====================================================================== MITAAH News -- Volume #3 / Issue #1 -- September 3, 1998 (sent sporadically to mitaah-announce@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: * Welcome! * Recent Events * Coming Attractions * News and views * Mailing lists ====================================================================== Welcome to the first issue of the THIRD volume of MITAAH-News! As long as you are subscribed to the mitaah-announce list, you will get about five or six issues each semester. Each issue will contain a current calendar of events, reports on previous activities, excepts from other freethought mailing lists and news sources, and links to whatever else seems interesting at the time. If you find any interesting material that you'd like to share with the group, feel free to forward either a copy or a link to and it will be included in the next issue. Good luck in the upcoming semester! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Recent Events ------------- Summer was quiet as usual (something appreciated by us year-round residents), but a new mitaah-summer mailing list kept a dozen or so people in touch over "vacation." Since our last issue of MITAAH-News, we had a nice dinner out at Pho Pasteur, sent Emily Hanna to the national CFA (Campus Freethought Alliance) convention in Amherst, NY, and had many animated exchanges on the summer discussion list about non-religious justifications of Blue Laws, alcohol enforcement, and democracy. We also received our first little bit of funding from ASA and won a bit of office space in the Student Center (little bits, but it's a start!). And, of course, we pulled off another great Activities Midway recruiting drive, gaining about eighty new list subscribers and distributing over 200 "Mental Floss" leaflets. Thanks to everyone who kept in touch over the summer and volunteered their time and effort to get things going for the new year! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Coming Attractions ------------------ (A current calendar can alwasy by fund on the MITAAH home page, http://www.mit.edu/~mitaah) Sept. 1 (Tuesday): ASA Activities Midway - Come look for our booth at the Activities Midway! Talk to real life MITAAHers! Pick up some fun-filled brochures! Johnson Athletics Center, 6:30pm-9:00pm Sept. 7 (Monday): Night on the town: join us at a Boston eatery for a Labor Day dinner. Get to know new and old AAH members! Meet in Lobby 10 sometime before 7 p.m. Sept. 8 (Tuesday): Reg Day Sept. 9 (Wednesday): First Day of Classes Sept. 14 (Monday): First General Meeting! Help us make plans for the fall term. 7:30 pm, location TBA. Sept. 17 (Thursday): Drop Poster Painting. Help us with our first big publicity stunt! Time and location TBA. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- News and Views Excerpts from mailing lists and news sources -------------------------------------------- This section of the newsletter contains excerpts from internet-based listservs, with a focus on political and social activism. We currently subscribe to American Atheists News, Church-State Issues, Secular Humanism Discussion, Internet Infidels News, CFA Announcement and Discussion, and People for the American Way News. Sorry about the length--the list archives are full of late-summer news! ---------- (AANews #465) REP. TRAFICANT BLASTS REPORT ON GOD BELIEF AMONG SCIENTISTS Congressman James Traficant (D-Ohio), an outspoken supporter of the Religious Freedom Amendment, has gone a step further in enunciating his beliefs about faith -- and insulted Atheists in the process. On Monday, Traficant read a statement for entry into the Congressional Record which denounced recent studies measuring rates of belief in god among members of the scientific community. As reported in the record for the House, Page H6885: MR. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, a new report says only 7 percent of scientists believe in God. That is right. And the reason they gave was that the scientists are "super smart." Unbelievable. Most of these absent-minded professors cannot find the toilet. Mr. Speaker, I have one question for these wise guys to constipate over: How can some thing (sic) come from no thing (sic)? And while they digest that, Mr. Speaker, let me tell it like it is. Put these super-cerebral master debaters in some foxholes with bombs bursting all around them, and I guarantee they will not be praying to Frankenstein. Beam me up here. My colleagues, all the education in the world is worthless without God and a little bit of common sense. And I yield back whatever we have left. (end of remarks by Mr. Traficant.) Alas, readers should know that Mr. Traficant is a member of the House Science Committee and the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics ---------- (AANews #455) SCIENTISTS "MORE LIKELY THAN EVER" TO REJECT GOD BELIEF A study in today's edition of the prestigious science journal "Nature" reveals that members of the scientific community are "more likely than ever to reject God and immortality," discloses Britain's Daily Telegraph. That claim is based on another study which repeats a historic survey first made in 1916 by Dr. James Leuba of Bryn Mawr University. It revealed that over eight decades ago, only about 40% of the scientists surveyed expressed belief in any supreme being. Leuba predicted that advances in education and technology would further erode faith in religious claims. In 1997, Edward Larson of the University of Georgia decided to revisit Leuba's study and evaluate the prediction that religious belief was disappearing, at least in the scientific community. Author of the book "Summer for the God's" and a professor of science law and history, Larson said that Leuba's original survey raised "good questions." "They provoke responses and give much more insight into how people think than the vague Gallup poll question, 'Do you believe in God?'" he told a writer from Research Reporter. Larson closely followed Leuba's methodology, repeating the same questions and attempting to find a representative sample which met the original survey profile. "I had no idea how it would turn out," Larson said. 60% responded, a figure considered high for any surveys. Of those, 40% expressed belief in a deity, while nearly 45% did not. Larson's survey also discovered that physicists were less likely to have such faith, while mathematicians were significantly more likely to believe in a supreme being, as defined by Leuba. The follow-up study reported in "Nature" reveals that the rate of belief is lower than eight decades ago. The latest survey involved 517 members of the National Academy of Sciences; half replied. When queried about belief in "personal god," only 7% responded in the affirmative, while 72.2% expressed "personal disbelief," and 20.8% expressed "doubt or agnosticism." Belief in the concept of human immortality, i.e. life after death declined from the 35.2% measured in 1914 to just 7.9%. 76.7% reject the "human immortality" tenet, compared with 25.4% in 1914, and 23.2% claimed "doubt or agnosticism" on the question, compared with 43.7% in Leuba's original measurement. Again, though, the highest rate of belief in a god was found among mathematicians (14.3%), while the lowest was found among those in the life sciences fields -- only 5.5%. Dr. Larson, in commenting on his 1997 replication of the 1916 study, noted that as with Leuba's report, his revelations elicited wildly different accounts in the news media. "It's being spun in different ways," Larson observed. "The Christian Science Monitor ran an editorial exhorting the fact that scientists still do believe -- despite the fact that well less than half of the scientists in my survey believed in God -- while the Journal of Humanism ran a piece proclaiming that they do not." It would be difficult to interpret the figures reported in "Nature," though, as suggesting that belief within the scientific community is gaining popularity, or even holding its own. The "belief in a person god" category suggests a precipitous drop, from about 40% in Larson's survey to 7% in the "Nature" study. ---------- (AANews #456) DECENCY, RELIGIOUS GROUPS GET THEIR WISH -- CDA II PASSES Concern over sex, gambling and other issues related to the internet stimulated three pieces of legislation enacted on Capitol Hill last week, include the infamous S.1482, sponsored by Sen. Dan Coats (R-Indiana) which some describe as a new version of the Communications Decency Act. The measure, part of a general appropriations bill, cleared the Senate and would "punish commercial online distributors of materials deemed harmful to minors with up to six months in jail as a US $50,000 fine." A similar bill, S.1619 introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) requires that schools and libraries employ filtering software on any computers for use by the public in order to safeguard the viewing habits and morals of children who might find "inappropriate" materials on the web. Another measure seeks to put an end to the billion-dollar internet gambling industry; proponents charged that online gaming is addictive, a corrupting influence on the young and a source of criminal activity growing out of control. All of the bills drew fire from civil liberties and cyber-rights organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Barry Steinhardt, president of EFF, said that S.1482 "looks harmless, but it's a Trojan horse. It's meant to apply only to commercial pornographic web sites, but because of the ambiguous language of the bill, it will end up coincidentally affecting other commercial sites..." Other critics charged that the Coats legislation was simply a reincarnation of the old Communications Decency Act which was struck down by two separate federal judicial panels in 1996. But the temporary defeat of the CDA did little to discourage the various groups that had been working to enact the measure. A spokesman for Christian Coalition said that the federal ruling was "not unanticipated," adding, we're confident something will come about in the long run. The issue is that children need to be protected..." . . . Sen. McCain's proposal has been under attack from critics of so-called "filtering software" which claims to block certain types of web sites which have lewd, pornographic or hateful content. But critics note that censoring software also occults sites that discuss safe sex, health issues and political philosophies. Steinhardt charged that the McCain bill "will force libraries and schools to use all-too-frequently-crude and overbroad filters that block out a wide array of non-indecent speech," adding that "everything from the Quaker home page to the American Association of University Women has been blocked by these programs." ---------- (AANews #458) [I had to include this one just for the humor content...] GOD, SEXUAL HYPOCRISY AND THE ALABAMA DILDO LAW Alabama has developed an unfortunate reputation as a state where government plays the roll of prayer bully, encouraging religious ritual in public school classrooms, government meetings and even the inauguration of the state's highest official. But now, a new law brings the power of Alabama law into bedrooms, stores and even private gatherings thanks to a new "dildo law" which took effect on July 1. It makes it a misdemeanor to distribute "any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs." The Alabama law makes the distribution of dildos a crime, but leaves personal possession of such devices untouched by prosecutorial hands and whims. Fortunately, a group of women have enlisted the support of the overworked American Civil Liberties Union in challenging the new law, arguing that it violates the right to privacy. Sherri Williams, one of six plaintiffs, told Associated Press, "No one wants the government in their bedroom." She owns two stores that peddle sexual aides; another plaintiff, identified as B.J. Bailey (we're not making this up...) sells similar devices at in-home gatherings. District Attorney Morgan, named with a defendant in this suit did not return telephone calls from reporters seeking comment on this latest judicial Armageddon. Wisely, his attorney apparently ran for cover, perhaps from embarrassment for himself and his client. ---------- (PFAW Presslist) MILWAUKEE'S VOUCHERS LEAVE PUBLIC SCHOOLS MORE THAN $29 MILLION SHORT: HARD DECISIONS AHEAD FOR SCHOOL OFFICIALS Today as Milwaukee begins the new school year, the city's public schools are faced with a looming financial crisis brought on by the diversion of millions of dollars from the public schools' operating funds to pay the cost of vouchers for private and religious schools. The State Department of Instruction unofficially estimates that 6,000 students will be participating in the private school vouchers program. Schools officials will have to slash spending on the public schools to pay for these vouchers. With a price tag of around $4,900 per voucher, that adds up to an overall loss to the public schools of $29.4 million -- a figure equal to the cost of approximately 500 experienced teachers or more than 850 new teachers. "This could be a financial knockout punch delivered to 100,000 Milwaukee children who depend on the public schools for their education," said the Rev. Dr. Rolen Womack, pastor of Progressive Baptist Church in Milwaukee and a member of People For the American Way's national African American Ministers Leadership Council. "The numbers foretell a harsh future for our schools -- one that is likely to include fewer teachers, fewer computers, fewer textbooks and research resources, and an overall decline in the quality of education for the vast majority of our children." "The damage we can see coming in Milwaukee should give nightmares to every state legislature that is being wooed down the voucher path," said Elliot Mincberg, Legal Director of People For the American Way Foundation, which is challenging the diversion of public money to religious schools. "The fact is, vouchers are a very costly experiment and it's our children who will be forced to foot the bill." In Milwaukee, the impact of this loss of funds is multiplied by a provision in the law that requires the schools to pay the cost of the vouchers even for children in grades K-3 who have never been enrolled in a public school. These children were never included in the enrollment figures on which state aid to schools is based, yet the schools will see their state payments reduced by the cost of their vouchers. The shortfall in Milwaukee could actually grow during the year if more parents elect to move their children into the voucher system after the school year has started. The program was created to provide vouchers for up to 15,000 students. If the maximum number of parents opt to participate in the voucher program, this would produce a cost to the schools in this and future years as high as $73.5 million -- or nearly ten percent of the school operations budget for this year. A loss of this magnitude is likely to send school officials scrambling to cut expenditures to make up the difference. While school officials have not made public any contingency plans at this point, the FY99 budget, which is due to be finalized in October, contains a number of initiatives and expenditures that may be imperiled by the need for budget cuts. These include: * Expanding choice within the public schools by expanding popular programs such as special focus high school programs, the Montessori program, all-day kindergarten, and the Early Childhood Center. The estimated cost of this expansion is $374 million. * Continuing summer school remedial programs in the core academic subjects of reading, math, science, writing, and social studies, which were reinstated this year after a six-year absence. The FY99 budget includes $6.7 million for this purpose. * A special initiative to improve reading at the twenty lowest performing schools, which is budgeted at about $50 million for the year. ----- (AANews #475) RESIDENTS WANT TOWN GOVERNED BY BIBLE LAW A small Alabama community on the verge of incorporating as a municipality would be founded on the "principles of the Holy Bible and the commandments of Jesus Christ" if certain organizers have their way. The community of Brookville in Morgan County, Alabama, has about 300 registered voters; like other towns in the area, people in Brookville are wary about being annexed into nearby Decatur, and may join residents of Mud Tavern, Neel and Slip Up in incorporating as a strategy for keeping their independence. But this is more than a squabble about taxes, land use or other issues which come up as areas develop and population centers expand to gobble up their outlying neighbors. Resident James Henderson wants any new town charter for Brookville to declare that the community is based on the Bible and Ten Commandments -- the latter displayed in public buildings being a point of contention throughout Alabama. In addition, Henderson echoes a theme of the "sovereignty" movement and insists that no taxes would be imposed, or town money spent without approval of a direct majority of voters. As noted in the Huntsville (Alabama) Times newspaper, though, there are potential constitutional problems with Mr. Henderson's plan for a majority-approved theocracy. A declaration that a municipal entity, or any government is founded on specific religious doctrines or principles violates the First Amendment to the constitution. Though some might consider Henderson's proposal to be nothing short of quaint or bizarre, he is not the first to suggest that a community, or even the entire United States, explicitly be identified with religious doctrines. Following the American revolution, various "official" churches were gradually stripped of their special status through a process of disestablishment. A citizen was no longer compelled to finance these religious groups through tax money, or belong to the congregation in order to enjoy rights such as owning land or holding a public trust. As a result, following the battle for Independence, church historian Winthrop S. Hudson noted, "In the religious ebbtide oft he immediate post-war years, it was by no means obvious that the churches would be able to survive." In the wake of disestablishment, clerical groups began demanding other special privileges and recognition, and succeeded by winning tax exemptions to church property. From 1859 to 1911, exemptions were granted in thirty-eight states. Another effort involved having the United States declared a "Christian nation." U.S. Senator James Buchanan, later President of the U.S., introduced a resolution in the Senate on January 18, 1844 declaring that America should be based on Christianity and acknowledge Jesus Christ as the national savior. From 1874 to 1910, nearly seventy pieces of national legislation were introduced; all of this came in the midst of a great national debate over the official status of religious entities. President James Garfield declared in a speech to congress on June 22, 1874 that "The divorce between Church and State ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that Church property anywhere, in any state, or in the nation, should be exempt from equal taxation." President Grant the following year declared his support for separation and taxation of churches. Feeling continually threatened by this wave of secularism, religious partisans continually pushed for a "Christian" status for the nation. The most notorious effort was made in 1874 and was led by a Supreme Court Justice, William Strong, who sought to amend the Preamble. The original version begins, "We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility..." The "Christian Amendment" would have altered that wording to read: "We, the People of the United States, in order to acknowledge Almighty God as the source of all authority and power in civil government, the Lord Jesus Christ as the ruler among the nations, and His will, revealed in the Holy Scriptures, as the Supreme Authority, in order to constitute a Christian government, form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility..." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mailing Lists ------------- Remember to be careful--the mitaah-announce list is an announcement list only. Discussion needs to stay on the discussion lists, and specific requests should go to the officers or planning lists. Due to repeated spams, we've renamed the announcement list and discontinued publicizing these lists outside of MIT. Once again, we have the following lists for your reading pleasure: mitaah-announce 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 Send questions or problems to . --------------------------------------------------------------------------