E! Online columnist and media personality Ben Stein has apologized for remarks made in the wake of the September 11 terrorist violence which he described as an "act of atheistic horror."

   In his current "Monday Night At Morton's" column posted on the Entertainment web site -- "Fun, Fun, Fun Until the Terrorists Take My T-Bird Away" -- Stein writes that he is thinking "about my atheist friends who have been bombarding me with mail."

   "I made the mistake of calling the terror bombing of New York an 'act of atheistic horror' or something similar. I have gotten many angry letters from atheists saying that atheists are great people and would never do anything bad -- and that I must be bad for associating atheism with bad acts."

   The 58-year-old actor, who described himself in a People Magazine interview as "I'm me, a monotone person wrapped around a shrieking one trying to get out," added that he originally meant to criticize "the killers pretending to be devoutly religious, but no well-known concept of God allowed mass murder of civilians, so the killers must be lying about their devotion to God."

   Stein admits that he should have employed more accurate and thoughtful terms such as "hypocritical" or "pseudo-religion," instead of characterizing the destruction and loss of life at the World Trade Center as the work of nonbelievers.

   "I thoroughly apologize for that unintended and untrue slight," Stein adds. "However, I don't want to concede the point made by many of my angrier friends that atheists are all automatically morally superior to believers... I guess there are good atheists and bad atheists, and to call the killers of September 11 atheists was inappropriate and a foolish choice of words..."

   "I'm delighted to see this clarification by Mr. Stein," said American Atheists President Ellen Johnson, "and I applaud his courage and honesty in coming forth in the midst of so much religious hysteria that characterizes the post-September 11 political environment, and demonstrating this kind of respect."

   Others, however, have been less kind to atheists, and the service of the truth.

   ABC gabfest host Star Jones made unflattering remarks about Atheists and Atheism on September 17, when she declared on live television that she would never vote for a candidate who did not believe in God, since faith is presumably the only basis of morality and ethics.

   Following that, USA TODAY guest columnist Kathleen Parker attacked atheists in an October 1, 2001 piece, "God, country gain fragile new toehold."

   "One can't help notice the silence of atheists these day," Parker wrote. She went on to lament, "We lost track when we evicted God from our public institutions and when we stopped honoring our nation with the songs and rituals that defined American childhood until a few decades ago."

   After referring to the "marriage of God and country demanded by our national psyche," and the conflict this might pose to the separation of church and state, Parker lamely insisted, "I'm sure we can figure out something."

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