Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 15:37:12 -0700 (MST)
From: thekoba@aztec.asu.edu
Subject: [azsecularhumanists] Putz quoted in American Atheist Magazine
To: azsecularhumanists@yahoogroups.com
Cc: al-bahith@usa.net
Reply-To: azsecularhumanists@yahoogroups.com




The following is a portion of a speech by Ellen Johnson entitled "Atheist
Heroes" that appeared in the Summer 2001 issue of American Atheist magazine:

    We are building a grass-roots movement of Athiests across America
    to make the Atheist voice part of the American cultural and
    political dialogue.  But before we can move ahead as an organized
    group, we need to convince our fellow Atheists that it's time
    to be proud of their Atheism.

    Last February we held a regional Atheist meeting in Phoenix and a
    member of the local humanist group said to me, "You know Ellen,
    the problem with the name 'Atheist' is that it implies that we
    are 'against' things."  Are we just against things?  Our speakers
    at the RAM talked about saving children's lives from faith-healers,
    spoke about the real science of cosmology, and defending the 
    Constitution of the United States.  When did these things become
    negative?  Answer--when we let the religious right wing say that
    it does.

    The single overriding reason why other organizations shun the word
    Atheist is to please religionists.  That is the reason.  The
    religionist doesn't like the word Atheist.  The religionist thinks
    it's negative, harsh, and ofensive.  So, many Atheists have
    decided to please the adversary instead of doing what they should
    be doing, and now, unfortunately, Atheists are influenced by
    religious "shaming" techniques.  The religionists motives are 
    clear--to keep the word Atheist from being heard.  The less people
    hear it, the less they have to worry that others might embrace
    it.  It's an idea that they just cannot compete with because it
    empowers people.  We at American Atheists do not let our adversary
    dictate to us what we call ourselves.  WE determine what we will
    call ourselves, and if they don't like our name--too bad...

    --p. 15.

I was at that meeting in Phoenix, and I remember Paul Putz pestering
Ellen Johnson about just that issue.  It seems he got his quote into
American Atheist magazine without it being attributed to him.  Whatever
my other quarrels with Ellen Johnson, her response to Putz's nonsense was
right on.

--Kevin Walsh


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