One Step Forward, One Step Back: Va. School Board Removes Commandments, But Adds Problematic Display

Most Americans are Christians and the Christian faith certainly has influenced morality for many, but the Commandments are not the basis of constitutional law. After more than 225 years, it's still legal to disrespect your parents (although you shouldn't), covet your neighbor's house and work on the Sabbath. And you can worship one god, twenty gods or decline to worship at all.

MORE: http://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/one-step-forward-one-step-back-va-school-board-removes-commandments-but

Classroom Clashes (Pt. 1): Teaching evolution

In a two-part series, AAAS talks with middle and high school teachers across the country to find out what it's like to be on the front lines of two often-controversial science topics -- evolution and climate change -- and how they deal with the push back. Part I features tales about teaching evolution and Part II, stories from climate science teachers.

MORE: http://membercentral.aaas.org/blogs/stemedu/classroom-clashes-pt-1-teaching-evolution

Why We Don’t Believe In Science

Why are some scientific ideas hard to believe in? What makes the human mind so resistant to certain kinds of facts, even when these facts are buttressed by vast amounts of evidence?

MORE: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/frontal-cortex/2012/06/brain-experiments-why-we-dont-believe-science.html

See also...

Scientists to hold bake sale for NASA
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57449767/scientists-to-hold-bake-sale-for-nasa/?tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.10

Does Cooperation Require Both Reciprocity and Alike Neighbors?

The researchers conclude that human societies can best achieve high levels of cooperative behaviour if their individuals interact repeatedly, and if populations exhibit at least a minor degree of structure.

MORE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120608100557.htm

See also...

The Power of Suggestion: What We Expect Influences Our Behavior, for Better or Worse
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120606142818.htm

Skin Cells Reprogrammed Into Brain Cells

ScienceDaily -- Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have for the first time transformed skin cells -- with a single genetic factor -- into cells that develop on their own into an interconnected, functional network of brain cells. The research offers new hope in the fight against many neurological conditions because scientists expect that such a transformation -- or reprogramming -- of cells may lead to better models for testing drugs for devastating neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.

MORE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120607122307.htm

Splitting the Unsplittable: Physicists Split an Atom Using Quantum Mechanics Precision

ScienceDaily -- Researchers from the University of Bonn have just shown how a single atom can be split into its two halves, pulled apart and put back together again. While the word "atom" literally means "indivisible," the laws of quantum mechanics allow dividing atoms -- similarly to light rays -- and reuniting them. The researchers want to build quantum mechanics bridges by letting the atom touch adjacent atoms while it is being pulled apart so that it works like a bridge span between two pillars.

MORE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120605102807.htm

Lesson From The North: Canadian Catholic Schools Get Public Funds -- And Public Regulations

When will religious organizations learn that they just can't have it both ways? If they're going to accept government funding, then they're also going to have to accept government conditions that come with those funds.

MORE: http://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/lesson-from-the-north-canadian-catholic-schools-get-public-funds-and-public

Dawkins calls for 'Catholic' honesty

People who describe themselves as Catholic but do not accept the church's key teachings should be "honest" and admit they no longer belong to the faith, atheist author and scientist Prof Richard Dawkins has told a Dublin audience.

MORE: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0606/breaking34.html

Monks' gambling prompts South Korean temple to change financial management

(CNN) -- The chief of South Korea's biggest Buddhist order says he will hand over a temple's financial management to experts after monks were caught gambling illegally.

MORE: http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/08/world/asia/south-korea-gambling-monks/index.html?hpt=wo_bn4

Leo Igwe--The Constant Fight Against Irrationality

At the World Skeptics Congress in Berlin, a prominent poster display by Leo Igwe featured graphic accounts of the trials that he and many of his supporters have faced in Africa--their work to oppose the persecution and killing of children and minorities, and the failures on the part of law enforcement and religious leaders to challenge such atrocities.

MORE: http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/leo_igwethe_constant_fight_against_irrationality/

Petition to defend Indian rationalist from false accusations

Sanal Edamaruku, President of the Indian Rationalist Association, has for decades been a tireless campaigner for science and against superstition. He is widely known for his exposure of the tricks used by self-professed 'God-Men' and gurus and has often been on Indian television explaining the everyday science behind supposed miracles.

MORE: http://richarddawkins.net/articles/646169-petition-to-defend-indian-rationalist-from-false-accusations

Spanish artist faces prison over 'how to cook Christ' film

Javier Krahe prosecuted for 'offending religious feelings' after 1978 short film was broadcast on Spanish TV.

MORE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/may/28/spanish-artist-cook-christ-film

Israel to build housing in West Bank

Jerusalem (CNN) -- Israel announced it will construct 851 housing units in the West Bank, a move the United States immediately said "undermines peace efforts."

MORE: http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/07/world/meast/israel-palestinian-settlements/index.html?hpt=imi_c2

3 dead in blast on Afghan prison wall

A Taliban spokesman said in a website communique that fighters attacked guards and blew a hole into the main prison wall, SITE said.

MORE: http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/08/world/asia/afghanistan-prison-deaths/index.html?hpt=ias_c2

See also...

Bomb blast kills 19 in northwestern Pakistan
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/08/world/asia/pakistan-blast/index.html?hpt=ias_c2

"The Atheists Go Marching In" to NOLA

"The Atheists Go Marching In" is the message on a New Orleans streetcar advertisement to inform the city that humanists, atheists, freethinkers and skeptics are coming to New Orleans June 7-10 for the 71st Annual American Humanist Association (AHA) Conference.

The New Orleans Secular Humanist Association, the local chapter of the AHA, is also running a billboard ad near the Superdome welcoming conference attendees to town, says executive director, Roy Speckhardt.

MORE: http://www.wwl.com/pages/13329018.php?contentType=4&contentId=10755765

See also...

The American Humanist Association's 71st Annual Conference
http://conference.americanhumanist.org/

Atheism to Defeat Religion By 2038

Countries with the best standard of living are turning atheist. That shift offers a glimpse into the world's future.

Religious people are annoyed by claims that belief in God will go the way of horse transportation, and for much the same reason, specifically an improved standard of living.

MORE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nigel-barber/atheism-to-defeat-religion-by-2038_b_1565108.html

See also...

Atheist Lobbyist to Organize in Hawaii
http://hawaii.politics.government.blogs.civilbeat.com/post/24426719533/atheist-lobbyist-to-organize-in-hawaii

Teresa MacBain - 'From the Edge of Faith to the Embrace of Reason'

See also...

Footsteps into a New Life
http://www.brooklynrail.org/2012/06/local/footsteps-into-a-new-life

The Challenges for High School Atheists

Over the past few years, high school and university students have started up their own freethinking safe havens by way of Secular Student Alliance groups. According to Lyz Liddell, the SSA’s Senior Campus Organizer, affiliate groups are growing exponentially. Young people are identifying more and more as atheistic or agnostic.

MORE: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/06/05/the-challenges-for-high-school-atheists/

How Humans Became Moral Beings

In a new book, anthropologist Christopher Boehm traces the steps our species went through to attain a conscience.

MORE: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/How-Humans-Became-Moral-Beings.html

'You Can’t Be Moral & Believe in God'?: Penn Jillette Sits Down with The Blaze

Jillette, who claims he was a believer until he read the entire Bible, was a Congregationalist before becoming a secularist. He maintained his religious beliefs until high school and he concludes that reading the holy book from cover to cover "is the fast route" to non-belief.

MORE: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/you-cant-be-moral-believe-in-god-penn-jillette-sits-down-with-the-blaze-and-credits-glenn-beck/

See also...

The Good Book gets a rewrite
http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/lansing/article-7459-the-good-book-gets-a-rewrite.html

And...

Richard Dawkins’ Next Book to Detail His Personal Path to Atheism
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/richard-dawkins-next-book-to-detail-his-personal-path-to-atheism/