This kind of overwhelming response and press coverage is indicative of the potential power the nontheist voting bloc might be able to yield. Having a say as to who represents them in public office is a critical step toward reaching their potential. Explicitly nonreligious candidates now actually have a chance at winning office despite their lack of reliance on an intervening higher power (which would have been an instant campaign killer in the past) because of the growing size of the nontheist movement.
Take for instance the rise in the number of self-identified "nones," or those who do not belong to any religious organization or tradition. While a few decades ago almost every American identified with a particular religion, the number of those who choose not to affiliate has risen to 20 percent. When it was time for Rep. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona to describe her religion earlier this year, she was the first to list "none." And while those who identify as "atheist" candidates for public office still face bigotry, more than 54 percent of Americans would now vote for an atheist candidate for president, much higher than the 18 percent that would have done so back in 1958.
MORE: http://www.patheos.com/Atheist/Rise-Nontheist-Voting-Roy-Speckhardt-09-27-2013.html
Nonbelievers in America, whether they identify themselves as atheists, agnostics, humanists, or just freethinkers, are people who live their lives without expecting gods to ever intervene in any way. It's obvious that their numbers are quickly growing. In fact, nonbelievers now make up nearly 20 percent of the American public, and since young people tend to find themselves in this demographic more than their parents, it's extremely likely that this growth will continue by leaps and bounds in the near future.
MORE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/roy-speckhardt/is-it-unethical-to-hide-y_b_4101309.html
When you factor in how Chaplains in both Congress and the military do not currently cater to non-religious people -- remember: atheists are currently banned from taking on the role -- and how the Senate Chaplain has almost always been a Bible-believing Christian (with the exception of a couple of Unitarians, both of whom were still believers), it's just another government benefit for Christians.
MORE: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/10/15/do-we-really-need-chaplains-in-congress/
The least religiously observant people remember more dreams than the most religiously observant people. The similarity of the results from these two studies, one using a sample of 705 people and the other with 2,992 people, adds empirical weight to the basic idea that interest in and awareness of dreams is highest among people at the nonreligious end of the spectrum, at least in a contemporary American context.
MORE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-bulkeley-phd/dreams-religion_b_3951209.html
With new insights into the classical game theory match-up known as the "Prisoner's Dilemma," University of Pennsylvania biologists offer a mathematically based explanation for why cooperation and generosity have evolved in nature.
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"Our paper shows that no selfish strategies will succeed in evolution," Plotkin said. "The only strategies that are evolutionarily robust are generous ones."
The discovery, while abstract, helps explain the presence of generosity in nature, an inclination that can sometimes seem counter to the Darwinian notion of survival of the fittest.
"When people act generously they feel it is almost instinctual, and indeed a large literature in evolutionary psychology shows that people derive happiness from being generous," Plotkin said. "It's not just in humans. Of course social insects behave this way, but even bacteria and viruses share gene products and behave in ways that can't be described as anything but generous."
"We find that in evolution, a population that encourages cooperation does well," Stewart said. "To maintain cooperation over the long term, it is best to be generous."
MORE: http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2013/09/generosity-leads-to-evolutionary-success.html#.UmV0uRD4KfX
A group of former members of a US-based protestant church, the Seventh Day Adventist, are on trial in France for torturing a 19-year-old woman while attempting to exorcise "the devil" out of her in shockingly-violent style.
MORE: http://rt.com/news/exorcism-france-court-torture-852/
Atheists, agnostics, freethinkers and humanists from all over the Carolinas and beyond arrive Friday at the Hilton Charlotte Executive Park hotel, 5624 Westpark Drive, Charlotte, North Carolina, for the Carolinas Secular Conference. The event runs through the weekend of October 4-6 and marks the formal launch of the host organization, the Charlotte Coalition of Reason (Charlotte CoR).
MORE: http://unitedcor.org/national/news/godless-conference-begins-week-charlotte
Atheists, agnostics, freethinkers and humanists from all over North and South Carolina will converge on Charlotte the weekend of October 4-6 for the Carolinas Secular Conference. The event will be held at the Hilton Charlotte Executive Park hotel, 5624 Westpark Drive. It will mark the formal launch of the host organization, the Charlotte Coalition of Reason (Charlotte CoR).
MORE: http://unitedcor.org/national/news/godless-citizens-carolinas-gather-charlotte
