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Washington Post: Independence Day an Atheist Holiday By Nathan Burchfiel Created 07/06/2010 - 11:06 Someone get Lee Greenwood on the phone; he's going to want to know about this. In a front-page Style section report July 5, The Washington Post breathed a sigh of relief that Independence Day gives Americans a break from those God-heavy holidays like Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving. "The trouble with most major holidays in the United States, if you're an atheist, is that it's difficult to ignore the ‘holy day' etymology," [1] Monica Hesse reported. "But not the Fourth of July. The Fourth is a little...

If you're a big fan of the Star Trek science fiction genre, then there's a good chance that you're a humanist at heart. That's the way that Susan Sackett, the longtime personal executive assistant to Trek franchise creator Gene Roddenberry, sees it. Ms. Sackett, who met recently with the Greater Worcester Humanists group at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester, said Mr. Roddenberry was an admitted humanist who liberally sprinkled his out of this world stories about Capt. James Tiberius Kirk, Mr. Spock and the other Star Trek characters with the fundamentals of humanism — a non-theistic, or secular, approach,...

Not only are they out to get us, they want our children too. “They” being the atheist stalkers that seek to undermine every shred of faith in God. They are sometimes blatant and sometimes sneaky, but they know what they are doing. Consider the “Atheist Pocket Debater,” a new iPhone app released last month. The competition is stiff with more than 150,000 apps on the market, yet “Atheist Pocket Debater” is currently ranked #100 in popularity. Here is the iTunes description:“Atheist Pocket Debater” gives many ways to argue against Christians, Creationists, and Bible thumpers. It is set up for very...

The 76-year-old Mojave Cross war memorial in San Bernardino County's High Desert has been torn down by vandals, just days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the religious symbol could remain -- at least temporarily -- on public land. Sometime Sunday night, the cross was taken down from its perch atop Sunrise Rock in the Mojave National Preserve, according to Liberty Institute, a group that represented veterans groups and caretakers of the cross in the recent Supreme Court Case. "This is an outrage, akin to desecrating people's graves," said institute president Kelly Shackelford. "It's a disgraceful attack on the...

Big Brother says elderly visitors to federally funded meals at a Georgia senior citizen's center aren't allowed to pray to that absurd, dangerous Christian God of theirs. Obama's Big Brother government contends that since it has paid for their meals the government has the right to slam its iron boot heel down on the necks of those seasoned citizens that dare to engage in such an apostasy toward the state. Seem absurd? Well it is but that is what happens when the feds roll into town and begin to hand out money. They feel the right to dictate what everyone...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday decided to let stand a ruling saying the Boy Scouts cannot lease city-owned parkland in San Diego because the group is a religious organization. The high court refused to hear an appeal from San Diego-area Boy Scouts who have traditionally leased Balboa Park camp space.

A religious watchdog group says a cross and motto on the emblem of an Army hospital in Colorado violate the constitutional requirement for separation of church and state and should be removed. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation asked the Army this week to change the emblem of Evans Army Community Hospital at Fort Carson, outside Colorado Springs. The emblem says "Pro deo et humanitate" or "For God and humanity." Fort Carson commanders will review the complaint, Lt. Col. Steve Wollman said. He said the emblem had been approved by the Army Institute of Heraldry and has been in use since...

This story contains much more information and additional photos than The Sun.

The remains of Noah's Ark have been discovered 13,000ft up a Turkish mountain, it has been claimed. A group of Chinese and Turkish evangelical explorers say they have found wooden remains on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey. They claim carbon dating proves the relics are 4,800 years old — around the same time the ark was said to be afloat. Yeung Wing-Cheung, from the Noah's Ark Ministries International research team, said: "It's not 100 per cent that it is Noah's Ark, but we think it is 99.9 per cent that this is it." He said the structure contained several compartments,...

I think I am very close to concluding that this whole “New Atheism” movement is only a passing fad—not the cultural watershed its purveyors imagine it to be, but simply one of those occasional and inexplicable marketing vogues that inevitably go the way of pet rocks, disco, prime-time soaps, and The Bridges of Madison County. This is not because I necessarily think the current “marketplace of ideas” particularly good at sorting out wise arguments from foolish. But the latest trend in à la mode godlessness, it seems to me, has by now proved itself to be so intellectually and morally...

Such was our founder’s belief in the preeminence of God that when the First Continental Congress convened in 1774, Massachusetts delegate Thomas Cushing suggested to the assembly that together they pray for divine guidance and protection. The historical events that would forever change the world were preparing to unfold: war loomed on the horizon; the Declaration of Independence would be signed, and a nation “conceived in liberty” would be born. In this moment, men of varied religious beliefs -- Presbyterians, Episcopalians, some Quakers, others Baptists or Congregationalists – were led in prayer by an Episcopal priest in an appeal to...

Paul Thagard1 and Scott Findlay1 Philosophy Department, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada Published online: 20 August 2009 Abstract Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is central to modern biology, but is resisted by many people. This paper discusses the major psychological obstacles to accepting Darwin’s theory. Cognitive obstacles to adopting evolution by natural selection include conceptual difficulties, methodological issues, and coherence problems that derive from the intuitiveness of alternative theories. The main emotional obstacles to accepting evolution are its apparent conflict with valued beliefs about God, souls, and morality. We draw on the philosophy of science...

A Tennessee father told his son’s school board they need to ban a biology textbook because of it's ‘bias’ against Christians. Kurt Zimmermann is appealing a Knoxville school district's decision to keep the book. He says the textbook used in his son’s biology class cites creationism as a "biblical myth." According to reports, he requests, 'non-biased' textbooks be used. In his words, the current textbook's phrasing misleads, belittles and discourages students in believing in creationism and calls the Bible a myth.

More than 2,000 atheists from around the world are gathering in Melbourne, Australia, to celebrate their lack of religious belief. It is thought to be the world's largest gathering of atheist thinkers. They plan to issue a statement on what they say are the negative effects of religion on society. All 2,500 tickets were sold out earlier this year, but a religious gathering at the same venue in December attracted three times as many delegates. The Global Atheist Convention is bringing together scientists, philosophers, writers and comedians, says the BBC's religious affairs correspondent Christopher Landau. They will be joined by...

The New Apostolic Reformation/ NAR is a religious movement of elites and regular people guided by an entire genre of books, texts, videos and other media. Among NAR adherents, is Sarah Palin and the NAR just may be the largest religious movement you've never heard of. Jesus called politicians foxes and in a country where Sarah Palin is being touted as presidential material, the issue of faith in politics has never been more deadly. Researcher Rachel Tabachnick, reported regarding NAR videos that they “demonstrate the taking control of communities and nations through large networks of 'prayer warriors' whose spiritual warfare...

...atheists in Australia appear to have demonstrated that they have more money than they know what to do with by wasting it on bus ads that read “Atheism - celebrate reason.” Atheists have, again, come very close to quoting that which the Bible has stated for almost 3,000 years, “‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the LORD (Isaiah 1:18). The ads are occasioned by the upcoming “Global Atheist Convention” in Melbourne a convention that is being titled, “The Rise of Atheism” and billed as the “biggest ever atheist event in Australia’s history.” This convention will feature the best and...

(CNN) -- Political, religious and sexual behaviors may be reflections of intelligence, a new study finds. Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs. This applied also to sexual exclusivity in men, but not in women. The findings will be published in the March 2010 issue of Social Psychology Quarterly. The IQ differences, while statistically significant, are not stunning -- on the order of 6 to...

The advocacy group In God We Trust today ripped the Obama administration for meeting to plot political strategy with 60 atheist activists representing organizations comprising the Secular Coalition of America. "It is one thing for Administration to meet with groups of varying viewpoints, but it is quite another for a senior official to sit down with activists representing some of the most hate-filled, anti-religious groups in the nation," says In God We Trust's Chairman Bishop Council Nedd. Tina Tchen, the director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, will meet with representatives from groups that comprise the Coalition. The...

"Are you good without God? Millions are" is the message on 10 new billboards in the Sacramento, CA area. The billboards, which are part of a nationwide campaign that began last year, were put up by the Sacramento Area Coalition of Reason. It's an umbrella organization for a variety of groups including the First Atheist Church of True Science, Humanist Association of the Greater Sacramento Area, Sacramento Area Skeptics, and Atheists and Other Freethinkers. Sponsors of the "good without God" billboards say it's not an attack on theism but, instead, a message directed to their own community. "It's a way...

Imagine getting arrested for just striking up a conversation about religion in public. That’s what happened to California resident Matthew Snatchko in 2006 when the youth pastor initiated a conversation about God with three shoppers at the Roseville Galleria mall. The women gave Snatchko permission to broach the subject, but a nearby store employee said they "looked nervous," so he ordered the evangelist to leave. After Snatchko refused, mall security arrested him. "He was put in handcuffs and hauled down to the mall’s security station and later booked at the local jail," said Snatchko’s attorney Matthew McReynolds of the Pacific...