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CRANSTON, Rhode Island (Reuters) - A Rhode Island school board voted on Thursday to comply with a federal court order to remove a prayer banner that has been displayed in a public high school for nearly a half century, saying the cash-strapped district cannot face a costly appeal.

Oral arguments were heard in a Massachusetts Superior Court on Monday over a lawsuit filed by an atheist couple who believe that their children are being discriminated against because the Pledge of Allegiance – which is said every day in Mass. public school classrooms under state law – contains the phrase "under God." "The daily recitation in public schools of a pledge declaring that the nation is 'under God' is discriminatory toward atheists and humanists," David Niose, president of the American Humanist Association and lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the case, stated. "No child should go to school each...

After getting into a 170 comment Facebook argument with one of my lovely friends from school about a status I posted with a joke about Atheism, people came up to me in the following days and questioned my reasoning for doing something like that. People advised me to keep all political and religious ideas off of Facebook, to avoid conflict. This incident made me realize how much people hate conflict. But on another level, this advice bothered me. People will forgo any talk about religious or political views just to avoid a conflict or to make sure they don't offend...

CNSNews.com) – Shaun Casey, the religious affairs adviser to presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008, said at a discussion on Tuesday about “God and Politics” that the demise of religious society in the United States is a good thing. “I, frankly, am glad American civil religion is dying,” said Casey, who is an associate professor of Christian Ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. Casey made the remarks at an event focusing on religion and the 2012 presidential election at the liberal Center for American Progress where he was a panelist along with Gabriel Salguero, president of the National...

Alexander Aan was just another bureaucrat holding down a desk at the Department of Planning until his Facebook Atheism page came to the notice of Indonesian authorities in Obama’s old stomping grounds. Now Aan is facing a five year jail sentence for using social media to spread the message that Allah does not exist. Alexander is being charged with “defiling” Islam by using passages from the Koran to challenge the Islamic religion. And while the State Department and the media routinely go on the attack against any manifestation of what they call “Islamophobia,” it isn’t likely that they will be...

How Will The Shocking Decline Of Christianity In America Affect The Future Of This Nation?January 19,2012 Is Christianity in decline in America? When you examine the cold, hard numbers it is simply not possible to come to any other conclusion. Over the past few decades, the percentage of Christians in America has been steadily declining. This has especially been true among young people. As you will see later in this article, there has been a mass exodus of teens and young adults out of U.S. churches. In addition, what "Christianity" means to American Christians today is often far different from...

The death of Christopher Hitchens on December 15 was not unexpected, and that seemed only to add to the tragedy. His fight against cancer had been lived, like almost every other aspect of his colorful life, in full public view. He had told numerous interviewers that he wanted to die in an active, not a passive sense. Then again, there may never have been a truly passive moment in Christopher Hitchens’ life. Long before he was known as one of the world’s most ardent atheists, he was known as a world-class essayist and a hard-driving public intellectual. Born in England,...

An increasing number of young Pakistani’s are adopting Atheism and openly questioning the existence of a God. Many analysts have attributed this trend to the rise of Islamist militancy in Pakistan as well as access to social media and other technological tools that allow people to share and explore new ideas. A Facebook group called ‘Pakistani Atheists and Agnostics’ was launched a few months ago and has already attracted over 800 members. I caught up with the founder of this group, a young Pakistani Technologist operating under the pseudonym ‘Hazrat Nakhuda’, in order to discuss this new phenomenon. _______________________________________ Ghaffar:...

"...What is the difference between right and wrong, good and bad? There is no moral difference between them. Why should I be moral? Because it makes you feel better than being immoral. Is abortion, euthanasia, suicide, paying taxes, foreign aid, or anything else you don’t like forbidden, permissible, or sometimes obligatory? Anything goes. What is love, and how can I find it? Love is the solution to a strategic interaction problem. Don’t look for it; it will find you when you need it. Does history have any meaning or purpose?It’s full of sound and fury, but signifies nothing.” I take...

And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.(Genesis 3:22-24)Once we were...

  Christmas Lights David C. Stolinsky Dec. 28, 2011 The North Korean government recently warned South Korea not to put Christmas lights within sight of the border, because this would be “psychological warfare.” There are two ways to look at this odd situation: (1) What kind of government is so unpopular that it feels threatened by pretty lights? (2) What kind of lights are so powerful that they threaten tyrannical governments? I have always loved Christmas lights. The days grow short at this time of year, especially in the North, and colored lights in windows and on trees and...

In writing this piece, I’m reminded of a little exchange between the late William F. Buckley and friend and fellow National Review writer Florence King. Buckley had just penned some less-than-flattering words about a recently deceased person of prominence whose name escapes me, and King chided him, saying something to the effect that he had broken ground in journalism: the “attack-obit.” Buckley’s response was, “Wait till you see the obituary I have planned for you!” And in writing this critical article about bon vivant Christopher Hitchens in the wake of his death this past Thursday, I expect some ridicule as...

This is an email sent from a friend to a friend....it demonstrates what some in the country now believe. (My dear friend): Thanx vm for the thoughtful (telephone) call. Sorry we were in a rush, but this was a “Super Solstice Celebration� party thrown by one of my dearest friends down here and he'd scheduled the event on Friday night just so (a friend) could attend. The party was excellent!! We barely made it home before midnight. Would have looked like any other nice party except we all stopped partying at ~10 p.m., gathered in our hosts’ great room, and...

OCEAN AVENUE — A coalition of 13 churches will open a truncated version of their annual holiday display Sunday with an impassioned plea to City Hall to restore 11 pieces of prize real estate that were snatched up by a group of activist atheists. An organization called Save Our Nativity Scenes, or SONS, requested that churches ring bells at 3 p.m. Dec. 11 to signal the start of a ceremony that will end in a flashlight vigil, urging city officials to reserve space specifically for the booths....

They may not find much meaning in the birth of Jesus Christ, but many atheists embrace religious traditions such as churchgoing for the sake of the children, a new study finds. The research, which focused on atheist scientists, found that 17 percent of atheists in the study attended a religious service more than once a year. The atheists embraced religious traditions for social and personal reasons, they told the study researchers. "Our research shows just how tightly linked religion and family are in U.S. society — so much so that even some of society's least religious people find religion to...

Proverbs 18:5-6 It is not good to accept the person of the wicked, to overthrow the righteous in judgment. A fool’s lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes. Sam’s Wholesale Club, a division of Wal-Mart, is doing the Lord’s work by removing a blasphemous book from its shelves, and sadly many reactionary Christians are responding with foolish lips calling for a boycott, not of the book, but of Sam’s Club! The atheist at the center of the controversy, Brendan Smith, must be laughing all the way to the bank for duping conservatives into opposing a decision...

The young man in the video pulls in close to his computer camera with the trappings of a typical college dorm room—a loft bed and the clutter of cast-off clothes—piled behind him. Alex Fiorentini isn’t talking about girls, beer or football. Instead, it’s a coming-out moment of sorts. “Is it acceptable to the majority of the population to be an atheist?” he asks the camera. “Nope. Are all of your friends going to accept you as an atheist? Probably not all of them. And yeah, those things are gonna suck. But the real question is, ‘Is it OK to be...

Cross Removed From San Antonio Tower By Brittany Smith | Christian Post Reporter It was a small cross, but it has created a big debate in San Antonio. The “Torre de Esperanza,” or Tower of Hope, stands close to the entrance of Texas A&M University-San Antonio. The tower’s private owners put a small cross on the structure consistent with its Spanish mission-style design. They also allowed the school to put its seal on the structure. The cross, however, was recently removed. The ACLU of Texas said the developer of the tower, Ralph Lampman of the VTLM Group, ordered the crosses...

A new audio added to my mix of videos in regards to evolutionary ethics and rape. Richard Dawkins in an honest moment.

Shall we unveil the 700-pound Tasmanian devil in the room? The chief reason the average crank hates Tim Tebow & Sarah Palin is because both are open and unapologetic Christians. Although typical anti-American bigots are loathe to admit this fact, it is transparently true. Further, it is the essential values and characteristics of authentic Christianity which most of these non-believers find highly objectionable. This same anti-religious bigotry now threatens to atomize America’s once nearly impregnable foundations. Currently, atheism is more esteemed than American Idol contestants. Meanwhile, atheists pour out disdain against Christians like so many Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. For...

More than 9 in 10 Americans still say "yes" when asked the basic question "Do you believe in God?"

Can a Wisconsin atheist group keep a Florida preacher from meeting with local kids who want to pray at their school’s flagpole before classes begin?Students praying in Fort Myers, Florida School Attorney Bruce Bickner for the Clay County School Board says the atheists can, indeed – that their threat of an expensive lawsuit means the kids need to stop praying. It seems the Madison, Wisc.-based Freedom from Religion Foundation is offended that for more than 12 years, Pastor Ron Baker of the nearby Russell Baptist Church, has showed up once a week at four different local elementary schools and prayed...

Is the Tea Party on a mission from God? Or are its principles applicable to the religious and the non-religious alike?

You may have heard that the illustrious Scripture scholar, Richard Dawkins (also known in some circles as Richard Dawkins, bedazzling philosopher, ahem), recently pronounced the following finding, based on years of, well, being a humility-challenged atheist:"Jesus was a great moral teacher," Dawkins said. "Somebody as intelligent as Jesus would have been an atheist if he had known what we know today."That's surely debatable, especially since it's not evident in the least that the sinless Son of God would be willing to sacrifice his perfect humility for a pot of prideful porridge made by the preening professor (Quick! Say that ten...

Man, Dawkins surely outdid himself this time. Yea, if only Jesus Christ in his all-powerful and all-knowing state 2,000 years ago would have grasped what Richard Dawkins and his fellow enlightened post-modernists knew today, by golly, he would have denied Himself and His Father on the spot. Meglomania has never had such a tough opponent.

"In 1919, Georg Lukacs became Deputy Commissar for Culture in the short-lived Bolshevik Bela Kun regime in Hungary. He immediately set plans in motion to de-Christianize Hungary. Reasoning that if Christian sexual ethics could be undermined among children, then both the hated (traditional) family and the Church would be dealt a crippling blow, Lukacs launched a radical sex education program in the schools. Sex lectures were organized and literature handed out which graphically instructed youth in free love (promiscuity) and sexual intercourse while simultaneously encouraging them to deride and reject Christian moral ethics, monogamy, and parental and church authority. All...

Once a self-identified founding member of the American “religious right,” Franky Schaeffer now says that “religion is dumb” and “man made.” Although Schaeffer grew up among some of the most influential evangelicals of the twentieth century, and worked as one of them during much of his adult life, he now believes the Bible is a fraud and that Christianity teaches “misogynistic” practices. Schaeffer, the son of the late evangelical theologian, philosopher, and founder of the L’Abri Fellowship, Francis Schaeffer, discussed his newest book at the Kansas City Public Library on September 27, 2011. His recent book, Sex, Mom, and God:...

The origin of the war against Christianity in the United States can be traced back to the early days of the public school movement when Unitarians, Owenite socialists and atheists, and Hegelian pantheists vehemently rejected the God-centered worldview of the Founding Fathers and sought to secularize education and substitute salvation through scientific education than by salvation through Christ . However, it wasn’t until the turn of the last century and the rise of the progressive education movement that the war in America took on the militancy which characterizes it today. The progressives were, for the most part, members of the...

Karl Popper (1902-1994) was a British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics. Because he is regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the 20th century, what Popper had to say about Darwinism is of utmost importance to the desperate political struggle fought between creationists and methodological and ontological naturalists. This is because the America of the Founding generation is firmly grounded in the Genesis account of creation, Old and New Testament morality and Christian theism, yet the original meaning and intent of U.S. law — as now controlled and defined by anti-God naturalism...

Rising Atheism In America Puts 'Religious Right On The Defensive' High profile of faith-based politicians such as Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry masks a steady growth in secularism Paul Harris in New York 1 October 2011 About 400 people are preparing to gather for a conference in Hartford, Connecticut, to promote the end of religion in the US and their vision of a secular future for the country. Those travelling to the meeting will pass two huge roadside billboards displaying quotes from two of the country's most famous non-believers: Katharine Hepburn and Mark Twain. "Faith is believing what you know...

“Give me the child,” the Jesuit maxim is supposed to have run, “and I will give you the man”. But not if Richard Dawkins gets there first. The arch-atheist’s new book, The Magic of Reality, is designed to inoculate tender minds once and for all against the supernatural and its apologists. Actually, not just tender minds. While it’s aimed at children of 10 and up, the text is persuasive whatever one’s age. After all, Dawkins is a populariser as well as a proselytiser; his argument, beautifully complemented here by Dave McKean’s copious illustrations, has wonderful clarity.

Because I wrote a book with "Atheist" in the subtitle and I go on political TV shows to hawk that book, well-groomed meat puppets frequently ask me why politicians like Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry are saying bugnutty Christian stuff. I have an idea why these politicians have gone all religious, but I haven't found a way to explain it in a sound bite, which is why I'm writing this. I think the whole problem comes down to the word "Christian" and what it has come to mean in my lifetime. Christian used to be a throwaway word. People didn't...

Go to www.thegodhaters.com to order the e-Book. Christian Apologist Publishes his 14th Book! Don Boys, Ph.D. recently published The God-Haters: Angry Atheists, Shallow Scholars, Silly Scientists, Pagan Preachers, and Embattled Evolutionists Declare War on Christians! Boys re-read books by the famous atheists of the past then read the writings of the crop of New Atheists who have declared war upon Christians, Christ, and the Church–mainly Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett, Harris and Company known as the Four Horsemen of New Atheism. The author declares that the atheists’ books are filled with mistakes, mishmash, and misinformation. He said, “Every time I finished one...

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams thinks “atheism is cool” and that’s made it difficult for his church to convey its message. Well, he’s right that there’s been a recent surge in the popularity of atheism, but that’s not the reason the church isn’t growing. Think back to the “cool” people you know in high school. They were the ones willing to say what no one else was saying, the people who always maintained a certain level of confidence, the people who didn’t care what you thought because it just didn’t matter. That’s the position a lot of young atheists are...

Featured Term (selected at random):DIVINI REDEMPTORIS Encyclical letter of Pope Pius XI, published in 1937, condemning atheistic Communism and identifying its principal errors: dialectical materialism, utopian messianism, progress through class conflict, denial of personal liberty, and the negation of all human rights. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

People with 'mild' forms of autism are more likely to be atheists, according to a controversial new study — and more likely to shun organized religion in general. The study, which looked at posts on autism forums, focused on people with high-functioning autism such as Asperger's. The study, from University of Boston, speculates that common autistic spectrum behaviors such as 'a preference for logical beliefs' and a distrust of metaphor and figures of speech, could be responsible. The study authors, Catherine Caldwell-Harris and Patrick MacNamara studied discussions by 192 different posters on an autism website. They also looked at a...

Odd how many Americans can agree with Christopher Hitchens on many issues, i.e. his rage at Henry Kissinger. I sympathize totally with such disgust. The Hitchens contempt for the Tea Party, however, is the grandest dividing line, largely due to the tea Party’s fervent belief in God and its faith in Sarah Palin whom Hitchens repeatedly heaps fear and loathing on. Hitchens, however, warns the world to not patronize Sarah Palin! He points out that his favorite film on American Presidential politics is Gore Vidal’s The Best Man. With an almost bottomless irony of ironies, he further adds that at...

Sometimes you can focus so hard on a single tree, you lose sight of the forest. For instance, every sane person, which automatically excludes leftists, realizes that we can easily un-elect Barack Obama next year. But we should not lose sight of the fact that we will simultaneously be sending Hillary Clinton, Cass Sunstein, Timothy Geithner, Janet Napolitano, Eric Holder, Jeffrey Immelt, Jay Carney, Valerie Jarrett and Joe Biden, back where they came from. That should certainly provide all Republicans, no matter which candidate they happen to support at the moment, with plenty of incentive to vote for our ultimate...

It is axiomatic that in the world of the atheist there is neither morality nor immorality, only amorality. This is often misunderstood to mean that atheists have no values. That conclusion would clearly be erroneous. To associate atheism with amorality is not to say that atheists have no values, they certainly do; amorality is a commentary, not on the existence of values, but on the significance of those values. Since in the atheistic worldview we are nothing more than upright walking primates, our value systems have no more significance than those of our jungle dwelling relatives. In the Darwinian view,...

American Evangelical theologian William Lane Craig is ready to debate the rationality of faith during his U.K tour this fall, but it appears that some atheist philosophers are running shy of the challenge. This month president of the British Humanist Association, Polly Toynbee, pulled out of an agreed debate at London’s Westminster Central Hall in October, saying she “hadn’t realized the nature of Mr. Lane Craig’s debating style.” Lane Craig, who is a professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, Calif., and author of 30 books and hundreds of scholarly articles, is no stranger to the...

If the Christian has no assurance that God will triumph from the way the world appears to be going, one would be better off hedging one’s bets by siding with the Devil or sitting the whole thing out all together. There are those that attempt to do just that. Atheism is the worldview that believes that God does not exist. Those embracing this perspective tend to do so over both objective and existential reasons. Those claiming to embrace Atheism for objective reasons often concentrate their attacks on the more scientific approaches to the existence of God such as the cosmological...

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A concert event organized by atheist, agnostic and other non-theist soldiers has been cleared by the Army to take place next spring at Fort Bragg, concert organizers and a spokesman for the post said Monday. Organizers planned to hold the Rock Beyond Belief event this year, but they canceled after saying Bragg leadership was not providing the same support it gave to an evangelical Christian concert last fall. Supporters hailed the Army's decision

Every now and then there is a lawsuit that really defines the desperation of a failing social movement. The recent decision of one of America’s most intolerant religious organizations, American Atheists, provides a prime example. This group of anti-Christian zealots has filed a lawsuit they will surely lose. But they will suffer an even more resounding defeat in the court of public opinion. Put simply, the lawsuit will demonstrate that atheism is largely the result of emotional inferiority rather than intellectual superiority. If you think my claims are over-stated, just read the following excerpt from their civil (actually it is...

In the new film "The Ledge," a man perches high above the city, ready to jump to save the woman he loves. As storylines go, perhaps it’s not the most original. But what is unusual about this film, said writer-director Matthew Chapman, is that its hero is an atheist, set aloft to illustrate two themes close to Chapman’s heart. "Religious intolerance is a very bad thing," he said as the film opened last week in New York and Los Angeles. "It is possible to be good without God." The film tells of a love triangle between Gavin, an atheist, and...

<p>It’s Christian vs. Atheist in a new thriller released Friday.</p> <p>Except the Christian is the bad guy. And atheists are saying this film could be their “Brokeback Mountain,” which broke down barriers for gays six years ago.</p> <p>The atheist director of “The Ledge” is hoping to start a similar conversation on behalf of non-believers.</p>

<p>Conservative commentator Bill Bennett says that anyone looking for democracy, good government, business and job growth, the best medical care, a lower cost of living and taxes should look to Texas as the model and to Rick Perry as the model governor.</p>

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Consider how a group of ornery atheists in the US is suing Texas governor Rick Perry for daring to do an incredibly outrageous thing: hold a prayer meeting. Yikes, you would have thought the governor just called for the legalisation of child sex. Actually these angry atheists would clearly have preferred him to do something like that. This is what Perry stated, “Given the trials that beset our nation and world, from the global economic downturn to natural disasters, the lingering danger of terrorism and continued debasement of our culture, I believe it is time to convene the leaders from...

Science and Religion: God Didn't Make Man; Man Made Gods In recent years scientists specializing in the mind have begun to unravel religion's "DNA." By J. Anderson Thomson and Clare Aukofer July 18, 2011. Before John Lennon imagined "living life in peace," he conjured "no heaven … / no hell below us …/ and no religion too." No religion: What was Lennon summoning? For starters, a world without "divine" messengers, like Osama bin Laden, sparking violence. A world where mistakes, like the avoidable loss of life in Hurricane Katrina, would be rectified rather than chalked up to "God's will." Where...

Dr. Carol Swain, conservative commentator, joined Thom Hartmann for a debate about Texas Governor Rick Perry's prayer summit. Insisting that America was "founded as a Judeo-Christian nation," Swain declared that "atheists have hurt our nation" because of suing to remove prayer from the public schools. "I believe the one reason we have some of the conditions that you talked about at the beginning of the show is because we have ousted God from public life because of a small minority of people, those atheists that created trouble in 1962. And the Constitution does not say anything about a wall of...