Madalyn Murray O'Hair
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Madalyn Murray O'Hair (1919-1995), "the most hated woman in America," was the founder of American Atheists and noted (rhetorical) bomb-thrower. O'Hair was raised a Christian but said that in her early teens she read the Bible through and afterwards became an atheist.[1]
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[edit] Lawsuits
O'Hair fought some noteworthy lawsuits. She won in the Supreme Court case of Murray v. Curlett in 1963, which helped end school prayer along with the contemporaneous decisions of Abington School District v. Schempp (1963) and Engel v. Vitale (1962).[2]
One of her genuinely nuttier actions was filing a lawsuit against NASA for Apollo 8 astronauts' reading from the Book of Genesis during their mission on December 24, 1968.[3]
[edit] Quotes
| —Murray v. Curlett, Petition for Relief, 1959 |
| —Murray v. Curlett, Petition for Relief, 1959 |
“”Atheism may be defined as the mental attitude which unreservedly accepts the supremacy of reason and aims at establishing a lifestyle and ethical outlook verifiable by experience and the scientific method, independent of all arbitrary assumptions of authority and creeds.
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| —American Atheists charter[4] |
[edit] The end
She and her family were abducted and murdered in 1995 by an employee of American Atheists.[5] Though the FBI, ATF, and Dallas Sheriff took the case seriously, the Austin Police Department were criticized for giving these crimes a low priority.[6] In the end, the motive turned out to be a combination of petty revenge and the theft of some gold coins that O'Hair had.
[edit] See also
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[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Who Was Madalyn Murray O'Hair?
- ↑ Abington School District v. Schempp/Murray v. Curlett, about.com
- ↑ http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1774&dat=19691125&id=D7kqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CmYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5802,3204174
- ↑ Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Wikiquote.
- ↑ The Murder of Madalyn Murray O'Hair: America's Most Hated Woman, Crime Magazine
- ↑ Preying on Atheists