MANNERS & MORALS: A Perfectly Rational Funeral

There was neither minister nor music at the funeral service in Denver last week for Oscar O. Whitenack, 79, who for eight years edited the "Open Forum" column of the Denver Post. When a handful of mourners gathered at the flower-covered coffin they heard the voice of Whitenack himself explaining why.

"This is my funeral," came a voice from a recording made four years before. "I am an atheist and have been for many years. I have the utmost contempt for theological nonsense. Clergymen are moral cowards. Miracles are a product of the imagination. If any four reporters were sent to...