Thursday Religion and Freethought Digest 11/13

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abominations, agnostic, atheists, billboards, britain, CEO, CFI, christmas, church, creationist, death, debunking, deepak chopra, discrimination, evolution, faith, federal court, florida, freedom, humanism, indonesia, interfaith, ISIS, italy, jehovah's witnesses, jesus, kirk cameron, law, london, missionaries, morality, mormon, mr deity, multiverse, pastor, pledge, prayer, prison, religious, richard dawkins, rights, russia, school, secular, sunday assembly, under god, vouchers

Godless Billboards in Q-C Hail Launch of New Groups

A pair of Iowa-based groups aimed at reaching out to atheists, agnostics and nontheistic people have announced their formal launch with four billboards. [Read more]

Atheists Who Experience Discrimination Identify More Strongly As Atheists

At The Pacific Standard, Tom Jacobs discusses recent research on how atheist identity is affected by experiences and perceptions of discrimination. [Read more]

Pastor-Turned-Atheist Coaches Secular Church Start-Ups

Sunday Assembly Seattle is a franchise of Sunday Assembly, which made headlines around the world in 2013 as London’s new atheist church. [Read more]

Humanism is Not a Religion: CFI Leadership Responds to Federal Court Decision

In a recent federal court case involving an inmate who sought to have his humanist study group authorized by a federal prison, Senior District Judge Ancer Haggerty ruled that “Secular Humanism is a religion for Establishment Clause purposes.” [Read more]

Top-7 Things You Should Never Say To An Atheist

If a person states that he or she does not believe in God, it means that you should not ask him or her these inappropriate questions. [Read more]

Atheists Say Rights Violated

An atheist organization has voiced concern over the religious nature of statements a guest speaker made to a few hundred West Wilkes High School students in the school gym on Oct. 15. [Read more]

Agnostic Teen Who Omitted ‘Under God’ From the Pledge Claims He Was Punished — and Now He’s Fighting Back Against His School

An atheist legal firm is defending a student who claims that he was given both detention and a failing grade for refusing to include the words “under God” in a recent reading of the Pledge of Allegiance over his school’s PA system. [Read more]

Half Of Brits Say Religion Does More Harm Than Good, And Atheists Can Be Just As Moral

Even 20% of British people who described themselves as being ‘very religious’ said religion was harmful to society, and a quarter of said atheists were more likely to be moral individuals than religious people. [Read more]

Experts Debunk Claim Jesus Was a Husband and Father

Jesus married Mary Magdalene and fathered two children with her, according to a new book based on an ancient manuscript. [Read more]

Why It’s Harder Than Ever for Religions to Con Their Followers

In recent months, this sense that the internet is the key for atheist outreach has started to move from “hunch” to actual, evidence-based theory. [Read more]

‘God Hates Shrimp’: Picking and Choosing Among Abominations

Nowadays, Christians don’t hesitate to swallow shellfish, yet many are still adamant that same-sex relationships be condemned as detestable and abominable. [Read more]

Jehovah’s Witness Mother Dies in UK After Refusing Blood Transfusion

A woman who recently gave birth by Caesarean section has died in a hospital in east London after refusing to receive blood transfusion because she was a Jehovah’s Witness. [Read more]

Kirk Cameron Warns Against Drinking Pagan Kool-Aid this Christmas

The War on Christmas is going to be with us again all through this holiday season, and Kirk Cameron has put himself right at the forefront. [Read more]

South Florida Religious Leaders Back School Vouchers

Black religious leaders took to the airwaves on Tuesday to call for an end to legal challenges against Florida’s largest school voucher program. [Read more]

Five Signs You’re Pope of Your Own Church

If there is anything I have noticed since I returned to the Church it is that people who find themselves on the extreme opposite ends of the spectrum of opinions in the Church are actually, despite their different points of view, often quite similar in attitude. [Read more]

Pastor Gets 10 Years in Prison for $7-Million Pyramid Scheme

Pastor Luis Serna, 62, was sentenced Monday to 10 years and one month in prison and ordered to pay $4.6 million in restitution. [Read more]

Deepak Chopra Says Richard Dawkins’ Atheism ‘Fundamentalist’

A well-known author recently criticized prominent atheist Richard Dawkins for being an “adolescent” in his nonbelief system. [Read more]

7 CEOs With Notably Devout Religious Beliefs

These prominent CEOs of public companies say there is something more almighty than the dollar. [Read more]

Klinghoffer Equates Evolution and the Multiverse

The multiverse is, at best, cosmological speculation, with no hope — at least a present — of being a testable hypothesis. [Read more]

A Fight for the Young Creationist Mind

William Sanford Nye, better known as Bill Nye the science guy, stepped onto a stage in Kentucky and faced down a hostile crowd in a debate that pitted evolution against creationism. [Read more]

Increased Security Concerns Won’t Stop This Israeli Anti-Racism Group From Hosting Interfaith ‘Pray In’

A plan to bring religious groups together in and around Israel for an interfaith “pray in” got derailed just days before the event as tension escalated throughout the country. [Read more]

Mormon Missionaries Pound Italian Pavements with Chalk

They hope that their pavement drawings and the texts will spread the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a country they describe as godless. [Read more]

Russia Gets Religion

Is Vladimir Putin trying to build a new Orthodox empire? [Read more]

International “Religious Freedom” Agenda Will Only Embolden ISIS

This weekend in Oslo a group of parliamentarians signed a Charter for Freedom of Religion or Belief, launching an international coalition to combat religious persecution and protect religious freedom. [Read more]

Indonesia Drafts Religion Legislation to ‘Protect All Faiths’

The Indonesian government says it is drafting new legislation to protect citizens of all faiths in the world’s largest Muslim majority nation. [Read more]

Mr. Deity Lays Into Mormon Apologetics

Many of you know that Brian Dalton (“Mr. Deity”) used to be a Mormon.

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