
Unfortunately none of them, so far, are
of sufficient similarity to the position of
those in dissent to religion here in the
United States to make an exchange of
strategies plausible. The largest differ-
ence is between the governmental sys-
tems, in both theory and practice, of the
other countries vis-a-vis state/church
separation. A prime example of a major
difference can be seen in the school sys-
tems of the various nations. Many of the
state/church separation issues here, in
our country, are school related. Prayer
in classrooms, exhibition of religious
symbols in schools, prayer at gradua-
tion ceremonies, state funding of paro-
chial schools, teaching of creationism in
schools, equal access of religious
groups to schools are all issues in the
United States of which we find no coun-
terparts in Europe and the land down
under. Daily prayers and/or religion
classes are commonplace in European
American Atheist
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schools. Most countries besides the
United States have now opted for a
separate but equal concept of state
funding for a dual system of what they
call government (public) and church
(parochial) schools. The entire arena of
the battle to keep religion out of public
(government) schools is not an issue
outside ofthe United States. The schools
in other countries have religion as part
of their daily fare for students, and that
fact isnot likelyto change. Also, the ma-
jority of other nations don't have the
equal of the so-called religion clauses in
our First Amendment in their constitu-
tions or charters. There is, therefore,
little ifany basis for litigation of any sep-
aration ofstate and church issues which
might arise. The church simply relies on
its traditional presence and power to
dominate the culture, particularly inEu-
rope and South America.
Politics and Atheism
There isyet another general observa-
tion about groups in dissent to religion
outside of the United States which I
must make. I have yet to encounter
such a group which does not have
strong political leanings. They rely upon
alliance with political parties or factions
to aid them in their outreach.
Here in the United States we have a
winner take all type of political sys-
tem. We have only one party, the capi-
talist party, with a left branch (the Dem-
ocrats) and a right branch (the Repub-
licans), the distinction between which
draws closer and hazier by the minute.
I n
contrast, in most other countries,
there is a proportional representation
system of government in which a range
of parties from fascist to communist is
Austin, Texas
allowed to be seated in a parliamentary
body in numbers corresponding to how
many votes they garner. There are
socialist and communist parties inmost
of Europe which can have their repre-
sentatives seated in their country's gov-
erning body. That is not the case here in
the United States.
It is because of this situation that
groups in dissent to religion outside of
the United States are able to find some
representation through which they can
occasionally have an idea passed onto
the table to be considered, however
briefly,in a national governing body. We
cannot say the same. It is simply not
possible for American Atheists to con-
vince a single member of
our national Congress to
sponsor a billon our behalf
or to mouth one of our po-
sitions for even an instant
on the floor ofthe House or
Senate. Due to the abilityof
foreign groups to form an
alliance of some kind with
part of their country's gov-
erning structure, most of
the representatives of for-
eign groups indissent to re-
ligionwith whom Ihave met
have been socialist, com-
munist, anarchist, or at least left wing
politically. The governmental represen-
tatives who are willingto help them from
time to time are those of the liberal, left-
wing parties. Here in the United States,
the majority of the members of Ameri-
can Atheists are hardly left politically
and are certainly not socialist or com-
munist.
A few examples of specific instances
Ihave encountered with groups ofother
France has several freethought societies,
as well as an Atheist group. At left is the
Paris office and bookshop of La Libre
Pensee, The Freethinker.
nations willsuffice to giveyou a flavor of
the situations our comrades abroad
face.
The British situation
England presently has a state church.
It has been a theocracy, functionally, for
many hundreds of years. Religion class-
es in the public schools there are oblig-
atory. There is no constitutional basis
for a separation of state and church in
Great Britain. As a result, the British
groups cannot hope to force religionout
of the schools but can only try to obtain
some type of secular presentation in the
schools on equal footing. They are
therefore developing books and a cur-
riculum for humanist classes as an al-
ternate to the required religion classes.
The British freethought and humanist
movements fight against such things as
kosher food labeling (an issue long since
lost inthe U.S.) which requires ritual (in-
humane) slaughter. The increasing Mos-
lem community in Great Britain is ask-
ing for more kosher food availability.
. T h e freethought and hu-
manist groups are also con-
.cerned with obtaining and
maintaining state recogni-
tion of secular marriages
and funerals. If you are to
be married in England, you
have virtually no choice but
to do so in a church. (The
usual alternative is a regis-
Vol . 31, N o. 10
The National Secular Society helped in-
troduce Humanism a short book on the
history and position of the nonreligious,
to the British government schools. Its
author, Barbara Smoker, addressed the
1984 Convention of American Atheists.
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The government of Belgium issued several stamps in honor of the Bel-
gian secular movement. One features an owl, long used in that country
to symbolize freethought (below).
The Rationalist Society of New Zealand is headquartered in a historic
building in Auckland (right). As well as providing office space, it also
serves as a meeting place for society members.
movements in Belgium is
obtaining permanent, rather
than provisional, govern
ment funding in the future.
In
order to do so they must
relegate their opposition to religion to
areas such as biblical criticism and phil-
osophical jousting with religious leaders
over moral and ethical issues. They
must also develop programs to provide
social services, just as the churches
do, in order to justify the possibility of
the government's permanent funding of
their efforts. These social services in-
clude providing humanist counselors in
hospitals (next to religious chaplains),
establishing substance abuse counseling
facilities, and setting up counseling cen-
ters to combat child abuse and provide
refuge for abused women (wives) and
children. Additionallythe Belgian groups
provide a job referral service to match
the unemployed with employers. The
secular groups in Belgium cannot dis-
criminate in the proffering of these ser-
vices: they must accept religious appli-
cants along with those of no religion.
try hall, hardly a festive facility.)
In
death
it is hard to avoid a religious service of
some kind. Given an admixture of state
and church which cannot be changed,
the thrust of the British movement must
be in other areas. This basically means
that instead of fighting to keep religion
out of government, they are reduced to
asking for equal recognition by govern-
ment of the secular.
In
simpler terms,
the British movements must try to en-
tangle themselves with government,
next to their religious foes, rather than
attempt to disentangle religion and gov-
ernment.
Belgian sponsorship of humanism
In
Belgium the government funds
both
the religious movements and the
secular movement. The religions re-
ceive permanent funding and the secu-
lar groups have only provisional funding
at the moment. Since the groups of
those in dissent to religion take govern-
ment funding, they cannot protest fund-
ing of religious groups or any of the
other largess of government which the
.religious institutions obtain. The gov-
ernment has, essentially, purchased
their silence.
The main concern of the secular
Page 8
Members of the Bunte Liste Freiberg, a
German Atheist group, were jailed for
displaying this meeting announcement.
Vol . 3 1, N o. 10
Germany and Austria
In
Germany and Austria there are five
main issues. The one which receives the
most attention isthe blasphemy laws (or
paragraphs as they refer to them). Un-
like our blasphemy laws, which merely
sit on the books and are not enforced,
German and Austrian citizens have
been jailed under their blasphemy laws.
Another issue is censorship. The Ger-
man and Austrian groups have been
particularly upset about the Salman
Rushdie affair and its implications for
the European publishing industry. Abor-
tion is an issue now in Germany due to
the reunification movement and the me-
chanics of the application of current
West German abortion laws to what
was East Germany. Austria is wrangling
over the abortion issue too, but to a
lesser extent due to the pervasive posi-
tion and historical power base of the
Roman Catholic church there.
The fourth issue in Germany and
Austria is a bit hard for Americans to
understand. A major outreach for Ger-
man and Austrian groups depends upon
their free access to the university cam-
puses to give lectures to the students
against religious dogma and the church.
Lectures on almost any subject are well
attended at German and Austrian uni-
versities, and so it is with the lectures
sponsored by the anticlerical groups.
Extracurricular lectures are anathema
on U.S. college and university campus-
es. Our students won't attend anything
requiring even an ounce of intellectual
strain unless they get credit for it. Ger-
man and Austrian students, however,
do attend such lectures, on a variety of
subjects, in surprisingly large numbers.
In
order to promote attendance at
these mostly after-class lectures, the
groups which sponsor them advertise
on the campuses and in nearby cities or
towns through the use of posters. The
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The fight to separate state and church is,
for the most part,
long over outside of the United States.
Finally,German and
Austrian groups are
battling the church
tax. Citizens in Ger-
many have a tax tak-
en out of their earn-
ingson a regular basis
which goes to sup-
port the Protestant or
Roman Catholic
churches. The Ger-
man groups have pro-
tested this tax inevery
way possible to no
avail.
India's special
concerns
In India the main
. issues of the secular
groups are threefold. The first isfighting
the caste system with all of its religious
implications. The second is debunking
what the Indians call God-men. These
are fakirs, magicians claiming to have
supernatural powers, who prey upon
the great masses of illiterates in India.
They are not too far removed from our
own tent faith healers. The
third issue is lamenting the
lack of cooperation between
the various sects, of which
India has many, and calling
for unity toward solving In-
dia's population, hunger, dis-
ease, and illiteracyproblems.
Madalyn O'Hair and Jon Murray assemble with the staff of
the Indian Atheist Centre in Vijayawada, India, for a com-
memorative photograph during a 1978 visit.
right to be able to freely display posters
announcing lectures on university cam-
puses is very important to the German
and Austrian groups. They have been
involved in a large fight over this issue,
with religious groups tearing down their
posters as the government authorities
look the other way. This, to them, is un-
conscionable.
It seems trivial to us on the surface
that the Germans and Austrians would
be upset over posters on campuses, but
it makes sense once one understands
that the principal public free-speech out-
reach for those groups is on the cam-
puses. They have no access to the elec-
tronic or printed media, so they have
gone to the campuses. One must also
consider that in Europe fewer persons
use automobiles on a daily basis than in
the United States, and they walk the
small, narrow, crowded streets of the
cities and use public transportation. In
that setting, posters are very effective
because the commuters must walk by
them more than once a day every day.
Posters are not very useful in this coun-
try because we would allspeed by them
in cars. Most European cities also pro-
vide special municipal structures and
areas for the hanging of posters an-
nouncing events.
Austin, Texas
church separation front. Their efforts
must instead be turned to maintaining
equal treatment ( civil rights ) for non-
believers under law. Even that effort,
however, is on a different plane than in
the United States. Here we eschew the
notion of Atheism being classified as a
religion. Inother countries Atheism,
humanism, and all the rest are lumped
together as secularism, as a kind of
religion of a different color. That group
of seculars then seeks - as an off-
brand religion - to be bestowed with
the same rights that are given to the
various types of religions. Once state
and church are entangled to the point of
no return, the only thing left for the non-
religious to do is to say that their non-
religion is a religion and ask to be in-
cluded within the circle of rights granted
to the religious and perhaps stand in line
for receipt of some of the largess of gov-
ernment which is proffered to religious
groups.
This is exactly opposite to what
American Atheists does here in the
United States. We are fighting to keep
the state and the church from becoming
The new religion
of no religion
One can see from just An important part of the Indian Atheist outreach is
these examples that the situ- to demonstrate how the miracles of the God-men
ations abroad for nonbelie
v-
are performed. Here B. Premanand and Lavanam,
ers are quite different from director of the Indian Atheist Centre, show how to
the problems we as Atheists make flames spell out a certain word.
have to face here at home. The fight to entangled in the first place. If we can
separate state and church is, for the maintain a secular state, then we can
most part, long over outside ofthe Unit- maintain our civilrights within that state
ed States. An alliance of religion and structure without needing to pass our-
government is a foregone conclusion, in selves off as a religion to do so. We
perhaps all but France, which leaves have not yet arrived at the point where
groups ind issent to religion ina position there is no separation of state and
where they can do nothing on the state/ church whatsoever. Once we do, and it
Vol . 3 1, N o. 10
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One obstacle which groups in dissent to religion in other nations must
overcome islanguage. Europe and India are both patchworks of dialects
and tongues, and the simple problem of not understanding one another
divides groups. In Switzerland, for example, three periodicals must be
produced to serve the freethought community: one in French (upper
left), one in German (lower left), and one in Italian.
is only a matter of time, Atheists in this
country may have to lump themselves in
with all of the other pseudo-Atheists of
the types I have mentioned above, iden-
tify themselves as seculars, and then
try to qualify as yet another branch of
religion in the eyes of the state. This
isthe core of difference between the sit-
uation we face here and what our com-
rades in other lands face.
The disinterest
in church participation
Then we come to another fact that
Americans will find strange also. Out-
side of our country there is a general
apathy toward religion. Church atten-
dance across Europe and in Australia
and New Zealand is a small fraction of
what it is in the United States. Despite
the fact that the dominant churches in
other countries have defeated the prin-
ciple of separation of state and church,
the masses of people in those countries
are more or less unconcerned with the
church. InGermany, for example, there
isno separation ofstate and church, but
at the same time church attendance isin
the teen percentages. Figure that one
out. We have separation of state and
church in the United States, and our
Page 10
church attendance statistics
are in percentage figures hov-
ering in the forties. When for-
eign visitors come here from
other groups in dissent to reli-
gion, they are amazed at our
bumper stickers for Christ, bill-
boards for Christ, television
evangelists, and public prayers
by government officials. For
the most part, they do not have
these things in their countries,
and we are told that if they did
their citizens would just not pay
any attention to them.
In Australia the prime minis-
ter refused to take a god oath
to assume office and turned
down a position as honorary
head of the Boy Scouts in that
country because he said that he
did not believe in God and therefore
could not take the Scout Oath. Yet, at
the same time, Australia has a system of
complete government funding for church
(parochial) schools. In a dichotomous
situation such as that, what is a secu-
lar group supposed to do? The only
thing it can do is verbally attack religion
in the form of debates with religionists,
publish biblical criticism, bash the mi-
nority cults such as the Scientologists,
or generally make fun of religious ideas.
The Australian groups are doing all of
those things. That does not change any-
thing, though. The church has what it
wants, funding for its schools, so what is
a littletaunting from a small group going
to matter?
The battle for separation of state and
church is mostly over, except for the
United States. France is the one major
exception because it has very strong
separation of religion and government
language in its federal founding docu-
merits, language which is largely heeded.
This means that most of the groups in
dissent to religion with whom we are in
contact can only do two things. They
can criticize, taunt, and make fun ofreli-
gion through the written and spoken
word and, at the same time, attempt to
Vol .
31,
No.
10
maintain their civil right to do so by
whatever means possible, including
lumping themselves in with religion as
just another pseudo-religion. The right
to have an opinion in dissent to some
aspects of religion is a very easy one for
institutionalized religion to hand out
once it knows that it has a defined and
permanent place of importance and
dominance within the apparatus of the
state.
American Atheists is fighting in this
country to prevent the organized church
from carving out for itself a permanent
niche in the state as a civil religion.
Once that happens we would then, like
our foreign comrades, be given the
handout of the right to be in dissent as
long as we did so within certain bound-
aries oftype and kind ofexpression. The
groups outside of this country must
look toward us to see ifwe can prevent
the bonding of religion and government
from becoming official here. If we can,
then a glimmer of hope might exist for
them to begin a movement toward re-
versal of the institutionalization of reli-
gion which has already occurred for
them by pointing at the United States as
an example.
M. O'Hair; Ron Marke, secretary of the
Rationalist Association of New South
Wales; Jon Murray; and A. F.Parkinson
gather infront of the Freethought Book-
shop sponsored by the Australian group.
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Leningrad's Museum of the History of
Religion and Atheism was once a cathe-
dral, but in 1983 it was the site for the
meeting of Atheist minds. At right is its
staff with Pam Thoren (center), curator
of the American Atheist Museum, and
other World Atheist Meet delegates. Be-
low is its director, Yakov Kozhurin (sec-
ond from left), with Erkki Hartikainen of
Finland, Lavanam ofIndia, and Madalyn
O'Hair of the United States.
Iam not trying to denigrate any of the
groups of those in dissent to religion
outside of the United States. They are
doing what they can do in the context of
the situation within their country. I used
the term group in dissent to religion
throughout this article because I know
that I can call few of the groups with
whom I have met around the world
Atheist organizations because the
majority of their members are simply
not Atheists. They belong instead to one
of the other types of individuals without
religion that I have described. I am only
reporting on what I have found in my
travels and from meeting with represen-
tatives of many foreign groups. I have
found but a handful of hard-core Athe-
ists. Most of the persons in general dis-
sent to religion whom I have encoun-
tered are just generic seculars. They
do what they can do, with earnest effort,
given the circumstances in their coun-
try.
Can we
help
foreign Atheist groups?
I do not see what American Atheists
could do to help any of these foreign
groups besides assisting them with
funding. Their situations are so funda-
mentally different from what we face
here at home that we really cannot give
them advice. Allof the groups involved
are for the most part smaller than Amer-
ican Atheists and are much less well-
funded. In the case of the German
groups, we were able to help by asking
the membership of American Atheists
to send protest letters to German offi-
cials concerning prosecutions for blas-
phemy which were underway in that
country. We are also able to give repre-
sentatives from foreign groups a limited
platform inthe United States through in-
vitationsto attend our annual conventions
and to appear as guests on our Amer-
ican Atheist Forum program for cable
access television.
The foreign groups certainly cannot
do anything to help us here inthe United
States. The aid we offer is a one-way
Austin, Texas
street. I understand that and do not
mean for that fact, once again, to dispar-
age those organizations in any way.
In summary, then, I can report that
the existence of groups of individuals in
dissent to religion outside the United
States is centered primarily in Europe
and secondarily in India, Australia, and
New Zealand. These groups are not
Atheist in a strict sense. They are
mostly composed of secular persons
who dissent to the tenets and dogmas of
religion ingeneral for widelyvarying rea-
sons. The groups are almost all politi-
cal in nature and tend to be on the
left. The battle for separation of state
and church in their countries has been
won by the church, and they can only
fight now to maintain the civil right to
disagree with religion in a variety of for-
mats. They cannot change the situation
of state capitulation to the church. In
some cases, they can obtain a littlepiece
ofthe largess which the state has heaped
upon the dominant church in their
country. This is done through a variety
of mechanisms which all boil down to
calling themselves a kind of religion of
dissent in order to fulfillthe old adage
if you can't beat them, join them.
Vol . 31, No. 10
Soviet Atheism
I want now to speak just a little to the
situation inthe Soviet Union. When rep-
resentatives ofAmerican Atheists made
their first trip to the Soviet Union, back
under the reign of Premier Andropov,
we did so hoping to find a nation gener-
ally full of Atheists who could perhaps
be our comrades and who could assist
us in our struggle to maintain at least
some separation of state and church in
the United States. We had in mind, per-
haps, that we might be able to sellAmer-
ican Atheist Press books in the Soviet
Union to gain some monetary assis-
tance. We also hoped to persuade the
Soviet Union to speak up for the rights
of Atheists through its seat in the Unit-
ed Nations or through diplomatic chan-
nels, given its slowly friendlier relation-
ship with the United States. In short, we
thought that we could establish ties
within the Soviet Union through which
we could obtain some form of political
(nonmonetary) assistance from the
nation with the second largest popula-
tion of Atheists (behind China).
Our second trip to the Soviet Union,
which is chronicled in this issue of the
American
Atheist,
was a follow-up at-
tempt to put into motion the idea of sell-
ing books within that country. What we
actually found out was that the Soviets
were not really interested in promoting
Atheism within their country. They had
made the mistaken assumption from
the time of their revolution that simple
disestablishment of the church in the
Soviet Union was enough. The Soviets
thought that once the church was dis-
established, deprived of state support,
Page
11
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14/48
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and perhaps persecuted a little here and
there, which it so richly deserved, they
would not have to worry about religion
again. There has been and is no positive
program within the Soviet Union to
teach the population about religion in
the sense of demonstrating what is
wrong with it. The government had the
opportunity to educate generations of
citizens as to the falsity of church dog-
ma, the errancy of the Bible, the atroc-
ities in church history, and the psycho-
pathology of religion as a mind-set. The
Soviet Union failed to capture this gold-
en opportunity.
Hunger for Western religions
During our visitto the Moscow Inter-
national Book Fair, we saw the result of
that failure. The Soviet people were as
hungry for the religious experience as
an adolescent might be to try his first
cigarette, completely unaware of the
medical and psychologicalconsequences
of that action. If an adolescent is prop-
Page 12
erly informed as to the dangers ofsmok-
ing, he is less likely to accept that first
cigarette. In a like manner, the Soviet
government had the opportunity to in-
form the Soviet people of the dangers of
religion before they accepted that first
Bible. The government failed to do so,
and now the rush to religion is on inside
the Soviet Union. In a childlike way, the
Soviets willgrab for that which has been
'denied to them as a way of rebelling
against an otherwise oppressive sys-
tem, whether or not it is good for them
or will bring them less freedom in the
long run. When they grab for religion,
they do not understand that it willwork
against their gaining the very liberty that
the act oftaking itwas to symbolize. Re-
ligionwillmake them accept greater lev-
els ofoppression inthe future than they
had been willingto tolerate in the past,
for that is and has been its function and
usefulness to governments.
I came away from meetings with So-
viet publishers and my overall experi-
Vol . 31, No. 10
Atheists were present at the snowy
demonstration of the first ofMay in 1981
in Lohja, Finland. The banner reads
Atheism Up, and the picket sign de-
mands Separate Church from State.
ence in Moscow on a second visit with
the knowledge that Atheists inthe Unit-
ed States could not look to the Atheists
of the Soviet Union for any aid. In fact,
itwas obvious that the Soviet Union was
on its way to abandonment of Atheism
as a majority life-styleand that there was
littleor nothing that the Soviet hierarchy
could do about it because it had not
taken the time to vaccinate the people
against religion in prior decades .
The Atheist leaders I met while in
Moscow had turned into apologists for
the state over the issue of disestablish-
ment of the organized church in the
Soviet Union since the revolution there.
I would not desire even to have any of
the representatives of organized Athe-
ism with whom I met in Moscow come
to the United States to speak because
they have abandoned their principles to
flowwith the trend ofembracing religion
as a show of being socially progressive.
Our responsibility
as U.S. Atheists
We as American Atheists are on our
own to try to stop the one remaining
nation inwhich the idea of separation of
state and church persists from aban-
doning that ideal. We cannot obtain any
help from the Soviet Union. It is all that
China can do to help itself, much less
help a group outside of its borders. The
groups in dissent to religion inthe other
major countries of the world are en-
gaged in an entirely different kind of
fight than are we, one which is more
symbolic at this point than anything
else. The duty falls squarely on us to
hold the line on separation of state and
church here in the United States and
then to help those of like mind in other
countries how we can. Even ifwe should
be able to hold that line, it is only prob-
lematical as to whether or not that
would aid or motivate activists in other
nations by setting an example to which
they could point, toward an effort to
reverse or even mitigate the situations
which already exist vis-a-visthe lack of
separation in their countries. ~
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Mostow
InteEnational
BookPaiE
The storJ of the lImeri an
lit heist
Press exhibit at one of the world s
largest book shows.
Austin, Texas
Vol . 3 1, N o. 10
I J
t was very bright blue with the
most modern printing and design
in white, five by eight inches, just
sixty-four pages, and poised on the apex
of the design was the famous red star.
But inside, thirty pages were in English
and thirty-four pages in Russian, pre-
sumably the one repeating the other -
we never actually found out for certain.
But that little blue book became our
bible for the next eight months as we
attempted to interpret what the gener-
al directorate of the Moscow Interna-
tional Book Fair required for participa-
tion in that event from September 12
through 18, 1989.
Serving peace and progress
Several years before we had been
intrigued by an article which appeared
in a popular u.S. magazine showing a
wet and muddy Moscow street, with a
single person trying to avoid puddles as
he leapt cautiously across it, while rain
poured down. The caption read that the
Moscow International Book Fair had
just closed, and that few - if any -
visitors had been in attendance at the
dreary exhibit. We wondered ifthat was
a correct story or not and wrote to the
directorate asking for the American
Atheist Press to be included in the next
such fair. But the next one came and
went with our knowing about it only
after the fact.
Madalyn O Hair
Page
13
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It was then that our man in Washing-
ton, D.c., Noel Scott, who reads, writes,
and speaks Russian, decided to write a
letter to the head of the continuing ex-
hibit and ask why American Atheist
Press was excluded from such fairs in
Born on April 13, 1919,D r, O'Hair
initiated the United States Supreme
Court case Murray
u,
Curlett, which
removed reverential Bible reading and
prayer recitation from the public
schools of our nation in June, 1963.
She founded American Atheists in the
same year. Together with GORA she
founded the United World Atheists,
sponsor of the triennial World Atheist
Meet. A champion of freedom of
speech, freedom of assemblage, free-
dom of conscience, and the right to be
free from religion, she is known nation-
ally and internationally as an Atheist
spokesperson.
Page 14
which other book exhibitors could par-
ticipate - even ifonly by invitation.
The Moscow International
Book Fairs were held bian-
nually to further the imple-
mentation of the HelsinkiFinal
Act signed in 1975to:
promote inevery waycultural
cooperation among nations,
as well as mutual understand-
ing and cooperation among
people ofdifferent politicalviews,
religious beliefs, races, and na-
tionalities;
popularize and disseminate books
contributing to world peace and
progress;
expand mutually advantageous busi-
ness contacts between book pub-
lishers and distributors, stimulate im-
port and export, mutual translation
of books and periodicals; and
bring up the younger generation in
Vol . 31, No. 10
'.
American University Textbooks distrib-
uted a bright, inoffensive poster which
could have no meaning attached to it at
all. Being totally innocuous, it was very
much in demand.
the spirit of devotion to the ideals of
humanism and moral values ofhuman
civilization.
The traditional motto ofthese repeat-
ing fairs was Books Serve Peace and
Progress. That held in 1989was to be
the seventh in the series.
Invited at last
Itwas on January 30, 1989,that Amer-
ican Atheist Press received its We are
pleased to inform you invitation letter,
dated simply December 1988. Attached
were scores of papers to fillout and re-
turn, formal applications for participa-
tion, instructions, labels, and that little
blue book. Wemust, we were informed,
submit the formal applications by March
30. These included contracts to rent
space, lighting, and guards, for cleaning
our area, for providing identification
cards and credentials, for decoration of
the grounds, and for hiring interpreters,
wardens, and cargo handlers. All the
forms were required to be drafted in
Many of the Soviet exhibitors handed
out wallet-sized plastic calendars on the
reverse side of which was always a
cheery, color photograph.
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both English and Russian, including a
permitted small advertisement for the
Fair's directory. We would be notified
within thirty days of the receipt of this
application if American Atheist Press
had been accepted as a participant.
How do you say that
in Russian?
Anyone wanting an exercise inthe im-
possible should move to Texas and
attempt to get Russian forms translated
into English and then have completed
American Atheist Press representatives
did not realize until they first received it
that they would have a veritable bible
of do's and don'ts for the Fair.
forms translated back into Russian. We
quickly came to doubt that there was a
Russian typewriter in the state - even
ifwe could have cut through the hostility
with one of our famous Texas chain
saws. Wewere quickly on the telephone
to Chicago, Columbus, Canada, and
Washington, D.C.
And then, of course, the thirty days
for our approval came and went with
Austin, Texas
no word. It was in that inter-
imperiod that we scrambled
(there isno other word for it)
to put together a little bro-
chure to distribute at the
Fair, describing what the
American Atheist Press was
and why we were exhibiting.
Itwas decided that littlebro-
chure must be printed in
French, Spanish, German,
Russian, and English. First it
had to be written, and argu-
ments went on for a week as
to just what should go into it,
before itwas sent off to Aus-
tria to be translated into
German, to Canada and Swit-
zerland to be translated into
French, to Washington, D.c.,
for the Russian translation,
and to Costa Rica for the
Spanish translation. A short history and a presentation of the whys and
Working busily, we had wherefores for the American Atheist Press was put
not watched the time slipby, into French, German, Italian, Russian, and - of
and so itwas that on April 26 course - English. They were passed out by the
we became frantic enough thousands at the Fair.
to write, telegraph, and finally to tele- months as we, rather desperately, at-
phone the directorate that our approved tempted to bring ourselves into com-
application had not been received as plete compliance with every rule and
yet. Just as we were ready to call the en- regulation of application and admission
tire thing off, on May 13, a Western procedures, purchase of exhibition
Union Mailgram came in via Morris- space and services, use of stands and
town, New Jersey, Reno, Nevada, and equipment, special payment instruc-
Dallas, Texas, saying that our applica- tions, methods of cataloguing and ad-
tion had been approved on March 31 vert ising, process of entry documents,
and returned to us at that time. We nev- provisions for transportation, tariff bar-
er did receive it, but continued with our riers, and insurance requirements. The
preparations based on the Mailgram packing instructions were explicit;
and the small blue book. marking had to be precise; transport
We were informed that we could documents in numerous copies were
bring four of each title that we published standard; and the process of clearing
into the Soviet Union, but that we must customs was nightmarish with details.
provide a list of the books, both in En-
glish and in Russian. We could sell no
books. Any books brought could be for
e;'hibition purposes only. We decided
then, that to augment our titles, we
would take four of each issue of the
American Atheist magazine.
The small blue book, as indicated,
was to become our bible for the next six
Noodles and pasta,
cookies and tea
Now an application for participation
which contained transportation confir-
mation, airport and hotel information,
exhibit insurance, and a list of required
services needed was demanded, again
inEnglish and Russian. Exhibition space
Vol . 31, N o. 10
Page 15
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Washington, D.C. Atheist Noel Scott
(below) did not realize what he was get-
ting himself into when he volunteered to
translate for the American Atheist Press
at the Moscow International Book Fair.
Exhausting days staffing the display
were ended by grueling hikes to his
room inthe Hotel Rossia (right), an enor-
mous structure one block square.
was measured by stand size. Each stand
was a collapsible structure of anodized
aluminum shape with four bookshelves
on each side, with a box for book stor-
age at the bottom. The overall dimen-
sions of the stands were
220
by
100
by
30
centimeters and the orders had to be
received two months before the Fair,
that is, by July 1- and paid in advance.
We ordered eight square meters indoor
space, with two square meters storage,
all of which was flanked with six of the
stands. In addition, we asked for four
chairs, a writing desk, a coat rack and
one wastepaper basket. We had no idea
why there were order forms for fresh
and canned meat products, soup mix,
canned fish, fresh vegetables and in
cans, fruit juice, fruit mix, beverages,
beer, vodka, cognak [sic], brandy, whis-
ky, gin, rum, wine, chocolate products,
waffles, cookies, tea, ground coffee,
Nescafe, candy without chocolate,
sugar, condensed milk, cheese, nuts,
butter, vegetable oil,noodles and pasta,
spices, and cigarettes.
Another sheet provided a list of sou-
venirs which it might be permissible to
bring into the U.S.S.R. These
included ballpoint pens reg-
ular, ballpoint pens several
colours, lighters, tags, name-
badges, perfume, cosmetic
products, portfolios (attache
cases), calendars, purses,
and pocket knives. We
de-
cided then to order
3,00 0
ballpoint pens, on which
were printed inred Moscow
Book Fairand inblue Amer-
ican Atheist Press, Post Of-
fice Box
2117,
Austin, Texas
78768
USA.
Boxes in which the books were sent
had to be:
Texas, for several weeks before we
could findboxes ofthe right dimensions.
Each box needed to carry a certain
marking, and labels with those markings
were provided, bright red in color, 6 by
9 inches again both in English and Rus-
sian. By dexterous packing we were
able to stuff sixteen sets of four books
each in every box and shipped off eight
boxes having a gross mass of
159.21
kg.
Invoices and packing slips, in both En-
glish and Russian, were required for
each box. Altogether there were eighty-
one book titles, scores of Solstice card
designs, and about four years
ofthe A m er ic an A th ei st mag-
azine. But, then, who would
ship from Austin, Texas, to
Moscow? And this meant
another two weeks attempt-
ing to see how such boxes
could get through customs
on both sides of the iron cur-
tain. We were then apprised
that a draft must be wired to
Moscow to pay for the books
being unpacked at the air-
port, trucked to the fairgrounds, and de-
livered at our stand inside the building
where we were to exhibit. It also devel-
oped that it was necessary to make pro-
visions of which the directorate must
approve for transportation, hotel, and
insurance. Allof this next phase had to
be completed, with the books in Mos-
cow, byAugust
31 .
About this time, itbe-
came apparent that we were in difficul-
ties regarding visas since they would be
... not more than
5
kg [inweight],
with the sum of the three dimen-
sions [ofthe box] not exceeding
90
ern and the biggest dimension
60
cm.
Wescoured Austin, and TravisCounty,
Page 16
Vol . 31 , No. 10
for business and not for tourism -
which is an entirely different world. We
were counseled that they could be ob-
tained only in New York City through a
Soviet consulate affiliate. The process,
however, although begun in New York
was later transferred to Houston. At this
point, the Houston agency informed
that everything had to be approved in
Moscow and that only Moscow could
make hotel reservations. Soon, we were
apprised that Gorbachev had just intro-
duced a new policy of payment in full, in
advance, for hotel rooms and then, final-
ly,that the room rate had been increased
to be more inconformity with that of the
Western world. Hotel rates would be
$500
a night for twelve nights; please
send
$6,244
cash in advance. This was
for four persons in a suite of three
rooms; that is, two bedrooms each hav-
ing two single beds and connected with
a small sitting room between. Each bed-
room was to contain a bathroom. Also,
persons entering the U.S.S.R. had to
show proof that round-trip tickets were
in their possession.
I t
was a standard re-
quirement that airfare had to be paid up
front to show proof of return-travel
arrangements.
As we struggled with all of this, the
translations of brochures, of book lists,
of letters, became almost an impossibil-
ity - and they were barely finished
under the wire, with a score or more of
intercontinental telephone calls and
one-day air letter deliveries as we went
into proofing.
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The introductory reading list which appears in every issue of the
American Atheist
was translated into Russian and distributed at the
Fair.Visitors showed a particularly keen interest inany material deal-
ing with the sexual origins of religion.
Finally on their way -
that is, just barely
September was approaching and
Moscow had stillnot issued the visas or
nailed down the hotel. Frantic tele-
phone calls from and to Houston, and to
Moscow, finallybrought inthe visas two
days before wewere scheduled to leave.
When the time did arrive, we fell onto
the airplane and slept for the entire
flight.
Jon Murray was, meanwhile, coordi-
nating the travel arrangements for Noel
Scott. Mr. Scott, a longtime personal
friend and organization officer, fluent in
Russian, was to assist us on the other
end. He would fly on Pan Am from
Washington, D.C., into Moscow via
New York City. Jon Murray had suffi-
cient mileage points on his frequent fly-
er discount cards to get two business
class flights from Austin, Texas, to
Brussels, Belgium,free on SabinaAirlines.
The only costs for the Murray-O'Hairs
were for the ticket of Robin Murray-
O'Hair and the flight into Moscow from
Brussels for the three of them. Once
again, we sweated something out - this
time the receipt of the free tickets. As
usual, American Atheist Press could not
afford the cost and the trip was paid by
NoelScott for himselfand by the Murray-
O'Hairs for themselves.
When itwas discovered that Aeroflot
now had a first class section, the
suggested
American Atheist
introductory reading list
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Right:Colorful banners welcomed visitors
at the entrances to the pavilions con-
taining Fair exhibits.
Below:One of many room cards collected
by American Atheist Press representa-
tives as they were shuffled from room to
room in Hotel Rossia.
whom we were jousting would keep the
paper and we never saw it again. With
an arrangement such as this it was im-
possible to prove that we had reserva-
tions at all.
After several go-rounds'' with the
desk, at various times, with Mr. Scott
able to speak Russian, we found that the
rooms assigned to us were incorrect,
not matching our invoice at all. Then
suddenly we had no rooms assigned;
then we did; then we
didn't and we waited,
exasperated, in line, or
were told to return lat-
er. We were physically
moved from one set of
rooms to another; It
was on the third move
that we were able to
obtain several pleasant
rooms with small living
areas but only by beat-
ing another person to
the room by minutes.
He stood outside our
door, with his luggage
in tow,waiting to be assigned elsewhere.
Then again we were moved. Very close
to midnight, with the floor manager act-
ing very myste-
riously, Robin
Murray-O'Hair
and Dr. OHair
were moved
from their
room to a very
grand suite of rooms on the elev-
enth floor. This suite contained a foyer,
a large livingroom, complete with a re-
frigerator and dining room table, a very
large bedroom, and a private bath.
The two women were handled
withdeference and much courtesy
from then forward. Noel Scott and
Jon Murray continued to occupy a
smaller double room suite on the
opposite side of the hotel, on
about the sixth level. The total
time for checking into the hotel,
obtaining our rooms, and settling
into them was about eight hours.
Diagnosis: exhaustion
Insofar as the Fair was con-
cerned, free shuttle bus service
was provided between the Rossia
Hotel and the U.S.S.R. Exhibition of
Economic Achievements Park - a
good one-hour ride in the morning
The USSR Exhibition of Economic Achievements Park - where the Fair was held
- was built on a grand scale, with majestic park grounds. Unfortunately, little
attention was devoted to the upkeep of the buildings or grounds. Here Jon Murray
displays the official tote bag of the Fair.
Page 18
Vol . 31, No. 10
which terminated at a drop-off point
about one mile from the exhibition site.
With the U.S.S.R. being a nation of
walkers, this did not seem to them to be
untoward at all.It was totally impossible
to go anywhere else in Moscow. One
would rise at 7:00 A.M. to try to get into
the crowded hotel restaurants, or cafes,
and then catch the shuttle to the park.
At night, when the booths at the Fair
closed at 7:00
P.M.
and one walked back
to the bus pickup point and had a one-
hour journey home, Moscow was inbed
for the night and Fair exhibitors were to-
tally exhausted and ready for bed also.
At the entrance to the park in which
the Fair was held was the enormous
Kosmos Hotel. No one ever figured out
why the participants in this Fair were
not quartered there instead of in the
Rossia, which was an hour's drive away.
The day after our arrival we found our
own way to the park and managed to
find the pavilion to which we were as-
signed. The weather was quite pleasant,
many fallflowers were inbloom, and the
park was quite beautiful. Finally,we sat
in the open on the big wooden benches,
ate hot shish kebabs on sticks, and
drank a foul-tasting Russian soda pop
wh