Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord… Deuteronomy 6:4 (KJV).

…for there is one God; and there is none other but he… Mark 12:32 (KJV).

Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about
you… Deuteronomy 6:14 (KJV).

…in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit… Words of art contained in miscellaneous Christian blessings, baptisms, benedictions, etc.

Unitarians, it is said, believe that at most there is one god. Thomas Jefferson was a Unitarian. He wrote our Declaration of Independence. Various Unitarian churches are named after him, e.g., “Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Church.” “Unitarianism” is considered a heresy by other Christians who view themselves as “Trinitarians.” In that this difference of supernatural opinion has proved at least as important to human progress as the much warred over issue of whether soul-saving baptism is best accomplished by dunking or by sprinkling, and in that this controversy over the nature of the godhead has led to much bloodletting, has caused much human misery, and could well prove useful for secular humanists in surviving the ARCW, the dispute merits some consideration.

Popular mass religious culture holds that monotheism– the belief that there is only one god– was introduced into human thought by the Jews of the Old Testament, and was rarified and glorified in the New Testament by Jesus, the Christ. It is widely, and uncritically, believed that the idea of there being only one god was original to the Judeo-Christian tradition (whatever that is) and that this “monotheism” clearly demarcates Jews and Christians from lesser breeds who hold to the more primitive eschatological (maybe “ontological,” but certainly metaphysical–it’s hard to keep this nonsense straight) view that there are many gods. As with much religious belief, it just ain’t so. And kindly refrain from yelling that one who points these things out is engaging in “religion bashing.” Your author didn’t make the facts. If he had, they would be quite different from what they are.

The sad truth is that the Jews of the Torah, like most people of the time, clearly believed there were many gods. A notable historic exception was the Egyptian heretic pharaoh Ikhnaton (or Akhenaton). His belief in one god got him murdered by priests who made their money from the old time religion–it is comforting to know there are some absolutes. The point of the “covenant” with Abraham, Moses, et al, was that Yahweh (Jehovah, God, I Am That I Am, or whatever) agreed to be the god of the Hebrew people, and they agreed that he was to be their god. Sort of a contract–one that might read, “Out of the many gods, other people can have their god or gods, but you will be our god, and we will be your people.” Thus, in the Ten Commandments (second edition, of course), it is decreed, in the very first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Similarly, the second commandment (the one about not making graven images), states, in pertinent part, “…for I the Lord thy God am a jealous god…”

There is nothing here about this god being the only god. The other gods could stand side by side with him, but should not be before him. Further, he is a “jealous” god. Jealous of what? Of the other gods, of course. And he has reason. Much of the Old Testament involves the children of the covenant worshiping other gods. They were doing it even as Moses was getting the ten commandments. If they believed there was only one god, why were they worshiping a golden calf? Because they knew there were lots of gods, that’s why, and they were trolling for a better god than the god of their covenant. A great deal of holy ink is spent on god asserting himself as the god of Israel. He has contests with other gods. He is as paranoid about protecting his position as Superman is about protecting his secret identity. None of this competitive zeal would have been necessary if the Hebrews truly believed there was only one god, i.e., him. By the time the stories of the bible made the bible, the Jews had no doubt convinced themselves that there is in fact only one god. The Christians were not so sure.

Jews, in general, follow the teachings of the bible better than Christians. They celebrate the Sabbath on the Sabbath, as god ordered; Christians do not–they celebrate it on Sunday, without a whit of biblical justification for ignoring god’s orders. Jews also rather carefully follow the proscription against making or worshiping graven images. Christians apparently don’t think this commandment is very important, as they peddle religious statutes of every possible variety (the more offensive ones can be found at any decent redneck truck stop). Roman Catholics deal with the problem by leaving the commandment out of their bible. Getting one god out of many took greater creativity.

If there is ever a contest to choose history’s worst villain, the award might well go to the emperor Constantine, who made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. In 325 C.E., he convened a council at the city of Nicaea to stop Christian squabbling over the nature of god and to establish once and for all, by majority vote, what Christians must believe to be saved. Seems there was much argument over whether god was one person or three.

The council produced a remarkable document known as “The Nicene Creed.” It remains the official statement of Christian faith recited every Sunday in many Christian churches. Some Protestant churches use a simplified version known as the “Apostles’ Creed.” Both versions reject the idea of one god while claiming to embrace it. Simply put, the doctrine, and “mystery,” of the “holy trinity” holds that while there is in fact only one god, he consists of three distinct, yet indivisible parts: “God the Father,” God the Son,” and “God the Holy Spirit.” Or, in choir boy humor, “Daddy-O, J.C., and Spook.” If it made sense, there would be no need for faith to believe it. This is true of many religious doctrines. After Nicaea, the belief in only one unitary god, instead of the triune god, became a heresy that could get you killed. And we dare call the priests who wasted Ikhnaton heathens. See now why Thomas Jefferson, the Unitarian, didn’t want an official religion?

The logical gymnastics of the trinity is but one example of the discomfort Christians experience in trying to believe in one god. They also believe in angels, the Devil (Satan, etc.), demons, and all manner of disembodied occupants of the spirit world. There are “legions” of them. Many are prayed to as “saints” and are asked to intercede with god on behalf of the believer, e.g., “Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners…”

Now just what is a “god?” A god is any supernatural personage that isn’t a living human being. In other words, one is, if not an animal, either a human or a god. Clever attempts at creating subdivisions among immortals, while maintaining there is only one god, simply don’t work. While believers want to believe in one god, they really can’t. A single god would have to embody contradictory attributes, like good and evil, male and female (does god the father have both male and female DNA?). In that this is impossible, at least in Western thought, believers invent good gods and bad gods, just like the heathen do. If attempts to argue this is in fact monotheism prove unbelievably absurd, the problem can be easily corrected by calling any contradiction a “mystery.”

The only real mystery is why adults give this matter any serious attention at all.

Edwin F. Kagin

“A Republic, Madam—If you can keep it.”
Attributed to Benjamin Franklin,
in response to a question a woman is said to have asked him,
in the late 18th Century C.E., regarding what kind of government the
Constitutional Convention had established for their newly created nation,
The United States of America.

There are lots of different methods available to operate nations. Democracy is one of them. And democracy is a rather recent and highly unreliable form of government. Democracy is an upstart newcomer in the pantheon of national gods. The oldest, and most reliable, form of government is that of an absolute dictatorship run by one person, usually male, with the necessary backing of a loyal priesthood. This priesthood, if not forcing the common folk to worship the ruler as a god, represents the ruler to the people of the nation as either the living embodiment of a god, or as one whose authority to rule over all others of the nation comes directly from a god. King by the Grace of God.

This is the method of government set up, recognized, endorsed, and encouraged by that grouping of legal and literary writings and myths collectively known as “The Holy Bible.” Keep this in mind when chatting with those—sadly growing in number—who would have it that our land of freedom, our America, be “restored,” to “biblical values.”

But we just might not be all that happy with these biblical values. Democracy is not mentioned in the bible. The concept was unknown. The very idea of it would have been rejected. It would have been thought to be a notion as absurd as permitting women to make laws or to rule over men. The practice of voting had not evolved in those times, when there was no air conditioning or computers, when people thought dreams foretold the future, and believed the only way humans could know right from wrong was if some god gave them the rules and the priesthood of the god explained the rules to them. The closest thing to “voting” was choosing a thing, or someone to do something, “by lot.” This was a form of gambling, where each candidate might, for example, put the name of a thing, or their name on an object, like a stone or piece of wood, and one object, with the thing or the name on it, would be selected in some manner by chance alone. God was credited with providing the outcome, a result every bit as reliable as predicting the future by looking at the guts ripped with a knife out of the belly of a sheep. The idea of a jury is not found in the bible either. Nor is that of “due process of law.” Neither “compromise” nor “humanity” appear in the King James Version of the bible—the only bible used by fundangelicals until recently, when they discovered that their beloved good King James was, in life, a homosexual.

But I digress, and my editors are stern.

A totalitarian form of government works because of the Golden Rule. The one with the gold makes the rules. And that person has absolute power over everyone else. If one disagrees, one can be killed. Simple, effective, and stable. Our American democracy has thus far survived a little more than two hundred years. And in that short time has seen a Civil War that all but destroyed its delicate fabric. And we now face another crisis of division that could destroy us. More of this in a moment. By contrast, consider that the ancient Pharaonical government of Egypt was measured, not in hundreds, but in thousands of years. There was as much time between the first king of Egypt and Pharaoh Ramses II as there has been time between Ramses II, who died in 1314 B.C.E., and the November, 2000 Presidential Election. This fact should cause us to pause. For the latter event threatens to put our infant democracy as inexorably into the category of history past as other little understood events consigned to memory the kingdoms of those who prayed to Ra rather than to Jehovah for those fortuitous events of history they were pleased, when random chance operated in their favor, to call “miracles.”

Government by decree requires only that the one doing the decreeing have the ability—make that the power—to enforce the decree on those who might disagree with the decree, and if need be, to see to the elimination of those who disagree with, or disregard, the decree. Safety comes from obedience. Just as one can know what is right and what is wrong by relying on the safety of the certainly of obeying the law of the god. Obey or die. Simple, effective, easily enforced, and easily understood. To be free, you see, you need to obey the decree. As the church song puts it, “Trust and obey / For there’s no other way / To be happy in Jesus / Than to trust and obey.”

Democracy puts a bit of a kink in this straight and true path to the way citizens conduct their lives. This is something the fundangelicals of our free land have never understood. Their biblically endorsed forms of government simply cannot be reconciled with the idea of democracy that is foreign to their scripture. One cannot both obey authority and chart their own way. This is why, no matter what they think or teach, religious authoritarians really don’t believe in the concept of separation of state and church that was, and is, so central to the American experiment.

Democracy requires that those who participate in it be, to a degree at least, of one mind. The citizens of a democracy must all accept certain ill defined basics if this new experiment in human affairs of governing one’s selves has any chance at all of working. Happily, much of the time this is so. Thus, we have been free of the revolutions and civil conflicts that too often attend the transfer of power in lesser countries. By the processes of democracy and the democratic vote, and by accepting the will of the majority, we have become, in our short history, both great and unique among the parliament of nations.

But there are dangers; there have been, and are, fearful portents and omens. The Liberty Bell did crack into ruin when first it was rung. We did have a great Civil War. This bloodiest and most disastrous conflict in our nation’s brief history occurred when we were but “four score and seven” years. Now that we are not yet seven score years distant from that national disaster and shame, we are again threatened. And the threat is now, as the threat was then, a dagger aimed at the very beating heart of our democracy.

We have accepted a working illusion, an operational definition that has kept our republic afloat longer than expected by its detractors. This is because we as a nation attempted to live by our motto, E pluribus unum, “One out of many.” Sadly, in the 1950s, the unworkable “In God We Trust” replaced this motto and things haven’t been right since. Our Ship of State may, like other crafts that lacked the wit to survive, be destroyed while attempting to pass safely between the Scylla and Charybdis of our divided land’s oppositional perceptions of the world. These worldviews may be understood as a conflict between those who believe in humanism and those who do not. Our democracy thus far, and not unproblematically, has been able to accommodate those who truly believe in democratic principals and those who really, whether they know it or not, want us to be ruled by authority, by gods and kings of their choosing.

This was what our Civil War was really all about. We were then, and we are now, two countries. Two nations, divided by a common language, forced by our democracy to live in unhappy harmony under the loosely stitched together tents of two very different ideologies. This is true despite the seeming need of each side to mouth much the same god talk. During our Civil War, both sides claimed god was on their side. Lincoln then observed that both sides may be, and one side must be, wrong. Deep down, these two sides truly hate each other. Somehow, with the exception of our Civil War, that is still not over, that is still far from resolved, we have managed to keep safe from one another with the mutual acceptance of an uneasy peace. Until now.

The American Religious Civil War (ARCW), that was foretold, and has been reported upon, in these pages now threatens to destroy us, in consequence of an election so close that the voters of our democracy cannot agree on who won. This time the winners were not so clear that the losers could with honor fain the patriotism of acceptance and the humility of acquiescence to the public will. As we fractionate, each faction increasingly fears and distrusts the honor and motives of the other. Each side believes the opposition has cheated them of their rightful votes in an attempt to steal the election of our President and to pervert their democracy. At this writing, each side is in the courts, invoking the rule of law, our secular god, on behalf of their position. The only certainty is that without this rule of law, that we all have agreed, and must continue to agree, to accept, there will be nothing left to save. Should the judgment, the final decision, of the rule of law not be accepted by all sides… .

Apart from the clear and present danger of such a situation, it is truly high humor. Aristophanes would have loved it.

The ancient tensions and hatreds are straining at the tethers of civilization. And, as of this report, we do not know what end will come. There is little sign of compromise or restraint. There is mass confusion concerning just how the casting and counting of votes really operates. People are seeing defects that have been forever present, but, until now, not generally known. And moronic legal interpretations and opinions are creating a great pooling of shouting ignorance. Fanned by the public press, much shrill talk is shoving aside reason and legal knowledge. The ordinary citizens (peasantry in an earlier age) are already in the streets with signs. Soon they may come with pitchforks and torches.

That which could happen is too fearful to contemplate.

If it does not happen, which is likely, that which did not destroy us may strengthen us.

If it does happen, we will become a footnote to history. We will be one with Ramses.

It may be that we really do need two countries. Then, we of like mind can live in peace and harmony, and those others will have to get passports to come in. Relocating everyone should be easier that straightening out this voting mess. Surely we will be happier. After all, those on our side get along with each other, for we understand things in much the same ways. I think our country should be in the mountains, with woods, ponds, streams, and cool mornings. My Helen, for some reason, thinks it should be by the ocean, where it is hot, salty, barren, sandy, and full of sand fleas. Can you believe such irrationality?

Just hope the rule of law holds.

Edwin Kagin

KAGIN’S COLUMN

Edwin F. Kagin is a lawyer poet. He believes that, through grace and faith,
this will be a regular column and, if events are predestined, that whatever
he believes makes no difference whatsoever. He can be reached in care of
this publication, or through e mail at: edwin@edwinkagin.com
Permission for non-profit reproduction is given, so long as credit is given,
so the villagers will not go after the wrong person with pitchforks and torches.

ON THE DISPOSAL OF HUMAN REMAINS

Here lies an atheist, all dressed up and no place to go. humorous tombstone

Today’s cheery topic treats what to do with your carcass when you are dead. Like it or not, one day you will have to be disposed of. Animals don’t make a fuss of this fact; they go off and die. Humans, believing they are better than animals, invent religions. The prime motive of most religions is to create a myth about some kind of individual continuance after all electrical activity in the brain stops and the organism starts to rot. As the old preacher put it, “Brothers and sisters, this is only the shell; the poor nut has gone.” Where the nut has gone is a matter of much debate, as is the problem of what to do with the shell. Some religions believe the body must be buried, others hold it must be burned. Take your choice.

Traditional Christian human remains disposal involves burying the corpse in a box in the ground. Bodies were to be laid East to West, so the dead flesh could rise to great Christ who is coming from the East. No kidding. Christianity teaches a bodily resurrection and an ascent of the reanimated cadaver to heaven. The Bible says nothing about humans possessing an “immortal soul.” You can win bets with believers on this point. Them bones are to rise again. The ghoulish, and those who have witnessed autopsies, may wonder how those who slept in the graves will get by with the brain, heart, lungs, intestines and other really important stuff removed and thrown away. And mystical indeed will be the rebirth of the decapitated — say a saint like Sir Thomas More whose body is in one place and whose head was stuck on Traitor’s Gate. Ah, the mysteries of faith. What of those who died in Christ in explosions or carnage that converted living flesh to mangled roadkill? What of the woman whose murderer husband ran her dismembered body through the wood chipper? Will those whose bodies are cremated to ashes in a fiery furnace yet in the flesh see God? So goes the belief. The Book of “Job” says yes, even if the carcass is eaten up by worms, you will see God in your bodily form. The age you will be isn’t revealed. Maybe you get to choose.

Persons planning to be buried should understand that no grave on earth is anything other than a present or future crime scene or archaeological site. Eventually, someone will dig you up for saleable goodies or for information your burial stuff and postmortem analysis can reveal about your time. Or your grave can be scooped away to make room for a subdivision to house the children of the “life what a beautiful choice” movement. The greatest tombs of the greatest kings, designed to be secure for eternity, were magnets for thieves who weren’t fooled by myths of curses. You can stroll through the burial chamber of a pharaoh, stripped by tomb robbers centuries before archaeologists put the living god’s remains in a glass case in a museum. Native American sacred burial grounds, and even Civil War graves, are being plundered by the irreverent, who sell the honored dead’s tools and belt buckles at flea markets. One third of all the people who ever lived on earth are alive today. If everyone is buried, eventually there will not be space available for both the living and the dead. Guess who wins that argument.

You could donate your body to a medical school for dissection by students, but there are usually more than enough dead incompetents to satisfy this need. The best way to get rid of your burdensome dead body is to burn it up. Crematorium ashes are sterile and far easier to dispose of than decaying meat and bone. The ashes can be scattered somewhere, cast into a bust of yourself (to be sold at some future garage sale), put in a decorative vase, or used to plaster the wall or provide variety in the cat box. Your then heirs can be creative. It doesn’t matter — for you won’t be there. The Bible says, “For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.” Ecclesiastes 9:4-5, by God. How the foregoing can be reconciled with the notion of life after death is another of those mysteries of faith.

If you have lived in such a manner that anyone will miss you or lament your absence, there are rational ways for them to celebrate your existence, share and purge grief, and then get on with their lives. Those tending to your disposal should cremate your corpse privately and quickly, after permitting family, if they wish, to see how your dead body looks. It may help them appreciate you are really not going to be seen or heard from again. After a suitable number of days or weeks, depending on how your survivors feel, they can have a party in your memory. Photos and videos could accompany anecdotes of your presence on earth, and artifacts of your life’s journey could be displayed as, amid feasting and merriment, you, in your diversities (if any), are remembered.

Before you return to wherever you were before you were born, it might be a good idea to so live that people remember you fondly. This is not a dress rehearsal. Life ends / Tao flows.
Don’t take life too seriously; you won’t get out of it alive anyway.

Edwin Kagin

Here, for your enjoyment and blasphemous use, are the words to the now classic song by Edwin and Helen Kagin, “Back in Their Burkas Again.”

The first public performance of this work can be seen here:

It is introduced by Ed Buckner, former President of American Atheists.

One of the burka wearers was Helen Kagin. Don’t have permission to identify the other two. Might be a good topic for some future graduate research project.

As of this writing, the YouTube presentation had been viewed 23,957 times. It has been watched all over the world!

Another rendition is here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a9oIBbjl94

Yes, these are real burkas. You can order them online.

 

BACK IN THEIR BURKAS AGAIN

(May be sung to the tune of “Back in the Saddle Again”)

They’re back in their burkas again
Women obeying their men
No other man should ever see
Her eyebrow or her knee
They’re back in their burkas again

Women are wrapped up by men
Protecting their bodies from sin
Women must comply
And not tempt some lustful eye
So they’re back in their burkas again

The wrap must be shared with a friend
With sister and cousin and kin
It costs far too much
With accessories and such
But they’re back in their burkas again

A woman can’t leave her pen
While the burka is still out on lend
So in her house she’s trapped
‘Till in that horror she is wrapped
‘Till she’s back in her burka again

The burka’s a smothering affair
No garment can even compare
It gets so hot in there
She can barely breathe the air
They’re back in their burkas again

Covered head and eyes and nose
Down their thighs right to their toes
They’re back in their burkas again

But sometimes under there
They wear sexy underwear
They’re back in their burkas again

Everybody will finally win
When women aren’t wrapped end to end
Law is a disgrace
When it hides a pretty face
And puts women in burkas again

Freedom can only begin
When women can show off some skin
That law will have to go
When all women just say “No”
“We’ll not wear those burkas again”

And on some happy day
They will put those laws away
And never wear burkas again
And on that glorious day
They will throw those rags away
And never wear burkas again

© 2003 by Helen Kagin and Edwin Kagin (on an idea by Helen Kagin)
Permission given to non-commercially reproduce, so long as credit is given. If you make money on it, we want some of it.

“…They Bruised the Teats of Their Virginity.”

 

and other family friendly BIBLE QUOTES FOR ATHEISTS

 

(being “one liners” or “sound bites” which may be useful in debate, discussion, or argument with those holding the Bible to be the holy and infallible word of god, suitable for reading by children and for meriting honored placement in school libraries)

 

compiled by Edwin Kagin

 

 

 

SONG OF SONGS 5: [4] My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.

 

SONG OF SONGS 5:  [5] I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweetsmelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock.

 

SONG OF SONGS 5: [6] I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone…

 

SONG OF SONGS 6: [2] My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.

 

SONG OF SONGS 7: [2] Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor: thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies.

 

SONG OF SONGS 7: [3] Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.

 

SONG OF SONGS 7: [7] This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes. [8] I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine…

 

PR 20:1 Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.

 

1 TI 5: [23] Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.

 

GENESIS 19: [32] Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him…

 

GENESIS 19: [34] And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him…

 

EZE 23: [3] And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.

 

EZK 23: [32] Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much

 

EZK 23:  [34] Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out, and thou shalt break the sherds thereof, and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.

 

EZK 23:  [47] And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.

 

2 SA 16: [22] So they spread Absalom a tent upon the top of the house; and Absalom went in unto his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.

 

GENESIS 35: [22] And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine: and Israel heard it…

 

JDG 19:29 And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel.

 

MK 14: [51] And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him: [52] And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.

 

GENESIS 19: [8] Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.

 

NU 31: [17] Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. [18] But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

 

2 SA 13: [11] And when she had brought them unto him to eat, he took hold of her, and said unto her, Come lie with me, my sister.

 

EX 21:22 If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. [23] And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, [24] Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, [25] Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

 

2 KI 18: [27] But Rab-shakeh said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?

 

ISA 36:12 But Rab-shakeh said, Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you?

 

PR 5: [19] Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.

 

SONG OF SONGS 8:1 O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised.

 

HOS 2: [2] Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts…

 

ISA 18: [27] Wherefore David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale to the king, that he might be the king’s son-in-law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife.

 

2 KI 8: [12] And Hazael said, Why weepeth my lord? And he answered, Because I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel: their strong holds wilt thou set on fire, and their young men wilt thou slay with the sword, and wilt dash their children, and rip up their women with child.

 

EZE 9: [6] Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women…

 

EX 32: [27]And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.

 

GENESIS 7: [2] Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. [3] Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

 

GENESIS 7: [9] There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.

 

GENESIS 1: [27] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

 

GENESIS 6: [6] And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

 

GENESIS 11: [23] And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

 

GENESIS 8:20 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

 

GENESIS 12: [18] And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?

 

GENESIS 16: [2] And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai

 

.GENESIS 17: [11] And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

 

GENESIS 22: [2] And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

 

GENESIS 22: [9] And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. [10] And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

 

GENESIS 2: [2] And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

 

GENESIS 2: [7] And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

 

GENESIS 2: [22] And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

 

GENESIS 3: [11] And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

 

GENESIS 6: [7] And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

 

GENESIS 9: [20] And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: [21] And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.

 

GENESIS 39:7 And it came to pass after these things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me.

 

LEV 18: [19] Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness.

 

ISA 20: [4] So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

 

LA 4:21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.

 

EZE 16: [33] They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom.

 

EZE 16: [36] Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them…

 

EZE 16: ; [37] Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness.

 

EXE 23: [8] Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her.

 

EXE 23: [17] And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.

 

EXE 23: [18] So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.

 

EXE 23: [20] For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

 

EXE 23: [21] Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.

 

EXE 23: [29] And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away all thy labour, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

 

EXE 23: [43] Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them?

 

HOS 2:  [2] Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; [3] Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. [4] And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.

 

HOS 4: [14] I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots…

 

DT 22: 20] But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: [21] Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father’s house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.

 

1 KI 1: [2] Wherefore his servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin: and let her stand before the king, and let her cherish him, and let her lie in thy bosom, that my lord the king may get heat.

 

GENESIS 38: [9] And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. [10] And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also.

 

EX 32: [27] And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.

 

NU 22: [30] And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day?

 

DT 32: [23] I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them. [24] They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.

 

DT 32: [25] The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.

 

DT 32: [42] I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revengers upon the enemy.

 

JOS 11: [14] And all the spoil of these cities, and the cattle, the children of Israel took for a prey unto themselves; but every man they smote with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe.

 

JDG 9: [53] And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and all to brake his skull. [54] Then he called hastily unto the young man his armourbearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him.

 

2SA 1: [26] I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.

 

1 KI 3: [24] And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. [25] And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.

 

2CH 22:10 But when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the house of Judah.

 

2CH 23: 14 … For the priest said, Slay her not in the house of the LORD. [15] So they laid hands on her; and when she was come to the entering of the horse gate by the king’s house, they slew her there.

 

ISA 13: [15] Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword.

 

ISA 13: [16] Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.

 

ISA 13: [18] Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

 

JER 14: [3] And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.

 

JER 18: [21] Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.

 

EZE 26: [6] And her daughters which are in the field shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

 

 

EZE 33: [27] Say thou thus unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; As I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that be in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.

 

AM 7: [17] Therefore thus saith the LORD; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword….

 

MIC 4:3 … they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

 

JOEL 3: [10] Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears….

 

LK 22: [36] ….and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.

 

DI 28: [53] And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters…

 

DI 28: [54] So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave: [55] So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat….

 

DI 28: [56] The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, [57] And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them ….

 

ISA 45: [7] I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

 

JER 19: [9] And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters…..

 

LEV 20: [18] And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people.

 

ECC 9: 4 For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion. [5] For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

.

JOEL 3: [3] And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.

 

JOEL 3: [8] And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the LORD hath spoken it.

 

GENESIS 30: 3] And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her. [4] And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her. [5] And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son. [6] And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan. [7] And Bilhah Rachel’s maid conceived again, and bare Jacob a second son.

 

GENESIS 38: [15] When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her face. [16] And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee; (for he knew not that she was his daughter-in-law.) And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me? [17] And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock. And she said, Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it? [18] And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff that is in thine hand. And he gave it her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him.

 

GENESIS 38:24 And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter-in-law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.

 

GENESIS 38:27 And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb. [28] And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first. [29] And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez. [30] And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand: and his name was called Zerah.

 

EX 1: [22] And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

 

LEV 18: [16] Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife: it is thy brother’s nakedness.

 

DT 25:5 If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband’s brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband’s brother unto her. [

EV 20: [21] And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.

 

DT 25: . [7] And if the man like not to take his brother’s wife…Then shall his brother’s wife…loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face…. [10] And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed.

 

LEV 20:27 A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.

 

LEV 21:9 And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire

 

LEV 21: [13] And he shall take a wife in her virginity. [14] A widow, or a divorced woman, or profane, or an harlot, these shall he not take: but he shall take a virgin of his own people to wife.

 

LEV 21:16 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, [17] Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. [18] For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, [19] Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, [20] Or crookbacked, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken;

 

LEV 26: [29] And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.

 

JDG 11: [30] And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, [31] Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD’S, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering….and the LORD delivered them into his hands….and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him … And he sent her away for two months: and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. [39] And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she knew no man.

 

1KI 11:1 But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; [2] Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. [3] And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines….

 

1KI 11: [5] For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. [6] And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father. [7] Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. [8] And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.

 

2KI 9:30 And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window. [31] And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master? [32] And he lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs. [33] And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot. [34] And when he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a king’s daughter. [35] And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands. [36] Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel: [37] And the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel; so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel.

 

MT 10: [34] Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

 

MT 10: [35] For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. [36] And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. [37] He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

 

MT 26: [51] And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest’s, and smote off his ear. [52] Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

 

LK 22: [36] Then said he unto them… he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.

 

LK 22: [38] And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.

 

LK 22: [49] When they which were about him saw what would follow, they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword?

LK 22:50 And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear.

 

JN 18: [10] Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear… [11] Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath…

 

RO 1: 26… for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: [27] And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly,

 

1 CO 14:  [34] Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.

[35] And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.

 

Deut. 10:16: [16] Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.

 

REV 22: 20…Surely I come quickly.

 

REV 22: 20…Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

 

 

 

 

I can’t stand it anymore. There is a lot more, but this will have to do.

 

From the word of god, as compiled by

 

Edwin.

 

 

 

Now to the point.  FIG has a membership of around sixty souls, maybe some one hundred on the mailing list.  Only two FIG members live in Boone County, and only four FIG members ever opened their mouths at any public hearing.  And to what cause did the arkonuts attribute their defeat?  Why to those godless secular humanists of FIG, of course.  Those thousand good Christians who came together and stopped them were ignored.

So here’s how their leader, Ken Ham, described their situation on Australian radio in December , 1996, during Hanukkah, just a few days before his plan sank like an overloaded ark (he doesn’t know we have a tape of it, but we do):

Actually, overwhelmingly, we had the support of the local community. It’s really only a small number of people who have stirring up (sic) opposition to this museum and most of them belong or associated with (sic) a group called “Free Inquiry” which is a local humanist        group which of course are against anyone believing at all in the supernatural and actually           the Boone County Courthouse the Fiscal Court and the Zoning Board have received overwhelming support from local residents.  In fact we have a long list of churches, businesses, organizations in Northern Kentucky who support us so really its got                 overwhelming support from the community…there’s been a lot of exaggeration about       what’s gone on here, mainly because there’s a very vocal humanist group who are very     anti-god and anti anything to do with the bible and they’re the ones that have sort of         stirred up the controversy, but actually, as I said, the residents of Northern Kentucky         overwhelmingly support someone to come in and give people an opportunity to have a    family center…we’ve been very low key in all this…and certainly there’s been a few       residents, just a small number who’ve been stirred up by this vocal minority             here…because the local humanist group went to the press… (sic semper sic).

When the plan was defeated, Ken Ham announced on the Internet that the defeat was clearly god’s will, and revealed unto them that god had other plans for their ministry.   Guess so.   And now you know the rest of the story.

 

https://freethoughtblogs.com/kagin/2012/02/20/416/

Y’all come to the Reason Rally, y’hear.

Attend the Reason Rally March 24 in Washington DC- http://www.reasonrally.org/

Here is a coupon for 50% off Reason Rally bus for ALL riders – http://www.secularstudents.org/ReasonRally/BusCoupon

This is going to be the largest secular rally in the history of the world!

See: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2012/02/19/cbs-dc-puffs-upcoming-massive-washington-rally-atheists

This is the kind of thing you can tell you your grandchildren you attended.

Should be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Come to Washington, D.C., and help overflow the Washington Mall.

Come out as an atheist.  It is in everyone’s best interest that you do so.

See: http://www.reasonrally.org

This is going to be a Woodstock for non-belief.

You really need to be there!

 

Edwin.

 

If you are an atheist and say so fairly loudly, you probably will not have as many friends as if you attended a big church.  You could have a lot of friends, but they might be seeable only at conventions and meetups.  And some of the people in your local group or meetup might be persons you would not care to interact with for any known purpose.

When I met Helen, she had just quit attending the Episcopal Church.   We discussed religion and, when she said she believed in god but was not so sure about the Jesus part, I knew she was almost there.  I had been a non believer for some time.  Did not take her long.  She soon became an atheist and proud of it, by dog.

When I suggested the idea that became Camp Quest, Helen took to it like a piranha to the Amazon.  She was totally dedicated to Camp Quest and worked seemingly nonstop on it for ten years.  She authorized expending thousands of dollars of our own money to keep it going.  Our barn was full of the products of our adventure and imagination.  After ten years, she and I retired to put our vision into younger hands.  And we have been satisfied beyond all expectations at what they have done.

We attended the conventions of all major freethought organizations, and we spread the word of Camp Quest in every way possible—by talks, letters, telephone calls, and by being generally pushy.   We recruited unpaid staff by telling the target about this new summer camp for the children of un-belief and by asking them “Do you have something more important to do this summer?”  Lots of very good people signed up for this abuse.  Some have now started CQs in their own states.  A number of former campers are now on staff.  As Helen put it, Camp Quest has reached critical mass.  We had lots of friends, but none of them were our neighbors.

I once said to her that if she was to be remembered at all, it would not be because of twenty five years of work as a physician.  It would be because she was a founder of Camp Quest.

Her last public appearance was with me at a talk at a Unitarian Church.  I had horrified some of the attendees by, inter alia, using the A word, which they appear not to like.  When I condemned the attempt to teach Creation in place of, or together with, Evolution in the public schools, one fellow in the back asked what was wrong with giving the children “both sides.”  Helen was on her feet, oxygen line removed, to tell this fellow just why—that Evolution underpinned all of the life sciences, that it was not a guess, but a fact.  The audience was stunned.  People are supposed to be more willing to consider all everythings, many in the audience seemed to think.  Helen did not.  She thought that the substitute for teaching Evolution was ignorance.

If you go to the Answers in Genesis website, and put Helen Kagin into the search engine, you should be able to find all sorts of awful things being said about her.  Didn’t bother her a bit. She was proud of it.   When she discovered that the great nonsense, the Creation Museum, was to be built in rural Kentucky farmland about ten miles from our house, Helen got going.  She, and an equally horrified female veterinarian actually went door to door to tell people just why the project was nonsense and that the architects thereof were attempting to violate the zoning laws.  And the governing body of the County rejected Answers in Genesis’s request to rezone and let them do as they wished was defeated.  The credit for this goes largely to Helen.  To be sure, they did eventually build somewhere else, as you probably unhappily know, but it is not in our back yard and we did not oppose that effort.  We are in fact in favor of free speech.  But we are also in favor of following the law.

Helen Kagin, my wife and best friend, died two years ago today, February 17, 2010, at 6:55 pm.  She was 76 years old.

Today is also the death day of Giordano Bruno, who was murdered by the Christian Inquisition.  He was burned alive on February 17, in the year 1600, Common Era.  Helen’s death was far more gentle.

Not a day passes in which I do not think of her.  I have been painfully widowed for two years.

Here are a few photos from her remarkable life.

Readers are invited to submit more.

Edwin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been foretold.  And it seems to be here.  Atheist will equal traitor.  Traitor will equal guillotine.

We have to be able to mock religion.

We have to be free to speak, to paint, to dance, and to publish.  We have to be free to commit blasphemy.

Blasphemy is the crime of making fun of ridiculous beliefs someone else holds sacred (Baubles of Blasphemy, 2^nd edition, by Edwin F. Kagin, edited by Frank Zindler, American Atheist Press, Cranford, NJ, 2009).

Blasphemy is a very good thing.

Edwin.

 

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/02/15/a_religious_war_out_of_thin_air_113134.html

A Religious War Out of Thin Air

WASHINGTON — At ease, Christian soldiers. There is no “war on religion,” no assault on the Catholic Church. A faith that has endured for thousands of years will survive even Nicki Minaj.

It never occurred to me to evaluate the Grammy Awards show on theological rectitude, but apparently we’re supposed to be outraged at the over-the-top “exorcism” Minaj performed Sunday night. The hip-hop diva, who writhed and cavorted amid a riot of religious iconography, is accused of anti-Catholic bigotry — and seen as an enemy combatant in an escalating “war on religion” being waged by “secular elites,” which seems to be used as a synonym for “Democrats.”

Seriously? Are we really going to pretend that Christianity is somehow under siege? That the Almighty would have been any more offended Sunday than he was, say, in 2006, when Madonna — who could sue Minaj for theft of intellectual property — performed a song during her touring act while being mock-crucified on a mirrored cross? While wearing a crown of thorns? Even at her show in Rome?

The “war on religion” alarmists are just like Minaj and Madonna in one key respect: Lacking a coherent point to make, they go for shock value.

Among the loudest voices, predictably, are those of the Republican presidential candidates. Guess who’s to blame for the attack on all God-fearing Americans who go to church every Sunday to hear sermons about the sacrifice and triumph of Jesus Christ. Hint: He got in trouble four years ago, during his presidential campaign, for going to church every Sunday to hear sermons about the sacrifice and triumph of Jesus Christ.

President Obama is indeed waging a war on religion, Mitt Romney claimed last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Romney promised to rescind every “Obama regulation” that somehow “attacks our religious liberty.”

Newt Gingrich said at CPAC that Obama plans to “wage war” on the Catholic Church if he is re-elected. Those who don’t see this coming are not familiar with “who (the president) really is.” Apparently, the real Obama is about to come out of hiding, any day now.

But it is Rick Santorum who wins the award for histrionics. Progressives, he said last week in Texas, are “taking faith and crushing it.” From that ridiculous proposition, he went on in truly hallucinatory fashion:

“When you marginalize faith in America, when you remove the pillar of God-given rights, then what’s left is the French Revolution. What’s left is a government that gives you rights. What’s left are no unalienable rights. What’s left is a government that will tell you who you are, what you’ll do and when you’ll do it. What’s left in France became the guillotine. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re a long way from that, but if we follow the path of President Obama and his overt hostility to faith in America, then we are headed down that road.”

Wow.

Just how has this “hostility to faith in America” manifested itself? Obama issued a rule requiring some church-owned or church-run institutions to provide health insurance that pays for contraceptives, which are outlawed by Catholic doctrine — and used by the vast majority of Catholic women. Obama subsequently altered the rule to placate Catholic bishops, who responded by declaring themselves implacable.

In his speech at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, Obama cited New Testament scripture in arguing for economic and social justice. Conservatives blasted him for, um, quoting the Bible.

This is a war? This is a march to the guillotine?

Romney and Gingrich know better; they’re just cynically pandering to religious conservatives. Santorum, at least, is sincere in his pre-Enlightenment beliefs. But rejection of the intellectual framework that produced not just the French Revolution but the American Revolution as well does not strike me as an appropriate philosophy for a U.S. presidential candidate to espouse, much less a winning platform to run on.

The Founders wisely decided to institutionalize separation of church and state. The references to God, the Creator and Divine Providence in the Declaration of Independence mask the fact that the Founders disagreed on the nature and existence of a Supreme Being. They understood the difference between faith and religiosity.

Within our secular governmental framework, religion has thrived. No other large industrialized nation has nearly so many regular churchgoers as does the United States.

And just as faith somehow survived Nicki Minaj’s burlesque at the Grammys, it will survive the attempt by Republicans to create a religious war out of thin air.

To Lesser Breeds

 

We think your theology

Just one more mythology.

But something you must never do

Is teach our  theology

As some other mythology!

Because the things we believe in are true.

 

Edwin Kagin