Tag Archives: Topic: Atheism

CBS ConNecticut: The National Atheist Party is canceling its secular convention due to a lack of funding.

KRMG.com: It just might be the very first time ever in Tulsa that an atheist will lead the prayer before the next meeting at city hall.

Freedom from Religion Foundation: The Aug. 27 letter by FFRF attorney Andrew Seidel to Superintendent Damon Raines points out that Liberty Counsel’s “no cost” representation offer, which the Liberty Counsel mistakenly sent to Walker County, Ala., instead of Walker County, Ga., is “disingenuous.” Seidel explained, “Even with pro bono legal representation, a court battle could cost Walker County taxpayers thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

The Evangelical Christian Fellowship has forwarded this:

“PUBLIC SCHOOLS” SHOULD NOT MEAN “ATHEIST SCHOOLS”
How religions and the public sphere relate is not something we are very clear about in Canada according to Iain T. Benson in this article originally published in the National Post and now posted on Christianity.ca, Canada’s Christian Library Online.

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“Public” means “publically funded” and, when properly understood, there is room in our law and principles for both public religious education and public religious schools, and no room for one “secularized curriculum” or an atheist or agnostically dominated “public” in the way this is all too often suggested or implied. Not allowing publicly funded religious education is a blatant infringement of religious liberty, or should be seen as such.

National Catholic Reporter: A lawsuit that was filed by the group American Atheists to keep a revered cross out of the National September 11 Museum is being challenged by a conservative law firm that defends the public display of religious symbols. The American Center for Law and Justice filed a friend-of-the-court brief Monday on behalf of the suit’s two defendants, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum Foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site.

The New American: The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), which has gained its reputation (and a tidy living for its employees) by suing school districts and municipalities over public prayer, has chosen schools in Mississippi and Tennessee as its latest targets. According to the Mississippi Press website, the Wisconsin-based atheist group has threatened all 151 Mississippi school superintendents with lawsuits if they allow prayer over public address systems during school football games.

AP on NECN.com: An atheist group has asked the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga to discontinue Christian prayers before football games.

Washington Post: The poll, called “The Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism,” found that the number of Americans who say they are “religious” dropped from 73 percent in 2005 (the last time the poll was conducted) to 60 percent. At the same time, the number of Americans who say they are atheists rose, from 1 percent to 5 percent.

Marine Corps Times: Two national atheist groups, and one advocating religious freedom, have complained to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus that officials at Camp Pendleton, Calif., continue to deny them access to the base while giving “preferential treatment” to Christian religious organizations, including a controversial church they say is steeped in “doomsday theology” and embroiled in sexual-abuse scandals.

FFRF press release: The Freedom From Religion Foundation has sent multiple letters to Shenendehowa Central Schools (Clifton Park, N.Y.) urging it to follow court precedent and personal conscience by removing prayerful songs from its music classes . . . A concerned parent told FFRF that the complainant’s child came home singing the prayer, “Thank You For the World So Sweet,” which includes the line, “I pray the Lord my soul to keep,” and ends with “Thank you God for everything.” The class was taught to sing “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep,” and other devotional Christian songs.

KFYI: The Wayland School District in Wayland, Massachusetts, is pushing back against an atheist group’s claim that a high school band playing “God Bless America” is somehow an unconstitutional act. In fact, the district, led by Superintendent Dr. Paul Stein, plans to flat-out ignore the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s (FFRF) letter alleging separation of church violations when the song is played at school functions.

USA Today: The growth of the Nones is one reason the Secular Coalition for America is organizing local chapters to lobby states. The coalition wants to raise the public profile of nonbelievers and push to keep religion out of public policy. But their critics say that atheists and other nonbelievers are part of a new secular religion that’s pushing for special privileges.

Salt Lake Tribune: A Wisconsin-based atheist and agnostic organization has jumped into the debate over a Christian concert planned for next week in Draper.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation: America’s “Nones” — the nonreligious — are at an all-time high, now comprising nearly one in five Americans (19%), according to a new study by the Pew Center for the People and the Press. The 19% count is based on aggregated surveys of 19,377 people conducted by the Pew Research Center throughout 2011 and reported by USA Today.

Politico: One prominent secular humanist group is upset with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for his rain prayer during a White House briefing.

Salt Lake Tribune: A day after canceling a Christian music concert because of a threatened lawsuit, the Draper mayor and City Council decided Wednesday to hold the show as planned after all. Their decision followed criticism from a Utah evangelical group that scrapping the concert amounted to an assault on religious liberty.

Freedom from Religion Foundation: FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel drafted and sent a letter on July 5 on behalf of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and also signed by American Atheists, objecting to using U.S. soldiers to support Catholic Social Services of Augusta.

PR Newswire: Liberty Institute Files Brief at U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on Behalf of Christian Theologians and Scholars, including Drs. Wayne Grudem, Darrell Bock, Mark Bailey, Peter Lillback, Stephen Evans, Wayne House, and J. Michael Thigpen

One News Now: ol. Ron Crews (USA-Ret.) served as a chaplain for 28 years and now serves as a spokesman for the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty. “It just seems that every time Mikey Weinstein sends an e-mail over to the Pentagon that they just cater to his every whim,” Crews says. “This one individual has that much influence in the Pentagon. They just cave in.”

National Catholic Reporter:  It was just a medium for this atheist organization to state their position,” Scolese said. “Their numbers are probably small, but they are very vocal.”

The Santa Monica City Council Tuesday night ended a nearly 60-year-old Christmas tradition of allowing Nativity displays in Palisades Park overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Responding to a clamor of opposition from atheists concerning the religious displays, the council voted unanimously 5-0 (with two members absent) to ban all displays from the park.

The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty expresses disappointment over a decision by Department of Defense officials to remove military edition Bibles from the shelves of military exchange stores. This is one more case of Department of Defense officials bowing to political pressure to create a “religion free” zone in the military.

Boston Globe: Middlesex Superior Court judge has rejected a lawsuit by an atheist couple and their children who sued the Acton-Boxborough Regional School District challenging the use of the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.

LA Times: A prayer before Lodi’s City Council on Wednesday asked for meditation on the “transcendental glory of the Deity Supreme.”

Religion Clause Blog: In Red River Freethinkers v. City of Fargo, (8th Cir., May 25, 2012), the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals held that a organization dedicated to promoting atheist and agnostic views has standing on behalf of its members to challenge a Ten Commandments monument that has stood for 50 years outdoors on city property in Fargo, North Dakota.

KFYI: An Arizona atheist organization wants the IRS to investigate the tax exempt status of the Center for Arizona Policy.

Sacramento Bee: On Memorial Day – as Liberty Institute awaits a response from the U.S. Supreme Court over their appeal to save the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial Cross from being torn down by atheist groups—the group will unveil a new music video, titled “Don’t Tear Me Down.” Beginning Monday, May 28, tune-in at www.DontTearMeDown.com.

Ross Douthat at the NY Times: … the more purely secular liberalism has become, the more it has spent down its Christian inheritance—the more its ideals seem to hang from what Christopher Hitchens’ Calvinist sparring partner Douglas Wilson has called intellectual “skyhooks,” suspended halfway between our earth and the heaven on which many liberals have long since given up. Say what you will about the prosperity gospel and the cult of the God Within and the other theologies I criticize in Bad Religion, but at least they have a metaphysically coherent picture of the universe to justify their claims

Christian Concern: The UK’s most senior Roman Catholic said yesterday that “tolerance is being abolished” as secularists seek to wipe out the Christian faith in Britain.

WMAL.com (includes audio): After taking an “all or nothing” approach last year, in which all bidders were allowed to apply for display permits on a “first come, first served” basis, a committee appointed by the Board of Supervisors is recommending a single display for 2012. The display would consist largely of secular and religious items that have been displayed in previous years, including a holiday tree, a creche, a Santa and reindeer. Wreaths and garland would also decorate the fence surrounding the courthouse square.

Michael Medved at DelmarvaNow: A simmering controversy surrounding the “Ground Zero Cross” exposes the intolerance and absolutism behind ongoing battles over religious symbols on public property. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not Christian conservatives who normally start these bitter disputes. It’s more often atheist activists who seek to alter the long-standing status quo

One News Now: ADF attorney Erik Stanley weighs in on the issue. “Public monuments to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice should not be dismantled because a few offended activists want to scrub the public square clean of anything that hints of religion,” says Stanley . . . ADF attorney Joe Infranco says that complaint is getting old. “The idea that this 91-year-old memorial is unconstitutional is a tiresome claim from a radical group that has dreamed of a purely secularized society for years,” states Infranco.

One News Now: The Freedom From Religion Foundation and other groups like them routinely issue legal threats to cities and towns in their quest to scrub the public square free of any trace of religion,” Harvey reports. “The courts have repeatedly disagreed with them because the Constitution requires no such thing. As the U.S. Supreme Court has recently stated, ‘The Constitution does not oblige the government to avoid any public acknowledgment of religion’s role in society.’”

The Alliance Defense Fund has offered to defend a World War I and II memorial cross in Woonsocket, R.I., free of charge if an atheist group makes good on its threats to sue over it. ADF has also advised local veterans’ groups of its offer to defend the constitutionality of the 91-year-old memorial, which stands in the parking lot of the town’s fire station.

CBS19.tv: Now, the group is wanting to display their own banner this year alongside the Christmas decorations that the County Commissioners have said they will put up.

Gary McCaleb at Townhall: For decades, atheist groups have strategically involved themselves in questions of religious freedom, and they have done so chiefly by fighting to have all Christian symbols and texts removed from public view. But in recent years, as this fight has continued, it’s become evident that it’s not just symbols and texts they want removed from public view, rather, it’s Christians themselves.

Catholic Herald: A legal challenge will be launched against the building of two new Catholic schools in southwest London.

The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty expresses concern over a pending decision by Air Force officials to remove Bibles from the checklist of items in on-base lodging rooms.

Religion Clause Blog: MSNBC reported Wednesday that the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has sent a letter (full text) to the Secretary of the Navy and Commandant of the Marine Corps objecting to a commanding officer’s decision last month to reinstate the name “Crusaders” as the label for Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 122 . . .

Christian Fighter Pilot provides some additional background on the controversy.

Warner Robins Patriot: Air Force officials have apparently agreed in principle to remove Bibles from on-base lodging rooms following pressure from a atheist group.

The Week on Yahoo: It depends on your definition of the term. Only between 1.5 and 4 percent of Americans admit to so-called “hard atheism,” the conviction that no higher power exists. But a much larger share of the American public (19 percent) spurns organized religion in favor of a nondefined skepticism about faith. This group, sometimes collectively labeled the “Nones,” is growing faster than any religious faith in the U.S

The Guardian: Contrasting the “hysteria” of “aggressive polemic against religious faith” with an increasing recognition among “serious and liberal-minded commentators”, he said faith was no longer seen as “a brainless and oppressive enemy” but recognised as a potential ally against a greedy and individualistic way of life that feels “increasingly insane”.

This is Staffordshire: TRADITIONAL prayers said at the opening of city council meetings are to be moved to avoid offending atheists and non-Christians.

LifeSiteNews: But as Secular Pro-Life discovered after setting up an information table at the convention and mingling among the 25,000 participants of the Reason Rally the day before, for many atheists, the enthusiasm for diversity ends where the philosophical line on issues like abortion begins.

Religion Clause Blog: Billed by supporters as “the largest gathering of the secular movement in world history,” yesterday between 10,000 and 20,000 people gathered on the National Mall in Washington . . .

SanLuisObispo.com: A San Luis Obispo atheists group is challenging the constitutionality of the City Council’s decision to not charge for parking downtown until church services have concluded on Sunday mornings.

Toronto Star: An expected ban on the free distribution of Gideon Bibles at public schools in a southern Ontario school district has angered those who see the decision as an atheist attack on religious values and children.

LifeSiteNews: Catholics and non-Catholics alike have reacted to a viciously anti-Catholic full-page advertisement in Friday’s New York Times.

NPR (includes audio): After the recent controversy over birth control, health coverage and the Catholic Church, writer Soraya Chemaly declared: “I’m No Longer a Catholic. Why Are You?” in a piece for The Huffington Post. Chemaly explains what made her walk away from the church . . .

Knox News: As a current student in government (at Lenoir City High School), I have realized that I feel that my rights as an atheist are severely limited when compared to other students who are Christians.

Religion Clause Blog: In the case, former high school student Chad Farnan claimed that in his sophomore Advanced Placement European History class, teacher James Corbett violated the Establishment clause by making statements that were hostile toward religion in general and Christianity in particular.

God and Country : US Representative Randy Forbes (R-Va) has written a letter (PDF) signed by 35 members of the House asking the Air Force restore a unit’s motto that was changed after an atheist’s complaint. The incident to which Rep Forbes is referring was actually first reported on ChristianFighterPilot.com, with the Religion Clause and the ADF Alliance Alert subsequently citing this site.

NYTimes.com: ut Jessica Ahlquist is also an outspoken atheist who has incensed this heavily Roman Catholic city with a successful lawsuit to get a prayer removed from the wall of her high school auditorium, where it has hung for 49 years.

God and Country : The band Aiden has announced it will be playing the atheist festival “Rock Beyond Belief” at Fort Bragg in March 2012, as the lead-in act to Richard Dawkins, the main attraction at the “concert.”

Freedom from Religion Foundation: The Freedom From Religion Foundation this afternoon filed a formal complaint with the State of Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights, alleging “illegal discrimination based on religion” when a flower shop in Cranston refused, on the basis of religion, to fill an order to send a dozen roses to Jessica Ahlquist.

MalakoffNews: The FFRF answered back Monday in a letter to Abbott signed by foundation co-presidents and husband and wife, Dan Taylor and Annie Laurie Gaylor.

MyFoxDetroit: You may have heard this argument before, that a nativity scene or any display of religious symbol on public ground is a violation of church and state. In Warren, a man wants to challenge the argument a step further by displaying a ‘certain’ sign right next to the nativity scene.

LoHud.com: Christmas decorations and Nativity scenes at four homes and Sacred Heart Church in northwest Yonkers were descrated over the weekend, Yonkers police said.

Capitol Times: “This is all we do in November and December is Nativity scene violations,” says Annie Laurie Gaylor, the group’s co-president. “We tell our attorneys to get ready. It’s our busiest time of the year.”

Local churches have traditionally claimed 14 of the 21 Palisades Park display spaces to illustrate the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. But atheists managed to get all but three of the spaces this year because of a new city lottery system.

The Red and Black: Shewmaker responded with a letter Nov. 1 saying “invocation at commencement is part of the University of Georgia’s heritage,” according to documents provided by Joiner.
“There have been no Supreme Court of the United States cases interpreting this issue,” Shewmaker wrote.

CNSnews.com: The man pushing to get the military to install “atheist chaplains” in the armed forces told government-subsidized National Public Radio that military officers should not be praying with their men before going out on missions.

Available at RushLimbaugh.com.

The Volokh Conspiracy: The New York Times Room for Debate Forum has an interesting symposium on the role of religion in presidential elections. In his contribution, polling expert Andrew Kohut cites a 2007 Pew survey showing that atheism is viewed more negatively by voters than virtually any other possible trait of a presidential candidate.

The Christian Institute: The National Secular Society (NSS) threatened Woking Borough Council with legal action, claiming that allowing free Sunday parking for three churches in the town centre was a breach of equality and “almost certainly illegal”.

The Jackson Sun | jacksonsun.com: The Board of Aldermen voted last week to let the Alliance Defense Fund look into the town’s options for responding to the complaint about the cross. The board meets the first Monday of each month.

Beliefnet News: The town council has voted to consult with the Alliance Defense Fund about their legal options, “This is their cause in life – to ride up and down the highway and find small towns that maybe have a religious symbol somewhere on public property,” he said.

Red County: What CARD wants is for Christian faith-based groups to be forced to hire atheists, should they apply, and Catholic or Orthodox Jewish groups to be forced to hire Muslims, Hindus, or Wicca Priestesses should they apply. CARD’s letter, and the request it makes of the President, is akin to the same God-hating logic we’ve seen groups like Americans United for Separation of Church and State leverage inasmuch as CARD’s contention is that once a faith-based organization accepts federal money, they have to cash in their religious freedom.

Freedom From Religion Foundation: The Freedom from Religion Foundation, a national state/church watchdog, is sounding the alarm on unlawful, exploitative activities in public schools by The Gideons International. “It takes constant vigilance to keep the Gideons out of public schools,” said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.

Education News: A group of 30 scientists have signed a statement saying it is “unacceptable” to teach creationism and intelligent design, whether it happens in science lessons or not. The statement claims two organisations, Truth in Science and Creation Ministries International are “touring the UK and presenting themselves as scientists and their creationist views as science”.

ADF Attorney Dave Cortman appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss this: Amen! Principal, teachers at Miss. school told prayers are protected. | MP3 audio 15:33 mins

Washington Times : In Losing Faith in Faith, Dan Barker – the preacher-turned-atheist – wrote this about the origin of sin: “The very concept of sin comes from the Bible. Christianity offers to solve a problem of its own making! Would you be thankful to a person who cut you with a knife in order to sell you a bandage?”

Action News 5 – Memphis, Tennessee: After an atheist group asked DeSoto County Schools to stop praying before school events or face legal action, the same group is now demanding the district to stop allowing Gideon International, a Christian missionary group, to distribute bibles during school sponsored activities.

11alive.com: Like most governments, the City Council of this Fayette County municipality of 37,000 begins their meetings with a prayer. But now they’re being threatened with legal action if they don’t change it.

KLFY.com: An atheist group wants a local superintendent to reprimand one of his principals for allowing a prayer rally to take place in a school.