The White Man’s Bible (Creative Credo #47)
Written by Ben Klassen

During the fourth century AD, there lived in Alexandria a lovely intellectual woman by the name of Hypatia, the daughter of Theon. She grew up in an ideal intellectual climate, since her father, Theon, was a teacher, a mathematician and a philosopher. He taught her astronomy, astrology, mathematics and rhetoric.

Hypatia was born in the year 355 AD. She grew up to be a tall, slim, beautiful woman. Not only was she highly gifted intellectually, but she was unusually athletic. By the time she was 20 she could walk 10 miles without fatigue, could swim, row, ride horseback and climb mountains. She had bodily grace, beauty of face, and above all an abundance of intelligence.

By the time she began giving lectures of her own she was saying such things as: “Fables should be taught as fables, myths and myths, and miracles as poetic fancies. To teach superstitions as truths is a most terrible thing. The child-mind accepts and believes them, and only after great pain and perhaps tragedy can he be in after-years relieved on them. In fact, men will fight for a superstition quite as quickly as for a living truth – often more so, since a superstition is so intangible you cannot get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, and so is changeable.”

Orestes, who was the prefect of the city, attended her lectures/ When in one lecture Hypatia stated: “To rule by fettering the mind through fear of punishment in another world is just as base as to use force,” Orestes applauded her. News of this event was carried to Cyril, the then Bishop of Alexandria. He was infuriated and declared he would excommunicate Orestes.

But neither Cyril nor Orestes could unseat each other, since both derived their power from the Emperor in Rome. The quarrel grew more acrimonious, with Bishop Cyril venting his pathological hatred more and more against Hypatia.

In March of 415 AD, several years after Bishop Cyril had come to power, when Hypatia was 60 years old, she left the lecture hall one night to enter a carriage and go home. She was viciously attacked by the Nitrian Monks, leading a fanatical, hate-filled Christian mob. After first stripping her naked, she was barbarously murdered. She was then dragged through the streets by the mob, her flesh cut from her bones and finally burned piecemeal.

Her crime? She told the truth about the Christians’ unreasoned and superstitious lies, she promoted learning and culture, and thereby undermined the power of the tyrannical Jewish-Christian power structure.

In honor of the memory of Hypatia, and her strength in standing up against her oppressors, we name our organization after her.

In the early half of the 19th Century, America expanded westward. In the mid-1840’s, only about 700 people from the United States lived in California, but more Americans were looking toward the west and towards their future. Many heard tales that the west was a pioneer’s paradise and they wanted to move their families to “paradise.” American’s knew that their government had tried to buy California from Mexico several times. They felt confident in the strength of their country and they wanted it to expand all the way across to the west coast. Many Americans talked of moving their families west; they felt the need to gain more territory and to explore new places, but they didn’t have a word or phrase for that feeling until a New York newspaper came up with the phrase “Manifest Destiny.” Manifest means “clear” or “obvious” and Destiny means “something that is inevitable.” Americans felt this described perfectly what they were feeling, so they adopted the phrase Manifest Destiny, which quickly became a household saying! We believe that our path is also "clear, obvious and inevitable." Therefore, our tagline is:

Hypatia Publishing is looking towards the future of our Folk and we have the same confidence as did our pioneer forbearers.The courage that ran through them, also runs in us.The American Pioneers dedicated themselves to their Cause and overcame many obstacles, which eventually led to their victory over the West! Hypatia Publishing believes that if we put forth the same dedication to our Cause that we will also achieve our goals!

The purpose of Hypatia Publishing is to inspire our Folk to explore the past of our ancestors - their struggles and their accomplishments; to re-ignite the flame that lives within our People; to help build better communities through Folk Building; to raise our children to have pride in themselves and their People; and to live within the 4 Dimensions of Creativity: A Sound Mind in a Sound Body in a Sound Society in a Sound Environment.