Billboard Definitely Not A Sign From God

In a region where billboards have long been used to proselytize and "save souls," it's not surprising that questioning God on the roadside prompted a few detractors. For a week after the billboard went up, local television and talk radio stations filled the airways with the wails and screams of the faithful.

Letters to the editor of The Post and Courier expressed the anger of true believers: "At best this is just plain mean and spiteful. At worst it is an attempt to continue the assault on Christian and religious values," wrote a Charleston resident. "God is love."

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FFRF's Provocative Bus Signs Now Up on 50 Buses in Madison, Wis.

FFRF's Billboard Re-Posted in Columbus, Ohio

U.S. agency refuses atheist ads in Ontario

Losing My Religion

"If the Gospels were true, shouldn't I be able to find plenty of data that showed Christians acted differently -- superior in morals and ethics -- from the rest of society? I wanted to see that people were changed in fundamental ways by their belief in Christ." The data from many studies, whether on divorce, racism, charity, materialism, etc., showed otherwise.

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Promoting Doubt: Bill Maher On The DVD Release Of Religulous

There's nothing like a Bill Maher sneer to puncture the pieties and moral certainty of the deeply religious. In his documentary Religulous, which came out in October and will be released on DVD this week, Maher deploys the sneer in a series of interviews with a gamut of religious believers to convey the following message: You don't know what you say you know, and deep down, you know it.

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Supreme Court Ruling In Utah Religious Symbols Case Unlikely To Be Final Word, Says Americans United

The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that a Utah community does not have to erect a religious code from a group called Summum in a public park where the Ten Commandments are displayed.

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In Wake of Summum, Humanists Will Target Ten Commandments Monuments

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Supreme Court Should Strike Down Display Of Cross On Federal Land In California, Says Americans United

Sham Religious Land Deal Decried

Supreme Court to hear Mojave cross case

Senate Panel Kills Bill On Prayers At State Police Events

RICHMOND -- Del. Bill Carrico's bid to put an end to the Virginia State Police's regulation of its chaplains' prayers was shot down in a Senate committee Monday.

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Prisoner Sues Over 'Satanism Interference'

An inmate in a Montana prison has filed a $10 million federal lawsuit alleging that jailers interfered with his satanic religious practices.

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St. Petersburg Evangelist Bill Keller Pushes Back At The IRS

Never one to mince words, St. Petersburg evangelist Bill Keller has a message for the Internal Revenue Service: strip him of his tax exemption or leave him alone.

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Will The Recession Doom The Last Blue Sunday Laws?

A handful of state legislatures have declared it's closing time for Sunday alcohol sales restrictions, saying an extra day of sales could give their foundering budgets a much-needed shot of revenue. Those states -- Georgia, Connecticut, Texas, Alabama and Minnesota -- enjoy overwhelming voter support for an extra day of sales, but face opposition from members of the Christian right, who say that selling on Sunday undermines safety and tears apart families. "During times of economic stress, our families are under enough pressure," says Jim Beck, the president of the Georgia Christian Coalition. "I don't think we need to add even more pressure to those families by passing this law."

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'Sexual Impurity' Is Cited In Pastor's Resignation From Willow Creek Chicago

The pastor of Willow Creek Chicago -- the city campus of the evangelical megachurch Willow Creek Community Church -- has resigned and admitted to "sexual impurity," a church spokesman said.

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Former Nun Tells Of Sex And Suffering Inside Indian Convent

A former nun's tell-all story which details illicit relationships, sexual harassment and bullying in the convent where she spent three decades is causing ructions in the Catholic Church in the south Indian state of Kerala.

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Why Catholic Indulgences Are Making A Comeback

It sounds too good to be true. Now, for a limited time -- the year of St. Paul, to be specific, which ends in June -- say a prayer, pop by a designated church and qualify for an indulgence that deducts time from your scorching sojourn in the cleansing fires of purgatory.

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Spain Prepares To Fully Legalise Abortion

The move has put the Socialist government on a collision course with the Catholic Church which has argued the need "to restrict and not expand abortion" in Spain.

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Attendance At Religious Services...Predicts Support For Suicide Attacks

When it comes to discussing suicide bombers, the controversial topic of religion is never far behind. Scholars and pundits have proposed several theories to explain why people would sacrifice their lives to take those of others, and conjectures about religious views seem easy to defend. After all, anthropologist Scott Atran estimated that since 2000, 70% of suicide attacks have been carried out by religious groups, and Islamic ones in particular.

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Lebanon Moves To Downplay Religious Affiliation

Lebanon is among the most religiously diverse countries in the Middle East, recognizing 18 different faiths. Religious or sectarian identity is an integral part of Lebanese daily life.

But now the government is allowing citizens to avoid being identified by sect, which is raising some interesting questions.

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Iran Cracks Down On Religious Minorities

The government's hard line against religious minorities was recently extended to the Gonabadi Dervishes (also called Sufis), Muslims who incorporate elements of mysticism into their religion. Their house of worship in Isfahan was demolished by the authorities, who claimed it was built on usurped land.

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Al-Qaeda Founder Launches Fierce Attack On Osama bin Laden

One of al-Qaeda's founding leaders, Dr Fadl, has begun an ideological revolt against Osama bin Laden, blaming him for "every drop" of blood spilt in Afghanistan and Iraq.

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Blast In Crowded Cairo Tourist Area Wounds 14

(AP) A bomb exploded Sunday in a crowded Cairo market frequented by tourists, wounding at least 14 people, including foreigners, said police and medical sources.

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GI's Wounded, Interpreter Killed In Iraq

(AP) U.S. soldiers were wounded and an interpreter was killed in an attack on a police station Tuesday, the U.S. military announced - the third brazen assault in the past two weeks on American forces in northern Iraq.

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Iraq claims U.S. soldier killed by terrorist

Afghan Bomb Kills 4 U.S. Troops

(AP) A roadside bomb killed four U.S. troops patrolling in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday in the deadliest single attack on international forces this year. An Afghan civilian working with the Americans also died.

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Four British troops killed in Afghanistan

Afghanistan's Constitution Creates Death Penalties for Religious Freedom

Bomb Kills 30 Mourners In Pakistan

(CBS/AP) A suicide bomber blew himself up at a funeral for a slain Shiite leader Friday in northwest Pakistan, killing 30 people and wounding more than 60, police and witnesses said. Three other people were killed in sectarian rioting sparked by the attack.

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Ruling Throws Pakistan into New Political Turmoil

Unbelievers Unwelcome

Today the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty reminded the Arkansas legislature that "the free expression of religious belief, together with what James Madison called 'the full and equal rights of conscience,' should apply to people of all religious traditions -- including atheists." It added that "government should no more penalize a person for professing atheism than for professing a belief in Christianity, Buddhism or Islam." You might wonder why this lesson in tolerance was necessary in 21st-century America. It turns out that Arkansas is one of the few states whose constitutions still bar nonbelievers from holding government jobs or testifying in court. According to the Becket Fund, the others are Tennessee and Texas.

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Atheist Revival in Arkansas

Nearly Intact Mammoth Skeleton A Rare Find In L.A.

Now, at least 10,000 years later, visitors in Los Angeles, California, can see the remains of "Zed," a Columbian mammoth whose nearly intact skeleton is part of what is being described as a key find by archaeologists at Los Angeles' George C. Page Museum.

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Defying Darwin

The fundamental ideas behind the theory of evolution have been scientific gospel for decades - and yet creationists refuse to go the way of the dinosaurs. Who exactly are they? And just what do they believe?

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Born believers: How your brain creates God

Police: TV Executive Beheaded Wife

Muzzammil Hassan, who aimed to use his TV station improve U.S. public opinion about Muslims, is charged with murdering his wife, Aasiya Hassan.

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NYC Must Obey Church-State Rules When Converting Catholic Schools To Charter Schools, Says Americans United

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today advised New York City officials and Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio to abide by constitutional requirements when converting four Catholic schools in Brooklyn to charter schools.

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Northwest Jesuits File For Bankruptcy Protection

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Confronted by scores of lawsuits alleging sex abuse by priests, the Jesuits of the Oregon Province have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

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The Catholic Crusade Against A Mythical Abortion Bill

The U.S. Catholic Church's crusade against the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) has all the hallmarks of a well-oiled lobbying campaign. A national postcard campaign is flooding the White House and congressional offices with messages opposing FOCA, and Catholic bishops have made defeating the abortion rights legislation a top priority. In the most recent effort to stop the bill, Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia sent a letter to every member of Congress imploring them to "please oppose FOCA."

There is only one hitch. Congress isn't about to pass the Freedom of Choice Act -- because no such bill has been introduced in the current Congress.

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After Meeting With Pelosi, Pope Knocks Pro-Abortion Rights Catholics

Anti-Gay Preachers Banned From UK

A father and daughter from a US church which preaches hatred of homosexuals have been banned from entering the UK.

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Toddler Married To Dog In India To 'Ward Off Tiger'

Members of an Indian tribe have married off a toddler to a female dog in eastern India in a bid to prevent his predicted death at the hands of a tiger.

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Eight Men Accused Of Plotting Transatlantic Attack 'Carnage'

Thousands of people would have died in a terrorist plot to detonate home-made bombs on seven transatlantic jets between London and the US and Canada, a court has heard.

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Woman Blinded By Acid Wants Same Fate For Attacker

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Ameneh Bahrami is certain that one day she'll meet someone, fall in love and get married. But when her wedding day comes, her husband won't see her eyes, and she won't see her husband. Bahrami is blind, the victim of an acid attack by a spurned suitor.

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UN: Afghan Civilian Deaths Up 40%

(AP) The number of Afghan civilians killed in armed conflict rose 40 percent last year to a record 2,118 people, the U.N. said in a new report Tuesday.

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U.S. Surge Begins In Afghan Hot Spot

Report: New Afghanistan Strategy Urgent

Pakistan Tries To Pacify Taliban

(CBS/AP) The government agreed to impose Islamic law and suspend a military offensive across much of northwest Pakistan on Monday in concessions aimed at pacifying the Taliban insurgency spreading from the border region to the country's interior.

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Pakistan: Two female Nursing students accused of blasphemy

Roadside Bombs Kill Iraqi Pilgrims

(AP) Roadside bombs struck two minibuses filled with Shiite pilgrims returning to Baghdad on Monday, killing eight people, officials said, in the latest of a series of deadly attacks targeting the pilgrims.

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The Writing Is On The Synagogue Wall

World depressions lead to a rise in anti-Semitism. All over Europe, the evidence is around us.

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A Streetcar Named Disbelief!

The New Orleans Secular Humanist Association recently got approval for their own contribution to the unofficial atheism marketing campaign: An atheist sign on a streetcar!

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What a great message for an ad! I wonder where they got it???

FFRF Debuts New Freethought Bus Sign Campaign

People looking for 'a sign' need look no further than buses in Madison, Wis. For the next two months, they may not find a 'sign from God'--but will discover irreverent, thought-provoking messages compliments of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

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Galaxy Has 'Billions Of Earths'

There could be one hundred billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy, a US conference has heard.

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Astronomers Unveiling Life's Cosmic Origins

Stars, Stars, In Ultra-Compact Dwarf Galaxies

First Draft Of Neanderthal Genome Is Unveiled

The first draft of the genome of a 38,000 year-old Neanderthal is complete, scientists announced today.

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High-tech Tests Allow Anthropologists To Track Ancient Hominids Across The Landscape

Empathy Partly Based On Genes, Mouse Study Shows

Bird brain? Animal smarts surprise experts

Why Sleep Is Needed To Form Memories

Darwinism Must Die So That Evolution May Live

Equating evolution with Charles Darwin ignores 150 years of discoveries, including most of what scientists understand about evolution. Such as: Gregor Mendel's patterns of heredity (which gave Darwin's idea of natural selection a mechanism -- genetics -- by which it could work); the discovery of DNA (which gave genetics a mechanism and lets us see evolutionary lineages); developmental biology (which gives DNA a mechanism); studies documenting evolution in nature (which converted the hypothetical to observable fact); evolution's role in medicine and disease (bringing immediate relevance to the topic); and more.

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Darwin's Birthday Poll: Fewer Than 4 in 10 Believe in Evolution

'Missing Links' Reveal Truth About Evolution

Humanists Take Lead in Darwin Day Celebration

The Biology of Belief

La. Prison Agrees To Strip Monument Of Bible Reference

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Officials at a Louisiana prison, already under fire for allegedly denying Catholic and Muslim inmates access to religious materials, have agreed to remove a biblical reference from a monument outside the prison gates.

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State's Largest School District Ends Anti-Gay Policy

Minnesota -- For more than a decade, the Anoka-Hennepin School Board had a policy that forbade teachers and students from speaking about homosexuality, except to describe it as abnormal or invalid. But the board Monday approved a more inclusive policy after years of work by community members to make the district more accepting of all students.

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Gay couples protest at marriage bureaus across US

Catholic Symbols Stir Diverse Feelings At BC

Students and faculty returned to campus after winter break to find that Boston College had quietly completed, without announcement or fanfare, an eight-year project to dramatically increase the presence of Roman Catholic religious symbols on campus. The additions are subtle but significant, as the university joins other Catholic institutions around the nation in visibly reclaiming its Catholic identity.

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We Can't Choose Whom The Constitution Protects

Sometimes the American Civil Liberties Union defends the constitutional right of free speech of people who say really ugly and unpopular things.

When that happens, some people get upset with the ACLU, perhaps mistakenly believing that we support the content of the speech itself.

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Speech Impediments

Anxiety over causing religious offence limits freedom of speech in the West.

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Despite These Riots, I Stand By What I Wrote

The answer to the problems of free speech is always more free speech.

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Afghan TV Stations Find Censorship Line Is Blurry

Polish Church Under Growing Pressure

Twenty years have passed since the end of communism in Poland and there are signs that the institution that led the struggle against the regime, the Catholic Church, is under threat in the modern democratic consumerist society.

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The Islamists Show Their Hand

When Turkey's justice and development party (AKP) first took power in 2002, it tried to reassure moderates fearful it might chip away at the country's secular, democratic and pro-Western values. The AKP renounced its Islamist heritage and began working instead to secure European Union membership and to turn Turkey into an even more liberal and pro-Western place. Almost seven years later, however, the AKP seems anything but reformist.

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Taliban Announce Cease-Fire In Pakistan's Swat

Peace talks appear to focus on introducing Islamic judicial system in area

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Female Suicide Bomber Kills 40 In Iraq

(AP) A female suicide bomber Friday struck a tent filled with women and children resting during a Shiite pilgrimage south of Baghdad, killing 40 people and wounding about 80 in the deadliest of three straight days of attacks against Shiite worshippers.

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Are Shi'ite Feuds Driving Iraq's Lingering Violence?

Rockets Hit Israel, Hamas: Close To Deal

(CBS/AP) Two rockets fired by Gaza militants hit near a communal farm and the Israeli town of Sderot Friday, the Israeli military said.

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Israel denies reports of Hamas negotiations

Happy 200th, Darwin!

Today marks the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin (February 12, 1809 - April 19, 1882), perhaps the ultimate FreeThoughtAction hero.

According to Wikipedia, Darwin "was an eminent English naturalist who achieved lasting fame by convincing the scientific community that species develop over time from a common origin. His theories explaining this phenomenon through natural and sexual selection are central to the modern understanding of evolution as the unifying theory of the life sciences, essential in biology and important in other disciplines such as anthropology, psychology and philosophy."

Darwin's 1859 publication of On the Origin of Species and his 1871 The Descent of Man not only unified the life sciences, it revolutionized human thought, overturning the argument from design (or teleological argument), that had prevailed for thousands of years.

See:

Seven signs of evolution in action

Darwin still making waves 200 years later

Evolve your plans to mark Darwin's 200th

Happy 200th Darwin Day!

Heat The Hornet

Why Evolution Is True

Your Inner Fish

We're All Living In Darwin's World

Evolutionary theory has infiltrated the social sciences, where it has been used to explain human politics and spending habits. It has transformed computer science, inspiring problem-solving algorithms that adapt and change like living things. It is cited by a leading theoretical physicist who proposes that evolution helped shape the laws governing the cosmos. A renowned neuroscientist sees ideas of selection as describing the honing of connections among brain cells. Literary critics analyze the plots, themes, and characters of novels according to Darwinian precepts. Even religion, the sector most famously at odds with Darwin, now claims an evolutionary evangelist.

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See also:

ADVENTURES IN EVOLUTION

Darwin, Britain's Hero, Is Still Controversial In U.S.

Vatican buries the hatchet with Charles Darwin

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Biologists Find Gene Network That Gave Rise To First Tooth

Cosmologists 'See' The Cosmic Dawn

ScienceDaily -- The images, produced by scientists at Durham University's Institute for Computational Cosmology, show the "Cosmic Dawn" - the formation of the first big galaxies in the Universe.

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NASA's SkyView Delivers The Multiwavelength Cosmos

Americans United Warns Milwaukee-Area Schools Not To Hold Graduation Ceremonies In Church

Americans United for Separation of Church and State has warned three Wisconsin public school districts and a community college that they may face litigation if they do not stop holding graduation ceremonies in a church.

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Watchdog Asks Wisconsin Assembly To Stop Praying (Again)

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Madison, Wis.-based national watchdog working to keep church and state separate, has renewed its request that the Wisconsin State Assembly stop opening sessions with prayer.

Last June, the Foundation wrote Assembly Speaker Michael Huebsch that the practice of hosting almost exclusively Christian prayer to open the Assembly is illegal. The Foundation pointed out that one representative went so far as to "exorcize the Assembly Chambers."

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Billboard Honoring Darwin, Urging "Evolve Beyond Belief" Posted in Grand Junction, Colo.

Billboard counters mayor calling U.S. "a Christian nation"

"Imagine No Religion" Message Billboard Goes Up in Sacramento

Conservative Groups Declare Obama's Stimulus Bill A War On Prayer

Democrats in Congress have declared war on prayer, say conservative groups who object to a provision in the stimulus bill that was passed by the House of Representatives last week.

The provision bans money designated for school renovation from being spent on facilities that allow "religious worship." It has ignited a fury among critics who say it violates the First Amendment and is an attempt to prevent religious practice in schools.

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Obama Creates Faith-Based Office With Wide Mission

WASHINGTON -- Declaring that "there is a force for good greater than government," President Barack Obama on Thursday established a White House office of faith-based initiatives with a broader mission than the one overseen by his Republican predecessor.

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Humanists Uneasy about Obama's Faith-Based Program

Americans United Says President Obama's 'Faith-Based' Program Lacks Adequate Constitutional Safeguards

FFRF: Faith-based Office at White House Violates State/Church Separation

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FFRF Takes National Prayer Breakfast Remarks to Task

Americans United Lauds Senate Vote Rejecting Taxpayer Funding Of Religious Institutions

TransLink Blocks Atheistic Ads On City Buses, Shelters

TransLink officials say they won't allow advertisements promoting atheism to appear on Metro Vancouver's public transit system.

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Christians And Atheists Battle In London Bus Wars

Beginning Feb. 9, three separate Christian groups will launch advertisements on more than 200 of London's buses to convince pedestrians of God's existence. "It may be unpopular and unpleasant, says David Larlham, the assistant general secretary of London's Trinitarian Bible Society, a group that distributes bibles worldwide, "but there is a whole lot of truth in the bible that people need to get to grips with." His organization has paid $50,000 to display posters on 125 of London's red double-decker buses that quote Psalm 53: "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God."

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See also:

Anti-atheist bus campaign launched in London

Separation Of Church And State At A Crossroads In Spain

BARCELONA -- For a country steeped in Catholic tradition, these are alarming times.

Public schools are being told by judicial order to pull crucifixes from their walls. City buses with billboards espousing atheism have been rumbling through the streets here, prompting yowls of blasphemy from Catholic leaders.

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Christians Bailing On GoDaddy Due To 'Immoral' Advertising

GoDaddy's famously risque Super Bowl ads always pull lots of eyeballs, but the company's latest spots may have resulted in a little too much attention of the wrong kind.

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Bushfires 'Caused By Abortion Laws', Pastor Claims

The Catch the Fire Ministries has blamed Victoria's bushfire disaster on the laws decriminalising abortion in the state last year.

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For Catholics, A Door To Absolution Is Reopened

The announcement in church bulletins and on Web sites has been greeted with enthusiasm by some and wariness by others. But mainly, it has gone over the heads of a vast generation of Roman Catholics who have no idea what it means: "Bishop Announces Plenary Indulgences."

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See also:

Bishop Who Denied Holocaust Ousted

Italy Faces Constitutional Crisis Over Coma Woman

The Italian government has been plunged into a constitutional crisis over the fate of a 38-year-old woman who has been in a coma for the past 17 years. Eluana Englaro was left in a vegetative state after a car crash in 1992. After a decade-long court battle, doctors reduced her nutrition on Friday in preparation for removing her feeding tubes, which her father claims would be in accordance with her wishes.

But in an extraordinary turn of events, the country's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, after consultation with the Vatican, has issued an emergency decree stating that food and water cannot be suspended for any patient depending upon them, reversing the earlier court ruling.

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See also:

The Right to Die

Silvio Berlusconi attacks Italian president over death of coma woman

Hindu Radicals Vow To Attack Valentine's Day Couples

HINDU EXTREMISTS who recently dragged young women out of a fashionable bar in southern India and thrashed them as part of a morality campaign have vowed to assault couples who celebrate Valentine's Day.

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Facebook Women Say 'Knickers' To Pub Ban Bullies

Dutch MP Geert Wilders Barred From UK Over Anti-Islam Film

A far-right Dutch politician was denied entry to the UK yesterday, sparking a diplomatic row.

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Indonesians Ignore Religious Edicts Against Smoking, Yoga

Although Indonesia is an overwhelmingly Muslim country, many view Islamic clerics' fatwas as anachronistic and unnecessary.

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Militants Kill 20 At Afghan Gov't Sites

(CBS/AP) Taliban gunmen wearing suicide vests attacked three Afghan government buildings Wednesday in a coordinated assault that killed 20 people in the heart of Kabul just ahead of a planned visit from the new U.S. envoy to the region.

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National Security Team Delivers Grim Appraisal of Afghanistan War

Afghans Face Death Over Quran Translation

16 Dead, 45 Wounded In Twin Baghdad Bombs

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Sixteen people were killed and 45 wounded on Wednesday when twin car bombs exploded at a bus terminal and market area in southwestern Baghdad, Iraqi police said.

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4 U.S. Soldiers Killed In Iraq Car Bomb

Iraq Officials: Restaurant Blast Kills 12

Bombing Kills Provincial Minister In Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A bomb attack in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province Wednesday killed a provincial minister, police said. Eight others were injured in the bombing.

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Taliban hostage-takers behead Polish engineer

Venezuela's Jews Fear More Attacks

(AP) As President Hugo Chavez intensifies his anti-Israel campaign, some Venezuelans have taken action, threatening Jews in the street and vandalizing the largest synagogue in Caracas - where they stole a database of names and addresses.

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Israel's Election Dashes Hopes for Peace

Israel's election on Tuesday ended in a near draw, with the two front runners -- centrist Kadima Party leader Tzipi Livni and hawkish Likud chief Benjamin Netanyahu -- each claiming victory. With nearly all votes counted, Livni's party won 28 Knesset seats, and Netanyahu's 27 seats, both falling well short of a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.

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You're Not Alone In SC -- Even At Night

A night shot of the billboard recently put up by the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry.

Here is some of the coverage:

Post and Courier

Channel 2 News

Voted number one news story on Current.com!

Front page of Charleston Post & Courier Faith and Values section

Article in Wilmington, NC newspaper The Star

AdFreak.com

WCBD Ch. 2 News Story (included in top news during several 5, 6, and 11 pm broadcasts)

Article in Charlotte, NC's The Examiner

Charleston City Paper

WCIV Ch. 4 news story

Toronto Church Leader Denounces Atheist 'Attack Ads'

A prominent evangelical leader says atheist ads suggesting there is no God - now headed for Toronto's transit system - are "attack ads" and should not be approved.

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'No God' Ads, Soon To Appear On TTC Vehicles

BBC World Service Analysis on Atheist Buses

Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings.

Billboard Honoring Darwin, Not Dogma, Goes Up in Dayton, Tenn., and Dover, Penn.

Also:

Hatred of slavery drove Darwin to emancipate all life

David Attenborough on Darwin

'Tree of Life' video

And...

Most of the people who don't think evolution is true don't really spend a lot of time thinking about it at all

Oldest Fossil Evidence For Animals Found

The oldest fossilized evidence of animals has been unearthed in Oman and reveals that tiny sea sponges were abundant 635 million years ago, long before most of the planet's other major animal groups evolved, according to a new analysis.

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Malaysian scientists find stone tools 'oldest in Southeast Asia'

Early Whales Gave Birth On Land

Largest Prehistoric Snake Discovered

Biodiversity Hotspot Enabled Neanderthals To Survive Longer In South East Of Spain

Early Humans Had 'Jaws Of Steel'

Sociability Traced To Particular Region Of Brain

'Longevity Gene' Common Among Centenarians

And...

Cosmic Log: Mars rovers on the march

Blinding Them With Science

American college freshmen know fewer facts about science than do their Chinese counterparts, according to a new study, but both groups have a comparably poor ability to reason scientifically.

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New Evidence From Excavations In Arcadia, Greece, Supports Theory Of 'Birth Of Zeus'

ScienceDaily -- In the third century BCE, the Greek poet Callimachus wrote a 'Hymn to Zeus' asking the ancient, and most powerful, Greek god whether he was born in Arcadia on Mt. Lykaion or in Crete on Mt. Ida.

A Greek and American team of archaeologists working on the Mt. Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project believe they have at least a partial answer to the poet's query. New excavation evidence indicates that Zeus' worship was established on Mt. Lykaion as early as the Late Helladic period, if not before, more than 3,200 years ago. According to Dr. David Gilman Romano, Senior Research Scientist, Mediterranean Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum, and one of the project's co-directors, it is likely that a memory of the cult's great antiquity survived there, leading to the claim that Zeus was born in Arcadia.

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Americans United Says Obama Should Act Swiftly To Fix Constitutional Flaws Of 'Faith-Based' Office

The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called on Obama to act quickly to overturn executive orders and other policies from the Bush administration that undercut civil rights and civil liberties.

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Americans United Urges Senate To Reject 'Compassion Capital' Funding In Economic Recovery Package

Humanists Gratified at Obama Signing Ledbetter Act

Commentary: Obama is right to reach out to nonbelievers

Chaplain To Ward Off Hospital Ghost

Derby, UK -- A hospital has called in a priest to talk to spooked staff who have allegedly spotted a ghost.

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Simpsons Producers 'Have A Cow' As Bart Lends His Voice To Scientologists

Bart Simpson used to be an underachiever and proud of it. These days, it seems, he's an Operating Thetan VII in the Church of Scientology and proud of that, too.

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Jerry Springer Sparks Holy Row At St Andrews

Angry Christian groups, whose determined campaigning brought the UK tour of the play to its knees two years ago, have branded the university a "cesspit" and have demanded the "sinners" repent.

Radical group Christian Voice is calling on the people of the town to take to the streets to protest at the "disgraceful" decision to perform the play.

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A 'Lacerating Wound' For Christians

Allegations of child abuse by Catholic priests have surfaced in Verona. The church cannot afford to ignore them.

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Vatican Studies Women's Religious Orders

The Vatican has begun a first-ever comprehensive study of women's religious orders in the United States, four decades into a steep decline in the number of Roman Catholic sisters and nuns in the country.

--snip--

The number of Catholic sisters in the U.S. declined from 173,865 in 1965 to 79,876 in 2000, according to Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. The average age of a member of a women's religious community was between 65 and 70 in 1999, the center says.

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Pope's Silence Fuels Holocaust Controversy

Vatican: Holocaust Denier Must Recant

Police investigate Holocaust-denying bishop

Italian Woman In Vegetative State To Be Allowed To Die

A woman at the centre of a right-to-die debate in Italy was transferred to a hospital on Tuesday where she is to be allowed to die after 17 years in a vegetative state.

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Religious Groups Are 'Penetrating' Israeli Army

NAZARETH // Extremist rabbis and their followers, bent on waging holy war against the Palestinians, are taking over the Israeli army by stealth, according to critics.

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See also:

World Watch: Israeli Army Watches As Settlements Grow

The Desperate Youth Of Gaza

Israel Threatens Retaliation For Rockets

Long-Range Rocket From Gaza Hits Israel

Netanyahu: Gaza Offensive Stopped Too Soon

Gazans say Israeli troops forced them into battle zones

Rights groups say laws of war violated in Gaza

Outcry Against Gaza "War Crimes" Grows

Blasphemy Charges For Man And Four Children

PAKISTAN: Four children and one man have been arbitrarily arrested and charged with blasphemy at the request of Muslim radicals.

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See also:

A War On Pakistan's Schoolgirls

American U.N. Worker Kidnapped In Pakistan

Pakistan Militants Cut U.S. Supply Line

Pakistan in Denial Over Alleged Links to Mumbai Attack

Suicide Blast Kills 19 Afghan Trainee Cops

(CBS/AP) A suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside a police training center in southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing 19 officers and wounding at least 20, Afghan officials said.

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US Plan To Arm Militias Scares Some In Afghanistan

'Female Suicide Bomb Recruiter' Samira Ahmed Jassim Captured

Iraq -- Samira Ahmed Jassim, 51, confessed to sending 28 of the women to carry out attacks, Major-General Qassim al-Moussawi, a Baghdad security spokesman, said. She was captured at an undisclosed location a fortnight ago.

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Islam Convert Jailed For Life For Failed Restaurant Bomb Attack

A failed suicide bomber with a mental age of 10 who tried to blow up a busy Exeter restaurant has been jailed for life and told he must serve a minimum of 18 years.

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