Friday Atheist and Religion Report, Part 2

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ADF, anti-religious, assault, atheism, atheist, atheists, bible, brain, conference, conservatives, creationist, dreams, drug treatment, fairytale, florida, football, god, intelligent design, irrational, ISIS, islamophobia, jesusland, monument, NUS, porn, rational, rehab, religious right, ritual, satanic temple, secular, smut, society, solstice, superstition, women

Secular Societies Fare Better Than Religious Societies

According to this multivariate analysis which takes into account a plethora of indicators of societal well-being, those states in America with the worst quality of life tend to be among the most God-loving/most religious. [Read more]

Smut in Jesusland: Why Red-State Conservatives Are the Biggest Porn Hounds

Red-state conservatives may insist that the rest of us should keep aspirin between our knees and be forced to bear Divine Justice Babies if we don’t. [Read more]

Rational Atheism, the New Irrational Atheism

The thing is that most nonbelievers don’t posit, for example, that a really big white sky daddy created us and is here to allow us to torture each other to be able to go to a world we think is better. [Read more]

Atheist Rehab Care

Family, farm-work, reunion weekends are an all embracing aspect of living here. Requires several days of prep and then recovery. It’s nice to see Barry A Hazle Jr win a couple million for refusing to join faith-based rehab programs. [Read more]

Shasta County Atheist Wins $2 Million Settlement Over Religious Drug-Treatment Program

The California government and a nonprofit contractor for parolee drug treatment will pay a Shasta County atheist nearly $2 million for violating his civil rights when he was sent back to prison for taking issue with the program’s religious nature while on parole. [Read more]

Secular Solstice and the Importance of Ritual

I think people leave or avoid religion for a number of different overlapping reasons. Some just don’t believe in god. Others don’t believe in god, and also resent the communal aspects of religion. [Read more]

Secular Conference Created a Sense of Imminent and Momentous Change – And Women Will Be the Driving Force

Last weekend’s conference organised in London by Maryam Namazie and her colleagues wasn’t like any other conference on secularism I’ve ever been to. [Read more]

Not All Who “Lack Belief in Gods” Are Atheists

A lot of atheists say that atheism means simply a “lack of beliefs in gods” and that rather than either “disbelieve in gods” or affirm that no gods exist they rather just lack a belief in God. [Read more]

Madison County School Board: Bible Verses on Football Field Monument Have to Go

The use of the overtly Christian references and Biblical citations drew protests from two groups, the Freedom from Religion Foundation and the American Humanist Association, both of which warned the Madison school board the monument violated the law and could provoke a legal challenge. [Read more]

Florida Officials Cannot Ban Satanic Temple’s State Capitol Holiday Display

Policy Violates Free Speech And Church-State Separation, Watchdog Group Asserts. [Read more]

Police: Man Punched West Ashley Restaurant Worker During Religion Argument

A 37-year-old man was arrested Monday on charges that he punched someone as they argued about religion and drank after closing time at a West Ashley restaurant, according to an incident report. [Read more]

National Religious Right Legal Firm Gets Involved in MSHSL’s Trans-Inclusive Proposal

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a well-funded religious right legal outfit, has inserted itself into the debate over a transgender-inclusive athletics policy being considered by the Minnesota State High School League. [Read more]

Centre for Intelligent Design Launches Naked Creationist Attack on SecScot Petition

Predictably, the C4ID submission [2] attempts to disguise the fact that “Intelligent Design” is nothing more than a blend of creationism and obfuscation. [Read more]

Anti-Religious Policy Change a Great Decision

To compel a person to swear an oath to a deity in which he does not believe is morally repugnant. Furthermore, it is totally meaningless for an atheist to swear to an entity he believes is imaginary. [Read more]

NUS Refuses to Condemn ISIS Terrorists…Because It’s ‘Islamophobic’

Murderous ISIS militants secured a victory on British soil – when the National Union of Students voted against a motion to condemn them. [Read more]

If Only People Were Less Superstitious

While there are many great Atheist writers out there, few captured life’s absurdities quite so well as Kurt Vonnegut. [Read more]

Why I’d Still Believe In God Even if the Bible was a Fairytale

While I don’t believe in organized religion, I do believe in God, and I do have faith in the narrative of Jesus, but I can openly accept the irrationality of it and how it is a matter of faith, not facts or rationality, that cause me to believe it. [Read more]

Atheist Group: Rankin School Aided Bible Giveaway

An atheist group says it objects to a Mississippi principal telling fifth-grade teachers to take students through a public school lobby where Gideons were handing out Bibles. [Read more]

This is Your Brain on Dreams, with Michio Kaku

Theoretical physicist, best-selling author, and all around cool guy Michio Kakureturns to Big Think to discuss the science of dreaming, as well as everything Freud got right about our subconscious. [Watch Video]