My letter to the West Plains Daily Quill (Missouri) was finally printed on Friday, June 9, 2007.

Since they left out the "RE:" lines, people are not going to know what I was referring to. It took 3-1/2 full columns. I expected the letter to be trashed, but the editor said he agreed with every thing I said and wanted to print the complete article.

The intent of the letter was to get across to the locals that the "Atheists' books reaching to of best-seller list" author and the news media in general are flooding the news with distortions about the people and methology in the anti-religion books and movement. Hope I made that clear to them.

The original article titles were "Angry Atheists are Hot Authors" and "The Crusaders". Both are listed on RichardDawkins.net. It turns out the Associated Press news service had changed the titles and chopped of the end of "Atheists' books. . . " article.

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May 27, 2007
Revised May 30, 2007

To the Editor:

RE: "Atheists’ books reaching top of best-seller list"
(Printed on May 24, 2007)
"In Iraq, a religious war?"
(Printed on May 29, 2007)

It was good to see some one at the Daily Quill had the guts to print these two articles. They are opposite sides of a very serious problem in the U.S. You did put “Atheists’ books” in the proper section, as the article is totally biased, inaccurate, and deceptive. Just another example of the distortion and scare tactics being put out by the religious to cover their tracks. (Explained in a moment.) The title you used is not the original article title and the last five paragraphs were omitted. (Your title reads better.) This is the second article of public interest in two months that you have botched.

The article “In Iraq, a religious war?” is a disturbing view of how far the Fundamentalists have taken over our military and our government. This has been a growing problem way before G.W. Bush sneaked into the White House and expanded quickly with him. (Read “American Theocracy”). In one of the paragraphs you left out of the “Atheists’ books” article, they mention the Fundamentalist “perspective as a plausible world view.” “In Iraq. . .” gives a strong hint what that perspective is. I comment on it later.

I have wondered how many people in this area even know there is a debate on the validity of the current major religions. Christianity in particular. It seems that the leaders of this community do not want any one to know it exists as none of the books listed in the article, and many more books of this genre, are in the Public Library or at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart I can understand. But not the Public Library.

Last Fall(?), the Library had a copy of “Letter to a Christian Nation”. In March, 2007, it was not on the shelf and there was no listing of it in their computer catalog. To the Library Board: Where did it go??? And why have you not purchased any of the anti-religion books, while every month at least one new Christian fantasy story arrives in the “new non-fiction” section? This has looked like a very bad case of censorship. (Note: “The God Delusion” has been on the New York Times Bestseller list for 35 weeks. At #8 to #12 for 30 of those weeks!!! This week, of May 28, it is #1 on the Sunday Times (UK) non-fiction paperback best seller list. “God is not Great” is #1 on New York Times Bestseller list.)

Back to the articles:

Ms. Zoll tries to come across that all Atheists have suddenly gone angry and militant in their attacks against religion. This attitude and deception has been running amok and growing among the religious sector for the last year. It is common practice, and much worse at times, with CNN, Fox News, the magazines Time, Newsweek, and all other religious writers to paint negative and inaccurate pictures of Atheists and what they are attempting to accomplish. It is scary that the religious have so much control over the news media. It is disturbing that they give out totally inaccurate information to support their cause.

ABC/Nightline showed their true colors with their false representation of the debate between the Way of the Master (Kirk Cameron & Roy Comfort) and the Rational Response Squad (Brian Sapient & Kelly). For anyone who has only read press releases about the debate, or watched the Nightline version (May 9, 2007), watch the full video of the debate. (abcnews.go.com/nightline.) There is no valid comparison to what happen during the debate and what was reported in the news. None!

Another recent case of censorship has been the religious leaders putting pressure on the PBS stations to not show the documentary “A Rough History of Disbelief”. (On YouTube.) It covers the long history of Atheism. Some stations have shown it. So far, I have not seen it listed for the Springfield PBS station. Want to guess why the religious do not want it shown on TV??

Since the Theists don’t have a leg to stand on in debating the Atheists on any religious topic, they have to resort to distortions, personality attacks, and out right lies. That is a sad state this country has fallen into. But their tactics are nothing new either.

1. Former Christians have been writing books showing the errancy of the Bible since the early 1600s. The latest round has been growing for over 30 years so is not a sudden occurrence. With the Internet and the number of book publishers wanting to print and publicize these books, the anti-religion movement is growing larger everyday. Looks like it will not go away this time.

2. Christopher Hitchens comes across as an angry, outspoken, antagonistic person. Theists have Jerry Falwell (a true militant), Pat Robertson, and a few dozen others who advocate violence. The Atheists have Mr. Hitchens. The people who are angry and militant in their views are the religious.

Messrs. Harris, Dawkins, and Dennett are just the opposite of Mr. Hitchens. Read their written debates and videos with prominent Theists on Google Video, YouTube, BeliefNet and their websites. Mr. Dawkins' video “The Root of All Evil?” is an example of what they are trying to get across and their methodology. Anyone who thinks that is militant needs a heavy dose of the drugs that are being sold at the Middle and High School.

In the video, pay attention to how angry and hostile the religious leaders interviewed get at Mr. Dawkins’ simple questions. Especially Ted Haggard. (Was filmed before his fall from grace.) Another example is the interview by Sean Hannity (Hannity & Colmes – Fox News) with Mr. Hitchens on May 17, 2007. Or any of Bill O’Reilly’s religious tirades. Watch the videos, then decide who has an attitude problem. (Videos are on YouTube.)

3. “The war metaphor is apt. The writers see themselves in a battle for reason in a world crippled by superstition.” Ms.Zoll is trying to make this look like a physical war between believers and non-believers. The anti-religion authors, and their supporters, have only one objective: to get people to open their eyes and their brains and really look at the religion they so strongly believe in and what it is doing to society. There is nothing “militant” about their approach. Unlike the religious sects, Atheists do not use coercion, scare tactics, or threats to “convert” people to their way of thinking. That is mental abuse on children. Atheists do not harass, make death threats, or kill people just because a person does not have the same beliefs or is “attacking” their beliefs. These are Christians tactics, not just Muslims, folks. (There are good, bad, mentally dysfunctional and Sociopaths regardless of their religious beliefs.)

4. If any one bothers to read any of the blogs and millions of comments on the Atheist websites, you will see that approximately 80% of the Atheists, Agnostics, and Deists are EX-Christians of all ages (12 to 70). They read the Bible with an open mind (or were forced to read it) and saw its delusions and wishful thinking. It gets comical reading/listening to debates between Atheists and Theists. The Atheists run rings around the Theists with their knowledge of the Bible, history, and science. It is sad to listen to a person claim total belief in the Bible, and then say they have never read it, or only portions of it.

5. Ms. Zoll is using small time Christian College leaders to say there is a panic among the Atheists. The only people in a panic state and see this as a “war” are the Christian leaders and their followers who fear they will lose their emotional crutch and security blanket. They see their flocks shrinking. They don’t want to lose their cushy jobs, all that money, and all the power over people who blindly follow them. So they are pulling out every trick in distorting and warping the facts, along with outright lying. This article is a prime example of that. It is full of distortions.

Example: “Religious challenges to teaching evolution are still having an impact, 80 years after the infamous Scopes “Monkey” trial.” The only “impact” occurring are lawyers making tons of money. Money that should have been spent on practical student education. Every case where Creationism and Intelligent Design has been taken to court, the Christians Lost. The Scopes trial verdict was over-turned on its appeal. That is, Scopes was found Not Guilty!!

6. What the Atheists are attempting to stop is the Christian countries, in particular the U.S., from degrading back into the Dark Ages. That is, the same as the Muslim countries. (Remember what Europe went through for 1,000 years because of total Christian control of governments?) The Evangelicals and Fundamentalists are doing every thing they can to force their religious beliefs on everyone else. (including in Missouri) It is occurring in all phases of our society. The blocking of stem-cell research is only one.

7. The 2005 Ap-Ipsos poll referred to is as misleading as all current polls, plus old. The polls taken in 2007 give a 10% to 14% Atheist count. That is 30 million adults!! But, no two polls ask the same question or in the same way, plus where they are taken makes the counts vary widely. They will not include the closet Atheists. The people who are either too afraid to answer truthfully, faking being religious only to fit in, or use religion for power and money. So any results are dubious.

8. Any one who is not afraid of what President Bush and his VP can and might do, due to their religious beliefs and greed, must have had their head in the sand box for the last seven years. (That includes year 2000.) “In Iraq. . .” and many other articles/books show how screwed up and dangerous the path he has taken us. His people did a wonderful job in 2000 hiding his drinking and drugging history. People who have two-way conversations with their invisible god are called schizophrenic and put on heavy duty drugs.

These are the paragraphs you left out:

"There is this general sense that evangelicals have really gained a lot of power in the United States and the Bush administration seems to represent that in some significant ways," said Christian Smith, a sociologist of religion at the University of Notre Dame. "A certain group of people sees it that way and that's really disturbing."

That is a valid fact. One that scares rational thinking people not only in the U.S., but around the world. What is even more disturbing is ALL the Republican candidates for 2008 have already proven they are the same narrow minded, ignorant caliber as Bush. The Dem’s are no different. Anyone want to vote for Pete Stark in 2008?

"Mouw said conservative Christians are partly to blame for the backlash. The rhetoric of some evangelical leaders has been so strident, they have invited the rebuke, the seminary president said."

Another dumb statement. It is the whole shoot’n-match that is the problem!! The conservatives and evangelicals are only the most dangerous of the whole group. The moderates just sit around rotating their thumbs, hoping the whole thing will blow over. Then they vote for whoever has religious beliefs the closest to their own, not if the person is intelligent, rational, and mentally stable.

"We have done a terrible job of presenting our perspective as a plausible world view that has implications for public life and for education, presenting that in a way that is sensitive to the concerns of people who may disagree," he said. "Whatever may be wrong with Christopher Hitchens attacks on religious leaders, we have certainly already matched it in our attacks."

The Christians don’t have a “plausible world view”. Never have, never will. The Fundamentalists do have a view that has nothing but detrimental implications for public life and education. “In Iraq, a religious war?” shows what their “perspective” is: total domination. No freedom of speech, no freedom of religion (except theirs), etc., etc. They want a bigger war in the Middle East. Both for the oil and on religious grounds.

No, they have not matched Mr. Hitchens’ “attacks”. Nor Mr. Dawkins nor anybody else’s. All they spout is the same old circular logic and distortions. Have any doubts about that?? Again, watch/read the debates and the articles each have written. It does take an open mind to read and question both sides of the issue. 60% to 80% of the population does not want to do that. Takes too much effort. They were not trained (educated) to think or question.

Given the popularity of the anti-religion books so far, publishers are expected to roll out even more in the future. Lynn Garrett, senior religion editor for Publishers Weekly, says religion has been one of the fastest-growing categories in publishing in the last 15 years, and the rise of books by atheists is "the flip-side of that.”

"It was just the time," she said, "for the atheists to take the gloves off."

Again, this is nothing new. Just the right people speaking up saying “Enough is Enough”.

The popularity of the anti-religion books is an indication that more people are questioning the dogma that has been forced on them since birth. The books in the article are really the first ones written so the average person could understand. There is nothing new in them. Just straightforward, clear, explanations of “this is what is wrong with religions.” The Iraq War and the Muslim Terror threat have made people, with some level of common sense, look at what Islam stands for. In doing so, they are seeing that the Jewish and Christian religions are no different.

Mr. Hitchens sums up the situation: “Very often,” he reports, “what you find is that almost everyone there [U.S] believes themselves to be the only other atheist.” His book went straight into the New York Times top ten, “not because of my blue eyes but because it is part of a freshet of volumes [Dawkins and Sam Harris’s The End of Faith] that encourage a fightback against religious bullying and stupidity”. Sunday Times, May 30, 2007.

{signed with full name}