AMERICAN ATHEISTS, INC.
http://www.atheists.org/
http://www.americanatheist.org/

For more information, please contact:
Ed Buckner, President 908-499-9200 (cell) or 770-803-5353 (office/fax)
Ken Loukinen, Director of State Operations (954) 907-7893
Edwin Kagin, National Legal Director 859-384-7000
Edwin Hensley, Kentucky State Director 502-939-9275

Edwin Hensley Named to Replace Edwin Kagin as Kentucky Director

Edwin F. Kagin, who was the first State Director for Kentucky for American Atheists and served for many years, is stepping aside from that role. He has a long, distinguished history of effective, dedicated service for both his state and American Atheists. Kagin will continue to be American Atheists National Legal Director and on the Board of Directors, but he wants to focus more in his national roles. Director of State operations Ken Loukinen noted, “American Atheists in general and I in particular are most grateful for all he has done, not only for American Atheists and the state of Kentucky, but for my own development as an activist as well.”

As American Atheists president Dr. Ed Buckner noted, “Edwin Kagin recommended Edwin Hensley as a successor, and after months of communications with Hensley and others that know him, and with the strong recommendation of Ken Loukinen, we are delighted to introduce Edwin Hensley as the new State Director for Kentucky.” Hensley is not only a member of American Atheists; he is a plaintiff with American Atheists in the Kentucky Homeland Security Lawsuit. Hensley and his wife, Mikel, are organizers of the Louisville Atheists and Freethinkers; both are also involved with the Louisville Coalition of Reason, the Secular Parents of Louisville, the Louisville Secular Book Club, Atheist Women of Louisville, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Hensley is a 46-year-old software engineer, a husband and father of four children, and a dedicated Atheist. He was once a dedicated fundamentalist Christian but became an Atheist by analyzing the bible and learning about the history of the church and the bible. He comes with high recommendations and will be a major asset for American Atheists.

AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends civil rights for Atheists, Freethinkers and other nonbelievers; works for the total separation of church and state; and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy.

American Atheists, Inc. PO BOX 158, Cranford, NJ 07016

Tel.: (908) 276-7300 Fax: (908) 276-7402

Thoughts for Creationists, Intelligent Design Freaks, and Their Fellow Travelers on the 3rd Anniversary of the Opening of their Oxymoronic “Creation Museum.”

Now most people know that watches in pockets
Are made of different stuff than eyes in eye sockets.
A watch doesn’t have wings, or flippers, or feet,
A watch isn’t something another watch might just eat.
A watch doesn’t live in a nest, cave, or hive,
And that is because a watch isn’t alive.

If you can get that small detail resolved,
You can see why it’s dumb to say life hasn’t evolved.
And pretend that making a watch for a wrist,
Is just like making an arm or a fist.
And pretend people were made and clearly designed,
Because life is complex and sometimes refined.

Life didn’t happen by magic or plan,
Like thinking some dirt was turned into a man.
And some folks believe, and this is no fib,
That the first woman was made from first dirt man’s rib.

Evolution happened and it isn’t true,
That people were made by some god from some goo.

Let’s say that you took about ten quillion rabbits,
All alike in their looks, and their hops, and their habits,
And that about half were colored bright snerfell,
And that about half were colored dark murfell.
And if they made babies those snerfells and murfells,
Some of those babies would be colored snerfell,
And some of those babies would be colored murfell,
And some of those babies would be in between,
In some brand new colors no rabbit had seen.
Maybe some would be colored a pleasing snerplean,
Or maybe some awful disgusting murgreen,
And some might be lovely and some quite obscene.

And if the rabbits thus colored should make some more rabbits,
With only those rabbits with their color habits,
A new color for rabbits would finally evolve,
And the colors they started out with would dissolve,
And be completely replaced after enough time,
With snerplean or murgreen not made out of slime.

And enough time and enough rabbit ranges
Could make in those rabbits amazing new changes,
Until they perhaps were no longer rabbits,
But maybe some new type of postrabbitodabits.

A new kind of life we could not invent in our mind,
As new as a timepiece some watchmaker might wind,
But made from the life force creationists mock,
Who think life is something as dead as a clock.

So don’t be confused by people who lie,
Who think truth is found in a book from the sky.
If it weren’t for science we wish they could see,
We would all have to use candles to watch the T.V.

Edwin Kagin

(Reproduced from “Baubles of Blasphemy, 2nd Ed.” by Edwin Kagin,
edited by Frank Zindler, American Atheist Press, 2010).

Permission is given for non-commercial reproduction. If you make money on this, I want some of it.
Edwin

Happy Birthday to the Kentucky site
Of religio-fanatic-fiction
That works so hard, as is their right,
At scientific interdiction.

It was on Memorial Day
In two thousand and ought seven
That this Ham and AIG display
Opened as a nonsense Heaven.

Outside their gates protesters stood
In a great “Rally for Reason”
Against an ignorance that would
Reveal that facts are not in season.

In three years many thousand folks
Have by this contagion been infected
As myth the human spirit yokes
As lying grows yet more perfected.

So Happy Birthday truth abusers
As your superstition rages
Make more uneducated losers
And welcome in a new Dark Ages.

Edwin Kagin

“…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. The text used is that of the so called “King James Version” completed in 1611 C.E., and authorized by King James I of England—a homosexual—the version fundangelicals claim is the only true and perfect translation. Copies are readily available in most motel rooms in the U.S., where they have been placed by the “Gideon Society.” It is a naive man who thinks his daughter has religion when she comes home with a Gideon Bible in her suitcase.

Because of the perceived general lack of biblical literacy among our readers, the customary abbreviations used in connection with quotations from individual books of the bible have been replaced with the full names of those books; otherwise, many might never find the verses quoted when they are challenged to prove they did not make them up. Readers are encouraged to become familiar with the bible as it will be increasingly used as a weapon in the American Religious Civil War (ARCW). The following quotes are only teasers. The book is much better than the movie.

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 sweet smelling 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…

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

1 TIMOTHY 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…

EZEKIEL 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.

EZEKIEL 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

EZEKIEL 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.

EZEKIEL 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 SAMUEL 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…

JUDGES 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.

MARK 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.

NUMBERS 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 SAMUEL 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.

EXODUS 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 KINGS 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?

ISAIAH 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?

PROVERBS 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.

ISAIAH 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 KINGS 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.

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

EXODUS 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.

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

ISAIAH 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.

LAMENTATIONS 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.

EZEKIEL 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.

EZEKIEL 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…

EZEKIEL 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.

EXODUS 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.

EXODUS 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.

EXODUS 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.

EXODUS 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.

EXODUS 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.

EXODUS 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.

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

HOSEA 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.

HOSEA 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…

DEUTERONOMY 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 KINGS 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.

1 KINGS 14: [10] Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone.

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.

NUMBERS 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?

DEUTERONOMY 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.

DEUTERONOMY 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.

DEUTERONOMY 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.

JOSHUA 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.

JUDGES 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.

2 SAMUEL 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 KINGS 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.

2 CHRONICLES 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.

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

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

ISAIAH 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.

JEREMIAH 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.

JEREMIAH 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.

EZEKIEL 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.

JOB 20: [7]Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung…

EZEKIEL 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.

AMOS 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….

MICAH 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….

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

DEUTERONOMY 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….

DEUTERONOMY 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 ….

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

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

JEREMIAH 9: [22] Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.

JEREMIAH 16: [4] They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

LEVITICUS 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.

ECCLESIASTES 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.
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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.

EXODUS 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.

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

DEUTERONOMY 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.

LEVITICUS 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.

DEUTERONOMY 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.

LEVITICUS 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.

LEVITICUS 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

LEVITICUS 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.

LEVITICUS 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;

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

JUDGES 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.

1 KINGS 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….

1 KINGS 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.

2 KINGS 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.

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

MATTHEW 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.

MATTHEW 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.

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

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

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

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

JOHN 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…

ROMANS 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,

JOHN 2: 1 …. the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. [4] Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee?…

1 CORINTHIANS 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.

1 CORINTHIANS 7: 36] But if any man think that he behaveth himself uncomely toward his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he sinneth not: let them marry.

1 CORINTHIANS 11: [3] But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man

1 CORINTHIANS 11: [8] For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. [9] Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.

1 CORINTHIANS 7: 1 …It is good for a man not to touch a woman. [2] Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

1 Timothy 2: [11] Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. [12] But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

1 Timothy 2: [13] For Adam was first formed, then Eve. [14] And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. [15] Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.

2 Timothy 3: [6] For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts…

REVELATION 14: [4] These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins….

MALACHI 2: [3] Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts

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

REVELATION 22: 20…Surely I come quickly.

REVELATION 22: 20…Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

I can’t stand it anymore. There is a lot more, but this will have to do.
Don’t blame the reporter. From the word of god, as compiled by

Edwin.

We cannot permit fanatics, traitors, and fools to defile the graves of our martyrs. One Nation Indivisible; One History Unchangeable!

———————————————-

From American Atheists News for May 16, 2010

HUNDREDS JOIN PROTEST AT TEXAS CAPITOL: BOARD
MEMBER RENEWS EFFORT AGAINST TEACHING SEPARATION!

An enthusiastic crowd estimated at nearly 300 people turned out
for a rally this morning in front of the state capitol building in
Austin, Texas to protest proposed changes in how subjects ranging
from history to science will be taught in public schools.

A religious-right faction on the board last month recommended
sweeping changes in the content of textbooks. Proposals called
for downplaying secularism, the Enlightenment and even Founders
like Thomas Jefferson in favor of a renewed emphasis on religion
as a positive force in American history. In place of the “Sage of
Monticello,” one member suggested that students learn more about
religious leaders like John Calvin.

Several speakers addressed today’s event including Dr. Ed Buckner
President of American Atheists. A message of support from author
and Atheist Christopher Hitchens was also read. More details will
follow in the next edition of AANEWS.

While Texas citizens were mobilizing against the new guidelines,
however, on of the most strident members of the Board of Education
announced that he will propose even more radical changes before
the Board meets again this week.

Member Don McLeroy (R. – College Station) told reporters that that
he will attempt to mandate that eighth-graders study the issue of
state-church separation from what the Dallas Morning News described
as “a different perspective.” The paper is reporting that students
would “contrast the Founders’ intent relative to the wording of
the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause
with the popular term ‘Separation of church and state.’ “

That story can be found at:

**

A MESSAGE FROM CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
READ AT TODAY’S “TEXANS FOR TRUTHFUL TEXTBOOKS” RALLY

We know of no spectacle more ridiculous – or more contemptible – than
that of the religious reactionaries who dare to re-write the history
of our republic. Or who try to do so. Is it possible that, in their
vanity and stupidity, they suppose that they can erase the name of
Thomas Jefferson and replace it with the name of some faith-based
mediocrity whose name is already obscure? If so, we cheerfully
resolve to mock them, and to give them the lie in their teeth.

Without Thomas Jefferson and his Declaration of Independence,
there would have been no American revolution that announced universal
principles of liberty. Without his participation by the side of
the unforgettable Marquis de Lafayette, there would have been no
French proclamation of The Rights of Man. Without his brilliant
negotiation of the Louisiana treaty, there would be no United States
of America. Without Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, there would
have been no Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom, and no basis
for the most precious clause of our most prized element of our
imperishable Bill of Rights – the First Amendment to the United
States Constitution.

We make no saint of Thomas Jefferson – we leave the mindless
business of canonization and the worship of humans to the fanatics
-but aware as we are of his many crimes and contradictions we say
with confidence that his memory and example will endure long after
the moral pygmies who try to blot out his name have been forgotten.

As Abraham Lincoln died, after a cowardly shot in the back from
a racist traitor, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton sighed and said:
“Now he belongs to the ages”. Or did he say “Now he belongs to
the angels”? In a roomful of highly literate and educated officers
and physicians, in an age of photography and stenography, and with
newspaper presses around the corner on Pennsylvania Avenue, there
was no agreement among eye-and-ear witnesses as to what Stanton
had actually said.

Those of us who write and study history are accustomed to its
approximations and ambiguities. This is why we do not take literally
the tenth-hand reports of frightened and illiterate peasants who
claim to have seen miracles or to have had encounters with messiahs
and prophets and redeemers who were, like them, mere humans. And
this is also why we will never submit to dictation from those who
display a fanatical belief in certainty and revelation. They try to
tell us that to do otherwise is to collapse into “relativism”. But it
is they who wish to promote the life and work of Jefferson Davis –
an advocate of slavery, backwardness, treason and disunion – to an
equality with Lincoln, who suffered agonies of doubt, who never
joined a church, who was born on the same day as Charles Darwin
and who introduced his colleagues to the work of Thomas Paine –
and who was the last brave casualty of a war: a war begun by
devout and fanatical Christians, that preserved our Union and in
the end led to the striking of the shackles from every slave. It
was inscribed in the documents of the Confederacy that the private
ownership of human beings had a divine warrant. And so it did –
to the everlasting shame of those who take the Bible as god’s word.

It is notorious that the news of the Emancipation Proclamation
was kept from the people of Texas and not celebrated until
“Juneteenth”. There may be those in Texas now who believe they can
insulate their state – a state that had its own courageous revolution
– from the news of evolution and from the writing in 1786 of a
Constitution that refuses to mention religion except when demarcating
and limiting its role in the public square. But we promise them today
that they will join their fore-runners in the flat-earth community,
and in the mad clerical clique of those who believed that the sun
revolved around the earth. Yes, they will be in schoolbooks -as a
joke on the epic scale of William Jennings Bryan. We shall be fair,
and take care to ensure that their tale is told.

As President, Thomas Jefferson received a letter from a
concerned group of Baptists in Danbury, Connecticut. These people
were the objects of persecution and the victims of discrimination,
and they beseeched Jefferson to uphold their liberties. Of whom were
they afraid? It should be remembered, and taught in our schools,
that these poor Baptists were afraid of the Congregationalists of
Connecticut, who subjected their fellow-Christians to insult and
insecurity. Thus it was the secular and unbelieving Jefferson who
insisted that, by means of a “wall of separation” between religion
and government, all faiths and communities could take shelter under
the great roof of the godless Constitution. From that day to this,
the only guarantee of religious pluralism has been the secular law.

We inherited these principles and these freedoms and we here
highly resolve that we shall pass them on, as we will pass
on an undivided Republic purged of racism and slavery, to our
descendants. The popgun discharges of a few pathetic sectarians
and crackpot revisionists are negligible, and will be drowned
by the mounting chorus that demands: “Mr Jefferson! BUILD UP
THAT WALL”.

— Christopher Hitchens

**

REMARKS BY ED BUCKNER, PRESIDENT , AMERICAN ATHEISTS
PRESENTED AT TODAY’S RALLY

Please join me in thanking American Atheist VP and Military
Director Kathleen Johnson for her leadership in bringing this
rally to life. We’re proud of Sgt. Johnson and proud that American
Atheists organized this rally. [applause] Kathleen also lives in
Texas, works at Ft. Hood, and wore the uniform of our country
for over 20 years-and she founded the Military Association of
Atheists and Freethinkers. We’re also proud and honored to have
with us today the editor of American Atheist, David Smalley from the
Dallas-Ft. Worth area-who you’ll hear from shortly-and I’m especially
pleased to introduce the newest national leader of American Atheists,
Director of State Operations (for all of 16 days now)-Ken Loukinen.
Chris Allen, one of our national board members who was also educated
and lives in Texas is here, as is of course our Texas state director,
Joe Zamecki. Others…

I’m Ed Buckner, the President of American Atheists, and I was
educated in Texas-junior high in Webster, TX, high school in League
City, TX, college in Houston-and my Daddy, a conservative and,
unlike me, a Christian, was a school board member for the Clear
Creek Independent School District. He died in 1996, but if he
were alive now I know he’d be appalled at the Texas State Board of
Education. Many things are wrong with the curriculum changes they’re
considering, and I’m going to address one major problem, but the
overall problem is simple-they want to indoctrinate the students
of Texas, not educate them. They’re afraid of letting scientists
and historians decide what science and history to teach. They want
their anti-scientific, religious, and political prejudices taught,
not real science and history. To which we say, Indoctrination,
NO! Education, YES! – Indoctrination, NO! Education, YES!

You may have heard of that revolutionary American writer who was
also this nation’s third president, who wrote Notes on Virginia, who
won fame as an inventor, an architect, an agricultural expert, and a
writer of thousands of letters, who was Governor of Virginia (which
included then the area now called Kentucky), who also served us as
Ambassador to France and as Secretary of State, who as president
doubled the size of the USA with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803,
under whose administration America won its first military victory
against Islamic terrorists-pirates in the Mediterranean- and whose
face is on every American nickel and on every two-dollar bill. This
man-Thomas Jefferson, of course-is being downplayed by the Texas
State Board of Education because they don’t like his religious views
or his role in the separation of church and state. Jefferson was
not a god or anything like a perfect man. He hated slavery but he
owned slaves. He was, like most men of his time, a racist and was
probably as much of a sexist as Phyllis Schlafly. Jefferson was
called an “atheist” by his enemies, and he was indeed no orthodox
Christian-he wrote that he did not accept that Jesus was divine,
did not believe in the resurrection or atonement, etc.-but he did
believe in an afterlife and in a designer god. Jefferson died 33
years before Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published, so
in Jefferson’s lifetime there was no reasonable, well-supported
theory of human evolution. But the truth is what matters and no
one-including the Texas State Board of Education -should try to
rewrite history. Jefferson was a genius and he was easily America’s
most original and revolutionary thinker and writer. The Texas State
Board of Education doesn’t want to emphasize the real Jefferson;
they want indoctrination. To which we say, Indoctrination,
NO! Jefferson, YES! – Indoctrination, NO! Jefferson, YES!

Now, if Thomas Jefferson did not focus primarily on being President
or enlarging the nation geographically or winning wars, what did
he care about, and how do we know? We know because he wrote out,
very specifically, what achievements should be put on his grave
marker-and he listed three-and only three-things. First, he was the
“author of the Declaration of American Independence,” the thing he is
most famous for writing, the document known worldwide for changing
the world’s understanding of freedom. People all over the world
“hold these truths to be self-evident” because Thomas Jefferson wrote
about them so eloquently, so stirringly. The Texas State Board of
Education wants less independence and more indoctrination. To which
we say, Indoctrination, NO! Independence, YES! – Indoctrination, NO!
Independence, YES!

Jefferson listed second on his marker something else that he was
proud of having written, something not nearly as well known but
maybe even more important: “The Statute of Virginia for Religious
Freedom.” That Virginia law declares among other things, “that our
civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more
than our opinions in physics or geometry.” That law, written by
Jefferson but passed mostly with James Madison’s leadership while
Jefferson was in France, became widely famous in the late 1700s
and is usually regarded as the key basis for the First Amendment
to the US Constitution-the foundation of separation of church and
state that is so despised and misunderstood by the Texas State
Board of Education. They want indoctrination. To which we say,
Indoctrination, NO! Religious Freedom, YES! – Indoctrination,
NO! Religious Freedom, YES!

And the third thing Jefferson asked to be remembered for was as
“Father of the University of Virginia.” That university was the first
secular one in America, a university that Jefferson founded and that
he proudly declared would not have a theology department. He wrote to
a colleague that he expected strong opposition to the university from
“the priests of the different religious sects, to whose spells on the
human mind its improvement is ominous.” Like the Texas State Board
of Education, those opponents wanted indoctrination. To which we
say now, as Jefferson did then, Indoctrination, NO! Education, YES!
-Indoctrination, NO! Education, YES!

So, in summary, Jefferson wanted and worked for what we want, what we
demand today: Independence-individual rights and political liberty;
Religious Freedom-including the freedom to not be religious;
and Education, real education. Finally, I’d like to call your
attention to some words of Jefferson that are prominently displayed
at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC. These are words
from Jefferson, in a letter he wrote when he was about to become
president, a letter to his friend Dr. Benjamin Rush, about what
Jefferson called “the irritable tribe of priests” whose schemes
of establishment, of government support for their religious ideas,
he despised. They feared, he wrote, that he would oppose them. And,
said Jefferson, they believed rightly. He wrote these words, words
which could just as well have been written for today’s Texas State
Board of Education: “I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal
hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” To
which we, even those of us with no belief in any altars or any
gods, say Indoctrination, NO! Education, YES! – Indoctrination,
NO! Education, YES! Thank you.

— Ed Buckner

AMERICANATHEISTS,INC.

http://www.atheists.org
http://www.americanatheist.org

For more information, please contact:
Ed Buckner, President 908-499-9200 (cell) or 770-803-5353 (office/fax)
Kathleen Johnson, Vice President and Military Director 318-542-1019
Joe Zamecki, Texas State Director 512-968-5048

“TEXANS FOR TRUTHFUL TEXTBOOKS” TO RALLY AT STATE CAPITOL, PROTEST DISTORTED GUIDELINES PUSHED BY BOARD OF EDUCATION

Sunday, May 16, 2010 — Capitol Steps, Austin, Texas

A coalition of Secularist and Freethought groups will host a rally on the steps of the Texas State Capitol building in Austin, TX, to protest new guidelines authored by a religious-right faction on the state Board of Education. The new standards, which have according to some observers made the Lone Star State “the laughingstock of the nation,” downplay important American figures like Thomas Jefferson and the teaching of important events such as the Enlightenment. Instead, students would be given half-truths about religious figures like John Calvin, and falsely informed that separation of church and state is not part of the American law.

The Board has been accused of promoting a fundamentalist religious agenda at the expense of historical and scientific accuracy. Some warn that the guidelines could lead to creationism being taught in public schools, erosion of scientific information about evolution, and a biased revision of American history. Professional academics have circulated a letter calling for postponement of the new guidelines which significantly alter the content of textbooks used in Texas public schools until qualified, academically-trained experts can respond further.

“This is about whether to teach a politically and religiously biased account of history and science in favor of sectarian religious doctrines. This is about substituting miseducation and indoctrination for real education,” said Dr. Ed Buckner, the Texas-educated President of American Atheists.

Kathleen Johnson, Vice President of the group and a Texas resident, said that the rally is inviting participation from secular and religious groups.

“The Board faction which has promoted these new standards for what may be taught in our public schools represents an extreme faction,” said Johnson. “Many religious leaders and groups are speaking out against this faith-based censorship, and we welcome their participation. Though we’re proud of our own Atheism, this is not a rally for Atheism – it’s a rally for strong education.”

Joe Zamecki, Texas State Director for American Atheists, declared that the public schools “should not become pulpits or vehicles for promoting one religion over another, or religion in general.”

WHAT: “Texas for Truthful Textbooks” rally on the steps of the State Capitol, Austin, TX.

WHEN: Sunday, May 16, 2010, 11:00 AM

MORE INFO: See above, also Kathleen Johnson (kjohnson @ athists.org),

Joe Zamecki(jzamecki @ atheists.org)

AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends civil rights for Atheists, Freethinkers and other nonbelievers; works for the total separation of church and state; and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy.

American Atheists, Inc. PO BOX 158, Cranford, NJ 07016
Tel.: (908) 276-7300 Fax: (908) 276-7402

http://insidesu.syr.edu/2010/04/29/edwin-kagin-to-speak-on-atheism-blasphemy-and-the-american-religious-civil-war/

Edwin Kagin to speak on “Atheism, Blasphemy and the American Religious
Civil War”

By SU News Services • (315) 443-3784

Attorney Edwin Kagin, National Legal Director for American Atheists,
will speak on the topic, “Atheism, Blasphemy and the American Religious
Civil War” on Tuesday, May 4 at 7 p.m. in Maxwell Auditorium.

American Atheists is a nationwide movement that defends civil rights for
Atheists, Freethinkers and other nonbelievers, works for the total
separation of church and state, and addresses issues of First Amendment
public policy.

Kagin is the originator and was, for its first decade, Director of Camp
Quest, the nation’s first residential secular summer camp for children
of Atheists and other freethinkers. Kagin was also a founder and board
member of Recover Resources Center, which provides an alternative
addiction recovery program to the religiously-oriented Alcoholics
Anonymous. He currently serves on the national advisory board of the
Secular Student Alliance, is Kentucky state director for
American Atheists, and on January 13, 2006, was named national legal
director for American Atheists, replacing the retiring Duane Buchholtz.

As an outspoken public critic of religious intrusions into government,
Kagin is a frequent speaker and debater at local and national events and
has appeared on hundreds of radio and television programs, sparring on
more than one occasion with Michael Medved.

Kagin has also run prominently, albeit unsuccessfully, as “the candidate without a prayer”
for the Kentucky Supreme Court (1998) and the Kentucky State Senate
(2000). Moreover, some of his legal work has involved him in religious
issues and church-state separation controversies in addition to other
civil liberties and constitutional issues. He has been a member in good
standing of the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court since 1975.

Currently, Kagin is host for the Internet radio show “Answers in
Atheism. He is also the current National Legal Director, and Kentucky
State Director, for American Atheists. He is on its speaker’s bureau and
in 2008 was voted onto the Board of Directors of American Atheists, Inc.
Edwin and his late wife, Helen Kagin, were awarded the “Atheists of the
Year” award for 2005 by American Atheists, and Edwin was named “Atheist
of the Year” for 2008 “For Organizing The Very Successful Response To
The Creationism Museum In Kentucky.”

Copies of Edwin’s books, “Baubles of Blasphemy,” and his co-authored
book, “The Fundamentals of Extremism” will be offered for sale and
signing.

Contact: James Addoms, Atheists, Agnostics, Freethinkers Alliance at
SU / SUNY ESF, jwaddoms@maxwell.syr.edu

Monday, April 19th, 2010:

Edwin Kagin, National Legal Director for American Atheists, will be on the Sue Wiley radio call-in talk show in Lexington, Kentucky, on Monday, April 19th, 2010, to discuss the recent Federal case declaring the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional.

The show will be at 10:00 am Eastern Time on WVLK 590 AM radio, Lexington, Kentucky. The show should be available on the Internet, and later archived, at http://radiotime.com/station/s_23550/WVLK_590.aspx

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010:

Edwin Kagin, National Legal Director for American Atheists, and founder of Camp Quest, will speak at the Louisville Atheists and Freethinkers meet-up group. The topic will be the history and future of Camp Quest, the first ever residential summer for the children of Atheists and other non-believers (www.camp-quest.org). He will also present a photo show of the history of the camp. The event will be at 7:00 pm Eastern Time at Mulligans Pub & Grill, 1801 Newburg Rd., Louisville, Kentucky. Details can be found at:
http://atheists.meetup.com/175/

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/atheist-group-questions-study-linking-atheists-to-higher-intelligence

Atheist Group Questions Study Linking Atheists to Higher Intelligence
Opinion by American Atheists
(12 Hours Ago) in Religion

A study claiming that liberals and Atheists are “more intelligent” than religious believers is causing a buzz in the news media and academic circles.

Authored by Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics, the study claims that “more intelligent individuals may be more likely to acquire and espouse evolutionarily novel values and preferences (such as liberalism and atheism…) than less intelligent individuals.”

Fellow academics are saying that Kanazawa’s research and conclusions are flawed.

And now, some Atheists agree and are speaking out.

Dr. Ed Buckner, President of American Atheists, said that “intelligence” — especially as reflected by so-called IQ tests — can be difficult to define and quantify. “There are often cultural, ethnic, and even sexual biases at work here, and a good case can be made that there are actually many different kinds of intelligence,” said Buckner. “Something like ‘intelligence’ has to be understood in a very broad context, and Dr. Kanazawa seems not to have given that sufficient consideration.”

“We have never said that Atheists or other non-believers are inherently ‘superior’ or ‘smarter’ than religious people, even though we do assert that logic and evidence are on our side regarding our conclusions.

Questions about religious beliefs and whether ‘god’ exists should be discussed and argued based on the best evidence.”

Buckner also noted that members of American Atheists vary considerably regarding political philosophies, saying that “liberals, libertarians, conservatives, and other (less orthodox) categories can all be found

among our members and leaders.” He added that a Catholic or Muslim with an IQ score higher than a random non-believer, for instance, does not constitute any special evidence regarding claims any of them might make.

“And we’re totally against Atheists suddenly telling the world, ‘Hey, look at us, we’re right because we’re bright!’ “

Kathleen Johnson, Vice President for American Atheists, said that she prefers to suggest that all or at least most Americans can, with sufficient reasoning, understand the need to question religion.

“There are all kinds of Atheists, just as there are all kinds of believers,” said Johnson. “We advocate a polite, courteous, and ‘spirited’ exchange of views, and we encourage everyone — Atheist and religious alike — to exercise their First Amendment rights by expressing their opinions in a constitutional manner in the public square. We can win in the marketplace of ideas without invidious comparisons or pointless insults aimed at those with whom we differ.”

AMERICAN ATHEISTS
http://www.atheists.org

BUCKNER, PROVINE JOIN FORCES
FOR DEBATE SUMMIT 2010

The Debate Summit series exists as a forum designed to explain, test and defend various aspects of the Christian world view by interacting with qualified representatives of non-Christian worldviews in moderated public debates. The goal is to create and maintain an atmosphere of civility, mutual respect and the open exchange of ideas.

MARCH 12-13, 2010 Washington Court House, Ohio

DR. ED BUCKNER, President of American Atheists will be a participant in the 2010 Debater Summit slated for March 12-13, 2010. He will be joining R. WILL PROVINE, Professor of Biology at Cornell University and an outspoken Atheist in defending the naturalist world view in a debate with leading Christian apologists.

The venue is the
Grace Community Church, 525 S. Glenn Avenue, Washington C.H., OH 43160

The schedule of events includes:

Debate #001
Friday, March 12, 7:00 pm
Dr. Ed Buckner vs. Jay Lucas
Topic: Moral Foundations: “Which makes more sense, Christianity or Atheism?”

Debate #002
Saturday, March 13, 3:00 pm
Dr. Will Provine vs. Dr. Andy McIntosh
Topic: “Flight in birds and bats: Is evolution or creation the best guide?”

Debate #003
Saturday, March 13, 7:00 pm
Dr. Dennis Sullivan vs. Dr. Will Provine
Topic: “Free Will: Does it exist? Does it matter?”

Washington Court House is easily accessible from the interstate and major metro areas. Lodging is available in town; and tickets for the debates ($6 per session) can be purchased on line. For more information, visit http://debatesummit2010.blogspot.com/

WHO & WHAT: Dr. Ed Buckner and Dr. Will Provine participating in Debate Summit 2010

WHEN: March 12-13, 2010

WHERE: Grace Community Church, 525 S. Glenn Avenue, Washington C.H., OH 43160

MORE INFO: http://debatesummit2010.blogspot.com/

(AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends civil rights for Atheists, Freethinkers and other nonbelievers; works for the total separation of church and state; and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy.)