American Heathen®

(The following commentary is part of a weekly series called “Reflections” by John Mill.  John is a noted free thought advocate and broadcaster.  His series airs on my American Heathen® internet radio show. Air date of this particular segment: 02/25/11)

Back in my early days of radio, when I was hosting a midday show on FM at a small-town station in Western Maryland, I noticed a little legal double standard when it came to Sunday closings, colloquially known as “blue laws.” This is John Mill and Blue Laws, as you know, are designed to enforce religious standards, particularly the observance of Sunday as a day of worship or rest, via a restriction on Sunday shopping – as if, to paraphrase Ingersoll, Sunday is too holy to make money in.

The law specified that businesses, banks and government – but especially those evil liquor stores – must close one day a week to provide a “day of rest” for their employees. What I found interesting was that the day itself was not named. So I wrote a letter to the editor (this was back in the days when we still had newspapers and they still published letters from freethinkers) suggesting that we make Wednesday the day of rest.

Of course I was joking. And deliberately stirring the pot in this religion-soaked small-town culture. But it also made sense: if everything is closed on Sunday, that gives working people only one day a week, Saturday, in which to enjoy the parks and libraries paid for by their taxes.

Oh, I had stirred the pot, all right. I got blistering and blustery replies. And these replies, as RJ likes to say, exposed the lie: religion really does get special protection under the law – and, more than that, nobody even questions religion’s privileged place in society.

Now I told you that story so I can tell you this one.

I’ve been watching the attempt by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, of the Republican, er, Christian Nationalist Party, to kill collective bargaining rights in the public employee unions there – although he’s not bothering about the rights of the police union because they supported his election – and to a lesser extent, I’ve been watching the deficit-reduction kabuki in Washington, DC. You know how I can tell Governor Walker isn’t serious about deficit reduction? If he were serious, he wouldn’t have signed away $117 million in corporate tax breaks in Wisconsin. That’s where most of the $137 million Wisconsin deficit came from.

And you know how I can tell that his comrades of corporate welfare in Congress are not serious? If they were serious, they wouldn’t have started two foreign wars off budget, passed a Medicare drug benefit without funding it, and then reduce revenues still further by insisting on extending the over-generous Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

In the late 1970s, the top 1 percent of income earners got 9 percent of total US income. Now it gets more than 20 percent. So, naturally, you have to balance the budget on the backs of the working people, right? There are two reasons public budgets are in trouble: (1) because revenues tumbled over the last two years of the Bush Recession and (2) because of tax giveaways to rich people.

And who says we need to balance the budget? The very people who unbalanced it in the first place! Even Bill Maher, that liberal agnostic, misses the point: the American people are not clamoring for a balanced budget; the American people are not clamoring for tax cuts for rich people. They’re clamoring for jobs. They’re clamoring to keep their homes. They’re clamoring to keep their pensions, gambled away by Wall Street.

What’s the real reason the Wisconsin Governor is trying to gut collective bargaining rights in the public employee unions? It’s the same reason the Christian Nationalists are cutting everything in the federal budget that benefits the poor, but leaving the bloated defense budget in peace: they’re killing everything that might remotely benefit the people who vote for Democrats.

That’s what’s really at stake, in Wisconsin and in the nation at large: it’s a power grab and a push toward a one-party state, a one-party United States.

Think I’m paranoid? Think I’m making this up? Well, let me suggest right now something similar to what I suggested 40 years ago when I was a young broadcaster. Let’s take the Republicans at their word that we cannot afford all this government spending. Let’s assume they are sincere when they say government costs too much and we need to balance the budget.

When I was starting out in radio, the amount of real and personal property that was not being taxed by state and local governments was about $110 billion. A 1986 estimate showed untaxed income in that year of about $100 billion, or about five times the income of the five largest corporations in the US. At least $4.2 billion in tax-exempt property now exists in Wisconsin alone. These are desperate times, the Republicans tell us. And desperate times call for desperate measures.

So, who owns this property and gets away with making this much money tax-free? Every church in the United States, that’s who. Do you seriously want to reduce deficits and save the economy? Every dollar they don’t pay is a dollar you must pay. Tax the churches.

You’d be in good company: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, James Madison, Ulysses S. Grant.

OK, maybe you’re not really serious: the hypocrisy exposes the lie. Guess which party tax exempt churches benefit? This is John Mill.

(The following  is a transcript of a LIVE broadcast by John Mill. John is a noted free thought advocate and broadcaster.  “This Week In Freethought” airs on my American Heathen® internet radio show. Air date of this particular segment:  02/25/11)
Week of February 19-25

Here’s your Week in Freethought History: This is more than just a calendar of events or mini-biographies – it’s an affirmation that we as freethinkers are neither unique nor alone in the world, no matter how isolated and alone we may feel at times.

1. It was 538 years ago last Saturday, February 19, that astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473),was born in what is now Poland. He was destined for a comfortable income as a clergyman, but while studying in Italy, Copernicus became fascinated with astronomy. His clerical duties being light, he set down in a handwritten manuscript his ideas of a sun-centered solar system — a “heliocentric” system — ideas that were at extreme variance with Church doctrine. A very real fear of persecution and imprisonment kept Copernicus from publishing until just before his death – even though today’s Christian apologists blame him for irrational fear. Copernicus himself gave little thought to religion: his passion was not for heaven, but for observing the heavens.

2. Last Sunday, February 20th, was the birthday of two famous freethinkers.

It was on February 20, 86 years ago, that American film director Robert Altman was born (1925). Altman was educated in Jesuit schools prior to joining the Army at the age of 18, but he lost his religion soon after joining the military. Known for several important films, including the 1970 Korean War satire M*A*S*H, the avowedly nonpolitical Altman told an interviewer in 2004, “I have been against all of these wars ever since.” The interviewer observes, “… it’s worth noting that by the age of 20 this whistle-blower had resisted two of the most powerful institutions – church and army, both. He is an atheist.” Robert Altman, who died in 2006, once quipped, “What’s a cult? It just means not enough people to make a minority.”

Sunday, February 20, would also have been the 99th birthday of the French writer, Pierre Boulle, known for two satirical novels later made into films: The Bridge Over the River Kwai in 1952 and Planet of the Apes in 1963. Although baptized and raised as a Roman Catholic, Boulle would later become an agnostic. Planet of the Apes is premised on a distant planet where apes are ascendant and humans are jungle-dwelling primitives, used for experiments and trained to do tricks. The satire in the role reversal includes a deep poke at religion as the astronaut portrays an Enlightenment intellect confronting an “ape” culture of ingrained religion and superstitious beliefs. In this science-fiction world, free thought is a crime and heaven help anybody who claims the truth of evolution.

3. Monday, February 21, marked the 23rd anniversary of America’s then-leading television evangelist, Jimmy Swaggart, resigning from his ministry in a tearful, televised confession. Swaggart was found to have solicited a prostitute for sex, after exposing a similar indiscretion by his rival televangelist, Jim Bakker. Sexual hypocrisy is hardly new to the religion industry, especially among evangelists who preach purity. The list is seemingly endless, and this is not to mention the sexual scandals involving Roman Catholic priests with the children in their charge. Three years after the original scandal blew up, Swaggart was again implicated in a sex scandal involving a prostitute. No longer trusted with a large congregation, Swaggart is currently a freelance preacher.

4. Tuesday, February 22, was the 279th anniversary of the birth of George Washington (1732), first American President. Nowhere in Washington’s extant writings does he make direct reference to Jesus Christ. When he died on 14 December 1799 at age 67, he sent for no clergyman, only asking all to leave the room so that he might “spend his last hour with his Maker.” Those tempted to make more of this request are reminded that no one disputes that Washington was a Deist. It should be mentioned that Washington was never hostile to religion. Indeed, in 1790 he wrote that he envisioned America as a country “which gives bigotry no sanction… persecution no assistance…. May the Children of the Stock of Abraham [i.e., the Jews], who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants.”

5. Wednesday, February 23, was the 143rd anniversary of the birth of U.S. historian and black civil rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois (1868), author of “The Souls of Black Folk.” Du Bois also helped to create and guide the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). About his religious beliefs, Du Bois wrote, “In Germany I became a freethinker and when I came to teach at an orthodox Methodist Negro school I was soon regarded with suspicion, especially when I refused to lead the students in public prayer. … I flatly refused again to join any church or sign any church creed. From my thirtieth year on I have increasingly regarded the church as an institution which defended such evils as slavery, color caste, exploitation of labor, and war.”

6. Two more famous freethinkers are remembered for being born on February 24:

Last Thursday, February 24, was the 169th birthday of Italian librettist and composer Arrigo Boito (1842). Boito is primarily remembered as librettist for Giuseppe Verdi’s operas “Otello” (1887) and “Falstaff” (1893), and for his own 1868 opera, “Mefistofele.” It was through “Mefistofele,” based on Goethe’s “Faust,” that Boito infuriated the Italian clergy through his frivolous treatment of religion – not the least for making the villain, the devil, into the most interesting character.

Last Thursday, February 24, was also the 159th birthday of Irish writer George Moore (1852). Born Roman Catholic, Moore lost his religion by associating with realist painters and writers in Paris. Although not outspoken on religion, his 1911 literary play, The Apostle, and his 1916 novel, The Brooke Kerith, clearly rejected the Christian view of Jesus. Although he was agnostic, Moore preferred to be regarded as a Protestant, based on his detestation of the Roman Catholic Church.

7. Finally, today, Friday, February 25, is the 7th anniversary of the US release of the 2004 Mel Gibson film, “The Passion of the Christ.” Although nominated but passed over at the Oscars, for its $30 million budget, the film made almost a quarter million dollars on over 950 screens its opening weekend. As of 2010, “The Passion of the Christ” is the highest-grossing R-rated film in US box office history, earning $370 million. Latest figures show US DVD rentals at over $203 million. Christians rated “The Passion of the Christ” highly, while mainstream critics were mixed. In “The Passion of the Christ,” much of the “passion” – a word which in the original Latin means suffering and pain – is the based on the visions and imaginings of an early 19th century mystic and religious fanatic named Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824). Neither Emmerich, nor her 1833 book “The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” were credited in the film, but Gibson made heavy use of her extra-biblical and anti-Semitic material.  What “The Passion of the Christ” really amounts to is sadomasochism and, with its lugubrious focus on naked male flesh, homeroticism, sending a political message: Mel Gibson’s true passion, in the sense of enthusiasm, is anti-Semitism and Catholic fundamentalism. It’s no wonder the film has never been widely shown in Israel!

We can look back, but the Golden Age of Freethought is now. You can find full versions of these pages in Freethought history at the links in this blog, which take you to my blog, FreethoughtAlmanac.com.

(The following commentary is part of a weekly series called “Yahweh Speaks” by Yahweh.  Yahweh is an assumed name to protect his identity on-line.  He is a noted  free thought advocate and Constitutional attorney.  His series airs on my American Heathen® internet radio show. Airdate 02/25/11)

Which “vision” of America is that to which we ought to subscribe and project to the world about our purported “shining city on a hill”?

1.) “We are a ‘Christian nation’ and our Constitution and Government are founded on ‘christian principles’ . …WE ARE! WE ARE! WE ARE TOO!”

OR

2.) “The bill for establishing religious freedom, the principles of which had, to a certain degree, been enacted before, I had drawn in all the latitude of reason and right. It still met with opposition; but, with some mutilations in the preamble, it was finally passed; and a singular proposition proved that its protection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word “Jesus Christ,” so that it should read, “a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;” the insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination.” - Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, 1821Works 1:71 -

Which Vision?

1.) EXCLUSIVITY and INTOLERANCE?

OR

2.) INCLUSIVITY and TOLERANCE?

________________________________
” …in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination.”

_________________________________

Which vision of America:

1.) “The USA is a xtian nation. The US Constitution is founded on “xtian principles”.
It is ! It is!  It is too!“

OR

2.) “Because we hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, “that religion or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence.” The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right. It is unalienable, because the opinions of men, depending only on the evidence contemplated by their own minds cannot follow the dictates of other men: It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be acceptable to him.

Because it is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of Citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The free men of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much soon to forget it. Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects? That the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?”

- Madison, “Memorial and Remonstrance”-

“§ 1869. It yet remains a problem to be solved in human affairs, whether any free government can be permanent, where the public worship of God, and the support of religion, constitute no part of the policy or duty of the state in any assignable shape. The future experience of Christendom, and chiefly of the American states, must settle this problem, as yet new in the history of the world, abundant, as it has been, in experiments in the theory of government.” – Joseph Story, “Commentaries on the Constitution” -

___________________________

I submit Jefferson, Madison, and Story got it correct; that tolerance and inclusivity is what our mantle of protection embraces. I submit that it is precisely because of tolerance and inclusivity—not intolerance and exclusivity— that the USA has risen to the  greatest heights of economic and  military  power . prestige,and individual dignity of  any nation yet to be  seen on the face of the earth. And I submit we  must continue to purposely  and consciously reject the  puerile, myopic cries of those who would remake our nation as a “xtian theocracy”, and  instead  adhere to the spirit of our Framers and our Framing Charter, and precisely because of our dedication to that task our nation, our religions and our PEOPLE  will continue to flourish as that “shining city on  the hill.”

“But it does me no injury for m neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”

(The following  is  by John Mill. John is a noted free thought advocate and broadcaster.  “This Week In Freethought” airs on my American Heathen® internet radio show. Air date of this particular segment:  Show on hiatus until Feb. 25th )

Week of February 12-18

Here’s your Week in Freethought History: This is more than just a calendar of events or mini-biographies – it’s an affirmation that we as freethinkers are neither unique nor alone in the world, no matter how isolated and alone we may feel at times.

1. Last Saturday, February 12, was the anniversary of two great lights in Freethought history – one in science, the other in politics, one in England, the other in America – both born on the same day in the same year!

It was 202 years ago last Saturday, February 12, that British naturalist Charles Darwin was born (1809). His collection and analysis of specimens from nature across a wide area of the earth, during and after his voyage on the Beagle,  led to his formulation and much-delayed publication of the theory of evolution by natural selection. The response in the scientific community was electric. But in the religious community, where accepting Darwin’s theories was tantamount to rejecting divine creation, the response ranged from dismissive to panic-stricken. Darwin’s own religious views evolved from a passable piety to deep skepticism. Three years before he died, Darwin wrote, “I think that generally (and more and more as I grow older), but not always, that an Agnostic would be the more correct description of my state of mind.”

It was also 202 years ago last Saturday, February 12, that 16th US President Abraham Lincoln was born (1809). Presiding over a divided nation in the midst of civil war, Lincoln guided the Union effort with a firm hand. Was his hand guided by God, as many fundamentalists claim? Though he read the Bible and accompanied his wife to church, Lincoln never joined any church. Perhaps he was a secret Christian? Nobody who knew him well says Lincoln was a Christian in any sense of the word – and in Western civilization nobody has had to be a “secret Christian” since the Roman catacombs! When a delegation of ministers in Chicago, claiming God’s direction, demanded that he issue the Emancipation Proclamation with all haste, Lincoln replied, “[I]f it is, as you say, a message from your Divine Master, is it not odd that the only channel he could send it by was that round-about route by that awfully wicked city of Chicago?”

2. It was 376 years ago last Sunday, February 13, that the first US public school was founded (1635). The system of free public education under pagan Rome, says historian William Boyd, “With few exceptions [under Christianity] had disappeared by the sixth century.” What education there was under in medieval Christian Europe consisted largely of preparation for church duties, with little science and secular literature. The monks, far from preserving them, destroyed many ancient classics. Most priests were too illiterate to read the Mass. Illiteracy in Europe was 95-99% until the 1800s; 90% in 1900; but it is in single digits in the secular West today.

3. Last Monday, February 14, marked  the 63rd birthday of American magician and comedian Teller (1948). Teller is the non-speaking half of the Penn & Teller act, currently running on pay cable as “Penn & Teller’s Bullshit.” They are both outspoken and often funny atheists. Teller was asked if even the most hardened Atheists “search for some kind of personal answers for existence itself.” Teller remarked that “Atheists do look for answers to existence itself. They just don’t make them up.”

4. Last Tuesday, February 15, marks the births of two famous freethinkers.

It was 447 years ago last Tuesday, February 15, that Italian astronomer Galileo was born (1564). Priests in Pisa denounced Galileo to the Roman Inquisition because the stoppage of the sun by Joshua (10:12-14; cf. Psalms 93 and 104, Ecclesiastes 1:5) in the Bible could not be reconciled with which Galileo’s observations. In 1615 Cardinal Robert Bellarmine — a 73-year-old Jesuit whose knowledge of science could fill a small chalice — summoned Galileo to Rome, charging that his cosmological idea was “formally [i.e., "explicitly"] heretical, inasmuch as it expressly contradicts the statements of Holy Scripture in many places.” Was Galileo a Christian? He was by his own definition. What is certain is that Galileo was a defender of science: “To command the professors of astronomy to confute their own observations is to enjoin an impossibility,” wrote Galileo, “for it is to command them to not see what they do see, and not to understand what they do understand, and to find what they do not discover.”

It was also 191 years ago last Tuesday, February 15, that American feminist and social reformer Susan B. Anthony was born (1820). It is a characteristic of the early days of social reform movements that the pioneers were almost wholly Freethinkers, Agnostics, Deists and even Atheists. So it was with Anthony, who was careful to keep her platform broad, but said, “I tell them I have worked 40 years to make the [Woman Suffrage] platform broad enough for Atheists and Agnostics to stand upon.” Anthony mostly kept her Agnosticism to herself, but elsewhere she said, “What you should say to outsiders that a Christian has neither more nor less rights in our Association than an atheist. When our platform becomes too narrow for people of all creeds and of no creeds, I myself shall not stand upon it.”

5. Last Wednesday, February 16, marked the 53rd birthday of nonfiction writer and science journalist Natalie Angier (1958). True to her discipline, Angier refuses to go beyond evidence and empiricism, even in matters of religion and society: “Science can’t tell you whether God exists or where you go when you die. … Science trades in the observable universe and testable hypotheses. … Scientists, however, are a far less religious lot than the American population.” In a 2001 essay, Angier admits, “I’m an Atheist. I don’t believe in God, Gods, Godlets or any sort of higher power beyond the universe itself, which seems quite high and powerful enough to me. I don’t believe in life after death, channeled chat rooms with the dead, reincarnation, telekinesis or any miracles but the miracle of life and consciousness.”

6. It was 411 years ago last Thursday, February 17, that Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned alive for heresy on the Field of Flowers in Rome (1600). Bruno was a brilliant scholar and had an astounding memory. Even the Catholic Encyclopedia admits, “His attitude of mind towards religious truth was that of a rationalist.” But there was no safe place for a Rationalist in any country of Renaissance Christendom. Denounced to the Inquisition, in 1592 Bruno was dragged to a dungeon in Rome. Then on 10 February 1600, certain that this one intransigent man could bring down the entire Christian edifice, the Inquisition allowed him a final week to recant or be executed. Bruno’s answer was the same. A monument to Giordano Bruno now looks out over the plaza where he was burned.

7. Finally, it was 57 years ago today, Friday, February 18, that the First Church of Scientology was established in Los Angeles, CA (1954). There’s a reason why some of us call the Church of Scientology “Where the Bullies Are”: they are notorious for their aggressive defense – not just of their religion but of their copyrighted holy books. Imagine putting a lock on the book of Genesis  and charging a fee to learn how your church thinks the world began! Oh, wait. I think they already do – they just call it an offering. Started by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology grew into a multi-million-dollar business that had to litigate its way to tax exemption. The church is also responsible for the largest theft of US government documents in history and for an opposition to the science of psychiatry that has more than one preventable  psychotic murder to its credit. Scientology is the medieval Inquisition, the Jesuits and the Mafia juiced up on science fiction, with thugs at its call and Internet-age mind control at its fingertips. Can you say “cult”?

We can look back, but the Golden Age of Freethought is now. You can find full versions of these pages in Freethought history at the links in this blog, which take you to my blog, FreethoughtAlmanac.com.

(The following  is  by John Mill. John is a noted free thought advocate and broadcaster.  “This Week In Freethought” airs on my American Heathen® internet radio show. Air date of this particular segment:  Show on hiatus until Feb. 25th )

Week of February 5-11

Here’s your Week in Freethought History: This is more than just a calendar of events or mini-biographies – it’s an affirmation that we as freethinkers are neither unique nor alone in the world, no matter how isolated and alone we may feel at times.

1. It was 49 years ago last Saturday, February 5 (1962), that the Great Aquarian Conjunction of sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn occurred – within 16 degrees of each other. Astrologers predicted dire and fantastic things that, of course, never took place: astrology is no better than statistical chance at predicting the future. Astrology has been around from its earliest days, in ancient Babylonia and Egypt, to our equally gullible modern times. But today it is out of sync with the stars, it has failed to predict some significant events (such as the September 11 terrorist attack on the US or the 2010 Haiti earthquake). And it is based on your time of birth, but if there is any planetary influence at all, shouldn’t astrology be based on the time of your conception?

2. It was 447 years ago last Sunday, February 6 (1564), that British poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe was born. Marlowe flourished during only a six-year career, producing Dr. Faustus (c. 1588) – with the lines, “Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships?”, The Jew of Malta (c. 1589) – with the line, “I count religion but a childish toy, and hold there is no sin but ignorance.” He was arguably the most talented playwright in England next to William Shakespeare, who was born in the same year. Marlowe, Walter Raleigh and others formed a private circle of Rationalists, which clerical critics called “Raleigh’s school of Atheism,” which was a real crime in Elizabethan England. A week before his death in a tavern fight, the Privy Council had ordered the 29-year-old Marlowe’s arrest on charges of Atheism, blasphemy, subversion and homosexuality.

3. February 7 gave us two literary giants—

It was 126 years ago last Monday, February 7 (1885), that Nobel-winning American novelist Sinclair Lewis was born. It was in college that Lewis lost most of the religion he had. He concluded, “The Christian religion is a crutch. Until it is taken away we can never begin to walk well.” Lewis is remembered for many great novels, but chiefly for his attack on Bible Belt fundamentalist religion in Elmer Gantry (1927). It was Sinclair Lewis who said, “It is, I think, an error to believe that there is any need of religion to make life seem worth living.”

It was 199 years ago last Monday, February 7 (1812), that the greatest novelist in the English language was born, Charles Dickens. It was his skill in shorthand, and his keen powers of observation of speech and character, that helped Dickens draw such vivid characters in his novels. Dickens is to be credited for practically inventing Christmas as we know it with his novelette,  A Christmas Carol (1843) – and for taking the “Christ” out of Christmas! Dickens’ chief modern biographer, wrote, “Inclining toward Unitarianism, he had little respect for mystical religious dogma. He hated the Roman Catholic Church, “that curse upon the world,” as the tool and coadjutor of oppression throughout Europe. … He had rejected the Church of England and detested the influence of its bishops in English politics. … His attitude to the religious beliefs of his time was as independent as his attitude to the political faiths.”

4. It was 192 years ago last Tuesday, February 8 (1819), that the English author and art critic John Ruskin was born. In addition to his passion for architecture and art, Ruskin had a passion for social justice and progress. He subscribed to a thin theism that was practically agnosticism during his most productive years. He never went to church, but he gave away most of his wealth in founding a charity called the Guild of St. George in the 1870s. Ruskin coined the term “Modern Atheism,” meaning “the unfortunate persistence of the clergy in teaching children what they cannot understand, and in employing young consecrate persons to assert in pulpits what they do not know.”

5. It was 118 years ago last Wednesday, February 9 (1893), that the first public strip-tease took place in – where else? – Paris. The public unveiling of the female body, for the entertainment of an audience has always had the power to set religious mouths gaping, or gasping. Matthew 5:28 says, “anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” The flesh was the enemy of the spirit in both Christianity and Islam. In our own day, Pope John Paul II said that nudity itself isn’t sinful; rather, the body is obscene only when it is seen as “an object of ‘enjoyment,’ meant for the gratification of concupiscence itself.” In other words, concupiscence (lust) is bad, not nudity. Yet there is no sexual passion, and therefore no procreation, without lust!

6. It was 113 years ago last Thursday, February 10 (1898), that German dramatist Berthold Brecht was born. Brecht noted the corrupt alliance between religion and capitalism in his 1928 play, The Threepenny Opera. The play in which Brecht had the greatest opportunity to criticize organized religion was his Life of Galileo (1939), in which he favored the scientist over the theologians who persecuted him. In Saint Joan of the Stockyards (1930), Brecht “wanted only to expose one characteristic commonly displayed by so-called Christians and Christian organizations: the readiness to talk about God and goodness but a reluctance to remedy the injustices of the daily life around them.”

7. Finally, it was 164 years ago today, February 11 (1847), that American inventor Thomas Edison was born. Of Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason, Edison recalled, “I can still remember the flash of enlightenment that shone from his pages.” As for education generally, Edison said, “I do not believe that any type of religion should ever be introduced into the public schools of the United States.” Asked “What does God mean to you?” Edison replied, “Not a damn thing.” Edison also said, “I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious theories of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God.” It is safe to say the great American inventor was an unabashed atheist.

We can look back, but the Golden Age of Freethought is now. You can find full versions of these pages in Freethought history at the links in this blog, which take you to my blog, FreethoughtAlmanac.com.

He’s at it again!  The Minute Maniac strikes back at folks who call him a hypocrite!

For more of the “Minute Maniac !” check out this link!

(The following  is a transcript of a LIVE broadcast by John Mill. John is a noted free thought advocate and broadcaster.  “This Week In Freethought” airs on my American Heathen® internet radio show. Air date of this particular segment:  02/04/11)
Here’s your Week in Freethought History: This is more than just a calendar of events or mini-biographies – it’s an affirmation that we as freethinkers are neither unique nor alone in the world, no matter how isolated and alone we may feel at times.

1. It was on Saturday, January 29, 274 years ago, that English-born American patriot and pamphleteer Thomas Paine was borninto an English Quaker family (1737; N.S February 9). As a soldier in George Washington’s army, Paine witnessed the struggle for independence for himself and penned “Common Sense,” which made him so popular that the title became Paine’s nickname. The 1776 pamphlet, “The Crisis,” which begins, “These are the times that try men’s souls,” was so powerful, Washington had it read aloud to his troops for motivation. Paine was a Deist, opposed Christianity, monarchy, and slavery, and said “the Bible and the Testament are impositions upon the world… the fall of man, the account of Jesus Christ being the Son of God, and of his dying to appease the wrath of God, and of salvation by that strange means, are all fabulous inventions.”

2. Sunday, January 30, was the 236th birthday of English satirist and writer Walter Savage Landor (1775). A friend of Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, Landor was a theist, did not believe in the afterlife and held a strong disdain of Christianity. Indeed, he pointed out, “Every sect is a moral check on its neighbour. Competition is wholesome in religion as in commerce,” and “Divorce the Church and State: divorce them; and the one will neither be shrew nor strumpet; the other neither bulley nor cutpurse.”

3. Monday, January 31, was the 130th birthday of American chemist Irving Langmuir (1881), who said, “Never believe anything that can’t be proved.” Langmuir’s cleverest contribution was  his six “Symptoms of Pathological Science” (or how to detect pseudoscience) — including (3) Claims of great accuracy; (4) Fantastic theories contrary to experience; (5) Criticisms are met by ad hoc excuses thought up on the spur of the moment.

Monday, January 31, was also the 214th birthday of Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797). Probably Schubert’s most popular work, after his songs, is his Unfinished Symphony in B-Minor (No. 8, D.759). And although he wrote much religious music, and the Catholic Encyclopedia makes much of Schubert’s service to church music, Sir George Grove, in his standard Dictionary of Music and Musicians, says, “of formal or dogmatic religion we can find no trace.” In Schubert’s own words regarding creeds and churches, he says, “Not a word of it is true.”

4. Tuesday, February 1, was the 109th birthday of American poet Langston Hughes (1902). As a leading light of the “Harlem Renaissance” in the 1920s, and the author of “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Hughes believed in God, but did not accept Christianity; indeed, he raged at “the doors of many of our churches, [which] have been until recently entirely closed to Negroes.” “What I am against is the misuse of religion,” said Hughes. His 1932 poem “Goodbye, Christ” was attacked by evangelist Aimee Semple MacPherson and the right-wing America First party. Hughes criticized those who used their piety for personal gain, or as a shield behind which oppression could flourish.

5. On Tuesday, February 2, we have the birthdays of three famous freethinkers: Ayn Rand, James Joyce and Havelock Ellis. Tuesday was the 106th birthday of Objectivist philosopher and author Ayn Rand (1905). As a young girl, she witnessed the Bolshevik Revolution and saw firsthand the brutality of the Soviet regime. This affected her philosophy of life and her belief “that reality exists independently of perception.” Her Libertarian-leaning Objectivism became popular with economic and social conservatives. During the McCarthy era, when most Capitalists identified “godless” with “Communism,” Rand “was identifying religion and communism as brothers under the skin. … Both subordinated man to a higher power: religion to god, communism to the state.”

Irish author James Joyce was born 129 years ago last Tuesday (1882). Joyce’s early education was from Irish Jesuits, but he rejected their religion as “black magic.” Said Joyce,  “I confess that I do not see what good it does to fulminate against the English tyranny while the Roman tyranny occupies the palace of the soul.” In the “first draft” of his novel Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, called Stephen Hero, Joyce has Stephen muse, “He comes into the world God knows how, walks on the water, gets out of his grave and goes up off the Hill of Howth. What drivel is this?”

And February 2 was the 152nd birthday of English psychologist and sexologist Havelock Ellis (1859). “There is,” Ellis observed, “a very intimate connection between hypnotic phenomenon and religion.” His liberal views on sexuality outraged the English clergy, who attempted “to trap and prosecute him.” That he was a Freethinker is shown in his Affirmations (1897) and My Life (1940).  “The whole religious complexion of the modern world,” wrote Ellis, “is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.”

6. Thursday, February 3, is the date, 68 years ago, that four chaplains aboard the US Army Transport Dorchester, sinking from a German U-Boat attack in the icy North Atlantic, helped other soldiers board lifeboats and gave up their own life jackets when the supply ran out, thereby sacrificing their lives to save the lives of others. In fact, if the actions of the “Four Chaplains” was a great moral lesson in selflessness for the survivors to witness, it must be admitted that it was a hard lesson on those who perished. I’ll have more on this in my “Reflection,” later on.

7. Finally, on Friday, February 4, it was the 169th birthday of Danish critic and scholar Georg Brandes (1842). Over the course of his 85 years, Brandes exercised great influence on Scandinavian and European literature, but moved around the world rather often. One of the reasons was his freethinking philosophy: his views forced him to leave Denmark for Berlin, but in 1883 he was persuaded to return to Denmark. His last years were dedicated to anti-religious polemics and a rejection of what he saw as the hypocrisy of prudish sexuality. “But my doubt would not be overcome,” wrote Brandes. “Kierkegaard had declared that it was only to the consciousness of sin that Christianity was not horror or madness. For me it was sometimes both.”

As you can see, the Golden Age of Freethought is now. You can find full versions of these pages and more in Freethought history at Freethought Almanac.com and links to what you just heard at the American Heathen blog. This is John Mill with your Week in Freethought History. And now back to RJ and David 2!

(The following commentary is part of a weekly series called “Reflections” by John Mill.  John is a noted free thought advocate and broadcaster.  His series airs on my American Heathen® internet radio show. Air date of this particular segment: 02/04/11)
Do believers really not think things through? Or are they just desperate to believe something?

This is John Mill and as I was researching about events in Freethought history, I stumbled on one that might have made me feel warm and fuzzy about God’s ministers on earth – until it dawned on me what the story really means.

You see, it was on February 3, 1943, that four chaplains aboard the US Army Transport Dorchester, sinking from a German U-Boat attack in the icy North Atlantic, helped other soldiers board lifeboats and gave up their own life jackets when the supply ran out, thereby sacrificing their lives to save the lives of sailors and soldiers abandoning a sinking ship. To some, February 3 has since become known as “Four Chaplains Day,” in memorial to the self-sacrifice of these servants of God in time of war.

The story of the “Four Chaplains” was already approaching legendary proportions within a few years of their deaths. It’s supposed to be a heart-warming story of God’s love and sacrifice to ease the suffering of his creatures on earth. Really. Even Michelle Bachman says this, so it must be so. Who could be so callous as to criticize Four Chaplains Day?

Well, before I get stoned to death or excommunicated or shunned, let me explain myself.

The “Four Chaplains” – Clark Poling of the Dutch Reformed Protestant church, George Lansing Fox of the Methodist Protestant church, John Washington of the Roman Catholic church and Alexander David Goode, a Jewish rabbi – were assigned to the USAT Dorchester, a merchant vessel converted to an armored troop transport. The Dorchester left New York, in a convoy with other transports carrying World War II troops and supplies, bound for an Army base in Greenland, on January 23, 1943. Their route took them through waters known to be patrolled by German submarines, called as U-boats, whose most effective weapon is the torpedo, an underwater self-propelled missile that can strike almost without warning.

On the morning of 3 February 1943, one of three torpedoes fired by the U-boat U-223 hit the midsection of the Dorchester, knocking out the ship’s electrical system and causing it to founder within 30 minutes. In that time, the below-decks troops had to grab life jackets, get up on deck and find space in life boats in the sub-freezing air, then get away from the Dorchester before it disappeared into the freezing water. In those pre-dawn Arctic hours, the escape was complicated by the dark and the failure of the ship’s lights.

The heroism of the “Four Chaplains” resided in their calm amid the panic, during which they guided frightened soldiers to lifeboat stations, distributed life jackets and helped others over the side to the lifeboats. “Survivors remembered hearing their comforting voices raised in prayer,” said one account. “Others remember them handing life jackets to man after man and, at the end, giving up their own.”

Well, not so fast: the sinking of the Dorchester, in which the Four Chaplains and 670 other men died, if it proves anything, proves that nothing fails like prayer. You see, if the sacrifice of the “Four Chaplains” was a great moral lesson in selflessness for the survivors to witness, it must be admitted that it was a little hard on those who perished.

That God had to drown 674 US soldiers in icy water to give us this heart-warming story, proves not the love of Jehovah, but his malevolence. God could not protect the Four Chaplains, or the sailors who died. God could not even prevent the German U-boat from torpedoing the Dorchester.

Until that February 3, 1943, those four “religious” heroes did nothing practically useful for America, except to die in place of, perhaps, four sailors, on a doomed ship. You see, the “Four Chaplains” did what any human being of decency and upright character would do for a fellow human being, religion or no. And that’s just the point: there was no God in their gallantry, no Jesus in their generosity, and in their courage no creed.

This is John Mill.