Humanist Society of Santa Barbara
Newsletter for September 2002

• Social Scene
• Chairman's Column
• Getting to Know You - Scott and Kathleen
• A Book by God

• Here and There - This and That
• From the Editor
• Web-site of the Month
• Cross at Manning Park

Sept 21st - Our regular monthly meeting will feature Armen Saginian, who is Founder and Executive Director of New Horizons, an outreach program sponsored by the Council for Secular Humanism, with an office in Center for Inquiry-West, Los Angeles. New Horizons aims to promote the ideals of secularism, democracy, and regional inquiry among people of Iranian heritage in southern California. Born and raised in Iran of Armenian heritage, Mr. Saganian pur- sued higher education in the US in mathematics, engineering, and management, and has held such positions in American business and industry. His efforts to introduce modern western-style management into Iran were stifled by the Iranian Revolution in 1978.

Zebediah was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young layers, called pullets, and eight or ten roosters, whose jobs were to fertilize the eggs. Zeb kept records, and any rooster or pullet that didn't perform well went into the pot, and was replaced. That took an awful lot of time, so Zeb got a set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report simply by listening to the bells.

Zeb's favorite rooster was old Brewster. A very fine specimen he was too, only his bell had not rung all morning! Zeb went to investigate. Several roosters were chasing pullets, bells a-ringing! BUT, Brewster had his bell in his beak so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.

Zeb was so proud of Brewster that he entered him in the county fair. Brewster was an overnight sensation!! The judges not only awarded him the no bell piece prize but also the pullets surprise

CHAIRMAN'S COLUMN by ROGER SCHLUETER

Santa Barbara County Parks Commission
610 Mission Canyon Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93105

It has recently come to my attention that there is a Christian cross in Manning Park. Phone conversations with the Park Ranger, Mr. Doug Norton, and the Interim Director of County Parks, Mr. Rick Wheeler, indicate that the cross is, in fact, on public land and is maintained by the County.

The existence and support of a religious symbol by the County on public lands is illegal. After some discussion of this with Mr. Wheeler, he suggested that I should present my concerns to the Parks Commission. This letter serves to alert the Parks Commission to this problem and to request that action be taken to rectify it.

I request that Santa Barbara County remove the illegal cross from Manning Park. The cross should not only be removed, it should not be stored, maintained or in any other way supported by the County. I would appreciate your prompt attention to this matter. Please inform me of any hearings, action or other efforts that the County, the Parks Commission or the Parks Department takes in regard to this matter.

Mr. Wheeler appropriately requested a legal opinion from County Counsel, who (apparently; I have not personally seen their opinion) advised that the cross was, in fact, illegal.

The cross was then removed.

Kudos to Dudley for noticing this violation of church/state separation, to County Counsel for rendering the proper opinion and to Mr. Wheeler for promptly taking the legally required action.

Please note the pictures that Dick has included in this edition of our newsletter.

Personally speaking, it was rewarding to achieve this result in light of the struggles in San Francisco and San Diego Counties on similar issues. In fact, it is essential to acknowledge that these antecedent efforts made our local efforts not only possible but eventually successful.

Without the separation of Church and State there could be no Western Civilization as we know it. The dualism must continue if the culture and freedom is to continue as we know it. In Islam, God is Caesar; In Japan/China, Caesar is God; In Eastern Orthodoxy, God is Caesar's junior partner. The Western rule of secular law was the basis of constitutionality and protection of Human rights and autonomy at the local level, especially individualism of freedom, action, beliefs, etc. These values are not appreciated, or even important, to Islamic or Eastern cultures. So much we are to learn if we are to understand.     The Editor

This month we visit a site on a subject we love to hate, whose name is itself an oxymoron:

It is extensive but not well put together as some of the images are missing or vestigial, and many of the advertised pages just don't exist. It covers all aspects of the "science" they call creationism - all you would wish to know about it and a lot more besides. To give you the flavor of the site here is an exerpt from the lengthy section devoted to the Flood.

"Hydroplate Theory     The rupture of the earth's crust passed between what is now Alaska and Siberia in minutes. Jetting water from the 'fountains of the great deep' first fell as rain. During the next few hours, subterranean water that went above the atmosphere, where the effective temperature is several hundred degrees below zero Fahrenheit, fell as hail. Some animals were suddenly buried, suffocated, frozen, and compressed by tons of cold, muddy ice crystals from the gigantic 'hail storm.' The mud in this ice prevented it from floating as the flood waters submerged these regions after days and weeks. A thick blanket of supercold ice insulated and preserved many animals during the flood phase. After mountains were suddenly pushed up, the earth's balance shifted, the earth 'rolled,' so Alaska and Siberia moved from a temperate latitude to their present position. As the flood waters drained off the continents, the icy graves in warmer climates melted, and the flesh of those animals decayed. However, many animals, buried in what are now permafrost regions, were preserved."

How's that for a scientific theory?