Godless Ads Now On Portland Buses

The Portland ads are among many that have gone up around the country earlier this year, including those on billboards or in transit systems in cities as far flung as Charleston, South Carolina; Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas; Des Moines, Iowa; Morgantown, West Virginia; New Orleans, Louisiana, and Phoenix, Arizona.

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Godless Groups in Silicon Valley Organize

Godless Ads Now on Philadelphia Transit

No 'godspeed' in atheist TriMet ads

Godless Billboard Appear in San Diego

Godless Billboard Appears In La Mesa

Billboard aims to raise profile of nonbelievers

Freeway billboard has controversial message

San Diego Coalition of Reason

Godless Billboards Appear Across Ohio

Cincinnati's Godless Billboard Taken Down

Godless Billboard Moved After Threats

'Godless' billboard greets I-71 drivers

Atheist Group Takes Message To Lakeland Via Billboard

LAKELAND - Motorists along one of Lakeland's major thoroughfares are being greeted with a billboard asking a provocative question: "Don't believe in God?"

Then there's the answer: "You are not alone."

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Billboard supporting Atheism upsets some Lakeland drivers

Non Religious Billboard Brings Controversy To Nashville

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A new Nashville organization classifies itself as non-religious, but the group's billboard has stirred up a religious debate. The organization behind the billboard is called Secular Life.

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Atheists Turn To Billboard Sites

The group behind a controversial atheist bus-poster campaign is urging parents not to label their children with their own religious faith.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) has launched a series of billboard advertisements in capital cities.

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Hey, preacher -- leave those kids alone

No God Doesn't Mean No Beliefs

Greg M. Epstein, Harvard University's humanist chaplain. Epstein's new book, "Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligous People Do Believe," explains the moral code of people neither frightened by the threat of hellfire nor blissed out by the promise of heaven. Nonbelievers, writes Epstein, can live ethical lives without the framework of religion because it is the practical and right thing to do.

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Religious Leaders Warn Of Civil Disobedience

They are calling it the Manhattan Declaration, a 4,700-word manifesto reaching into scripture and signed by 148 Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical leaders.

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Vote For Secular Nonprofit Organizations On Facebook

Chase is giving out $5 million to various charities nationwide. This is a perfect opportunity to vote for secular nonprofit organizations and help support them. You don't have to donate anything, just login to your Facebook account and start searching for secular nonprofits to vote. Each member gets 20 votes, so you can vote for up to 20 secular organizations.

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Atheist Student Groups Flower On College Campuses

Campus affiliates of the Secular Student Alliance, a sort of Godless Campus Crusade for Christ, have multiplied from 80 in 2007 to 100 in 2008 and 174 this fall, providing the atheist movement new training grounds for future leaders. In another sign of growing acceptance, at least three universities, including Harvard, now have humanist chaplains meeting the needs of the not-so-spiritual.

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Atheism: Striving for knowledge, but not faith

BibleThumper iPhone App Finds Cool Bible Verses for Atheists

Konstanz, Germany - BibleThumper allows atheists to keep the most funny and irrational bible verses right in their pocket.

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Student Gives Reasons For Not Standing During Pledge

The teenager said she is an atheist and does not support the Pledge of Allegiance.

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S.C. License Tag With Cross And 'I Believe' Ruled Unconstitutional

A federal judge has ruled unconstitutional a Christian "I Believe" vehicle license tag featuring the image of a cross.

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Religious License Plate Banned in South Carolina

US Lawmakers Rally For 'In God We Trust'

WASHINGTON -- More than 40 US lawmakers, all Republicans, have signed on to a legal brief opposing a lawsuit aimed at removing "In God We Trust" from the US Capitol's tourist hub, the Politico web site said Monday.

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Johnson Says Iredell Board Unfazed By Forsyth Prayers Lawsuit

When a federal magistrate in Winston-Salem ruled last week that Forsyth County Commissioners meetings had too much Jesus in their opening prayers, counties around the state started looking at their own meeting invocations policies to see how First Amendment-friendly they were.

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Gene Change In Cannibals Reveals Evolution In Action

It's a snapshot of human evolution in progress. A genetic mutation protecting against kuru -- a brain disease passed on by eating human brains -- only emerged and spread in the last 200 years.

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Did Christianity Cause The Crash?

Many explanations have been offered for the housing bubble and subsequent crash: interest rates were too low; regulation failed; rising real-estate prices induced a sort of temporary insanity in America's middle class. But there is one explanation that speaks to a lasting and fundamental shift in American culture -- a shift in the American conception of divine Providence and its relationship to wealth.

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When A Child Dies, Faith Is No Defense

In the past 25 years, hundreds of children are believed to have died in the United States after faith-healing parents forbade medical attention to end their sickness or protect their lives. When minors die from a lack of parental care, it is usually a matter of criminal neglect and is often tried as murder. However, when parents say the neglect was an article of faith, courts routinely hand down lighter sentences. Faithful neglect has not been used as a criminal defense, but the claim is surprisingly effective in achieving more lenient sentencing, in which judges appear to render less unto Caesar and more unto God.

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Hard Evidence

The admonition not to rush to judgment or jump to conclusions might sound fair and prudent enough, perhaps even statesmanlike when uttered by the president, as long it's borne in mind that such advice is itself a judgment that is more than halfway to a conclusion. What it plainly implies in the present case is that the actions of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan should not be assumed in any meaningful way to be related to his Muslim faith.

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Fort Hood gunman had told US military colleagues that infidels should have their throats cut

'God is great' shouted before massacre

Murder at Ft. Hood: the act of a crazy man, or an act of terrorism?

America-hater in Qns. hails Hood massacre

Fort Hood massacre: Gunman linked to al-Qaeda as he awakes from coma

Why I Murdered 13 American Soldiers at Fort Hood: Nidal Hassan Explains It All to You

Major Hasan's E-Mail: 'I Can't Wait to Join You' in Afterlife

Secular Coalition Responds To Pew Faith-Based Program Survey

WASHINGTON, DC - A recent survey on faith-based programs from Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life collected considerable data that concerns the Secular Coalition for America.

According to the Pew report, more people are using religious social service providers than secular nonprofits. As religious organizations continue to receive more federal funding to help the needy, secular nonprofits struggle to provide and expand their services. According to the Pew survey 9% of Americans are using faith-based organizations for help, compared with 7% of Americans who use secular organizations.

The whole premise behind faith-based organizations was allegedly to level the playing field for religious organizations, so they could compete with secular organizations. Secular Coalition for America opposes the funneling of tax dollars to any religious entity as a violation of constitutional principles. That said, even the premise on which faith-based proponents argued for funding, no longer holds true if it ever did.

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Faith-Based Programs Still Popular, Less Visible

Rep. Kennedy: I'm Barred From Communion

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. - A month of harsh words between U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy and Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin escalated Sunday when the bishop acknowledged asking Kennedy not to receive Holy Communion because of the Democratic lawmaker's support for abortion rights.

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Catholic Archdiocese Gives Ultimatum To D.C.

Church officials say that unless the city alters a proposed same-sex marriage law, the archdiocese will discontinue its social service programs.

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AAI Denounces Blatant Religious Privilege In Shaping US Health Bill

Atheist Alliance International denounces the unprecedented and exclusive access granted to members of the US Catholic Church in shaping the final form of the health care reform bill recently passed by the US House of Representatives, as disclosed in US media reports.

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AAI Calls for Evidence-Based Health Care in US

The Ban on Abortion Coverage

Senate version of health-care bill 'completely unacceptable,' pro-lifers say

Why the Stupak Amendment to the Healthcare Reform Bill Is Unconstitutional

Bishops meet to discuss health care reform

Religious Right, Catholic Bishops Seek To Impose Religion On All Americans Through Law, Americans United Charges

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today expressed grave concern about a renewed push by a coalition of conservative church groups to impose religious teachings on all Americans through government action.

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Religious Right Activists Use Wide Variety Of Tactics To Evangelize In The Classroom

Cheerleaders at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School in north Georgia had an unusual way of kicking off football games: They would set up huge paper banners on the edge of the field for players to crash through -- banners embossed with Christian proselytizing messages and Bible passages.

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Americans United And ACLU Demand Connecticut School District Stop Holding Graduation At Christian Church

Americans United Challenges California Community College Prayer Policy In Federal Court

New Book On Religion And Schools Offers Road Map To Avoid Legal Dead Ends

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Proposed 'Christian' Prison In Oklahoma Raises Serious Legal Issues, Americans United Warns

Justices' Decision In Mojave Religious Symbol Case May Determine Direction Of Church-State Law

Anti-Gay Church Sets Its Sights On Jews For Sex Crimes

WASHINGTON -- For more than a decade, Westboro Baptist Church has raised a ruckus with the message that God hates gays, posting itself outside government buildings, college campuses and even the funerals of American soldiers. But in recent months, the Topeka, Kan.-based church has been moving toward other targets, predominantly in the American Jewish community.

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US Evangelist Tony Alamo Gets 175 Years

Tony Alamo, a US preacher, has been sentenced to 175 years in prison for taking underage girls across state lines for sexual intercourse.

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Judge Orders Lien On Vt Diocese's Investments

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) -- A judge has ordered that a lien be placed on a portion of the investments of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington to cover a $2.2 million jury award to a former altar boy.

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Abuse Group Hands Over Petition

Campaigners demanding an inquiry into child abuse in Catholic and state institutions in NI have delivered a petition to the Assembly.

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Roman Catholic church stalls on child abuse claims

Church Compensates Abuse Victim

The Catholic Church has paid a five-figure sum to a victim of clerical sexual abuse in Northern Ireland.

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Child Rape Accused Priest First Suspended In 1964

An elderly Irish Catholic priest facing extradition from the US over charges of child sex abuse was first suspended from service 45 years ago.

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Vicar Denies 11 Child Sex Assaults

The Rev Canon James Andrew Christopher Wilson, right, the Rector and Rural Dean of Calstock, now faces a total of 11 charges of indecency against boys and girls between 1973 and 1980.

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Irish Turn Out For Apparition, Defying Church Plea

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Some 10,000 people gathered at a Irish shrine hoping to witness an apparition of the Virgin Mary on Saturday despite pleas from an archbishop to ignore invitations to the event by a self-proclaimed spiritual healer.

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Human Rights Ruling Against Classroom Crucifixes Angers Italy

There was uproar in Italy today over a ruling by the European court of human rights that the crucifixes that hang in most Italian classrooms are a violation of religious and educational freedoms.

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Myths and misconceptions about the Italy ruling

Church Of Scientology Accused Of Torture And Forced Abortions

The Church of Scientology faces the prospect of a police investigation in Australia after being accused of torture and embezzlement and of forcing employees to have abortions.

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Tom Cruise and Scientology: there's more

The two faces of Scientology

Celebrities lead charge against Scientology

'Witches, Possessed' Flock To Kenya Pastor

Kisii, Kenya (CNN) -- On one Sunday each month Pastor Lawrence Omambia, the lead preacher at the Community of Christ church in Kisii, Kenya, shows off his gift -- healing and exorcism.

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Four Sentenced To Hang For Killing Albino In Tanzania

(CNN) -- A court sentenced four people to death in northern Tanzania for the killing of an albino man who was targeted for body parts believed to have special powers, authorities said Friday.

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Legal Move On India Turtle 'God'

Officials in the Indian state of Orissa have filed a case against a priest for illegally keeping a rare turtle under the belief that it is a god.

The freshwater Gangetic turtle has natural markings on its shell which resemble the eyes of a Hindu deity.

Gangetic turtles are on an official list of endangered species in India.

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In Turkey, Fertile Ground For Creationism

ISTANBUL -- Sema Ergezen teaches biology to Turkish students interested in teaching science themselves, and she has long struggled with her students' ignorance of, and sometimes hostility to, the notion of evolution.

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Muslim academics and students are turning against Darwin's theory

Muslim Countries Seek Blasphemy Ban

GENEVA -- Four years after cartoons of the prophet Muhammad set off violent protests across the Muslim world, Islamic nations are mounting a campaign for an international treaty to protect religious symbols and beliefs from mockery -- essentially a ban on blasphemy that would put them on a collision course with free speech laws in the West.

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Atheists Concerned Over UN Defamation of Religions Resolution

Somali Woman, 20, Stoned To Death By Islamic Militants After Admitting Affair With Boyfriend

A Somali woman of 20 has been stoned to death after admitting she had an affair, an Islamic militant judge said today.

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Inside The Mind Of A Suicide Bomber

Suicide bombing is one of the trickiest and least understood methods of modern warfare.

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Pakistan: Suicide Bomber Kills 30 Outside Peshawar Court

A suicide bomber has killed an estimated 30 people and wounded 36 outside a Pakistan court in the latest attack to strike the northwest city of Peshawar.

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Suicide attack kills 19 in Pakistan's Peshawar

Suicide bomber kills six in Peshawar

Suicide car bomb in Pakistan kills 11

Deadly car bombs explode in Peshawar

17 dead in Pakistani car bombings

At least 26 dead in Pakistan traffic blast

Suicide bomber kills 3 in Pakistan

Pakistan suicide bombing kills mayor, 11 others

Suicide Attack In Afghanistan Kills 13

(CNN) -- At least 13 people were killed in a suicide bombing Friday morning in Afghanistan's western Farah province, police said.

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Two U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan

10 killed in Afghan suicide bombing

Three Americans killed in Afghanistan

2 killed in blast outside U.S. base in Kabul

Roadside Bombs Wound At Least 8 In Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least eight people were wounded and a woman was killed in violent incidents Thursday in Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official told CNN.

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Bombings kill 7, wound more than 45 in Iraq

Israel Fires At Gaza, Says Weapons Facilities Hit

(CNN) -- Israeli fighter jets attacked what the country said were "terrorist sites" in Gaza in retribution for an earlier attack, the military said Sunday.

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Somali group with al Qaeda ties threatens Israel