Cover photo: Madalyn Murray (later O’Hair) with sons Bill (right) and Jon on the steps of the US Supreme Court heard arguments on Murray v Curlett, the case that led to the Court’s ruling that coerced prayer and reverential Bible reading in public schools were unconstitutional.

Editor’s Desk
    Frank R. Zindler

Atheism
    Madalyn Murray
    An address given by the
    founder of American Atheists to the
    American Rationalist Federation
    on the occasion of its 8th annual
    convention in August of 1962, before
    the Supreme Court had agreed to
    hear her case.

The Matter of Prayer
    Madalyn Murray O’Hair
    The real story behind the
    famous lawsuite challenging the
    reading of the Lord’s Prayer in the
    public schools goes behond constitu-
    tional principles and to the heart of
    Atheism.

May It Please The Court
    Excerpts from the brief submit-
    ted by Leonard J. Kerpelman for
    the Atheist appeal to the US
    Supreme Court in the case Murray
    v Curlett. His arguments are still
    relevant today.

The Apocalypse Bestiary
    Conrad F. Goeringer
    Metaphorical owls, roosters,
    and tortoises approach the new mil-
    lennium. Put your money on the
    tortoises.

Owls and Roosters in
    Prime Time
    Conrad F. Goeringer
    Chris Carter, the creative force
    behind The X-Files, borrows the
    apocalyptic metaphors of Owls and
    Roosters for his shadowy hit series
    Millennium

Did Jesus Exist?
    Frank R. Zindler
    A review of the alleged evidence
    for the historicity of Jesus of
    Nazareth shows it to be under-
    whelming at best. Jesus appears to
    be as mythical as Thor or Osiris.

Irish, Nazis, Threes, and Me
    Part II
    Tony Pasquarello
    The concluding portion of
    another chapter from the author’s
    quasi-autobiographical book The
    Altar Boy Chronicles