The God Distraction, Chapter Four: Morality

Fewer Americans are practicing religion

A staggering 21 percent of those surveyed said they don’t practice a “formal religion” — up from the 15 percent who said that in 2008, according to Gallup.

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Nonreligious Americans Remain Far Underrepresented In Congress

One in five Americans is religiously unaffiliated. Yet just one of 535 members of the new Congress is.

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Belief in God plunges after torrid year

Atheism surges as Brits stop saving a prayer for a higher power.

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Joplin School District suspends Bible study at North, other middle schools

The Joplin School District has suspended a middle school Bible study that had come under fire from a national organization -- but only because it was out of compliance with school board policy, not because it was deemed unconstitutional by district officials.

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Tennessee bill: Put 'In God We Trust' on state license plates

NASHVILLE - A bill filed Wednesday in the House would require all state license plates to carry the phrase "In God We Trust."

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Dark matter has decreased since the Big Bang: Study

"The amount of dark matter in the era of hydrogen formation and today will be different," said researcher Dmitry Gorbunov.

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A Norwegian Journalist's Look at Church/State Separation in the U.S.

Norwegian journalist Even Gran spent a year in the U.S. not too long ago and he used the opportunity to dive into our nation's problems with church/state separation. He spoke with a couple of the students I've written about extensively on this site -- Jessica Ahlquist and Damon Fowler -- and the result is his book Rise of the Seculars.

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Buy the book HERE. 

Pharisees And Sadducees: The Religious Right Reacts To Orlando By Doubling Down

This rhetoric is obviously extreme, but it's also not new.

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Thousands of atheists gather in DC for 'Reason Rally'

Thousands of atheists turned out Saturday on a muggy Washington day to take part in "Reason Rally," dedicated to boosting the political power of the growing number of non-religious Americans.

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'Reason Rally' Highlights Non-Religious Voting Bloc 

An Atheist Singer Humiliated on Ecuador's Got Talent Found Redemption at the Reason Rally

The Godless Descend on DC for The Reason Rally

The Political Ascension of the Nonbelievers

Rev. Graham to 'Reason Rally': Atheists Will Stand Before the God They Disown and May Face Eternity in Hell

The Catholic League's Bill Donohue is Angry That "Good for Nothing" Atheists Are Gathering in D.C.

Pictures from the event can be found HERE.

A local recording of the event is below. The official video with all speakers and performers will be released later.

Southern Baptists lost 200,000 members over the past year

Membership in the Southern Baptist Convention declined by more than 200,000 from 2014 to 2015, down to 15.3 million members.

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Evangelicals feel alienated, anxious

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Religious Right Is Losing Influence

Iowa Governor Steps Into A Tangled Web Of Church And State With Proclamation Encouraging Bible Study

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad signed a proclamation in April encouraging "all Iowans" to participate in a statewide Bible-reading marathon, but the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Iowa argues the declaration is unconstitutional.

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Iowa governor attempting to impose Christianity as state government's religion, say rights groups

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Humanist Group Condemns Iowa Governor's Proclamation Promoting Christian Scripture

Public Schools Across The Country Are Violating The Separation Of Church And State

A conservative Christian non-profit, Focus on the Family works to promote right-wing values in public policy, including gay conversion, intelligent design creationism, and opposition to certain types of birth control. According to their website, they provide "resources for couples to build healthy marriages that reflect God's design, and for parents to raise their children according to morals and values grounded in biblical principles." It's astonishing that the organization has somehow become a go-to resource on so many different topics for some public schools and even local governments, especially given the legal status quo which mandates the separation of church and state.

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Catholic church accused of using 'mafia-like' tactics to fight sex abuse bill

Pennsylvania church accused of using 'mob boss approach' to pressure lawmakers who support bill giving victims of abuse more time to sue abusers.

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Earlier: Priest banned for molesting girl gets a new job as director of teen pregnancy center

Texas County with Crosses on Police Cars Will Pay Atheist Group More Than $22,000 in Settlement

Brewster County (Texas) Sheriff Ronny Dodson is one of the many, many government officials to put "In God We Trust" stickers on all the vehicles in his department. But rather than pretending it was just an act of patriotism and saying it's just our national motto, Dodson made clear this was all about promoting Christianity.

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CA School District Owes Atheist Groups $10,000 After Censoring Their Scholarship Offers

This was anti-atheist prejudice, plain and simple.

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California Highway Patrol Officers Caught Proselytizing to Homeless People While On Duty

Police officers shouldn't be in the business of converting the very people they're trying to help. Churches may not see a difference between converting and protecting, but it's very obvious to those of us who reject religion.

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LISA Pathfinder Reports Record-Breaking Gravitational Wave Results

The successful technology demonstration paves the way for detecting mergers of supermassive black holes with future space-based observatories.

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8.8 billion habitable Earth-size planets exist in Milky Way alone

Astronomers using NASA data have calculated for the first time that in our galaxy alone, there are at least 8.8 billion stars with Earth-size planets in the habitable temperature zone. 

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IBM Creates A Molecule That Could Destroy All Viruses

One macromolecule to rule them all, from Ebola to Zika and the flu.

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