Volume 11, Issue 9, page 21

P O~E PAUL VI did a fine job with the Hebrew curse. I wrote a
letter of thanks to him for using his Holy Office to r i gh t a
2,000-year-old wrong. I pointed out that every E a s t e r
season, Passion plays and Passion sermons stress'guiltof
theJews' as if the Divinity of Jesusdepended upon the
perpetuation of this guilt and the hate it engendered. What is
wrong
with stressing the virtues of Jesus to attract belief in him?

"You are quite right in your Auditorial concerning the minister's
wife and the atheist

'each speaking lines that haa been schooled into them'.

"Boiled down, neither was arguing for or against God but rather
for and against A BOOK. She, taking her authority from
statements in the Bible for the existence of God, and the atheist
stressing contradictory passages, physically impossible
statements, b 1 o o dthirsty and sex-perverted ac~counts of a
book whose characters cannot be accounted for in historical
recordings.

"Having been a student of the philosophy of atheism, it is easy
to see that your atheist was merely one who did not
believe in God. A student of atheism never makes the statement
there is no God, for thethe onus of proof is on him as well
as on the minister's wife who made the assertion there is a God.
Neither can furnish proof.

"The learned atheist says there is no evidence of the existence
of a God. Science is fairly successful finding causes for
most effects, and to postulate a Prime Cause above and beyond all
causes places one in the position of

L having to find a cause for that
7 Prime Cause, and then a cause
for the cause that caused that
Prime Cause, ad infinitum.

"Permit me to repeat what I once said that there can be no
non-thinking atheist, nor can there be a mentally- retarded
atheist. Whereas the framework of religion is pregnant with
mental pygmies. Let this last sentence not be misunderstoodI
am saying it is easier noi to have to think when you dwell

~X in teachings of your progeni04 tors.

44 "The atheist of necessity
M has to think his way out of
CZ ~is P-reconditioning (brainwash-
ing) by his religious teachers
when he/she was too young to
have an opinion.

"In a tete-a-tete with Pope Pius XII shortly a f t er h i s death
I called his attention that on his level in the Heaven World
there were many who

21 were non-Catholics who never

observed the sacraments nor received extreme unction b efore or
at death. And according to his teachings no one can get to
heaven who does not observe the sacraments. In view of this, 'Did
you not teach false teachings?' A prolonged silencewas
followed by, 'I taught as truth what I was taught was truth.'

"The above holds equally v a 1 i d f o r rabbi, minister, monk,
and other theologians. They teach as truth, what they were
taught was truth. Imagine the absurdity: theological schools do
not bring God into focus, but rather help Pulpit thumpers to
learn how to use the Bible to its best advantage. If all the
foregoing leads you to think I am satisfied there is no God, this
is
not so. Fbr all my disappointing hunt of 40 years, I still cling
to the feeling that there is an 'Intelligent Creative Power'.
And being Intelligent, must be approachable and communicative."
--Jacob and Rose Apsel, MiI74nukee, Wis.

T- 0 G)

AM NOT going to Chile, al

tho I did ask if it were the will of the Supreme, and if He
furnished the means (having my place s o 1 d at reasonable
return so as to be able to settle in Chile in like conditions of
living), I was willing to give it a try. Why else would I be
running into such difficulty, unless that I was putting my own
seeking before those of the Omniscient, who knows best for
me ? Every time I tried to run away from the mission I was given
in youth, which has given me some publicity as 'the
Hermit of the Andes' in Ecuador, I have met adverse consequences:
return to U.S. brought on parathion poisoning
workingin California fruit orchards, and as shown in 'Silent
Spring', drugs (penecillin, etc.) worsened the effect till I was
completely paralyzed, 2 weeks given to live --from where I had to
regain my health right before the M.D.'s eyes in the
limited facility of a state hospital , since theyallowed me to
refuse meat, pastry, etc., eating the best in natural foods
available, taking sun and hot water baths, and daily hiding the
half-dozen pills given altho no more injections were forced
on me... (Now) I can walk without a cane but it scares me
terribly and wears me out, so I use.a cane. The antibiotics
destroy
a person's sense of balance; I cannot stand freely unless Ihave
something dependable to hang to, since it is so hard to
estimate distances with the eyes to stay on balance.

"Now what was the cause of

the condition, the 'sin that created the suffering' 2 This has
nothing to do with fasts. During my fasts I lived an active life,
published more literature than I did at any other time, went
swimming afternoons on bicycle, altho I did nothing heavier
than carry 60lb. bottles of distilled water or chop wood to keep
warm - I remember such things and am content to be in
Vilcabamba where one never feels cold nor suffocating heat. The
cause of my condition was sprays, the 'Silent Spring'
tragedy, the same thing the whole world is sufferiffg from, this
'wonderful gift' of science, the chemical warfare against all
human Deings in which the insects are gaining.

"Sunday, October 13, a principal newspaper in Ecuador in magazine
s e c t ion carried a story about my life in
Vilcabamba, ideals, and pictures of my over-six-month fasts,
beside the historic week news of Khruschev's fall, Chinese
bomb, Vegetarian Harold Wilson, etc. But the editorial was about
the millions of fish appearing dead along the rivers in
Guayaquil region... They even tried to blame atomic fallout, when
it is least here (exceDt for Antofagasta Chile), actual
measurements showing least strontium90 inEcuadorean food with
comparison to other countries. Ecuador is the largest
exporter of bananas in world, because i t h a s best , due to
fertile banana lands, but the mischief of sprays sold by U. S.
agricultural scientists has reached the point the coast is
covered by poisons which rains wash into rivers killing the fish --
and who knows effect on human guinea pigs tested!

"So far we can still get unsprayed things here where the land is
less productive and divided among lazy poor folk who
just grow enough for self and not like factory farms or big
haciendas. My land was so poor that I nearly starved out but now
that it is fenced, I am having new earth from surrounding woods
brought in and by New Year will be producing quite a
garden of my own. It is the paradise I have sought many years,
but takes patience developing the new Garden of Eden.

"Your magazine commentaries are interesting--the religious
difference and later indifference, etc. As a hermit. I
experienced the mystic truths of Yoga or the Hindu religion, then
I changed to realize the Supreme or Transcendant
Truth of Buddha, and then I combined the two--the Immanence of
God and Transcendence delving and
experiencing Catholic mystic