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Atheists Find Strength In Numbers
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A legion of the godless is rising up against the forces of religiosity in American society. "People who were ashamed to say there is no God now say, 'Wow, there are others out there who think like me,'" said Margaret Downey, president of the Atheist Alliance International, whose membership has almost doubled in the past year to 5,200. More...
Americans United Files Lawsuit Challenging Sectarian Prayers At New York Town's Board Meetings
Church-State Watchdog Group Says Board's Preference For Christianity Flouts First Amendment Of The Constitution. More...
World's Biggest Particle Smasher Completed
Ambitious experiment will help scientists recreate Big Bang conditions. More...
Scientists See Deep Inside Human Brain
New imaging technique peers into areas key to behavior. More...
Children Killed As Gaza Violence Flares
Suicide Bombing Kills 35 In Pakistan
(AP) A suicide bomber attacked the funeral for a slain police officer in Pakistan's volatile Swat Valley on Friday, killing at least 35 people and injuring 62 others, police said. More...See also: 30 killed in Pakistan funeral blast
Taliban Threaten Spring Offensive On Kabul
Sharia In Iran: 'Death To Converts'
The Iranian parliament is discussing a new penal code, under which citizens who convert from another religion will face execution. More...
Muslim Headscarf Rows Hit Christian Schools
Ireland -- Conflicts are developing in Irish schools over the wearing of the hijab, or headscarf, by Muslim pupils, it was disclosed yesterday. More...
New Warning To Faith Charities
UK -- Faith charities encouraging or promoting violence or hatred risk losing their charitable status as part of a radical overhaul proposed by the Charity Commission. More...See also: Sharia unveiled
Bobbies Will Be Taught Sharia Law And The Koran
Creationists 'Peddle Lies About Fossil Record'
Some Christians claim there is a lack of "missing link" fossils, halfway between two major groups of creatures. They say this proves Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is a fallacy and that God created each living species from nothing. But, in an essay published in the magazine New Scientist today, geologist Donald Prothero claims that reports of "huge gaps" in the fossil records have been greatly exaggerated. More...
Wine Bottles A Step Too Far For Turkish Pop Music Video
As clips go, it looks inoffensive: scenes of men dancing jigs in a dark, water-filled basement, interspersed with shots of a crowded dinner table studded with bottles of wine. But when the Turkish pop singer, Aslizen Yentu, sent the promotional video for her first album to the country's top music station, she was told the shots of an alcohol-laden dinner table had to go, although such a ban has no basis in Turkish law. "I thought it was a joke," she says. "The album is called Cheers. The song is a Greek tavern song. Was I supposed to sip yoghurt drink?" More...
FreeThoughtAction Hero Of The Day - 02/28/08
 Linus Pauling (February 28, 1901 - August 19, 1994) According to Wikipedia, Pauling "was an American scientist, peace activist, author and educator. He is considered as one of the most influential chemists of the 20th century and ranks among the most important scientists in history. "Pauling was one of the first scientists to work in the fields of quantum chemistry, molecular biology and orthomolecular medicine (optimum nutrition). He is also a member of a small group of individuals who have been awarded more than one Nobel Prize, one of only two people to receive them in different fields (the other was Marie Curie) and the only person in that group to have been awarded each of his prizes without having to share it with another recipient." Pauling was raised in the Lutheran Church, but he joined the Unitarian Universalist Church as an adult and publically declared his atheism.
"Does God Exist?" Forum In Kentucky
Edwin Kagin, National Legal Director for American Atheists will be a guest on a panel discussing "Does God Exist?" at the University of Kentucky next Monday, March 3, 2008. The forum will also include members of the Campus Crusade for Christ, and a representative of the Muslim religion. The discussion begins at 7:30 in the University of Kentucky (Lexington) Student Center, Small Ballroom. The forum is free and open to the general public. You can find directions and other visitor information at http://www.uky.edu/uksb07/subpages/directions.html. Inquiries about the Forum should be directed to Bryan Kennedy at btkenn3@uky.edu.
Sneak Peek At The Virtual Universe
Big Debate Over Small Science
Many Americans Find Nanotechnology 'Morally Unacceptable,' NSF Study Finds More...
Taliban Making Gains In Afghanistan
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A resurgent Taliban is back in charge over parts of Afghanistan, the nation's chief intelligence official said Wednesday in an assessment that differed from the one made last month by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. More...See also: Al Qaeda No. 2 Lauds Slain Commander
Airstrike Hits Gaza Ministry Building
Sabbath Conflict May End Playoff Run
DENVER (AP) -- State senators have taken up the cause of a Jewish boys basketball team whose playoff run may be halted because its players can't play on the Jewish Sabbath. The Herzl/Rocky Mountain Hebrew Academy team could be headed for a regional championship on Saturday, March 8, if it wins one more game. But the Denver team's religious beliefs prohibit students from playing on the Jewish Sabbath between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday. More...
The Encyclopedia Of Life
Scientists are writing the Book of All Species. Or to be more precise, they are building a Web site called the Encyclopedia of Life ( http://www.eol.org/ ). On Thursday its authors, an international team of scientists, will introduce the first 30,000 pages, and within a decade, they predict, they will have the other 1.77 million. More...
Earth's Final Sunset Predicted
New calculation predicts planet's destruction in 7.6 billion years. More...
In First, N.Y. Judge Allows Gay Divorce
In what appears to be the first ruling of its kind, a New York judge will allow a lesbian couple who married in Canada to sue for divorce. More...
Network Of Terrorist Camps In Rural England
LONDON - Clad in mud-smeared combat fatigues, the young Muslims trained on picturesque British farmland, hurling imaginary grenades, wielding sticks as mock rifles and chopping watermelons in simulated beheadings. More...
Sudan Says Danish Products Banned
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- Sudan has enacted a ban on Danish imports in reaction to the reprinting of a cartoon that satirizes Islam's Prophet Muhammad, the Sudanese state-run news agency said Tuesday. More...
Pakistan Lifts Block On YouTube
Bomb Kills 2 NATO Soldiers In Afghanistan
Polygamist 'Prophet' In Arizona To Face Charges
PHOENIX, Arizona (AP) -- Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was handed over to Arizona authorities Tuesday to face sex charges stemming from the arranged marriages of two teenage girls to older relatives. More...
Accused Witch Gives Birth In Tree
A PREGNANT woman in Papua New Guinea who was hung from a tree after being accused of sorcery gave birth to her baby while struggling to free herself. More...
Hamas Children TV Bunny Threatens To Kill Danes Over Muhammad Cartoons
In the February 22, 2008 episode of the Hamas children's show "The Pioneers of Tomorrow," on Al-Aqsa TV, program host Saraa Barhoum and bunny character Assud urge viewers to boycott Danish products and to avenge the insult of the Muhammad cartoons reprinted by Danish newspapers. They also express their hope that "all the borders will be opened" between Arab countries, and discuss their own "martyrdom." More...
Turkey In Radical Revision Of Islamic Texts
Turkey is preparing to publish a document that represents a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam - and a controversial and radical modernisation of the religion. More...
Vatican Makes It Harder To Become A Saint
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican is making it tougher to become a saint. More...
Survey: U.S. Religious Landscape In Flux
DENVER -- The U.S. religious marketplace is extremely volatile, with nearly half of American adults leaving the faith tradition of their upbringing to either switch allegiances or abandon religious affiliation altogether, a new survey finds. More...
34th National Conference Of American Atheists
RICHARD DAWKINS, award-winning scientist and author will be the headline speaker at the 34th National Conference of American Atheists, March 20-22, 2008 in Minneapolis, MN. In addition, the Conference is honored to host writer Robert Lanham and historian Rene Salm. Robert Lanham - The Sinner's Guide To The Evangelical RightRobert Lanham is the author of the books The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right, The Hipster Handbook, and Food Court Druids. Neal Pollack calls him "the Margaret Mead of the North American Weirdo." Lanham was born in Richmond, Virginia in the heart of the Bible Belt and was raised in a strict Southern Baptist church. He grew up in an environment where rock music was considered the devil's music and with parents who speak in tongues, vote Republican, and have a vanity plate that says "Prayzin." Lanham's first babysitter was Republican Senator Tom Coburn, best known for advocating the death penalty for abortion providers. As a teen, before his fall from grace, Lanham tried to speak in tongues, but failed. Lanham now lives in the den of iniquity, New York City. Lanham's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Independent, Time Out, Nylon, Playboy, Maxim, and many other publications as well as in the collections The Subway Chronicles and Bookmark Now. Rene Salm - THE MYTH OF NAZARETH: THE INVENTED TOWN OF JESUSRene Salm's meticulous, exhaustive, 8-year-long research on the archaeology of the town now called Nazareth shows irrefutably that "Nazareth" was not inhabited at the time Jesus and his family are supposed to have been living there. This puts Jesus of Nazareth in the same league as the Wizard of Oz. Salm's new AAP book, The Myth of Nazareth, will be released at the conference and is likely to be the biggest challenge to Christianity in centuries. Coming shortly after Israeli archaeologist Aviram Oshri's demonstration that Bethlehem in Judea also was uninhabited in New Testament times and Frank Zindler's discovery that Capernaum was a literary invention, Salm's book is going to be a collector's item for Atheists and all who are interested in the long war between science and religion. Salm is an authority on the origins of Buddhism as well as Christianity, and is a recovered Catholic. WHAT: 34th National Conference of American Atheists WHEN: March 20-22, 2008 WHERE: The Minneapolis Marriott City Center Hotel, 30 South 7th St., Minneapolis, MN. MORE INFO: http://www.atheists.org/conference
Electron Filmed In Motion For The First Time
Blood Test Could Reveal Bipolar Disorder
Scientists Find 5,500-Year-Old Plaza In Peru
LIMA - A circular plaza built 5,500 years ago has been discovered in Peru, and archaeologists involved in the dig said on Monday that carbon dating shows it is one of the oldest structures ever found in the Americas. More...See also: Krill found in Antarctica's icy depths
Church-State Watchdog Group Highlights A Slew Of Constitutionally Suspect Appropriations
Hollywood Gets Preachy, On And Off Screen
Religion is often the backdrop for many Hollywood movies, and these days, with crime on the rise in Tinseltown, most actors need atonement more than their Screen Actors Guild dental benefits. More...
Church Is Paying A High Price For Its Celibacy Rule
The appointment of a former Catholic priest as the Anglican Dean of Dublin's Christ Church cathedral is an example how the obligatory rule of celibacy of the Roman priesthood is losing clergy to the more liberal Church of Ireland. More...
Anglican Rift Deepens As Two Sides Go To Court
VANCOUVER -- The cracks in the Anglican Church of Canada are widening over the issue of blessing same-sex marriages, with three more congregations voting to split with the national organization over the weekend - and the two sides headed to court on Friday. More...
Faith School Boom 'Creates Division'
Australia -- The rapid growth of faith-based schools under the previous federal government has threatened the social cohesion of the nation, according to Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard's most senior education adviser. More...See also: Sydney's Archbishop opposes Civil Unions
Gazans Form Human Chain Along Israeli Border
Wheelchair Bomber Kills 3 In Iraq Police Station
Pakistan Army General Killed In Suicide Blast
More Than 40 Shiite Pilgrims Killed
(AP) The streets of the Iraqi city of Karbala are already choked with Shiite pilgrims gathered for a religious observance. But dozens of others who were headed there by foot never made it. They were killed at the hands of a suicide bomber who attacked today as the pilgrims took a break from their trek at a tent offering food and drink. The U.S. military says at least 40 people were killed and 60 were wounded. More...See also: Bombers, gunmen attack Shiite pilgrimage in IraqSuicide bomber kills 40 in Iraq
Pakistan Blocks YouTube
(AP) Pakistan's government has banned access to the video-sharing Web site YouTube because of anti-Islamic movies that users have posted on the site, an official said Sunday. More...
Israel And Hizballah On High Alert
Spooning brown sugar into tiny glasses of tea, the Hizballah commander said that the Shi'ite fighters will be on the offensive in the next war, hinting at taking the battle into Israel itself. "We weren't expecting the last war and we fought only to defend our land, but next time you will see a very different kind of fighting," he said. More...
Secret Plan To Avoid Church Gay Split
Woman Can't Let Grandson, A Jehovah's Witness, Die 'In Vain'
Olga Lindberg remains consumed by the idea that her grandson died because of misguided faith, and she is driven to share her belief. More...
Hunt For Alien Life To Expand Its Scope
Researching the prospects for life beyond our solar system is moving to the next level. Exoplanet hunters are getting instruments that promise to spot Earth-like planets around alien stars. In some cases, they may even yield crude estimates of how life-friendly such a planet may be. Meanwhile, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is gaining new capacity to scan the heavens for alien signals. It could produce more analyzed data over the next two years than its researchers have collected over the past half century. More...
Saudi Arabia Arrests 57 Men For Flirting At Mall
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia began interrogating 57 men Saturday who were arrested for flirting with women in front of a shopping mall in the holy city of Mecca, a local newspaper reported. More...
Shells Hit Baghdad's Green Zone
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Rockets or mortars hit the U.S.-protected Green Zone early Saturday, the day after powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mehdi Army militia to extend its cease-fire by another six months. More...
The Coming Religious Peace
Human beings have never lacked for things to fight over, but for the last two millennia, they have fought the most over ideas involving the divine. Politics, technology, military capacity, and diseases have all played decisive roles in shaping history, yet it is impossible to understand the rise and fall of empires, the clash of civilizations, and the evolving balance of power without appreciating the unique fervor that religion inspires, and the speed with which new religions can spread. More...See also: God's CountryBorn AgainEarlier: The new wars of religion
Moral Thinking
WHENCE morality? That is a question which has troubled philosophers since their subject was invented. Two and a half millennia of debate have, however, failed to produce a satisfactory answer. So now it is time for someone else to have a go. And at a panel discussion at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, a group of biologists did just that. More...
Priest Spent Church Money On Secret Family
RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- A retired Roman Catholic priest was sentenced to 63 months in prison for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from his parishioners, money he used in part to support his secret family. More...
Turkey OKs Controversial Head Scarves Ruling
Story Highlights:Constitutional amendment allowing head scarves in universities faces legal battle President denies change violates Turkey's secular principles Islam and secularism has vied for dominance in Turkey for decades Change was pushed through a parliament where Islam-rooted party has majority More...
Al-Sadr Extends Mehdi Army Cease-Fire
Morocco Says Terror Group Was Plotting To Kill Ministers
Moroccan authorities have rounded up a terrorist group accused of planning al-Qaida-type attacks in the North African country - and have banned a small Islamist political party allegedly linked to it. More...
Diocese: Former Priest Has HIV
A former Catholic priest who served several North Texas churches is HIV positive, according to a release from the Diocese of Fort Worth. The diocese has alerted people who have lodged sexual misconduct allegations against Philip Magaldi that the defrocked priest has the disease linked to AIDS, according to the release. More...
Amish Community Fined Over Outhouse Controversy
BARR TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Controversy over a manmade outhouse could end up with members of an Amish community in jail. More...
Iran Says God Protects Nuclear Program
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday that God would punish Iranians if they do not support the country's disputed nuclear program, state radio reported. More...
Ontario's Helmet Law Discriminates Against Devout Sikhs
BRAMPTON, Ont. - Forcing a devout, motorcycle-riding Sikh to choose between his turban and a helmet is denying him the right to religious freedom, human rights lawyers argued Friday as Baljinder Badesha's fight against a $110 fine took on the character of a constitutional challenge. More...
'Most Britons Belong To No Religion'
A 23-page report by Asma Jahangir, the UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, says that the 2001 census findings that nearly 72 per cent of the population is Christian can no longer be regarded as accurate. The report claims that two thirds of British people do not admit to any religious affiliation. More...See also: Oxford to study faith in God
Ripping Into The Bible
ON THE MORNING of December 7, 2007, Christopher Campbell walked into his English Honors class at Parker High School, prepared to tear out pages of the Bible. More...
UltraLove: The Medical Right Falls Hard For Ultrasounds
You've already met the Religious Right. Now meet its offspring, the Medical Right -- ideologically motivated pseudo-medical organizations that are shaping reproductive health care policy and practice to conform to their unscientific beliefs about "the beginning of life." More...
Genes Link Native Americans And Siberians
WASHINGTON -- People indigenous to Siberia have strong genetic links to native peoples in the Americas, according to a study further supporting the theory that humans first entered the Americas over a land bridge across the Bering Strait. More...
Missing Link Found In Sydney Harbour
ONE of evolution's missing links has been found lurking in Sydney Harbour. Although only a microscopic, single-celled creature, it has excited scientists around the world because it is the nearest relative yet found of a group of deadly parasites. More...
Virgin Mary Pretzel For Sale On EBay
Eugene, OR -- It's happened again. Someone has found something in the shape of the Virgin Mary. And they're trying to sell it on eBay. --snip-- As of Thursday afternoon, the bidding had reached $8,100. More...
Monopoly Contest Stirs Up Jerusalem Conflict
PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island -- Monopoly, the iconic game of capitalism, has been drawn into the dispute over Jerusalem. Hasbro Inc. issued an apology Thursday after an employee, responding to complaints from pro-Palestinian groups, eliminated the word "Israel" after the city in an online contest to select names for a new Monopoly board game: Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition. The company also pulled all country names from other cities on the site when even more people complained, including the Israeli government, because Jerusalem was listed as the only city without a country. More...
Church Music Director Jailed For Child Porn
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- The former music director at a prominent Greenwich church was sentenced Thursday to 5 1/2 years in federal prison for possessing child pornography. --snip-- Tate was choir director for 34 years at Christ Church, creating a music program that gained an international reputation. Former President George H.W. Bush attended the church while growing up and funeral services for his parents were held there. --snip-- Prosecutors also contend that Tate had sexually abused children at home and abroad since the 1970s. Authorities said Tate picked up boy prostitutes in New York and brought them back to his apartment at the church for sexual contact and traveled to Thailand to have sex with boys. He was not charged with those crimes. More...
North West Frontier Goes Secular
AS THE party of Pakistan's assassinated former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto begins putting together a coalition after winning the most seats in the general election, one result will give encouragement -- the religious parties in the country's turbulent north-west have lost out badly. More...See also: Pakistan leaders agree on coalition
Morocco Busts Al Qaeda-Linked Terror Network Funded By Crime
Story Highlights:Morocco destroyed network that raised funds through heists, holdups in Europe Terror group plotted to kill Cabinet ministers, army officials, Jews Morocco banned an Islamist political party, arrests leader Police arrested 32 people in sweeps this week More...
Israeli MP Blames Gays For Recent Earthquakes
An Israeli parliamentarian said that several earthquakes felt in Israel recently were a consequence of gays and the parliament's acceptance of them. Shlomo Benizri of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party, said the way to stop the tremors was for parliament to reverse its trend of liberalising laws concerning homosexuals. --snip-- A cost-effective way of averting earthquake damage, he added, would be to stop "passing legislation on how to encourage homosexual activity in the state of Israel, which anyway brings about earthquakes". More...
Gene Studies Confirm 'Out Of Africa' Theories
WASHINGTON -- Two big genetic studies confirm theories that modern humans evolved in Africa and then migrated through Europe and Asia to reach the Pacific and Americas. The two studies also show that Africans have the most diverse DNA, and the fewest potentially harmful genetic mutations. More...
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