Wednesday’s Freethought and Religion Report

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activism, atheist, chaplains, charlotte, christian, christians, civil disobedience, documents, earth, extinctions, extraterrestrial, feminists, florida, football, fox news, god, godless, history, homophobia, ISIS, jesus, kids, lebanese, mississippi, mormon, muslim, pledge, politics, prayer, putin, satan, school, science, secular, ukraine

Let Your Voice Be Heard: Why Atheist Political Activism Matters

With politicians bending over backward to appeal to the religious right and no open atheists in Congress, humanists in the U.S. can understandably feel left out of the political process. [Read more]

Godless to Meet at Charlotte Convention

Atheists, agnostics, freethinkers and humanists from all over North and South Carolina will converge on Charlotte the weekend of September 26-28 for the fourth Annual Carolinas Secular Conference. [Read more]

An Atheist’s Defense of the Historicity of Jesus

The existence of two or three professionals within the study of antiquity claiming that Jesus never existed does not signal a sea change in that field. [Read more]

Have You Talked with Your Kids About Pledging Allegiance?

No matter how much you love your country, you could question the wisdom of any recitation that essentially amounts to a loyalty oath. To be good citizens, must we visibly and publicly pledge our allegiance? [Read more]

Fox News Guest: Feminists Aren’t Being ‘What God Designed Them to Be’

“They claim they’re feminists, but what they actually are, they are sexualists,” Politichicks Editor in Chief Ann-Marie Murrell opined. “It has nothing to do with empowering women anymore.” [Read more]

Rare Mormon Documents Go on Display for the First Time

26 books, manuscripts and other papers that date from before the faith’s founding in 1830 will be on display at the LDS Church History Library, 15 E. North Temple, in downtown Salt Lake City. [Read more]

Extinctions During Human Era Worse Than Thought

The gravity of the world’s current extinction rate becomes clearer upon knowing what it was before people came along. A new estimate finds that species die off as much as 1,000 times more frequently nowadays than they used to. [Read more]

The Rebellion to Save Planet Earth: Why Civil Disobedience Could Be Our Last, Best Hope

After decades of halfhearted government efforts to stop global warming, and the failure of the “Big Green” NGOs to do much of anything about it, new voices — and new strategies — have taken the lead in the war against fossil fuels. [Read more]

The Crisis in Secular Studies

Talking imprecisely about secularism is now an American rhetorical tradition. Politicians, policy makers, and journalists routinely deploy the term without really knowing—or caring—what it connotes. [Read more]

Can You Ever Really Know an Extraterrestrial?

Like a sign in the wilderness, the potential exists for new information to infect our collective consciousness before we’ve realized what’s happening. [Read more]

Why Aren’t Muslim Nations Rising Against ISIS?

The horror of ISIS continues, seemingly unabated. Making good on their threat, ISIS terrorists murdered a second American journalist, Steven Sotloff, in an act of true bloodthirsty barbarism, and they threaten do to the same to a British national. [Read more]

Benedict Cumberbatch: U.S. Needs Woman And Gay President To Cure Christian Right Homophobia

Star of the upcoming biopic on gay codebreaker Alan Turing, Benedict Cumberbatch says America needs a woman president and a gay president to cure it of Christian far right homophobia. [Read more]

Study: Science and Religion Are Not Only Incompatible, Religious Areas Being Left Behind

Science and religion just don’t co-exist, according to a recent study by economists at Princeton University. “Places with higher levels of religiosity have lower rates of scientific and technical innovation, as measured by patents per capita,” said Roland Bénabou, the study’s lead author, told Mother Jones. [Read more]

Prayer Problems: Local Governments Struggle with Invocation Policies in Wake of Greece Decision

John Trumbo of the Kennewick City Council recently suggested that council meetings ought to open with an invocation “directed in name and reference to the same God addressed in the Founding Fathers’ signatory documents that established this nation,” the Tri-City (Wash.) Herald reported. [Read more]

Lebanese Muslim Officials Denounce Arab Region Assault on Christians

Muslim officials in Lebanon have signed a petition organized by the Islamic Spiritual Summit condemning the continued assault on Christians in the Arab region. [Read more]

Putin ‘Possessed by Satan,’ Says Head of Ukrainian Orthodox Church

The head of Ukraine’s Orthodox Church has accused President Vladimir Putin of being possessed by Satan while the Dalai Lama in a less strident critique accused the Russian leader of being “self-centered.” [Read more]

How an Anti-Religion Group Convinced a Florida School District to Ban Team Chaplains

Orange County Public Schools in Orlando has banned team chaplains, signs with Bible references and religious-oriented phrases from appearing on student-athlete clothing. It also prohibited religious music on game tapes. [Read more]

Concerns Raised over Religion in Ole Miss Football Program

A group is questioning the role of religion inside the University of Mississippi football program, expressing concerns that a football chaplain is an inappropriate endorsement of religion by a public university. [Read more]

Evangelical Megachurch Begins Closing Branches After Pastor Calls Women “Penis Homes”

Fifteen Mars Hill churches are closing amid founder Mark Driscoll’s controversial anti-LGBT and anti-woman remarks. [Read more]