====================================================================== MITAAH News -- Volume #2 / Issue #6 -- January 9, 1998 (sent sporadically to mitaah@mit.edu mailing list) Pseudo-random samplings of information that may relate to atheism, agnosticism, humanism, freethought, or church-state separation issues. Please send any promising material to reagan@mit.edu. http://www.mit.edu/~mitaah/ ====================================================================== In this issue: * Hello? Hello? Hello? * News and views * Mailing lists: a reminder * Some humor ====================================================================== Hello? ------ Is there anybody out there? If you are going to be around for IAP, why not send a note to mitaah-discussion to announce your presence. We can organize a few activities if enough people are around. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- News and Views Excerpts from mailing lists and news sources -------------------------------------------- A lot has happened since November... ----- (AANews#359) More statistics from the December issue of Mother Jones magazine which features an article on the emergent "spirituality" in America...The publication survey says that 8% of U.S. adults are atheists; and that since 1970 the worldwide population of Christians has grown by 60%. . . . Either way, it is a bad omen for atheism, reason and the cause of secularism. The U.S. religious profile is equally disturbing. A full 20% of Americans believe that the second coming of Jesus as prophesied in Revelation will happen "around the year 2000." We expect that percent to climb substantially in the next 24-36 months as "millennium fever" threatens to sweep the U.S. and possibly other parts of the world as well. 35% of Americans say that "God answers prayers often," and 33% insist that the Deity takes time out from his/her task of running the cosmos to speak to them directly. 69% believe in miracles, and 82% "believe in the healing power of prayer." We would like to put that claim to a test, though, in the office of the nearest root canal specialist. 81% believe that heaven is a real place, and 63% accord a similar ontological status to hell. 30% believe in ghosts. While 58% accept the proposition that schools should be required by law to teach creationism, we might point out that the full figure does not reflect support for the truth of creationist claims. Creationists have been successful in draping their theology in a veneer of scientific jargon, and appealing to the sense many people have of "fair play" by asking merely for "equal time" in presenting their views in the classroom. ----- (AANews #362) RELIGIOUS GROUPS LINKING KENTUCKY SHOOTING, PRAYER AGENDA Religious right organizations have lot no time in linking the tragic shootings last Monday of high school students in Paducah, Kentucky to the need for passage of the Religious Freedom Amendment and other "culture war"-related legislation. A 14-year old student, identified as Michael Carneal, has been identified as the alleged shooter and was described as an "atheist" who associated with other nonbelievers in early reports. Subsequent information and statement, though, indicate that Carneal was a troubled youth raised in a religious household; his family's pastor has denied the atheism charge, saying that the boy's supposed deed was the act of a "sinful Christian." . . . That same day, an aide in the office of Rep. Robert Aderholt told reporters that, "The congressman believes that the decline of values shown in our schools, including the shootings and so forth, is a direct result of taking religion out of schools. The Constitution allows for freedom of, not freedom from, religion." . . . On Friday, Gwen Daye Richardson , a conservative political operative and editor of "Headway Magazine," was included on the editorial page of USA TODAY newspaper. She wrote that, "The massacre this week of three Kentucky high school students who had just finished their weekly prayer circle is symbolic of a larger trend which has grown during the past decade: attacks on Christians who publicly acknowledge their faith, and the removal of all references to a higher power from the public arena..." She added that the "church state separators (sic) have not been content to stop with the removal of religion from government. Their goal is to remove religion, particularly any positive images of spirituality, from the culture entirely." Her USA TODAY piece was headlined, "Kentucky attack a sign of growing intolerance." She concluded her editorial warning, "If those who hold no religious beliefs have a right to define the culture, then certainly those of us who do have a duty to redefine it." ----- (PFAW Bulletin 12/9/97) LEE COUNTY, FLA., CITIZENS FILE LAWSUIT TO HALT UNCONSTITUTIONAL 'BIBLE HISTORY' CLASSES FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Lee County parents and other concerned citizens today announced they have filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop the Lee County school district from teaching an inconstitutional "Bible History" course that uses the Bible as though it is a history textbook. Serving as co-counsel in the lawsuit are the Florida law firm of Steel Hector & Davis, People For the American Way and the ACLU Foundation of Florida. "Citizens of Lee County who saw and heard the School Board's actions sincerely believe the Bible History curriculum adopted violates the First Amendment through its endorsement of a secretarian point of view and its introduction of religious exercises into the public schools," said Thomas Julin of Steel Hector & Davis, lead attorney for the plaintiffs. . . . In 1996, the Lee County School Board voted to develop and offer a two-semester Bible history course. An announcement specified that the course would feature "use of the Bible as a historical document." The board later adopted an Old Testament Bible history curriculum developed by a local school district committee and a New Testament curriculum created by a private Religious Right-affiliated group know as the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, of Greensboro, North Carolina, which has stated the purpose of persuading public school boards throughout the United States to offer high school classes "to study the Bible as a foundation document of society and the blueprint for our Constitution." ----- (AANews #363) ROBERTSON SEEKING ''RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION'' FROM DEATH PENALTY? Gender, Religious Belief Are Volatile Issues In The Case of Karla Tucker Does conversion to fundamentalist Christianity warrant a pardon if one is on death row? That is the question facing Texas Governor George W. Bush who is now the only hope that Karla Faye Tucker has if she is to avoid becoming another victim of the state's official execution machine next month. . . . But the case of Karla Faye Tucker is a complex one; since her conviction, Tucker has become a born-again Christian and earned the sympathy and support of religious groups and leaders across the country, including Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson. Last night on the CBS news program "60 Minutes," Robertson claimed that Tucker was a "changed woman," and called upon Governor Bush to "let compassion reign" in her case and grant a commutation of sentence. Her case touches myriad themes including not only the morality of the state-sanctioned death penalty, but whether there exists a double-standard in applying it to women -- and even whether religious conversion can "change" a person and elicit what some might consider a special level of treatment. Would the conversion of a male inmate to born-again Christianity result in such support? Probably not. And would Tucker have the backing of Pat Robertson and the rest of the country's fundamentalist "faith based" community had she converted as fervently to, say, Islam, or Scientology, or Buddhism? . . . Even more fundamental, though, is the question of whether or not newfound religious belief automatically constitutes a sensible and substantive litmus test for change and rehabilitation. Should a demonstration of religion belief, by either a man or women, be a criteria for commutation of sentence? Courts in two states have already ruled that participation in religion-based rehabilitation programs like Alcoholics Anonymous cannot be used as a condition for granting inmates parole. Should religious belief exempt one from execution? If so, does religious conversion apply to all faiths? And what about those inmates who might have no religious faiths; are they, therefore, judged incapable of the sort of rehabilitation and change Karla Faye Tucker is said to have experienced? Robertson remains a proponent of state sanctioned executive, of course, something that should dismay any human rights activists who look with disfavor on the death penalty. And he isn't clear whether his support for Tucker is due to her newfound born-again Christianity, or the fact that she is a female, or some unspoken combination of both. There is, of course, another contradiction in all of this; the religious right has used support of the death penalty as a benchmark in assessing its political favorites, and woe to the aspiring novice seeking a public post who has the temerity to question whether or not the death penalty is immoral in itself -- regardless of the foul deeds of those convicted of crimes. ------ (AANews #364) * ATHEIST TEEN CHALLENGES ''CHURCH OR FINE'' PROJECT. In Dallas, Texas, a Justice of the Peace has ended his policy of imposing fines and other punishment for juveniles in light of their willingness to attend church services. Zack Smith, a 14-year old boy, was ordered by Justice of the Peace Bruce McDougal to pay a $200 fine for fighting, or begin attending church and Sunday school for eight weeks. "It's not right," said Smith. "I wasn't raised going to church. I'm an atheist. I don't think I should have to go as a punishment." Press reports note that that Smith was among those targeted in a "zero- tolerance" crackdown at schools. Students found guilty of rowdy or disruptive behavior were issued misdemeanor citations and fined, but in McDougal's court, they had the "option" of attending churches. Zack's mother said, "If you go to church it's because you want to go to church, not because you're forced into it or because it is pushed in your face." Ms. Smith would like to see Zack do community service at a local veterans' hospital. McDougal announced that he was ending the practice following a meeting between the Dallas County Assistant District Attorney and representatives from the local ACLU. ----- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mailing Lists ------------- Remember to be careful--the mitaah list is an annoucement list only. Discussion needs to stay on the discussion lists, and specific requests should go to the officers or planning lists. Once again, we have the following lists for your reading pleasure: mitaah Official announcements mitaah-discussion Free-form discussion mitaah-gcf-forum AAH-Graduate Christian Fellowship discussion forum To add/remove yourself from any of the lists, use the following command from your athena% prompt: 'blanche $USER' Switches are '-a' to add, '-d' to remove. Your request will not be processed until 2am the next morning, so there may be up to a 26 hour wait for changes to take effect. *Please do not send requests to the list itself*, and remember that you are responsible for your own list maintenance. Other AAH lists include: mitaah-officers Feedback to the officers mitaah-planning Feedback to the planning board -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "It's a joke, son" ------------------ from The Onion: MAN WITH HAMMER-INDUCED THUMB INJURY APPEALS TO CHRIST ALMIGHTY MANHATTAN, KS--In his third hammer-induced communion with the Son of God in as many days, local resident Bart Peintner made a vociferous appeal to Lord Jesus Christ Almighty Monday following a blunt ball-peen-hammer blow to his left thumb. "Holy Jesus Christ Almighty in Heaven!" said Peintner, who was repairing a chair at the time of the thumb injury/spiritual communion. Added Peintner: "Jesus Fucking Christ!" Spokespersons for Fucking Christ were unavailable for comment at press time. GLORIOUS NEW TOMORROW POSTPONED INDEFINITELY EARTH--In a move many observers described as inevitable, representatives of nearly every major belief system on Earth announced Monday the indefinite postponement of the glorious new tomorrow that has been collectively promised humankind for more than six millennia. "Whether it be redemption from sin under the second coming of the Messiah; a classless society under a dictatorship of the proletariat; a war-free state of universal peace and brotherhood following a unilateral nuclear disarmament; perfect free trade in a coercion-free marketplace; an enlightened "nirvana" state after a series of karma-accumulating reincarnations; a state of clear through the spiritual-purification techniques of the Church of Scientology; or a state of perfect, rock-hard abs under the tutelage of cable-television fitness guru Tony Little, it would appear that the glorious new tomorrow toward which we have all been striving is, unfortunately, not a tenable goal for the near future," said motivational speaker and Personal Power author Anthony Robbins. Billions of suicides worldwide are expected to result from the announcement. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------