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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


An atheist billboard opposing religion was ripped to shreds on Sunday in New Jersey.

Modern American tolerance: An atheist billboard opposing religion was ripped to shreds on Sunday in New Jersey.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

7 comments

  • wodun

    ““I was remarkably surprised to find out how closed-minded this town was,” he said.”

    The same could be said of atheists.

    ““They wanted religious displays if it was their religion that was being displayed.””

    Or maybe they were upset at being targeted during their holiday. Who knew that atheism is now a religion?

    As offensive as atheists are, I don’t agree with vandalizing their signs.

  • Good, glad the sign was torn down.

  • So, it appears then that you don’t believe in freedom of speech and the right of all Americans to express their opinions. Only religious people are allowed the right to practice their beliefs in your America.

    Not me. I might be conservative. I might be agnostic. I might be skeptical. But above all, I stand for freedom and tolerance. I will defend the right of anyone to express their beliefs openly and peaceably, to the death, even if I passionately disagree with them.

    You can’t have freedom if the only people free to speak are those you agree with.

  • Jim

    I am curious about this…what is offensive about being an atheist? Let’s face it, there are offensive people in all sub-sets of the population, and atheists are no different. But that has nothing to do with being an atheist.

    And I would say this, spirituality is a process. Atheism might just be part of that process for a particular individual. We’re all on a path.

  • mpthompson

    It is a two way street. Here in California many of the atheists I know are very intolerant towards those with faith. To the point of often being obnoxious in their words and behavior towards those who don’t share their lack of belief in a deity. They seem to believe their own lack of religious belief somehow makes them morally superior to those with religious beliefs. If asked, I identify myself as someone “without faith” rather than an atheist so as to not identify myself with the boorish atheists that seem so prevalent in this area.

    In my own experience, intolerance towards the beliefs of others is a flaw of character rather than being associated with faith, or lack of faith, in God. Some of the most tolerant people I know are very religious, while some of the least tolerant are not religious at all.

  • Jim

    My experience is just the opposite. In fact, I never hear from atheists. I never see them advertising anything, they never talk to me about their lack of belief, and in fact, I only know they are atheists when the topic of religion is brought up and everyone is joining in on the conversation. To me, they seem to be shadow people…until Bill O’Reilly has one on the air. I’m not saying they are inactive…they probably are becoming more active. But so what? That is American democracy…they too have a voice.

    I agree that intolerance is in all groups, but I would disagree with you on who has shown more intolerance throughout history…atheists or the religious. But it is a two way street, and atheists have taken some incredibly shallow positions in the past- see the recent thread here on the 6 year old girl being told she could not recite the poem she wrote because it mentioned God.

  • Jim

    This probably won’t go anywhere because this thread is old, but here is a related story and to me an offensive one. A politician introducing a bill that would allow schools to “require reciting the Lord’s Prayer.”

    Its when I see this kind of thing that allows me to understand how offended atheists can get at some of this stuff. And that is because I can see how the religious too can get offended. And in this case it would be the religious who do not subscribe to the Lord’s Prayer who would be offended…they are just religious in other religions. Atheists just don’t subscribe to any prayer, so there would be no difference in how one could be offended.

    http://www.indystar.com/article/20130103/NEWS05/130103032/Sen-Kruse-s-bill-would-allow-schools-require-saying-Lord-s-Prayer?gcheck=1

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