Thursday Religion/Agnosticism Report

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atheism, beliefs, bible, cheerleaders, christians, consciousness, dawkins, evangelical, evolution, FFRF, FLDS, football, gays, genesis, god, history, humanity, irish, ISIS, leader, memory, morality, mormons, movement, muslim, oneida, pledge, prayer, public, religion, sam harris, satanists, schools, supreme court, texas, worldview

Atheism Has Finally Found Its Spiritual Leader

The Godless have had a real PR problem for centuries. Up to this point in human history, atheism has lacked the wide, warm and consoling embrace that mystics, sages and religious leaders have been able to provide. [Read more]

Evangelical Christians, Religious Groups Want Secular Education in Irish Schools

The Evangelical Alliance Ireland has said that believers, and not the State, should fund their own schools. The EAI stance is similar to that held by a prominent atheist group and a leading Muslim academic in the predominantly Catholic country. [Read more]

Progressive Evangelicals Launch Campaign To Expand Christian Support For Same-Sex Marriage

As more states affirm same-sex marriage, U.S. evangelicals continue to wrestle with homosexuality, setting boundaries for what’s acceptable and what’s not, and setting the stage for a heated fall election season. [Read more]

History Books Spark Latest Texas Classroom Battle

As Texas mulls new social studies books for its 5-plus million public school students, some academics are decrying lessons they say exaggerate the influence of Christian values on America’s Founding Fathers. [Read more]

Atheist Movement Sure Has More Than Its Fair Share of Creeps

An enlightening piece titled Will Misogyny Bring Down The Atheist Movement? was recently published on buzzfeed by Mark Oppenheimer. It is a long read that exposes the sexist, misogynistic behaviour of some well-known male Atheists leaders. [Read more]

Morality is Not Dependent Upon a God or Christian Worldview

Religious people like to argue that human morality is dependent upon the Christian worldview to make sense. They use this argument as a support for the necessity of their God. They like to argue that without God as a basis, there is no objective morality. [Read more]

Tolerating Intolerance?

I do not consider it my duty to try to convert individuals I meet to my beliefs (or lack of beliefs). It is simply none of my business. This is quite different, as I see it, from exchanging ideas in print, when the point is to share opinions in theoretical terms. [Read more]

Religion, Mortality, and Our Shared Humanity

Discussions on religion often revolve around the profound differences which exist between people of various backgrounds of belief. [Read more]

On Dawkins, Hero Worship, and Doubling Down

We’re seeing an enormous number of people (who we thought would know and do better) ignore the most awful behavior from Dawkins. Obviously, not just with him, mind. [Read more]

The Muslim Face – On Policing the Resistance from Within

The recent furore in the University of Yale for inviting Ayaan Hirsi Ali to deliver a speech has been for me the most unsettling of all the controversy that had Hirsi Ali in it. [Read more]

Why Is the Right-Wing So Shocked that Miss America Worked with Planned Parenthood?

If you thought her less than mind-blowing performance of “Happy” had  Miss America fans in a snit, wait till they find out where Kira Kazantsev used to work. [Read more]

Satanists Want to Give Out Materials in Orange Schools

A religious group called The Satanic Temple is making plans to hand out literature in Orange County Public Schools later this school year, following distributions by atheist and evangelical Christian groups. [Read more]

Freedom From Religion Foundation Says No Group Should Be Allowed to Leaflet in Public Schools

A Wisconsin-based group that advocates on behalf of atheists and agnostics says though it recently won the right to distribute its materials in Orange County public schools, it doesn’t think any religious or non-religious group should be allowed to. [Read more]

Oneida Cheerleaders Bringing Prayer Back to the Football Field

Oneida’s director of school’s Ann Sexton says they received a letter last fall from the ACLU reminding them it is unconstitutional to hold school sanctioned prayer at football games. [Read more]

Prayer on the Playing Field; Football Coach Says He Was Let Go for Letting Players Pray

Catalina Foothills High School volunteer freshmen football coach Gary Weiss said he was instructed to tell his players to stop praying before and after games or he would be let go. [Read more]

Supreme Court Rulings Raise Concerns Among Secular Groups

The Secular Coalition for America led demonstrations against recent Supreme Court decisions, including the Hobby Lobby ruling, which they believe allow religion to encroach on the state. [Read more]

Religion and Memory

The RSP interview with Alexandra Grieser established some useful connections between the study of religion and the study of memory. [Read more]

10 Most Absurd Right-Wing Christian Billboards

Apparently, when some conservative Christians ask themselves, “What would Jesus do?” the answer they come up with is, “Put up absurd, offensive billboards, preferably reminding passersby they’re going to hell.” [Read more]

No One Could Have Predicted Hobby Lobby Decision Would Be used to Protect FLDS Against Labor Laws

The Fundamentalist LDS, have decided not to pay kids to harvest pecans.  The Department of Labor is investigating labor violations.  FLDS leaders claim they do not have to testify because “religious freedom.” [Read more]

Still Church, But Not with Evolution

Crazy church signs are a genre unto itself. This one graces (pardon the pun) the Calvary Baptist Temple in Fort Collins, Colorado, whose motto is below. [Read more]

Evolution — The Greatest Hoax of All Time(?)

We’re warning you right up front: this one comes from RenewAmerica, where Ellis Washington’s columns have been appearing ever since he stopped writing for WorldNetDaily for reasons unknown to us. [Read more]

Books of the Bible: Genesis

Genesis is the first book of the bible and gives an account of the creation of the word. Tradition holds that Moses wrote Genesis sometime between 1446 and 1406 BC. [Read more]

Pledge of Allegiance Poses Problems

The parents of a 6-year-old student at Edwin Loe Elementary School are upset because their son has not been allowed to sit down when the rest of his class recites the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. [Read more]

You Can Train Your Brain to Make Better Impulse Decisions

As Steven Cotler and Jamie Wheal explain at Forbes, hot cognition is a term used to describe the making of snap, impulse decisions without aid of a longer assessment period. [Read more]

The Subjectivity of Consciousness and the Illusion of Self, with Dr. Sam Harris

Neuroscientist and author Sam Harris, whose new book Waking Up: A Guide to Sprirituality Without Religion is currently the #1 Science and Mathematics Best Seller on Amazon, defines consciousness as “an experiential internal qualitative dimension to any physical system.” [Watch Video]

Jesus Hates Gays, Loves Bacon…Apparently

Noxious fundamentalist gasbag Bryan Fischer has come up with a bizarre new definition of a ‘Christian’ nation: it’s one where you can buy bacon.

[Read more]

All Beliefs Not Equal or Equally Valid

همه عقايد يکسان نيستند
۱۷ سپتامبر ۲۰۱۴
مصاحبه با دانشمند پى زى مايرز

One-Finger Response to ISIS (Islamic State)

Here’s Maryam Namazie and Fariborz Pooya’s One-finger response to ISIS (Islamic State)