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United CoR Coalitions

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MAAF Network

Camp Quest

OTHER IMPORTANT SITES

MAGAZINES AND JOURNALS

AUDIO AND VIDEO

BLOGS AND DISCUSSION BOARDS

FOR FUN

REFERENCE

"Demographics of Atheism" Wikipedia

American Religious Identification Survey - 2008

Pew U.S. Religious Landscape Survey - 2009

"Leaving Religion Behind: A Portrait of Nonreligious America - Nonreligious Americans represent the fastest-growing part of the nation's religious landscape" by Dan Gilgoff, U.S. News and Wrold Report, March 13, 2009

"Survey sees a drift away from religion in America - The percentage of Christians in the US declined, while that of people with 'no religion' almost doubled" by Jane Lampman, The Christian Science Monitor, March 10, 2009

"This Easter, Smaller Percentage of Americans Are Christian" by Frank Newport, Gallup, April 10, 2009

"Catholics on the Move, Non-religious on the Rise" by American Religious Identification Survey

RELIGION IN THE WORLD AT THE END OF THE MILLENNIUM - Gallup International Millennium Survey

"Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies" by Gregory S. Paul, Journal of Religion and Society, 2005

"Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side'" by Ruth Gledhill, UK Times Online, September 27, 2005

"Religious Belief & Societal Health - New Study Reveals that Religion Does Not Lead to a Healthier Society" by Matthew Provonsha, Skeptic, September 2005

"5 Countries That Do It Better: How Sexual Prudery Makes America a Less Healthy and Happy Place" by Alex Henderson, Alternet, April 12, 2012

"What Happens When a Country Gives Up Religion: as Spain Shows, Nothing Much" by Martin Varsavsky, Huffington Post, March 9, 2007

"Baptists have highest divorce rate" The Associated Press, December 30, 1999

"U.S. divorce rates for various faith groups, age groups, & geographic areas" ReligiousTolerance.org

"Red State Babylon" by James Wolcott, Vanity Fair, November 2006

"Walking the Walk on Family Values" by William V. D'Antonio, The Boston Globe, October 31, 2004

"Most Religious States Revealed in New Survey" by Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience, March 27, 2012

"Religiosity and teen birth rate in the United States" by Joseph M Strayhorn and Jillian C Strayhorn; Reproductive Health, September 17, 2009

"Teen birth rates highest in most religious states" by Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience, September 16, 2009

"Teenage birth rates higher in more religious states" Psysorg, September 17, 2009

"Teen moms: Which state has the highest birth rate?" The Associated Press, April 10, 2012

"Gallup poll: Religion, intolerance related" UPI, April 7, 2009

"Religiosity and Perceived Intolerance of Gays and Lesbians" Gallup, March 10, 2009

"Research links some scriptures to hostile acts" by Amy Choate-Nielsen, Deseret News, February 27 2007

"Survey: Support for terror suspect torture differs among the faithful" CNN, April 30, 2009

"Religion and Child Abuse" by Innaiah Narisetti, Center for Inquiry

"Study Compares Christian and Non-Christian Lifestyle's" by Audrey Barrick, Christian Today, February 7, 2007

"Lonely people more likely to believe in God" LiveScience, January 24, 2008

"Evolution, religion, schizophrenia and the schizotypal personality" lecture by Dr. Robert Sapolsky [Video]

"Morality Research Sheds Light On the Origins of Religion" ScienceDaily, February 8, 2010

"Religion not the only path to altruism" by Robin Lloyd, LiveScience, October 27, 2008

"How A Simple Mathematic Formula Is Starting To Explain The Bizarre Prevalence Of Altruism In Society" Psysorg, July 18, 2008

"Dawn of Social Networks: Ancestors May Have Formed Ties With Both Kin and Non-Kin Based On Shared Attributes" ScienceDaily, January 25, 2012

"Evolution Guides Cooperative Turn-Taking, Game Theory-Based Computer Simulations Show" ScienceDaily, July 8, 2009

"Cooperative Behavior Meshes With Evolutionary Theory" ScienceDaily, April 6, 2009

"Religion is a product of evolution, software suggests" by Ewen Callaway, NewScientist, May 27, 2008

"We Help Friends Due to Empathy; Relatives Due to Expectation of Reciprocity" ScienceDaily, March 24, 2008

"Money Buys Happiness When You Spend on Others, Study Shows" ScienceDaily, March 21, 2008

"Consideration For Others Stimulates Positive Behavior" ScienceDaily, March 21, 2008

"Men and Women Cooperate Equally for the Common Good, Study Finds" ScienceDaily, September 22, 2011

"Social Scientists Build Case for 'Survival of the Kindest'" ScienceDaily, December 8, 2009

"The Chronic Dependence Of Popular Religiosity Upon Dysfunctional Psychosociological Conditions" by Gregory Paul, Evolutionary Psychology Journal, 2009

"The Neural Correlates of Religious and Nonreligious Belief" by Sam Harris, Jonas T. Kaplan, Ashley Curiel, Susan Y. Bookheimer, Marco Iacoboni1, and Mark S. Cohen

"Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment" by Phil Zuckerman [Book]

"Moral Minds - The Nature of Right and Wrong" by Marc D. Hauser [Book]

"Mirroring People - The New Science of How We Connect with Others" by Marco Iacoboni [Book]

"Mirrors in the Brain: How Our Minds Share Actions, Emotions, and Experience" by Giacomo Rizzolatti & Corrado Sinigaglia [Book]

"The Neuroscience of Fair Play - Why We Usually Follow the Golden Rule" by Donald W. Pfaff [Book]

"How the Mind Works" by Steven Pinker [Book]

"The Science of Good and Evil" by Michael Shermer [Book]

"Hardwired Behavior - What Neuroscience Reveals about Morality" by Laurence Tancredi [Book]

"The Moral Animal" by Robert Wright [Book]

"The Evolution of Cooperation" by Robert Axelrod [Book]

"Being Altruistic May Make You Attractive" ScienceDaily, October 14, 2008

"Anthropologists Develop New Approach To Explain Religious Behavior" ScienceDaily, Sepember 9, 2008

"Robin Hood spirit lives in us all" by Will Dunham, Reuters, April 12, 2007

"Ability To Literally Imagine Oneself In Another's Shoes May Be Tied To Empathy" ScienceDaily, June 23, 2009

"Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Thinking about Morality" by Adina Roskies and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Scientific American, July 29, 2008

"If It Feels Good to Be Good, It Might Be Only Natural" by Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post, May 28, 2007

"Emory Brain Imaging Studies Reveal Biological Basis For Human Cooperation" ScienceDaily, July 18, 2002

"People Behave Socially and 'Well' Even Without Rules, Online Avatar Study Shows" ScienceDaily, January 16, 2012

"Science of the Soul? 'I Think, Therefore I Am' Is Losing Force" by Cornelia Dean, June 26, 2007

"The soul? It may all be in your mind" by Rich Barlow, Boston Globe, October 18, 2008

"Good Behavior, Religiousness May Be Genetic" ScienceDaily, April 6, 2007

"It seems biology (not religion) equals morality" by Marc Hauser, The Age, December 2, 2009

"The Moral Instinct" by Steven Pinker, New York Times, January 13, 2008

"Moral thinking" The Economist, February 21, 2008

"Brains Are Hardwired To Act According To The Golden Rule" ScienceDaily, March 21, 2008

"Are Humans Hardwired For Fairness?" ScienceDaily, April 16, 2008

"Born Nice? Peoples' Niceness May Reside in Their Genes, Study Finds" ScienceDaily, April 10, 2012

"Can a molecule make us moral?" by Paul Zak, CNN, December 27, 2011

"Neurological Support for Adam Smith's 'Theories of Morality'" ScienceDaily, April 9, 2012

"Be Good Now, Or Else" by Steve Mitchell, AAAS, October 3, 2007

"Brain Injury Said to Affect Moral Choices" by Benedict Cary, New York Times, March 22, 2007

"Justice In The Brain: Equity And Efficiency Are Encoded Differently" ScienceDaily, May 8, 2008

"Revealing The Origins Of Morality -- Good And Evil, Liberal And Conservative" ScienceDaily, May 17, 2007

"The Moral Life of Babies" by Paul Bloom, New York Times, May 5, 2010

"Babies Show Sense of Fairness, Altruism as Early as 15 Months" ScienceDaily, October 7, 2011

"Babies Picky About Who They Imitate" by Remy Melina, Live Science, December 11, 2011

"Babies Know What's Fair" ScienceDaily, February 18, 2012

"Children Are Naturally Prone To Be Empathic And Moral" ScienceDaily, July 11, 2008

"Wild Justice - The Moral Lives of Animals" by Marc Beroff and Jessica Pierce [Book]

"The Age of Empathy - Nature's Lessons For a Kinder Society" by Frans de Waal [Book]

"Primates and Philosophers - How Morality Evolved" by Frans de Waal [Book]

"Animals can tell right from wrong" by Richard Gray, The Telegraph, May 23, 2009

"How Baboons Think (Yes, Think)" by Nicholas Wade, New York Times, October 9, 2007

"Monkeys Enjoy Giving To Others, Study Finds" ScienceDaily, August 25, 2008

"Monkeys show sense of justice" by Dr David Whitehouse, BBC News, September 17, 2003

"Monkeys go out on a limb to show gratitude" by Janelle Weaver, Nature, January 12, 2010

"Do Monkeys Know What Others Need?" ScienceDaily, April 12, 2012

"Chimpanzees Help Each Other On Request But Not Voluntarily" ScienceDaily, October 14, 2009

"Chimpanzees Are Spontaneously Generous After All, Study Shows" ScienceDaily, August 8, 2011

"Chimpanzees Have Police Officers, Too" ScienceDaily, March 7, 2012

"Mama gorilla won't let go of her dead baby" The Associated Press, August 20, 2008

"Living with humans has taught dogs morals, say scientists" by Daily Mail, August 21, 2008

"Dog braves traffic to stick by fatally struck pal" The Associated Press, April 14, 2012

"Rats influenced by the kindness of strangers" NewScientist.com, July 6, 2007

"Rats to the Rescue in Cage Experiment" by Sindya N. Bhanoo, New York Times, December 9, 2011

"Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior in Rats" by Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal1, Jean Decety, Peggy Mason, AAAS, December 9, 2011

"Altruism In Social Insects Is A Family Affair" ScienceDaily, May 29, 2008

"Kamikaze bacteria illustrate evolution of co-operation" by James Morgan, Nature, August 20, 2008

"Close Family Ties Keep Microbial Cheaters in Check, Study Finds" ScienceDaily, December 16, 2011

"(Un)wired For God" Newsweek, Aug 12, 2009

"Creating God in one’s own image" Discover Magazine, November 30, 2009

"Creating God In One's Own Image" ScienceBlogs, November 30, 2009

"Dear God, please confirm what I already believe" by Andy Coghlan, NewScientist, November 30, 2009

"Believers' estimates of God's beliefs are more egocentric than estimates of other people's beliefs" by Nicholas Epleya, Benjamin A. Conversea, Alexa Delboscb, George A. Monteleonec and John T. Cacioppo, Columbia University, New York, NY, and approved October 21, 2009 (received for review July 27, 2009)

"Attack On North Carolina Candidate Focuses Attention On State Constitutional Bans On Nonbelievers In Public Office" by Rob Boston, Americans United, February 2010

"Americans Today Much More Accepting of a Woman, Black, Catholic, or Jew As President - Still Reluctant to Vote for Atheists or Homosexuals" by Frank Newport, Gallup News Service, March 29, 1999

"Likely Voters National Opinion Survey" by Rasmussen Reports, November 15-16, 2006 [60% of voters said they would never consider voting for an Atheist presidential candidate]

"Some Americans Reluctant to Vote for Mormon, 72-Year-Old Presidential Candidates [Least Likely to Vote for Atheists]" by by Jeffrey M. Jones, February 20, 2007

"Atheists as 'Other': Moral Boundaries and Cultural Membership in American Society" by Penny Edgell, Joseph Gertis, and Douglas Hartmann, University of Minnesota, Janurary 29, 2007

The U.S. Constitution - transcript

The Bill of Rights - transcript

Treaty of Tripoli - transcript (see Article 11)

Treaty of Tripoli

Little-Known U.S. Document Signed by President Adams Proclaims America's Government Is Secular

The Separation of Church and State - introduction

U.S. Supreme Court Decisions

Is America a Christian Nation?

It’s a free country, not a Christian nation

The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State

Quotations that Support the Separation of State and Church

James Madison on Separation of Church and State

Church-State Separation - Issues

Church-State Separation - Other Historical Documents

Thomas Jefferson: Draft for a Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in Virginia, 1779

Thomas Jefferson: Letter to the Danbury Baptists (Draft Version), 1802

Thomas Jefferson: Letter to the Danbury Baptists (Final Version), 1802

James Madison on Separation of Church and State

James Madison: Memorial and Remonstrance, 1785

Excerpts from Madison's Detached Memoranda

Thomas Paine's Age of Reason

Thomas Paine's Age of Reason

U.S. National Mottos

Pledge of Allegiance - History

Pledge of Allegiance - Controversy

Pledge of Allegiance - Circuit court decision, reactions, etc.

Pledge of Allegiance - Appeal to the Supreme Court 2003-4

Pledging Allegiance to God

Restore the Pledge

History of the National Mottos

E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One)

In God We Trust

The Ten Commandments

Which Ten Commandments?

Which Ten Commandments? (pdf)

The Jefferson Bible

School Prayer

"Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: A multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer" by Herbert Benson, MDal, Jeffery A. Dusek, PhDal, Jane B. Sherwood, RNm, Peter Lam, PhDm, Charles F. Bethea, MDb, William Carpenter, MDivc, Sidney Levitsky, MDd, Peter C. Hill, MDe, Donald W. Clem Jr., MAf, Manoj K. Jain, MD, MPHg, David Drumel, MDivgh, Stephen L. Kopecky, MDi, Paul S. Mueller, MDj, Dean Marekk, Sue Rollins, RN, MPHb, Patricia L. Hibberd, MD,PhDlm, American Heart Journal, received 5 January 2005; accepted 6 May 2005

"Long-Awaited Medical Study Questions the Power of Prayer" by Benedict Carey, New York Times, March 31, 2006

"Study calls prayer for sick people ineffective Rate of problems after surgery unchanged by act" by Rob Stein, Washington Post, March 31, 2006

Positive Atheism's Big List of Quotations

Quotations of Freethought and Religion

Great Freethinker Quotes

Thinking Quotes

"U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey [Atheists and agnostics score best on survey]" by Pew Research Center, September 28, 2010

Big Religion Chart

FreeThoughtpedia

Irreligion

Rationalist Movement

"Descent of Man" by Charles Darwin (1871)

"The Origin of Species" by Charles Darwin (1872)

Historical Documents - Author Index (writings before 1970)

Modern Documents - Author Index (writings after 1970)

Biographies and Archives

Secular Web Reference Desk

Godless Links

The Council of Orange (529)

Amsterdam Declaration

American Secular Union

"The Great Scandal: Christianity's Role in the Rise of the Nazis" by Gregory S. Paul

Winter Solstice Celebrations

History Channel: History of Christmas - Christmas Trees

All About the Christmas Tree