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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...

Timeless words...written 149 years ago but could have been penned yesterday, but not by the current Imposter-in-Chief: "Insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and...

Atheists are using a music video that celebrates the burning of churches and synagogues to promote an upcoming atheist-themed festival at Fort Bragg. “Rock Beyond Belief” is scheduled to be held on the parade field at Fort Bragg in March. The event was created in part as a response to a Billy Graham Evangelistic Association event that was held last year. FOLLOW TODD ON FACEBOOK! Justin Griffith, who organized “Rock Beyond Belief,” said he was personally offended that a Christian evangelical event like “Rock the Fort” was held on the base. “We felt it was entirely inappropriate for anyone to...

Tim Tebow is called a "Christian Taliban" by an atheist, comparing Southern Baptists to Muslim fundamentalists. Link to Mindposts article hereExcerpt: "Superstar NFL quarterback Tim Tebow looks like an All-American guy, but he has more in common with the Taliban than with our Founding Fathers. The press has given Tim an open mic to opine on abortion, virtue, and piety. When will reporters ask Tim to share his views on gay marriage, the subservience of women, the power of the devil, where the dinosaurs too big for the Ark, or the age of the planet? His overt Christianity has resounded...

"...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...

A conservative group has set up a nativity scene at the Capitol building in Madison, and an atheists' group is seeking its own permit for an opposing display. A WISC-TV report says Wisconsin Family Action has been granted a permit to display its scene until the end of the month. The six statuettes that sit on a table depict the birth of Jesus Christ. Group spokeswoman Julaine Appling says the display is tasteful. She says there's room for a number of different voices. But the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation says a nativity scene isn't appropriate for a state building....

Pennsylvania Town Rejects Atheist 'There Are No Gods' Banner in Holiday DisplayPublished December 03, 2011 | Associated Press ELLWOOD CITY, Pa. – A western Pennsylvania mayor refused to include a banner from an atheist group that says "there are no gods" as part of a holiday display that includes a Nativity scene, which has been erected annually on city property for decades. Hundreds of people turned out to support the mayor's decision to go ahead with the display Friday, which also includes symbols pertaining to Kwanzaa and Hanukkah and secular symbols, including Santa Claus, a snowman and a Christmas tree....

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...

Just announced

The upbringing I underwent in New South Wales, Australia —partly in Sydney, but mainly in the village of Mulgoa— was one of complete, although predominantly quiet and civil, atheism. Both my parents (who are now dead) spent their childhood as Presbyterians, but shed religious belief soon after attaining adulthood. My father was the philosopher and political polemicist David Stove. During his undergraduate years, he fell under the spell of the militantly atheistic guru John Anderson of the University of Sydney's philosophy department. Except that "fell under" seems a much too gentle phrase to describe what my father and thousands like...

"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...

In yet another stunning attack on freedom of religion, President Barack Obama's Justice Department asked the Supreme Court last week to give the federal government the power to tell a church who its ministers will be. The case involves a former teacher at Lutheran school, who along with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is pushing a claim that a Lutheran congregation should be forced to restore her ministry position. Americans United for Separation of Church and State and American Atheists, Inc. have filed briefs siding with the Obama administration against the church. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Church...

Christopher Hitchens said that his 'time' is coming as he made his first public appearance in months...The controversial writer and fervent atheist, who is suffering from oesophagus cancer, attended the Atheist Alliance of America conference in Texas where he was presented an award by Richard Dawkins. The 62-year-old said that he had been determined to attend the conference because of the state's Bible Belt devotion. Receiving the Richard Dawkins Freethinker of the Year Award, Hitchens looked gaunt and his voice was soft. ... During his speech Hitchens said that he appreciated the fact that Texas governor Rick Perry had been...

A federal judge ruled on Thursday that the free speech of a coalition of atheists had been violated when Little Rock's public bus line denied them the right to place $5,000 worth of ads on city buses. Judge Susan Webber Wright ruled that the Central Arkansas Transit Authority and its advertising agency should not have denied the group the right to place the ads on 18 publicly-funded city buses during Memorial Day weekend. Washington-based United Coalition of Reason filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Arkansas group in June after the transit authority and its advertising agency rejected The transit...

<p>A group of atheists has filed a lawsuit to stop the display of the World Trade Center cross at a memorial of the 9/11 terror attacks.</p>

WASHINGTON – In an ironic twist, Planned Parenthood, the health care and industry-leading abortion provider, has joined some of its longtime pro-life antagonists in condemning a Florida jury’s decision to acquit Tot Mom Casey Anthony of murdering her daughter, despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary. While the organization may find itself in agreement with some of its archenemies on the issue of the promiscuous procreator’s alleged actions, it took a very different path in getting there. According to a statement it released, Planned Parenthood believes “This case sets a dangerous precedent. If women can so easily be acquitted...

<p>STOCKHOLM (AP) — At the "Egalia" preschool, staff avoid using words like "him" or "her" and address the 33 kids as "friends" rather than girls and boys.</p> <p>From the color and placement of toys to the choice of books, every detail has been carefully planned to make sure the children don't fall into gender stereotypes.</p>

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi Vatican City, Jun 24, 2011 / 02:59 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican’s new initiative aimed at sparking dialogue with atheists and agnostics may soon be coming to North America. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, told CNA in a recent interview that the “The Courtyard of the Gentiles” may come to three cities. “Quebec in Canada, which is one of the so-called ‘most secular’ places there is, where it seems like these days the question of faith is almost bothersome,” he said.“And, also, we’re thinking about two U.S. cities--Chicago on the one...

A group of New York City atheists is demanding that the city remove a street sign honoring seven firefighters killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks because they say the sign violates the separation of church and state. The street, “Seven in Heaven Way,” was officially dedicated last weekend in Brooklyn outside the firehouse where the firefighters once served. The ceremony was attended by dozens of firefighters, city leaders and widows of the fallen men. “There should be no signage or displays of religious nature in the public domain,” said Ken Bronstein, president of New York City Atheists. “It’s...

A Washington Post story about Catholic professors challenging Rep. John Boehner’s Catholic faith with an open letter to the House Speaker ignores the role of one of the key signers in a George Soros-funded group.The letter to Boehner says, “Your record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in Congress.” Ignoring the Catholic tradition of subsidiarity, or decentralized government, and voluntarism, the letter claims Boehner’s votes against expansion of the federal welfare state are anti-Catholic.Letter signer Stephen F. Schneck of the Catholic University of America (CUA) is a board member of...

A prominent Florida atheist activist has been charged with verbally simulating sex in the presence of a 10-year-old neighbor. Ellen Beth Wachs, 48, was charged with lewd and lascivious behavior. Wachs has been prominent in her opposition to prayer at public meetings and challenged the constitutionality of the sheriff donating jail basketball hoops to Polk County churches. An arrest affidavit said she was arrested following a Saturday morning dispute with a neighbor. According to the affidavit, the 10-year-old boy was playing basketball when Wachs yelled through her open bedroom window for him to stop. The boy was joined outside by...

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — In the military, there are more than 3,000 chaplains who minister to the spiritual and emotional needs of active duty troops, regardless of their faiths. The vast majority are Christians, a few are Jews or Muslims, one is a Buddhist. A Hindu, possibly even a Wiccan may join their ranks soon. But an atheist? Strange as it sounds, groups representing atheists and secular humanists are pushing for the appointment of one of their own to the chaplaincy, hoping to give voice to what they say is a large — and largely underground — population of nonbelievers in...

Dear fellow-unbelievers, Nothing would have kept me from joining you except the loss of my voice (at least my speaking voice) which in turn is due to a long argument I am currently having with the specter of death. Nobody ever wins this argument, though there are some solid points to be made while the discussion goes on. I have found, as the enemy becomes more familiar, that all the special pleading for salvation, redemption and supernatural deliverance appears even more hollow and artificial to me than it did before. I hope to help defend and pass on the lessons...

On April 10, Bob Seashols, a Coordination Center Officer for the Transportation and Security Administration (TSA) at the Richmond International Airport (RIC) and an administrator for Atheists United’s Facebook page, took part in a coordinated effort to populate pornographic images, extreme profanity, and sexually explicit anti-Christian hate-speech on the Facebook page of Ken Ham, an internationally known Christian ministry leader who serves as president of Answers in Genesis-U.S (AiG) and the popular Creation Museum, located near Cincinnati, Ohio. Sunday afternoon visitors to Mr. Ham’s “public person” Facebook site found pages of sexually explicit commentary aimed at mocking him and deriding...

Ken Ham, co-founder of the Creation Museum, was recently shocked to learn that an atheist had placed pornographic images, extreme profanity and vile statements about Christianity on his Facebook page. Creation Museum spokesman Mark Looy sees the web as a wonderful tool for Christians, but he says many critics of the gospel and those who hate Christian ministries are using social networking sites like Facebook to promote their own agenda. "In this instance, we know who the person is who went to Ken Ham's Facebook page, [and] we know who his employers are," Looy reports. "The employer's code of conduct...

Featured Term (selected at random):PAGAN A heathen. In general one who practices idolatry. Formerly used to describe anyone who did not profess monotheism, and still used by Christians, Jews, and Moslems to identify a person who does not believe in one God, Creator of heaven and earth. More properly a pagan is a person who has abandoned all religious belief, i.e., an irreligious person. (Etym. Latin paganus, countryman, villager, civilian; from pagus, district, province, village.) All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

The cliche notwithstanding, there are atheists in foxholes. In fact, atheists, agnostics, humanists and other assorted skeptics from the Army's Fort Bragg have formed an organization in a pioneering effort to win recognition and ensure fair treatment for nonbelievers in the overwhelmingly Christian U.S. military. "We exist, we're here, we're normal," said Sgt. Justin Griffith, chief organizer of Military Atheists and Secular Humanists, or MASH. "We're also in foxholes. That's a big one, right there." For now, the group meets regularly in homes and bars outside of Fort Bragg, one of the biggest military bases in the country. But it...

<p>RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A group of religious non-believers at Fort Bragg is pushing for the U.S. military to make sure they get the same treatment as religious groups.</p> <p>Soldiers at the post have filed paperwork seeking recognition for their group, called Military Atheists and Secular Humanists. They want to hold meetings at the base, work with the Army's chaplains and have their gatherings listed in a bulletin of religious services.</p>

With Christopher Hitchens teetering on the brink of eternity, revisit this query from 2007: Do we have any prayer volunteers for Christopher Hitchens? He’s the self -proclaimed “atheist/anti-theist,” and stunningly clever wordsmith. He leapfrogged puzzled agnosticism to a pledged rebellion against God. He’ll be a tough turn-around, so thick is his iron-clad ignorance of the divine. In a recent Newsweek he cynically dissects Mother Teresa’s dark theological struggles, a postscript to his derisive 1995 book, “The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice.” A week ago he was a featured speaker for an Atheist Alliance conference in Washington DC....

Human Events’ readers, in an online poll, recently voted billionaire financier George Soros “the single most destructive leftist demagogue in the country.” Here are the Top 10 Reasons George Soros Is Dangerous1. Gives billions to left-wing causes: Soros started the Open Society Institute in 1993 as a way to spread his wealth to progressive causes. Using Open Society as a conduit, Soros has given more than $7 billion to a who’s who of left-wing groups. This partial list of recipients of Soros’ money says it all: ACORN, Apollo Alliance, National Council of La Raza, Tides Foundation, Huffington Post, Southern Poverty...

The last person you might expect Christopher Hitchens, one of the world’s best known atheists, to turn to for help would be an evangelical Christian. But a highly religious doctor might be the only individual who can help the author and journalist who is suffering from cancer. Hitchens, author of God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything...

Dear young people, dear friends! I know that at the invitation of Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, the Archbishop of Paris, and of Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, you are gathered in great numbers in front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. I greet all of you, together with our brothers and friends from the Taizé Community. I am grateful to the Pontifical Council for having taken up and extended my invitation to open a number of "Courts of the Gentiles" within the Church. This image refers to the vast open space near...

It seems like the religion in the U.S. is a juggernaut that will be nigh unstoppable in the next decade or two. It's seemingly impossible to get elected without being openly and devoutly religious. George Bush claimed to receive divine commandments on how to perform his job. President Obama has made his church attendance receives plenty of attention too. Some question his sincerity, but no one questions that this is the politically smart thing to do. George Bush famously said that Islam is a religion of peace despite all the evidence to the contrary. 40% of U.S. citizens are strict...

An estranged son of anti-gay Kansas pastor Fred Phelps said Wednesday that the spiritual leader of Westboro Baptist Church hit his wife and beat his children with a mattock handle until they bled. "I think what he does out there is evil," said Nathan "Nate" Phelps, during an appearance on HLN's "Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell." Nate Phelps is the seventh of the Westboro Baptist minister's 13 children. The younger Phelps severed ties with his family on his 18th birthday and said he hasn't had contact with his father in three decades. Nate Phelps is currently writing a book about his...

Christopher Hitchens was interviewed in his home about his life and work following a diagnosis of esophageal cancer. He authored over a dozen books including his recent memoir, Hitch-22. Other titles include, God Is Not Great, The Trial of Henry Kissinger, The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice, and Thomas Jefferson: Author of America. He was a contributing editor for the Atlantic Monthly magazine and a columnist for Vanity Fair magazine, where he has been writing articles about his diagnosis in the summer 2010 of stage four esophageal cancer.

Over the last several months I have been responding to a series of YouTube videos produced by unevangelist, Chris Redford, a former Assembly of God youth group member turned atheist. Most of his videos are professionally made, and His soft-spoken manner and “Christian” music do not fit the stereotypical view of an angry atheist.  Nevertheless, his viewpoint in the latest videos I watched can be summed up this way: “I don’t like the God of the Bible.  I am smarter than Him, and I have better moral standards.”  Few of his arguments in Deconversion 2.3 and 2.4 discuss the existence...

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi Vatican City, Jan 26, 2011 / 02:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Dialogue between the Vatican, agnostics and atheists will take place in a new arena as of this spring.The "Courtyard of the Gentiles" project, brainchild of the Pontifical Council for Culture and its president Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, will be officially presented Mar. 24-25 in Paris, France.Cardinal Ravasi first unveiled his plans for the Paris inauguration of the "Courtyard" last year, but further details were released in a statement from the council on Jan. 25.The Vatican's culture department plans for it to be "a new permanent Vatican structure...

Grifford’s shooter Jared Lee Loughner has spawned bitter comments from both sides of the “blame someone else” American media and bloggers. Every time there is politically motivated violence in our society, of late, it seams that the blogosphere lines up on two sides to point out that the perpetrator of that violence is either a liberal or conservative wacko. Following shortly is an attempt to asses blame to one group or another. In reality however, we have had some high profile incidents by people who are disturbed; they are crazy people espousing odd beliefs and acting out in a manner...

Donald Henderson knows not to overdo it on Christmas decorations. A week after Thanksgiving, Henderson placed a tasteful wreath on the front door, strung a few lights along the front porch railing, and, just to elevate his game a notch or two, plopped an inflatable Mickey and Minnie Mouse on his front lawn, wishing all "Season's Greetings."

Rick Marazzini of MindPosts appeared on Fox and Friends to discuss his new “Atheist Christmas Coloring Book” that he made especially for those who can’t stand the ‘War on Christmas’, yet aren’t Christians themselves.

It’s Christmas time so of course we have the usual all out assault on Christianity. The taxpayer funded Smithsonian has a display that shows an ant covered Jesus and other homoerotic pictures such as Ellen Dengeneres grabbing her breasts, and men kissing. The museum even promoted a “family day” on November 21st and after visiting, one child drew a picture depicting three naked people with an apparent child grabbing the genital region of an adult. Yep, that’s good ole American family values.

December 7, Pearl Harbor day... so war (I 'spose) is appropriate subject matter. Among the news of the day, we have billboard ads about the nation purchased by atheists, dissing Christmas ("season for reason", as opposed to "Jesus, reason for the season"... clever those atheists). However, as an unabashed theist of the “born again Christian” variety... I find the atheist is a strange sort: he(she)often as part of their argument, rails against the "injustice" of God who does not exist, then (exclusively) claims to be of "rational and reasoned" mind! Try as I might, I can’t calculate their “math” (what...

<p>YOUR **** RELIGION IS B****T AND YOUR GOD IS *%*&*% MAKE BELIEVE! I have exactly ZERO FEAR of what exists only in your rasist narrow simpleton mind. Your god is NOT AN OBJECTIVE REALITY and yet you keep pushing him on us. You are nothing but a bunch of stupid retarded bigots and hypicrites, PLEASE **$# OFF AND DIE. I am sick you your STUPID JEEEEEEESUS *%*&%* hijacking the legacy of the founding fathers to promote your controlling agenda. $&*^* YOUR STUPID &$&$* OF A GOD [long screed of swearing and curing and liberal slogans] ON YOUR IDIOT BI-BULL, IT BELONGETH IN DA TOILET! Are you so STUPID that you think quoting from theidiot BI-BULL will do anythimng besides make me LAUGH HYSTERICoLLY. The bi-BULL is a [more screaming and gibberish] that is good for nothing except wiping %&*^#. It is fiulled with STUPID, RIDICULOS errors and silly moronic fairy tales. It is the product of hateful rasist people. Its god is exclusive, racist, genocidal cunt of a monster whop loves only those who willingly ignore rational thought and become his sheeple. HE DOESN'T EXIST!</p>

Drivers approaching the Lincoln Tunnel this holiday season will be the targets of an atheist advertisement that its sponsors describe as a strike against Christmas. A billboard sponsored by the American Atheists and posted in North Bergen, on the New Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel, reads: 'You KNOW it's a Myth. This season, celebrate REASON.' A billboard scheduled to be displayed near the New Jersey entrance to the tunnel until the end of the holidays shows a silhouetted manger scene with the message, “You KNOW it’s a Myth. This Season, Celebrate REASON.” The $20,000 campaign, sponsored by a national...

QALQILIYA, West Bank (AP) — A mysterious blogger who set off an uproar in the Arab world by claiming he was God and hurling insults at the Prophet Muhammad is now behind bars — caught in a sting that used Facebook to track him down. The case of the unlikely apostate, a shy barber from this backwater West Bank town, is highlighting the limits of tolerance in the Western-backed Palestinian Authority — and illustrating a new trend by authorities in the Arab world to mine social media for evidence.

On Nov. 5, 2010, I read an article titled “Where Did God Go in Afghanistan?” by Capt. Michael Cummings. Captain Cummings, who reported his thoughts concerning sparse attendance at religious services in Afghanistan, speculated as to why so few soldiers were willing to attend these services. He stated that he personally could not imagine anyone being in combat without a belief in God, but theorized that being openly religious wasn’t “cool” enough for modern troops and that’s why they failed to attend religious services that were arranged for them. Throughout his heartfelt article, it was clear that he was distressed...

Esbensen, 53, who was ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister in 1996 and recently became head of a Madison congregation, does not believe in God or life after death. She calls herself a "humanist atheist." She thinks belief in deity has arguably done more to hurt than help the world. "People who do not believe in God are actually kinder, gentler people," she says. A personal belief in God, for instance, was not needed for Esbensen to comfort the dying woman in Minnesota, to "say what she needed to hear." This fall, Esbensen became minister of the Prairie Unitarian Universalist...

“BALI is so intensely spiritual that it makes the Vatican seem secular,” sniffs the self-proclaimed atheist Phillip Adams in The Weekend Australian Magazine. “Which, of course, it is. A corporate HQ running one of the world’s oldest multinational corporations.” But, for the sake of argument wouldn’t a more secular Vatican be more attractive than a more spiritual Bali, according to atheist logic? And, given that many devout Catholics give their years and resources to the poor – is Adams unwittingly arguing that multinationals are enlightened, after all? You can see where this is going. As always, Adams is trying to...

In an interview today, the author at the center of a controversy about Amazon’s sale of a self-published pedophile’s guide told TSG that he has sold exactly one copy of the book and revealed that he was involuntarily hospitalized following a “mental breakdown.” Noting that, “I have what they call manic depression,” Phillip Greaves, 47, said that he himself was not a pedophile and that “the best advice I can give a pedophile is accept that masturbation is your best friend.” Greaves’s book, “The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-Lover's Code of Conduct,” last week became available for...

...That “Hitchens delights too much…” is indeed true, which is why he refers to himself as an “anti-theist.” The greatest issue with the death bed conversion is that a death bed is not guaranteed. Whoever said that you will rest upon a death bed and reflect upon your life, etc.? One car wreck or one fallen piano could spell your instant demise. Daniel Dennett suffered a heart attack and he took pleasure in praising man and science for his physical salvation stating, “Thank goodness I’m alive.” Richard Dawkins stated that he is going to record his death bed experience so...