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The event in question was the “Interfaith Service of Prayer for the Nation” held at Philly’s [Catholic] cathedral, the Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul. Planning for the event began in February by the Philadelphia Liturgical Institute, at the request and on behalf of the DNC. The prayer service was … odd.

Atheists are embracing Gods and creationism Elon Musk, the billionaire inventor and entrepreneur, the twenty-first century’s answer to Howard Hughes, believes we are living in a computer simulation. The chances that we exist in ‘base reality’ are billions to one, he says.Last week he told an audience of Silicon Valley tech evangelists: ‘Forty years ago we had Pong. Like, two rectangles and a dot. That was what games were.’‘Now, 40 years later, we have photorealistic, 3D simulations with millions of people playing simultaneously, and it’s getting better every year. Soon we’ll have virtual reality, augmented reality.’‘If you assume any rate...

Gallup released a new poll this week that examines people’s positions on abortion based on their religious affiliation. The poll asked people about a series of moral issues, including abortion and doctor-assisted suicide, and then examined their answers based on their religious affiliation. Researchers found major differences among religious groups, with Protestants, Catholics and Mormons taking a pro-life stance and Jews and the non-religious taking a more liberal stance. Gallup reports: Jews and those with no religious preferences have virtually identical views on the morality of abortion, doctor-assisted suicide, gay-lesbian relations and cloning animals. Jews are somewhat less likely than...

The Faith of Christopher Hitchens May. 5, 2016 Larry Alex Taunton is a columnist who started the Fixed Point Foundation, an apologetics organization that is probably best known for arranging high-profile debates between well-known atheists and Christians. For example, it arranged the famous “God Delusion” debate between Dr. Richard Dawkins and Dr. John Lennox. Other notable debates include The “Is God Great” debate between Christopher Hitchens and Dr. John Lennox and the “God on Trial” debate between Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D’Souza. Because his organization has arranged such debates (and because he often moderates them), Taunton has met and gotten...

A group of undergraduate professors at George Mason University are leading the charge to oppose renaming the law school after late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. A public Virginia university, GMU received a $30,000,000 pledge to rename the law school. However, the George Mason faculty senate -- which is not a law school body -- passed a resolution opposing the name change. The reasons the GMU faculty senate opposed the well-funded name change included the following: The memorializing of a Supreme Court Justice who was a significant contributor to the polarized climate in this country that runs counter to...

There are lots of famous Jewish atheists from Sigmund Freud to Ayn Rand to Isaac Asimov to Woody Allen. How do you think the Jewish community would have reacted if what follows had happened? A Jewish couple, atheists, artists, puts on an exhibit in which they critique five major religions with artworks and commentary. At the end of the first day the gallery owner comes up to them and says, you are attacking Islam and that means you favor the Jews in "Palestine." This is "racism." They try to explain that they are critiquing five major religions equally, did not...

Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest lender, on Tuesday added its voice to a growing protest by major companies against legislation recently passed in some US states targeting gay and transgender people. The bank said in a statement that it would “freeze plans to create 250 new jobs at its Cary, North Carolina, location” by the end of 2017. The decision was “due to state-wide legislation enacted in North Carolina on March 23 that invalidated existing protections of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender fellow citizens in some municipalities and prevents municipalities from adopting such protections in the future,” the...

News channel KJCT8 in Colorado is reporting that atheist and satanic groups are going to be circulating atheist, secular and satanic literature to middle and high school students in Delta County, Colorado. In December, Gideons made Bibles available for students at public schools in Delta County. That led to a student complaint, and led to secular groups such as the Freedom from Religion Foundation, Western Colorado Atheists and Freethinkers and the Satanic Temple to apply for similar distribution. …

A litigious atheist organization known for its lawsuits challenging Christian prayer and symbols in public spaces and Bibles in public schools is now voicing objection to the designation of a Muslim prayer space at the University of Iowa (UI). The Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) says it is “questioning the appropriateness” of the two prayer rooms created primarily for male and female Muslim faculty and students at UI. FFRF states in a press release: The public university, located in Iowa City, has recently established two prayer rooms for its Muslim students. This is in addition to a longstanding university...

Jillette: "I sat on TV, while my hero Tommy Smothers yelled in my face how pissed off he was at me for appearing on Glenn Beck. It broke my heart."

From Tommy Smothers.

Did Penn & Teller Set a World Record for Most Falsehoods in One Show? Bill Donahue, president of the Catholic League, has said, "Penn & Teller's Nazi-like assault on Catholicism that took place on August 27 will go down in history as one of the most vile, obscene programs ever aired in any nation." However, will the show also go down in history for airing the most number of lies, falsehoods, and misleading statements in a single half-hour show? Not counting credits, the guilty episode runs less than 26 minutes. Here's a lie-by-lie list of the falsehoods that Penn Jillette...

The church, which is the worldwide head of the Anglican Communion, tweeted well-wishes for Dawkins, 74, and his family on Friday night, writing, “Prayers for Prof Dawkins and his family.” “The tweet was a prayer,” he wrote. “Nothing controversial in that.” Despite intending no ill will in sending the tweet, Arora said that a row quickly unfolded, with some claiming that the Church of England was “trolling” Dawkins over his illness. In the end, Arora said that the reactions made it apparent that there is profound confusion prayer. “What is clear in some of the responses is a misunderstanding of...

THE population of nonreligious Americans -- including atheists, agnostics and those who call themselves "nothing in particular" -- stands at an all-time high this election year. Americans who say religion is not important in their lives and who do not belong to a religious group, according to Pew Research Center, have risen in numbers from an estimated 21 million in 2008 to more than 36 million now. Despite the extraordinary swiftness and magnitude of this shift, our political campaigns are still conducted as if all potential voters were among the faithful. The presumption is that candidates have everything to gain...

A Satanic group is set to deliver an opening prayer at an upcoming meeting of the Phoenix City Council, sparking controversy. The local Satanic Temple will deliver the invocation at the Council’s Feb. 17 meeting after winning approval -- and at least one Councilman is calling that a joke, Fox 10 reported Thursday. "Well it's definitely going to be making a mockery of everything, they want to mock the City of Phoenix, the taxpayers, and the people who want to take this stuff seriously," the councilman Sal DiCiccio told that station.

Growing up, Bernie Sanders followed the path of many young American Jews. He went to Hebrew school, was bar mitzvahed and traveled to Israel to work on a kibbutz. But as an adult, Sanders drifted away from Jewish customs. And as his bid for the White House gains momentum, he has the chance to make history. Not just as the first Jewish president — but as one of the few modern presidents to present himself as not religious. "I am not actively involved with organized religion," Sanders said in a recent interview. Sanders said he believes in God, though not...

According to presidential candidate and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, there's one thing that more important to him than the country he's running to lead: his God. In a remarkable exchange in New Hampshire, Politico reports, Cruz told reporters "I'm a Christian first, American second, conservative third and Republican fourth." "I'll tell ya, there are a whole lot of people in this country that feel exactly the same way," he added. Cruz, currently ranked second in GOP candidate polls according to RealClearPolitics, enjoys wide support among evangelical Christians in important, early-voting primary states like Iowa, where Cruz is locked in a...

Is nonconformity and freethinking a mental illness? According to the newest addition of the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), it certainly is. The manual identifies a new mental illness called “oppositional defiant disorder” or ODD. Defined as an “ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile and defiant behavior,” symptoms include questioning authority, negativity, defiance, argumentativeness, and being easily annoyed. - See more at: http://theunboundedspirit.com/nonconformity-and-freethinking-now-considered-mental-illnesses/#sthash.2oD6Hpv1.dpuf

In comments likely to enhance his progressive reputation, Pope Francis has written a long, open letter to the founder of La Repubblica newspaper, Eugenio Scalfari, stating that non-believers would be forgiven by God if they followed their consciences. Responding to a list of questions published in the paper by Mr Scalfari, who is not a Roman Catholic, Francis wrote: "You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don't believe and who don't seek the faith. I start by saying - and this is the fundamental thing - that God's mercy has no limits if you go...