Atheists for Liberty News - Issue #6

President’s Message: AFL at FreedomFest

After our largest and best conference exhibition yet I can say with confidence that the norm for Atheists for Liberty's exhibitions will be filled with large crews of volunteers from across the nation, with a reactionary brand to defend civilization. Our Heathens Happy Hour Event had 200 people present with two new Liberty movement favorites agreeing to join the Advisory Board. I was on the main stage with advisor Michael Shermer as he debated if Atheism was Dead, followed a day later by my Breakout Session on the Rise of Atheism! From a mere idea in 2019 to the packed organization that we are today, FreedomFest proved that there's a demand to see Atheists for Liberty excel into the future.

- Thomas Sheedy

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Featured Article:

Did “Colonization” Endanger Petroglyphs?

By Kristine Harley

On Earth Day 2017, Caltech geoscience professor Joseph Kirschvink drilled core samples in a pinkish volcanic rock called the Bishop Tuft. Unfortunately, this was in California’s Volcanic Tablelands, home to delicate 3,000-year-old petroglyphs of the Paiute and Shoshone tribes. The area is vulnerable to illegal trophy hunters, including university professors seeking samples.

Kirschvink’s selfish and unethical damage is termed an act of “colonization” by Max Liboiron in his opinion piece, “Decolonizing geoscience requires more than equity and inclusion.” According to Liboiron, “colonialism is not a historical event, but an ongoing set of relations that still characterize the common sense of professional science.”

“Colonialism,” asserts Liboiron, “continues through the assumed universal superiority of civilized, Western ways of knowing and doing.” To illustrate this, he cites Kirschvink’s damage as his sole example.

But was Kirschvink’s crime, which culminated in Caltech paying a settlement to the Department of the Interior, truly an example of the common sense of professional science?

Protecting Indigenous Cultures

In fact, Kirschvink violated the Archeological Resources Protection Act—hardly an act of “common sense” or professionalism. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management administers the site and Kirschvink did not first seek permission as required. Moreover, Kirschvink and his students bypassed a placard that clearly stated, “no person may excavate, remove, damage or otherwise deface any archeological resource.”

Responding to frantic visitor reports from a volunteer petroglyph patrol, Federal Ranger Chris Mason saw the blue-dyed holes, one made only three feet from a petroglyph, and quickly determined who was at fault. After Mason reported the damage, an allegedly “colonialist” system—made up of conservation-minded government agencies—investigated Kirschvink and his university.

A whole community of people—visitors, government employees, and conservation supporters—came together to ensure the continued preservation of these priceless petrogylphs. This, too, is an example of “civilized, Western ways of knowing and doing.”

Of course, no one should trespass at all. No one should, for any reason, endanger cultural artifacts, historic buildings, old manuscripts, or anyone’s burial ground for personal gain or any other reason. (Having been an archivist, as well as administrative support for historic preservation commissions, this issue is close to my heart.) But modern Western culture has, and continues to, protect and honor the artifacts of other cultures, and the common sense of professional science did that here.

Evolution of Attitudes

Kirschvink’s apology for his “unintentional mistake” could be sincere or not. Frankly, after all I have seen in my experience in archival and historic preservation, I wonder if he was sorry only for being caught. But his actions and those of other illegal trespassers are crimes motivated by personal gain, not evidence of systemic racism or “colonialism” motivated by, of all things, science and scientists!

Of course, in the past the damage done to both cultural and burial sites is incalculable. But today, an enlightened secular government enforces laws and collaborates with tribal historians and preservationists to protect indigenous artifacts. This represents an evolution in our attitudes, another hallmark of Western thought. Crime such as Kirschvink’s flouts, not endorses, our society’s values. If Max Liboiron sought to convince his audience that “colonialism” is business as usual for scientists (and for the independent researchers who raised the alarm about the petroglyphs), he missed the mark entirely.

Liboiron did not thoroughly read the article he cited in his rush to condemn the very system that held Joseph Kirschvink accountable.

The real problem is there are not enough federal land managers to keep pace with the ever-increasing numbers of visitors to our national parks. As the linked article from the Los Angeles Times states, more volunteers are needed—not abstract navel gazing about “colonization.”

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Music Review - The Sound of Atheism

By Max Carlisle

It has been said that some bible verses are indistinguishable from heavy metal lyrics, and perhaps no band provides a better example of that than the German metal outfit Powerwolf. The opening track from their 2013 album Preachers of the Night, highlights the obvious violent obsessions of the early Christian church. “Amen and Attack” even throws in some Latin, “In nomine veritas”, along with wonderfully catchy lyrics like “Make them pray or make them pay”. This is the same band that would go on to write religiously tongue-in-cheek hits like “Demons Are a Girl's Best Friend”, “Sanctified With Dynamite”, and “Killers With the Cross”. Powerwolf have certainly embraced sacred religious texts, although probably not in the way the church fathers intended.

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