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Religious Related Violence 6/30/07
Fighting For Women's Rights In Iraq
According to a United Nations report, the kidnapping, rape and murder of women is on the rise. Honor killings, or the killing of a woman who brought perceived dishonor to her family, is up also. Women -- Muslims and non-Muslims alike -- are warned to adhere to the strict dress code, the United Nations said. More...
New Abu Sayyaf Leader 'Is Islamic Scholar'
MANILA, Philippines (Reuters) -- The Abu Sayyaf, the smallest and most deadly Muslim militant group in the Philippines, has chosen a Syria-trained Islamic scholar as its new leader, a senior general said on Wednesday. More...
Indian Babies Laid To Rest In Filthy River
NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) -- Within sight of Delhi's gleaming new metro train, Nawal Kishore slips the body of a baby into the waters of the Yamuna, one of the world's filthiest rivers. More...
Accused Asian Terror Leader Warns More Blood Will Be Shed
YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Militants will continue to target Westerners on the streets of Indonesia as they fight to impose full Islamic law, an accused terror leader told CNN. More...
London On Alert After Explosives Discovery
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Security across London has been increased after police on Friday discovered two cars filled with explosives. More...
Hamas TV Show Kills Militant Mouse Character
GAZA CITY (AP) -- A Mickey Mouse lookalike who preached Islamic domination on a Hamas-affiliated children's television program was the victim of a pretend beating death in the show's final episode Friday. More...
Bush, Mideast Wars And End-Time Prophecy
President George W. Bush has become dangerously steeped in ideas of Armageddon, the Apocalypse, an imminent war with Satanic forces in the Middle East, and an urgency to construct an American theocracy to fulfill God's end-of-days plan, according to close observers. More...
Faith The Nation: Part 5-4
Supreme Court limits citizens' ability to question state/religion connections, gives victory to president's religious patronage program. More...
Poll: Trust In Organized Religion At Near-Record Low
Americans trust the military and the police force significantly more than the church and organized religion, a new Gallup Poll says. Only 46 percent of respondents said they had either a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the church, compared with 69 percent who said they trusted the military and 54 percent who trust police officers. The figures are among the lowest for institutionalized religion in the three and a half decades that Gallup has conducted the poll. Peaking at 68 percent in May 1975, the numbers bottomed out at 45 percent in June of 2003. More...
Scientist Build A 'Brain' From Rat Cells
The Combination of Biology and Technology Can Be Trained to Fly a Flight Simulator. More...
Researchers May Remake Neanderthal DNA
Researchers studying Neanderthal DNA say it should be possible to construct a complete genome of the ancient hominid despite the degradation of the DNA over time. More...
Federal Officials See Strong Outlook for 'Faith-Based' Grants Program
At a wide-ranging conference on Tuesday, the federal Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives expressed relief over its recent victory in a Supreme Court case and offered charities advice on collecting data when trying to prove that their programs solve problems for the needy. More...
No Flier Zone: Time Cited In New 'Backpack Mail' Ban
This fall, the load of papers coming home with Albemarle County kids in backpack mail will be lighter: no Boy Scouts recruitments, no YMCA sign-ups, no mention of vacation Bible school. And no fliers touting atheist camp. More...
Science Of The Soul?
The idea that human minds are the product of evolution is "unassailable fact," the journal Nature said this month in an editorial on new findings on the physical basis of moral thought. A headline on the editorial drove the point home: "With all deference to the sensibilities of religious people, the idea that man was created in the image of God can surely be put aside." Or as V. S. Ramachandran, a brain scientist at the University of California, San Diego, put it in an interview, there may be soul in the sense of "the universal spirit of the cosmos," but the soul as it is usually spoken of, "an immaterial spirit that occupies individual brains and that only evolved in humans -- all that is complete nonsense." Belief in that kind of soul "is basically superstition," he said. More...
Hitchens Book Debunking The Deity Is Surprise Hit
Mr. Hitchens makes a passionate case against organized religion as well as theocratic, fundamentalist states. He writes that "religion is not unlike racism." "Literature is a better source of ethics and a better source of reflection than our holy texts," he says. "People should read George Eliot, Dostoyevsky and Proust for moral leadership." More...
Robin Williams Backs Offensive Catholic Joke
The comedian refused to apologize for comparing priests to pedophiles. More...
Mutilated Females Seek Help
More than 250 girls and women have sought help from Oslo's largest hospital in recent years, because of physical problems resulting from female circumcision, also known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). More...
Man Sexually Assaulted In Pakistan After Refusing To Convert To Islam
Muslim Couples In Fear Of 'Honour' Killing
Rebin and Khaleda never thought falling in love would force them into a life of hiding. At first glance, their London flat looks like the home of any other newlyweds. By the front door, five pairs of his-and-her shoes are lined up in a row and the kitchen fridge is plastered in little heart shaped magnets and private notes. More...
UK Decides Intelligent Design Is Not Science
Schoolchildren should not be taught neo-creationism, rules government. More...
Justices Bar Ordinary U.S. Taxpayers From Suing Over White House's Religion-Based Programs
WASHINGTON: The Bush administration's religion-based initiatives got a boost from the U.S. Supreme Court in a ruling that says ordinary taxpayers cannot sue to stop White House-sponsored conferences that help religious charities apply for federal grants. More...See also: Faith and taxes
'Prophet' Held As Doomsday Passes
Police in Nepal have detained a self-styled holy man who sowed panic across much of the country by prophesying that a massive earthquake would kill 300,000 people in South Asia last week. More...
Mosque's 'Taliban' Students Abduct 'Immoral' Women
HARDLINE religious students from a mosque in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, kidnapped nine people including six foreign women, this morning, accusing them of "immoral activities", the students said. More...
'Church' That Yearns For Respectability
Scientology is trying to transform its image from that of a shadowy cult. More...
Science And Islam In Conflict
All over the world, no matter what the cultural or language differences, science is more or less guided by scientific principles - except in many Islamic countries, where it is guided by the Koran. This is the ultimate story about science and religion. More...
An Unprecedented Uproar Over Saudi Religious Police
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- Three members of Saudi Arabia's religious police will stand trial this week for their involvement in the death of a man in their custody, an unprecedented action against the powerful enforcers of the country's strict moral code. More...
Va. Tech Shooter Seen As 'Collector Of Injustice'
Cho, 23, of Centreville, whose family was religious and had sought help for him from a Woodbridge church, repeatedly made religious references. He said that he had been "crucified" and that, as with Jesus, his actions would set people free. He called himself a "martyr" who would "sacrifice" his life. He wrote that he would go down in history as the "Jesus Christ of the Weak and Defenseless." He thought his actions would inspire others to fight back and get even. More...
Religious Related Violence 6/20/07
Dobson's Dilemma
Will dismissing GOP frontrunners Giuliani and McCain as unacceptable presidential candidates and getting involved in a series of squabbles with fellow conservative evangelicals diminish the power of Focus on the Family founder? More...
Suicide Bomb Teams Sent To U.S., Europe
Large teams of newly trained suicide bombers are being sent to the United States and Europe, according to evidence contained on a new videotape obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com. Teams assigned to carry out attacks in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Germany were introduced at an al Qaeda/Taliban training camp graduation ceremony held June 9. A Pakistani journalist was invited to attend and take pictures as some 300 recruits, including boys as young as 12, were supposedly sent off on their suicide missions. More...
Kids Don't Need Religion To Be Good, Writer Says
It doesn't take religion to raise a kid with good values, says Minnesota writer, editor and teacher Dale McGowan in his new anthology. More...
Polygamy Fueling Ariz.'s Rate Of Genetic Disorder
The community of about 10,000 people, who shun outsiders and are taught to avoid newspapers, television and the Internet, is home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), a sect that broke from the mainstream Mormon church 72 years ago over polygamy. The group, who wear conservative 19th-century clothing, is led by Warren Jeffs, who was arrested in August and charged as an accomplice to rape for using his authority to order a 14-year-old girl against her wishes to marry and have sex with her 19-year-old cousin. More...
Rushdie Knighted In Honours List
Data Shed Light On Child Sexual Abuse By Protestant Clergy
NASHVILLE, June 14 (AP) -- The three companies that insure a majority of Protestant churches say they typically receive upward of 260 reports a year of children younger than 18 being sexually abused by members of the clergy, church staff members, volunteers or congregants. More...
Shantytowns Springing Up In Iraq
(CNN) -- Iraqis fleeing their homes because of sectarian warfare are starting to set up their own makeshift camps inside the country, a development reflecting the dire scope of the country's population displacement problem. More...
Islamic Rule Has Arrived, Says Hamas
Hamas proclaimed the era of Islamic rule had arrived in Gaza last night as the final strongholds of the Palestinian security forces crumbled and President Mahmoud Abbas dissolved the government and declared a state of emergency. More...
Atheist Camp: Teachers Buck School Board Policy
Some Albemarle teachers recently refused to hand out fliers they consider objectionable, and county school officials complain the controversy over the distribution of religious materials is cutting into instructional time. More...
Religion And The Threat Effect
Research shows that the more secularists there are living near evangelicals, the more politically conservative those evangelicals will be. Might the secular start developing this same kind of tribalism? More...
Religious Related Violence 6/14/07
Anti-Semitic Bible Teachings Disappear From Army Site
"Today, there's a constant flow of religion into national politics and the military," Weinstein said. "And not just any religion either, but the dominionist, evangelical, Fundamentalist, us-versus-them, my-God-is-bigger-than-your-God, steel-fisted variety of Christian evangelism. There was a time, and not so long ago, when this nation worshiped a humbler God, but this invidious and cultish clan that is consuming our military believes they have a God-given right to rule the country, create a Christian nation, and eventually, a Christian empire." More...See also: Jason Leopold: My Interview With Mikey WeinsteinMikey Weinstein tackles the evangelical coup in America's military
Justice Dept. Reshapes Its Civil Rights Mission
Majority Of Republicans Doubt Theory Of Evolution
PRINCETON, NJ -- The majority of Republicans in the United States do not believe the theory of evolution is true and do not believe that humans evolved over millions of years from less advanced forms of life. This suggests that when three Republican presidential candidates at a May debate stated they did not believe in evolution, they were generally in sync with the bulk of the rank-and-file Republicans whose nomination they are seeking to obtain. More...
Gaza Lurches Towards Islamist Mini-State
A new, Islamist mini-state was emerging in the Gaza Strip yesterday, as victorious Hamas forces surrounded and blew up their secular rivals' last strongholds in bitter fighting that threw the entire future of the Middle East peace process into doubt. Supporters of the Fatah movement fled to Egypt or surrendered as Hamas leaders predicted that they would control the entire coastal strip by the end of the week. More... See also: Hamas is trying to establish theocracy in Palestine
Taleban Is Accused Of Murdering Girl Who Had Dared To Attend School
KABUL -- Gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed a girl of 13 and a woman teacher in a savage attack on female education in Afghanistan, six years after the Taleban regime was removed from power. More...
Anglican Coalition To Force Through Breakaway
A powerful coalition of conservative Anglican leaders is preparing to create a parallel Church for conservatives in America in defiance of the Archbishop of Canterbury, provoking the biggest split in Anglican history, The Daily Telegraph has learned. More...
Honour-Killing Victim Told Police Four Times Of Fears Father Would Murder Her
A Compass That Can Clash With Modern Life
CAIRO, June 11 -- First came the breast-feeding fatwa. It declared that the Islamic restriction on unmarried men and women being together could be lifted at work if the woman breast-fed her male colleagues five times, to establish family ties. Then came the urine fatwa. It said that drinking the urine of the Prophet Muhammad was deemed a blessing. More...
Jesus Wants You To Drive 4x4, Says S. African Church
SOWETO, South Africa, June 11 (Reuters Life!) - Jesus wants you to drive a brand new Nissan Navara 4x4. He'd also like you to live in a classy house, use the latest cell phone and wear the snappiest designer clothes. More...
Vatican Cardinal Calls On Catholics To Stop Funding Amnesty
A senior Vatican cardinal said yesterday that Catholics should stop donating to human rights group Amnesty International because of its new policy advocating abortion rights for women if they had been raped, were a victim of incest or faced health risks. More...
Religious Related Violence 6/11/07
Catholic Scouts Shun Lawmakers Over Ethics
The pastor of a Catholic church in Parkville has barred the parish's Boy Scout troop from associating with elected officials who do not support Catholic moral teaching. More...
One Man's Unicorn May Be Another's Apatosaurus
Consider these two exhibitions. The Creation Museum, built by a Christian ministry called Answers in Genesis, displays models of dinosaurs, fossils and a few live animals, all put in service to the idea that Genesis is literally true, that the Earth was created in six days, and even the most "ancient" fossil would date from the time of Noah's flood, not even 6,000 years ago. Natural objects are used to argue for the truth of what is, for nonbelievers, a mythological vision. Meanwhile, at the Museum of Natural History's new exhibition of "Mythic Creatures," the reverse is true: Mythological beings are used to demonstrate truths about the natural world. The exhibition suggests that many fantastical creatures were imaginative attempts to make sense of the enormous mastodon and mammoth fossils found by ancient cultures. The giant, the cyclops, the griffin: all were the results of efforts to flesh out the bones and relics of extinct species. More...
Is Prince Philip An Island God?
Britain's Duke of Edinburgh may be planning a quiet birthday celebration at home this weekend, but there will be feasting and flag-waving in an isolated jungle village in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, where he is worshipped as a god. More...
A Hard Line
ST. LOUIS -- In his three years as St. Louis archbishop, the Most Rev. Raymond Burke has taken on a presidential contender, a pop star, Missouri politicians and even parishioners. American bishops regularly speak against public policies that run contrary to Roman Catholic teaching, but Burke stands out for his hard line taking on those who oppose church teachings, no matter how high-profile or popular they are. More...
Southern Baptists Meeting Shows Tension
Beginning Tuesday in San Antonio, proposals over everything from political involvement to clergy sexual abuse to speaking in tongues should provide a glimpse at where the 16.3 million-member denomination is headed, 28 years after the "conservative resurgence" swept liberals out. More...
Bush Calls Meeting Pope A 'Moving Experience'
VATICAN CITY (CNN) -- George W. Bush said on Saturday he felt awe in the presence of Pope Benedict XVI, who urged the U.S. president to seek "regional and negotiated" solutions to Middle East conflicts like Iraq. More...
Cathedral Shootout Game Under Fire
LONDON, England (AP) -- The Church of England accused Sony on Saturday of using a cathedral in Britain as the backdrop to a violent computer game, and said it should be withdrawn from shop shelves. More...
Cool Reception For Bible Park In Bible Belt
The park, described in promotional material as "edutainment," would cost $150 million to $200 million. With a Galilean village as its centerpiece, one side of the park would present Old Testament stories like the Exodus; the other side would have New Testament stories like Jesus' birth and crucifixion. The only displays in writing would be excerpts from Scripture, and parts of the park would be reserved for Bible study. More...
Religious Related Violence 6/9/07
AU's Latest Press Releases
Secular Coalition For America Responds To Sen. Jim DeMint's Resolution
Washington, DC - June 6, 2007 - The Secular Coalition for America believes that Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-SC) proposal to declare today a National Day of Prayer for U.S. military personnel will further perpetuate the myth that the people who risk their lives in service to our nation uniformly share his religion. DeMint has proposed that a prayer with references to God and Lord be read aloud in Congress every June 6. By proposing this, DeMint falsely assumes that all military personnel and their families believe in a god. DeMint did not take into consideration that almost one fifth of the military are nontheists.* "The Secular Coalition for America is appalled that Congress would only consider thanking those military personnel who believe in a god. If Senator DeMint really wanted Congress to set aside a day to thank our troops, he would have just suggested that, not a religious exercise," said Secular Coalition for America Director Lori Lipman Brown. "Approximately 280,000 troops declare themselves military atheists. Therefore, this resolution ignores approximately 20 percent of the patriotic military personnel who defend our country every day." Every person who serves our nation deserves our thanks. Link HERE*Statistics obtained from The Population Reference Bureau, an independent, private data analysis agency. View study here
Presidential Faith Forum A Religious Test For Public Office
Freedom From Religion Foundation's News Release & Action Alert:
CNN Crosses the Line The implications of CNN-TV's recent presidential forum on "faith and values," ("The Situation Room," June 4, 2007) are deeply dismaying. If this is a sign of the media's pandering to come, the secular values of our nation are in worse trouble than we thought. As the New York Times coverage pointed out, such a faith-infused candidate spectacle would have been unthinkable even two years ago. More...
Hindu Sites 'Only For Hinduism'
The government of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has banned the propagation of other religions in the holy places of Hindus across the state. More...
Religion And Politics Grow Inseparable
FreeThoughtAction Hero Of The Day - 6/08/07
Francis Harry Compton Crick OM (June 8, 1916 - July 28, 2004) According to Wikipedia, Crick "was an English molecular biologist, physicist, and neuroscientist, who is most noted for being one of the co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953. He, James D. Watson, and Maurice Wilkins were jointly awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine 'for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material.' "He was skeptical of organized religion and did not believe existence of God, referring to himself as a skeptic and an agnostic with 'a strong inclination towards atheism.'"
Religious Related Violence 6/8/07
Wife Who Killed Pastor Husband May Serve 60 Days
SELMER, Tennessee (AP) -- A woman who killed her preacher husband with a shotgun blast to the back as he lay in bed was sentenced Friday to three years in prison, but she may end up serving only 60 days in a mental hospital. ---snip--- Winkler... testified during her trial that her husband hit and kicked her, forced her to look at pornography and demanded sex she considered unnatural. Jurors were shown a pair of tall, platform shoes and a black wig Winkler said she was pressured to wear during sex. More...
Pakistan: The Rule Of The Taliban
"The government has bombs. We have our bodies." Out of weakness in the face of Allah's madmen who control a growing number of mosques and Koranic schools, but also out of short-term political calculation, Pakistani President-General Pervez Musharraf, unable to undertake the promised democratization of institutions, has left his country prey to the wave of fundamentalism. More...
"Homosexuality Isn't Natural Or Healthy"
ABCNews -- Bush's Choice for Top Doc Compared Human Genitalia to Pipe Fittings and Said Homosexual Practices Can Cause Injury or Death More...
Poll Shows Belief In Evolution, Creationism
WASHINGTON -- Majorities of Americans in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll say evolution and creationism are both likely explanations for life on Earth -- underscoring the complexities of an issue that has put Republican presidential candidates on the spot in recent weeks. Two-thirds in the poll said creationism, the idea that God created humans in their present form within the past 10,000 years, is definitely or probably true. More than half, 53%, said evolution, the idea that humans evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years, is definitely or probably true. All told, 25% say that both creationism and evolution are definitely or probably true. More...
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