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This weekend’s feedback is in response to a number of queries about the Church of England (Anglicans) officially apologizing to Darwin. However, they don’t speak for all attenders of this church, since many of them are still faithful to Scripture and are appalled by their ‘leaders’. There are numerous mistakes in the article by the official CoE representative, a Rev. Dr Malcolm Brown, on the official CoE website, and Jonathan Sarfati replies point-by-point...

FRANKFORT, Kentucky -- Gov. Steve Beshear has angered some Christians with his yuletide terminology. A giant evergreen that will brighten the Capitol lawn this winter won't be called a Christmas tree. Instead, the Beshear administration has dubbed it a "holiday tree." The Rev. Jeff Fugate, pastor of Clays Mill Baptist Church in Lexington, said Christians find the change troubling. "If you call it a holiday tree," Fugate asked, "which holiday are you talking about? We don't put up a holiday tree for Easter or New Year's or Thanksgiving. We put a tree up for Christmas." Beshear administration spokeswoman Cindy Lanham...

In my seventieth year I find myself in a very peculiar position. Raised a Quaker, I lost my faith in my early twenties and it has never returned. I think of myself as an agnostic on deities and ultimate meanings and that sort of thing. With respect to the main claims of Christianity - loving god, fallen nature, Jesus and atonement and salvation - I am pretty atheistic, although some doctrines like original sin seem to me to be accurate psychologically. I often refer to myself as a very conservative non-believer, meaning that I take seriously my non-belief and I...

Tuning in to President Obama's health care town hall today, you couldn't help but notice how much tamer the line of questioning was compared to what Obama's fellow Democrats have been up against. By and large, instead of the persistent tough queries that greeted the likes of Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Arlen Specter (D-Penn.), the president fielded much easier questions. The toughest questioner tried to tag him on his earlier comments approving of a government-run "single-payer" system but unfortunately couldn't get the point of distinction between it and the much more amorphous "universal" health care system, thus allowing Obama to...

Texas Evolution Lobby Making Power Grabs to Promote Their Censorship Agenda A Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article from last month, “Education Board in Texas Faces Curbs,” revealed how the Texas evolution-lobby has been seeking to use both censorship and power grabs to promote their agenda. First, they sought to censor from Texas students any instruction on scientific weaknesses in evolution. Having lost that fight before the Texas State Board of Education (TSBOE), they have tried to use other tactics to punish the board for adopting science standards that teach evolution objectively, or to grab power away from the democratically elected...

<p>Organizers of this week's National Day of Prayer still don't know whether the White House will participate.</p> <p>The event's evangelical character earned it a White House welcome during President George W. Bush's eight years in office. But Brian Toon, vice chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, says to date, there's been no mention of a White House observance being held this year.</p>

President Obama’s first 100 days in office will come to a close. Obama's juggernaut candidacy swept many Christians into its wake. Some now appear to have "buyer's remorse." As David Gushee, an evangelical Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University and a supporter of Obama recently wrote in the USA TODAY: "Mr. President, we need more than lip service. Centrist evangelicals like me embraced Barack Obama's campaign pledge to help bride the gaps of the culture wars. Instead, the president's short record on abortion-related issues is is familiar— and disappointing—rather than revolutionary.” Gushee is not alone. So, while politicos and...

South Bend, Ind., Apr 14, 2009 / 06:36 pm (CNA).- Fr. John Jenkins, the President of the University of Notre Dame, has written a letter to the school's board of trustees, defending the university’s invitation of President Obama to the school’s May commencement ceremony. Fr. Jenkins argues in his letter that while many have criticized the school’s move, canon lawyers and the USCCB document, “Catholics in Political Life,” both support his action. In the letter, posted in full on LifeSiteNews, Fr. Jenkins recalls the June 2004 USCCB statement on Catholics in political life and cites “two key sentences” that “have...

Ron Reagan is the direct namesake of the man whom many on the right consider to be “The Greatest American Hero.” Much to their dismay he has spent his broadcasting career taking aim at the very politicians who have sought to attach themselves to his father’s (the late President Ronald Reagan) conservative legacy in order to justify everything from extreme corporate deregulation to the war in Iraq. For decades Ron Reagan has forged a path that embraces left wing ideals and touts science and progression over alleged antiquated religious rhetoric, a position that infuriates the Republican Party and warms liberals...

Pope Benedict XVI will tonight attack the rise of aggressive secularism in western societies, warning them that they risked drifting into a 'desert of godlessness'. The Bavarian-born Pontiff will use his Good Friday meditations to compare deliberate attempts to purge religion from public life to the mockery of Jesus Christ by the mob as he was led out to be crucified. He will say said that 'religious sentiments' were increasingly ranked among the 'unwelcome leftovers of antiquity' and held up to scorn and ridicule. 'We are shocked to see to what levels of brutality human beings can sink,' he will...

To millions of Americans fascinated by comic-book superheroes, Bill Jemas of Princeton is an industry legend who helped breathe life into Marvel Enterprises by pushing the wildly successful “Ultimate Spider-Man” series that rejuvenated the company. These days, however, Jemas, a high-energy 51-year-old whose controversial four years as Marvel’s president remain fodder for comic-book blogs, finds himself engrossed in a task far removed from dialogue balloons. Each morning before sunrise, for the last three years, the Rutgers and Harvard Law School graduate has labored over the Bible, specifically the Book of Genesis in Hebrew, the language in which it was first...

A former chaplain with the Virginia State Police says he had no choice but to step down after a new policy took effect requiring generic prayers at department events. Last summer, Rex Carter and five others resigned from the volunteer chaplain program. The move came after a new rule was instituted that restricted prayers by the volunteer chaplains. Carter, who is still a State Police officer, said he had no other choice once he was told he could not pray in the name of Jesus. ~~snip~~ Recently, a State Senate panel killed a bill that would have prohibited State Police...

Published online 4 March 2009 We cannot live by scepticism alone Harry Collins1 Harry Collins is director of the Centre for the Study of Knowledge Expertise Science at Cardiff University, UK. He is currently working on a book about tacit and explicit knowledge. Email: collinshm@cf.ac.uk Top of pageAbstract Scientists have been too dogmatic about scientific truth and sociologists have fostered too much scepticism — social scientists must now elect to put science back at the core of society, says Harry Collins. J. TAYLOR The term 'science studies' was invented in the 1970s by 'outsiders', such as those from the social sciences...

President Obama addressed the National Prayer Breakfast this morning and used the opportunity to discuss the launch of the White House office of faith-based and neighboring partnerships. Obama stressed the inclusion of secular groups into his faith-based office by giving examples of his own life story. Could this office be a conduit for further government funded community organizing? The transcript of video highlights is below. This is not only our call as people of faith but our duty as citizens of America and our duty as citizens of the world. And it will be the purpose of the White House...

Following a secular humanist ad campaign in Washington D.C. which questioned religious belief, an initiative called “I Believe Too” has been launched to “counteract” the secular campaign with “a positive, upbeat ad that identifies God as mankind’s “true and loving creator...”

American teenagers lie, steal and cheat more at "alarming rates," a study of nearly 30,000 high school students concluded Monday. The attitudes and conduct of some 29,760 high school students across the United States "doesn't bode well for the future when these youngsters become the next generation's politicians and parents, cops and corporate executives, and journalists and generals," the non-profit Josephson Institute said. In its 2008 Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth, the Los Angeles-based organization said the teenagers' responses to questions about lying, stealing and cheating "reveals entrenched habits of dishonesty for the workforce of the future..."

Despite Barack Obama's approval of abortion and homosexual activism, new polling by a prestigious Christian research group indicates that the Democratic presidential nominee is making significant inroads among voters who are classified as "born-again" Christians. The Barna Group for research says Obama is statistically tied (43 percent to 45 percent) with Republican John McCain among born-again Christian voters. "Born-again Christians" are defined by Barna as people who say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus and believe they will go to heaven because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Based on that definition,...

Crime in America has been climbing steadely over the past century. in the 1940s, there was one murder a week in New York City. That's 52 murders a year. In 1980s, there were 5000 murders a year in New York City. Why is our crime going up? Did we go wrong in raising the next generation? Could it be the images on TV? Secular Humanism? Our schools? The culprit is Liberals. For the past fifty years left wing policies have hampered law enforcement efforts to go after and prosecute criminals to the fullest extent, prevented law abiding citizens from defending...

GENEVA (Reuters) - Islamic states are bidding to use the United Nations to limit freedom of expression and belief around the world, the global humanist body IHEU told the U.N.'s Human Rights Council on Wednesday. In a statement submitted to the 48-nation Council, the IHEU said the 57 members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) were also aiming to undermine the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "The Islamic states see human rights exclusively in Islamic terms, and by sheer weight of numbers this view is becoming dominant within the U.N. system. The implications for the universality of...

Last week, New York Times columnist Roger Cohen wrote a column titled "Secular Europe's Merits," in which he explained why he prefers the secularism of Europe to the religiosity of America. To his credit (other New York Times columnists do not generally agree to debate anything they write -- Paul Krugman, for example, has refused to discuss his new book on liberalism with me), Cohen agreed to come on my show, and proved to be a charming guest. A distinguished foreign correspondent for Reuters and the International Herald Tribune, Cohen nevertheless betrayed what I believe is endemic to those who...

Christian kids are typically sent to Sunday school for lessons on the Bible and morals. For nonbelievers, there's atheist Sunday school. With an estimated 14 percent of Americans professing to have no religion, according to the Institute for Humanist Studies, some are choosing to send their children to classes that teach ethics without religious belief. Bri Kneisley sent her 10-year-old son, Damian, to Camp Quest Ohio this past summer after a neighbor had shown him the Bible. "Damian was quite certain this guy was right and was telling him this amazing truth that I had never shared," said Kneisley, who...

Harry Potter and "the Death of God" - by Michael D. O'Brien Special to LifeSiteNews.com Editor's Note: LifeSiteNews.com, the news service which first put online the letter signed by Cardinal Ratzinger - now Pope Benedict XVI - against the Harry Potter books, is proud to present Michael O'Brien's latest essay on the Potter series.  The author, North America's foremost Potter critic, has written many articles that analyze in detail the Harry Potter novels. Here he reflects on the significance of the series as a whole. Well, July 21st has come and gone and the world is muggling onward. The date,...

Vision TV's Syncretism "Fundamentally Opposed" to Religious Faith Peter Kreeft says Vision TV adheres to secular humanist liberalism that is most dogmatically bigoted of all religions Part 4 in series By Hilary White TORONTO, August 1, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Canada's Vision TV multi-faith religious network says its programming "celebrates diversity" and "promotes understanding" between religions and cultures. Programs include the nationally broadcast Daily Catholic Mass, filmed in St. Michael's Cathedral in Toronto, and programs by Protestant, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu groups for which each organization buys airtime. But a recent National Post editorial pointed to "the channel's own original programming [that]...

The Greatest Killer The 20th Century has been the bloodiest century in all of history. And humanism has proven to be the most destructive religion of all time. Far more people have been killed in the name of atheism than by all other religions combined. Historian Paul Johnson has observed that ”the 20th Century state has proved itself the great killer of all time.” The 20th Century has seen the worst atrocities ever committed. The word ”genocide”, a new term coined in the 20th Century, describes what has occurred repeatedly in secular humanist states - which had first disarmed their...

An article in The Wall Street Journal (April 12) breathlessly informs us of the latest fad on the Incredible Shrinking Continent -- "As Religious Strife Grows, Europe's Atheists Seize Pulpit: Islam's Rise Gives Boost To Militant Unbelievers; The Celebrity Hedonist," the headline teases. The "Celebrity Hedonist," isn't geriatric frat-boy Hugh Hefner, but Michel Onfray, a 48-year-old author dubbed "France's high-priest of atheism" in the Journal piece. Reporter Andrew Higgins describes the doyen of disbelief -- commander of the faith-less -- strutting onto the stage of Caen's 500-seat Alexis de Tocqueville auditorium, dressed in black from head to toe, to deliver...

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be most unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary...

No single factor is invoked more often in people turning away from God, or in their failing to believe in Him, than the occurrence --- note that I do not say "existence" --- of evil, especially as it manifests itself in suffering. The occurrence of evil appears incompatible with God, or at least a coherent conception of God as both (and simultaneously) absolutely good and absolutely powerful. That God and evil should coexist appears logically contradictory and ontologically inconsistent. The one is the abrogation of the other. The existence of God, it is argued, precludes the existence of evil and...

For some time, the religious right has decried "secular humanism," a philosophy that rejects the supernatural or spiritual as a basis for moral decisionmaking. But now, nonbelievers are vigorously fighting back. Only a small percentage of Americans admit to being nontheists (between 2 and 9 percent, depending on the poll), but that equates to many millions. And religionists' role in debates over stem-cell research and evolution vs. intelligent design - as well as radical religion in world conflicts - have galvanized some atheists to mount a counteroffensive. In bestselling books, on websites, and with a national lobbying effort, atheists and...

The night after the election, he was the hottest thing going from Galesburg to Rockford. He did all the TV shows, and all the morning news, but his last stop at night was for church." --THE REV. JAMES MEEKS Casually straightening his tie with one hand as he holds the door for a stranger with the other, the young politician strides into the cafe, greeting an employee by name and flashing a big grin at the rest of the room. He grabs a bottled protein shake from the cooler at the back of Cafe Baci on South Michigan Avenue, and...

"Let's teach our children from a very young age about the story of the universe and its incredible richness and beauty. It is already so much more glorious and awesome--and even comforting--than anything offered by any scripture or God concept I know."-- Carolyn Porco, astronomer A crusading troika After four centuries of growing tension, the battle lines between secularism and religion have sharpened, owing in large measure to the efforts of Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins. Determined to reduce religion to the ash heap of Dark Age superstition, the crusading troika delivered four flaming arrows this year. In...

Maybe the pivotal moment came when Steven Weinberg, a Nobel laureate in physics, warned that “the world needs to wake up from its long nightmare of religious belief,” or when a Nobelist in chemistry, Sir Harold Kroto, called for the John Templeton Foundation to give its next $1.5 million prize for “progress in spiritual discoveries” to an atheist — Richard Dawkins, the Oxford evolutionary biologist whose book “The God Delusion” is a national best-seller. Or perhaps the turning point occurred at a more solemn moment, when Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City and an...

BERLIN - Ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose second term was marked by vehement opposition to the war in Iraq, described in an advance copy of his memoirs how he was suspicious of President Bush's constant references to his Christian faith. In an excerpt of his book, "Decisions: My Life in Politics" published in the German weekly Der Spiegel Saturday, Schroeder discusses the key political choices that marked his seven-year term in office, including the decision to call early elections and his split with Bush over the Iraq war. "I am anything but anti-American," Schroeder told Spiegel in an interview to accompany...

Using religion to spread hate is repugnant, says Linda McQuaig Oct. 8, 2006. 01:00 AM LINDA MCQUAIG A black man and a white woman stand before a justice of the peace, eager to exchange their wedding vows. But as they look lovingly into each other's eyes, the justice of the peace refuses to proceed — because he disapproves of interracial marriage. This sort of discrimination would be repugnant to most Canadians. It's also not allowed in Canada. So if the JP, whose salary is paid by taxpayers, refused to do his job and marry the interracial couple, he would be...

This is a video of a brave Arab woman speaking passionately against violent Muslims on Al-Jazeera TV. I'm surprised they allowed her to speak and I wonder if she is still alive today.

Essay Several years ago, an obese, diabetic patient of mine insisted on knee-replacement surgery against the wishes of her doctors, who believed that it would be too dangerous. She came through with flying colors. While everyone rightly praised the efforts of her surgeon and physical therapist, another factor in her recovery was ignored: luck. Why are doctors and patients so reluctant to discuss a phenomenon that permeates medicine every day? The likeliest reason that luck — good or bad — is so often disregarded is that at first glance, it appears contrary to the scientific basis of medicine. That is,...

This is the continent where some leading thinkers are talking about a "post-Christian Europe." And this is the country of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who infamously quipped, "God is dead." So some may be surprised at the receptivity in Germany this week to visiting Pope Benedict XVI's message: Europe needs to rethink the thesis that secularism and economic progress go hand in hand. Coincidentally, some of Europe's stalwart secularists are challenging the idea that religious reasoning inevitably retreats from the public sphere as countries modernize. Germans themselves are modeling a growing acceptance of religion's role in shaping society: • Head of...

GENEVA (Reuters) - Humanists and atheists from East and West meet in Paris next week to forge a common platform against what they see as a growing threat from religions and religious politicians to secular states across the globe. Their gathering, the World Humanist Congress, is timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the French Law on the Separation of Religion and State, a key document which set France alongside the United States as a bulwark of secularism. "With U.S. society sliding towards theocracy, and religious belief -- even fundamentalism -- on the rise in every continent we have...

The 1962 Supreme Court decision, Engel v. Vitale, started an irreversible march toward liberal indoctrination, primarily moral relativism. Successive court decisions, even to this day, continue to undermine moral and parental authority. The idea that schools could socialize children to value neutral codes of conduct and ethics is an oxymoronic absurdity. Of course, it was never the intent of liberals to offer value neutral anything. With God out of the way as the source of moral standards, the schools’ only concern was those pesky parents and their held-over religious beliefs. The war against parental authority was on. "If you want...

Separation of Church and State? Multiple Choice question for all you out there- "Separation of Church and State" does NOT appear in which of the following Constitutions? A. Pol Pot's Cambodia B. Nazi Germany C. USSR D. United States If you answered "D" you got the only correct answer. In "B", Nazi Germany, Hitler, a New Age Neo-Pagan, did his best to de-Christianize his Third Reich. Hitler hated Jews, you see, and Jesus, being a Jew, was hated by the Nazi Party. The SS, who were the political troops of the regime, used pagan symbology and desecrated Christian wayside shrines...

The slippery slope of secular humanism continues to become even more so all around the world. We are quickly moving beyond a mere degradation of social virtues to outright hostility against religion and potential criminalization of adherents who practice their faith in their daily lives. In recent years we have seen the Dutch government change its laws to allow euthanasia, gay marriage, infanticide of imperfect children, and most recently, the sanctioning of gay polygamous unions. Gay marriage as become a reality in Canada and Massachusetts. For years our own government has flirted with passage of so called “hate crimes” legislation...

Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky are often called philosophical or theological novels. Their subject is neither philosophy nor theology, but human beings, whom Dostoevsky correctly portrays as motivated by philosophical and theological ideas, however superficially they may understand them. This is as true of the homeless as of holders of endowed chairs at Harvard University. Clerks at supermarkets express philosophical and theological ideas as often as Oxford deans or cardinals in the Vatican. The savants of the supermarket may hold imperfectly understood ideas, but they have gotten them from elites, who may be equally deceived...

(EXCERPT)What is a common example of disbelief in evil? A person who calls terrorists "freedom fighters" is giving away the fact that he does not believe they are evil. If the random murder of civilians by zealous fanatics is not evil, then nothing is evil. Therefore, it is a fair deduction that many of those who do not believe the terrorists are evil also do not believe in the existence of evil. Those who deny the existence of evil are often outraged when good men give evil a name and fight against it. This outrage sometimes prompts them to take...

Borders and Waldenbooks stores will not stock the April-May issue of Free Inquiry magazine because it contains cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that provoked deadly protests among Muslims in several countries. "For us, the safety and security of our customers and employees is a top priority, and we believe that carrying this issue could challenge that priority," Borders Group Inc. spokeswoman Beth Bingham said Wednesday. The magazine, published by the Council for Secular Humanism in suburban Amherst, includes four of the drawings that originally appeared in a Danish newspaper in September, including one depicting Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban with...

"We have mentioned previously that the contemporary world now consists of three camps: Judeoamerica (with Britain), the Muslim world, and the indifferent rest of the world which does not want to go to war over the Middle East. Culturally, Judeoamerica in fact includes most of Western Europe (and increasing numbers of Eastern Europeans). The culture of Judeoamerica since the 1960s has been shaped by hedonism and by the belief that wisdom (or its modern equivalent: “satisfaction”) derives solely from experience and from physical stimuli such as wealth, power, sex, the violation of traditional taboos, altered states of mind, etc. The...

It’s the same argument we’ve heard so many times before, except now with increasing frequency and intensity: The world’s troubles are caused by religion. If only people would at last abandon these silly superstitions and get with the times.Late this summer Zenit, the international Catholic news agency, reported on an increasing tendency in the Western press—particularly in the wake of the July bombings in London—to criticize not simply “Islamic fundamentalism� but also religion in general as sources of discord and violence. Thus in the pages of Scotland’s Sunday Herald Muriel Gray declared that “the cause of all this misery, mayhem,...

Kerfuffles is undoubtedly one of the best blogs I've come across. The fact that it is a Virginia blog is just icing on the cake. I have laughed, shed a tear or two, thumped the keyboard in confirmation and have always come away informed and better equipped to take on the Dark Side. For instance: Neddy has dug up a disturbing Flash presentation created by the Council For Secular Humanism denouncing Bush's America as a fascist regime. Immediately after a few still shots of Hitler and minions they display what they consider to be the #1 sign of fascism illustrated...

He who aims at changing society -- for good or for evil -- knows that he should gain control over three things: education, the news media, and entertainment. These are the keys that shape a society. My concern is education. Great men have always emphasized its crucial importance. To form young minds is to build the future of a society. There is no nobler task, and education begins at home. The mother is the primary educator of her child, for she will spend more time with her babies than the father can, even though his role is also crucial. To...

True and False Humanism Secular Humanism rests on an unperceived fallacy. In effect it says that man can love and esteem himself more if he does not have to share that love and esteem with God. But love is something which grows the more it is shared. When men love God, their genuine self-love does not diminish, it increases. Finally, it is only because they love God that men are properly enabled to love themselves. THE TERM “HUMANISM” is ambiguous from a Christian stand point. In one sense its common use is to be welcomed, since it tends to make...

I’m mad as hell. I’ve been a Catholic all my life. I was an altar boy. I went to Catholic high school. I spent ten years in the seminary, studying for the priesthood. I have a degree in sacred theology. Yet some religious conservatives suggest that I can’t even walk into church anymore - without first taking a loyalty oath to the Republican party. The election of 2004 made it official. With the help of religious conservatives, Republicans have stolen religion. Of course, it’s not just liberal Catholics they stole it from. Liberals, moderates and progressives of all faiths –...

Thanksgiving reflections about blessings the Almighty has bestowed on us sometimes awaken our pity for those who seem to have been cursed more than blessed in the year gone by. If we avoided direct hurt from tsunami or hurricane this year, we must already feel lucky compared to vast numbers of people still needing re-supply of brotherly love in strong doses. If we delighted in the survival or rehabilitation of a loved one – as the good Lord allowed in the case of my grandson Ryan, who'd once been deemed likely to remain "a vegetable" after suffering brain injury in...