You may remember seeing a billboard on Charlotte's Billy Graham Parkway a few years ago that read: "One Nation. Indivisible." Conspicuously missing was the phrase "Under God." The group behind that campaign is holding a convention in Charlotte this weekend, designed for what organizers call a growing community of atheists and agnostics in the region. WFAE's Mark Rumsey spoke with Jennifer Lovejoy, acting president of the Carolinas Secular Association.
MORE: http://wfae.org/post/atheists-and-agnostics-gather-charlotte (Audio)
See also...
'Godless' conference begins today in Charlotte
http://goqnotes.com/25259/godless-conference-begins-today-in-charlotte/
Non-believers hold coming out party in Charlotte
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/10/05/4367361/non-believes-hold-coming-out-party.html#.UlIjZxC7lLr
The billboards cost $10,000 and were funded by the United Coalition of Reason, a group that has now placed signs in 34 states in addition to the District of Columbia.
MORE: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/10/15/atheist-billboards-go-up-in-connecticut/
See also...
Godless billboards, convention in CT this weekend
http://www.rifuture.org/godless-billboards-convention-in-ct-this-weekend.html
SANE's coming to CT
http://hot-dogma.com/2013/10/15/sanes-coming-to-ct/
Godless Billboards in Connecticut Herald Secular Convention (Press Release)
http://unitedcor.org/national/news/godless-billboards-connecticut-herald-secular-convention
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
Meet the "Nominals" -- people who claim a religious identity but may live it in name only.
They're proud -- but not practicing -- Catholics. They're Protestants who don't think Jesus is essential to their salvation.
And they're Jews who say they belong to the tribe by way of ancestry or culture, not religion.
MORE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/05/religious-nominals-judaism-christianity_n_4032592.html?utm_hp_ref=religion
A new survey of U.S. Jews has confirmed some of the community's worst fears: One in five American Jews say they have no religion, and their ranks appear to be growing.
--snip--
The findings track closely with a 2012 Pew report that found about 20 percent of Americans in general said they had no religious affiliation, an increase from 15 percent in the last five years.
MORE: http://www.telegram.com/article/20131001/APA/310019951
See also...
Changing Identity of Jewish Americans -- Implications for Social and Political Engagement
http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/10/event-transcript-changing-identity-of-jewish-americans-implications-for-social-and-political-engagement/
The share of Hispanics living in the U.S. who say they are atheist, agnostic or have no religious affiliation has reached 12 percent, according to the 2013 Hispanic Values Survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute. That is double the rate reported in 1990 by the American Religious Identification Survey.
MORE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/hispanics-increasingly-identify-as-nones/2013/10/17/c4b1015c-3751-11e3-89db-8002ba99b894_story.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
On her show "Super Soul Sunday" this past weekend, Oprah Winfrey interviewed marathon swimmer Diana Nyad about everything from her incredible endurance to her spiritual beliefs.
The part that struck a chord with me -- and many other atheists -- was Winfrey’s dismissal of Nyad's non-religious label. Nyad explained that she called herself an atheist but that didn't take anything away from the awe she felt about the world and all of its inhabitants. To her, "God" was humanity.
MORE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/wp/2013/10/17/what-oprah-doesnt-get-about-atheists/
See also...
Why Oprah's Anti-Atheist Bias Hurts So Much
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our-humanity-naturally/201310/why-oprahs-anti-atheist-bias-hurts-so-much
Chris Stedman Goes on CNN to Explain Why Oprah Winfrey Got it Wrong
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/10/20/chris-stedman-goes-on-cnn-to-explain-why-oprah-winfrey-got-it-wrong/
What Oprah gets wrong about atheism
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/16/what-oprah-gets-wrong-about-atheism/
Atheist group demands Oprah apologize
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2013/10/20/exp-chris-stedman.cnn.html
Oprah Winfrey Angers Atheists With Comment From Interview; Says 'Awe' Cannot Exist Without God
http://www.kpopstarz.com/articles/45548/20131016/oprah-winfrey-atheists.htm
Atheists Want an Apology from Oprah Over Her On-Air 'Revelation' About Non-Believers
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/17/atheists-want-an-apology-from-oprah-over-her-on-air-revelation-about-non-believers/
Who needs religion?
That's the question being raised by a group of secular activists that has put up billboards in Michigan containing photos of smiling people that read: "Millions of Americans are living happily without religion."
MORE: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/17/billboards-no-religion-no-problem/3005881/
See also...
'Millions of Americans Are Living Happily Without Religion,' Declares New Atheist Ad Campaign
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/09/30/millions-of-americans-are-living-happily-without-religion-declares-new-atheist-ad-campaign/
Atheist group says Utah billboard companies fear Mormon church
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57007310-78/atheists-convention-mormon-billboard.html.csp
And...
Holy billboard war: Creationists post anti-atheist advert in Times Square in response to atheist's Christmas message encouraging people to 'Dump the Myth'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2451587/Anti-atheist-billboard-posted-Times-Square-creationists.html#ixzz2iMwDmxM7
A 30-year-old federal law created to protect the right of Christian students to gather now is being used to protect the rights of students with opposite beliefs.
MORE: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/30/atheist-students-use-federal-law-to-pursue-same-ri/#ixzz2iNuQ6Wok
"There is simply no doubt at all that evolution is true," said Dawkins in response to a question regarding the proof of evolution. "The evidence for evolution is about as strong as anything we know." He compared the level of scientific certainty about evolution to that of the Earth orbiting the sun.
MORE: https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/lobbyists-for-a-day-dawkins-and-pinker-stand-up-for-science-secular
This week the Secular Student Alliance is holding a fundraising event to donate money to the Cleveland Animal Protective League.
MORE: http://www.buchtelite.com/students-give-hugs-to-raise-money-for-animal-protection/
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/
Scalia said the Devil has gotten "wilier" and convinced people that he and God don't exist. The justice added that he doesn't think that atheists are Satan's minions, but that disbelief in God "certainly favors the devil's desires."
MORE: http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/07/scalia-says-satan-is-a-real-person/
After an unattended toddler drowned in a baptismal font at an Indianapolis church's day care in 2012, an Indianapolis Star investigation showed how easily faith-based operations were able to skirt child care regulations in Indiana.
MORE: http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20131015/EDITORIAL/131019783
Backed by the Catholic Church, Troy University, Alabama's third-largest public university, has decided to build a faith-based residence hall called the Newman Center. The university is happy because it adds another 376 beds for students, and the construction and maintenance are privately funded, meaning the university can kill both its student population and funding problems with one stone. And yet, in striking this deal, Troy University has run afoul of the thin line that separates church and state.
MORE: http://www.highlandernews.org/10805/troy-universitys-funding-blurs-lines-between-church-and-state/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=troy-universitys-funding-blurs-lines-between-church-and-state
See also...
Divine Dormitories? 'Faith-Based' College Housing Raises Constitutional Alarm
https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/divine-dormitories-faith-based-college-housing-raises-constitutional-alarm
An atheist organization is threatening to sue the city of Montgomery if it doesn't put an end to Operation Good Shepherd, a police program that uses city funding to train pastors to go to crime scenes.
MORE: http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20131010/NEWS01/310100031/Atheist-group-may-sue-Montgomery-over-faith-based-police-program?nclick_check=1
See also...
Cops For Christ?: New Ala. Program Seeks To Fight Crime With Police-Backed Evangelical Proselytism
https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/cops-for-christ-new-ala-program-seeks-to-fight-crime-with-police-backed
And...
Course Conniption: Ala. Residents Throw Fit Over Arabic Language Classes In Local High School
https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/course-conniption-ala-residents-throw-fit-over-arabic-language-classes-in
The Hamilton County Board of Education in Tennessee will retrain its teachers on the separation of church and state after a local pastor gave a speech on Sept. 11 at a Sale Creek public school.
Rechoboth Baptist Church Pastor Alan Stewart mentioned God six times and one Bible verse in his speech, hoping to inspire students in remembrance of that horrific day, a local television station reported.
MORE: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/10/tenn-school-board-retrains-church-state-separation/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS#ixzz2iMvrqgTu
Saying it wants to uphold the constitutional separation of church and state, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has called upon Pasco County school district leaders to put an end to coach-led prayers at high school football games.
MORE: http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/gradebook/atheist-group-calls-on-pasco-school-district-to-end-football-coach-led/2147304
See also...
House speaker says coaches should be able to pray with players
http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/house-speaker-says-coaches-should-be-able-to-pray-with-players/2144714
According to AU's complaint, which was filed in February, then-Brentwood Mayor Roger Rudder frequently opened council sessions by leading a recitation of the Christian devotion. Council members rose, clasped their hands and bowed their heads during the prayer. Those in the audience were asked to stand and join in.
MORE: https://au.org/media/press-releases/maryland-town-council-agrees-to-discontinue-recitation-of-lord-s-prayer-at
A rural Kansas School Board courageously defied 50 years of U.S. Supreme Court rulings by allowing student-led prayer at all school activities, even broadcasting them on the school's public address system.
MORE: http://www.bizpacreview.com/2013/09/27/kansas-school-board-brings-back-student-led-prayer-84186
See also...
Liberal-ly Confused: Kansas School Board Votes For School Prayer Despite Supreme Court Rulings
https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/liberal-ly-confused-kansas-school-board-votes-for-school-prayer-despite
Gay couples exchanged vows in early morning ceremonies in several New Jersey communities Monday as the state began recognizing their marriages at 12:01 a.m., becoming the 14th state to do so.
MORE: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57608384/same-sex-weddings-begin-in-new-jersey/
The Southern Baptist Convention's benefits arm is suing the federal government over contraceptives coverage related to the Affordable Care Act, the Baptist Press reports.
MORE: http://blog.al.com/live/2013/10/southern_baptist_division_file.html
See also...
New Fight Against the HHS Mandate
http://catholicexchange.com/new-fight-against-the-hhs-mandate/
When an employer's religious convictions are prioritized over his or her employee's right to conveniently access legal medical care, the issue isn't conscience, but privilege. The groups that make this argument truly believe they deserve the power to influence the private medical decisions made by others.
MORE: https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/contraception-conundrum-the-religious-right-redefines-contraception
See also...
It's a Money Thing: Denying Women Birth Control Causes Lasting Economic Effects
http://www.damemagazine.com/2013/10/16/its-money-thing-denying-women-birth-control-causes-lasting-economic-effects
With the closure of one abortion clinic and two more on the brink of shutting down, Ohio women will have fewer places to terminate pregnancies than perhaps anytime since the immediate years after the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973.
MORE: http://legalpronews.findlaw.com/article/fe90f50df96eecfed3d00cf5c624cba6#.UmU2GWLD-Ul
Nationwide, many schools participating in voucher programs infuse religion through their curriculum. Zack Kopplin, a student activist who favors rigorous science education, has found more than 300 voucher schools across the U.S. that teach the Biblical story of creation as science; some also instruct children that the world is just several thousand years old and use textbooks describing the Loch Ness Monster as a living dinosaur. Parents at one such school in Louisiana received a newsletter calling secular scientists "sinful men."
MORE: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/vouchers-dont-do-much-for-students-97909.html#ixzz2iN55StSD
See also...
'School Choice' Charade: Evidence Against Vouchers Continues To Mount
https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/school-choice-charade-evidence-against-vouchers-continues-to-mount
The motto of fundamentalists who want to force creationism into public school science textbooks in Texas must be: If at first you don't succeed, try and try and try again. But it seems they'll just have to keep on trying because their latest push has run into a roadblock: Textbook publishers refuse to play along.
MORE: https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/curses-foiled-again-textbook-publishers-stand-up-for-science
Earlier...
Battle rages over creationism in Texas schools
http://www.msnbc.com/jansing-co/battle-rages-over-creationism-texas
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.
--snip--
"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
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the prize went to Higgs and Englert for work fundamental to describing how the universe is constructed.
MORE: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/08/us-nobel-physics-idUSBRE9970B620131008
Big Bang was mirage from collapsing higher-dimensional star, theorists propose.
MORE: http://www.nature.com/news/did-a-hyper-black-hole-spawn-the-universe-1.13743
Alex and Pepe say they decided to go public because they feel it's the only way authorities will do something about their case. "Our daughter has been discriminated against in the most vicious way," Pepe told CNN.
MORE: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/01/world/americas/mexico-day-care-gay-parents/index.html
In what secularists hail as a step toward welcoming atheists into the Boy Scouts, the Britain Scouting Association has approved an alternate version of the Scout Promise that makes no mention of God.
MORE: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865588082/Boy-Scouts-remove-God-from-oath-in-UK-welcome-atheists-to-the-ranks.html
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/
A growing number of countries around the world now allow same-sex marriage, the majority of them in Europe.
MORE: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/18/world/europe/france-same-sex-marriage/index.html
The Catholic Church tried to strike an agreement with New South Wales Police that would have helped shut down investigations into paedophile priests and placed police in breach of the Crimes Act.
MORE: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-03/catholic-church-tried-to-strike-deal-with-police-over-child-sex/4997774
Dagestan is part of Russia's North Caucasus region, where Islamic militants have been fighting Moscow's rule.
MORE: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/21/world/europe/russia-bus-explosion/index.html
The second-largest hospital in the Southern African country of Swaziland may be operating a black market in human body parts used in magic spells, according to claims made by a reverend and others.
MORE: http://www.livescience.com/40355-hospital-sells-body-parts-for-magic.html
A Malaysian court has ruled that non-Muslims cannot use the word Allah to refer to God, even in their own faiths, overturning a 2009 lower court ruling.
MORE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24516181
See also...
Christian churches in Borneo vow to continue using the word 'Allah'
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/15/world/asia/malaysia-allah/index.html
In a religious country such as Egypt, despite atheism being a taboo highly frowned upon, atheists say their numbers are on the rise. But with any new movement taking hold, a cultural backlash is bound to ensue.
MORE: http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/while-atheism-egypt-rises-backlash-ensues
See also...
Campaign in Egypt urges citizens to remove religion from ID Cards
http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2013/04/none-of-your-business--campaign-in-egypt-urges-citizens-to-remove-religion-from-id-cards
Gunmen suspected of being members of the Islamist group Boko Haram attacked motorists in northeastern Nigeria on Sunday, killing four, authorities said.
MORE: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/21/world/africa/nigeria-attack/index.html
Al-Shabaab, the militant Islamist group, issued a claim of responsibility on its website and said it killed Somali and Ethiopian troops, who have been fighting Al-Shabaab.
MORE: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/19/world/africa/somalia-unrest/index.html
See also...
Al-Shabaab grew amid Somalia's lawlessness
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/05/world/africa/somalia-al-shabaab-explainer/index.html
The Taliban, who took responsibility for the attack, claimed a higher death toll. They boasted that they had killed 10 officers and wounded dozens in the area near the border with Pakistan.
MORE: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/12/world/asia/afghanistan-suicide-attack/index.html
"It's very difficult to fight al Qaeda in Abyan because they live within the society there," said AbdulSalam Mohammed, President of the Sanaa-based Abaad Research Center.
MORE: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/18/world/meast/yemen-al-qaeda-kills-troops/index.html
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
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