FEATURED ARTICLES
Published by the Center For Atheism (CFA)Editor: David Birnkrant
This Week in Atheism is a cable show that discusses the articles featured below, every Wednesday at 6:30 PM (EST), Manhattan Cable station 57.
Live streaming is available at: http://www.mnn.org.
Comments, suggestions and subscription:
info@centerforatheism.org.
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Man objects to prayer, is arrested at Polk School board meeting
10 Connects
John Kieffer, president of Atheist of Florida, Inc. tells 10 News he and the group's vice president went to the meeting to educate school board members and remind them about the separation of church and state. "People can pray all they want, ...
http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=176636&catid=8
Atheist Arrested at Polk School Board Meeting
The Ledger
By Jeremy Maready BARTOW | A member of the Atheists of Florida group was arrested by Bartow police after a disturbance during a pre-meeting prayer at today's Polk County School Board meeting. The man, whose name wasn't immediately known, ...
http://www.theledger.com/article/20110222/NEWS/110229946/1410?p=1&tc=pg
ATHEISM
Atheism grows among youth, high school students
People's World
Right-wing Ayn Rand supporters - objectivists, as they call themselves - are as equally accepted as Democrats, Keynsians, Greens or Communists, so long as they all respect each other and stand for democracy and a separation of church and state. ...
http://peoplesworld.org/atheism-grows-among-youth-high-school-students/
A Place on the Right for a Few Godless Conservatives
New York Times
They are atheist conservatives — Mr. Khan an apostate to his family's Islamic faith, Ms. Mac Donald to her left-wing education. Heather Mac Donald, an atheist conservative, derides the way God is credited for good fortune but absolved of misfortune. ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/us/19beliefs.html?_r=1
BOOKS, FILM, THEATRE, TV, YOU TUBE
Sam Harris's Guide to Nearly Everything
The National Interest Online
There is, however, much playacting at science to justify a peculiar sort of Brave New World where atheism will help do away with female genital mutilation and lie detectors will preclude pleading the Fifth Amendment. There is also much that is ...
http://nationalinterest.org/bookreview/sam-harriss-guide-nearly-everything-4893
Top Ten Creationist Arguments (part 2)
The Guardian
Part One was so popular, and material is so abundant, that The Thinking Atheist just couldn't resist assembling another list of arguments that we all hear coming from the mouths of those defending God. I'd really like to try some of Ted's beer. ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/punctuated-equilibrium/2011/feb/20/1
Comic defends 'blasphemous' show
Bicester Advertiser
During the show atheist Mr Herring revisits his first solo work Christ on a Bike and questions now he is 10 years older than the Messiah when he died, whether he has achieved as much with his life. Dr Stallard wrote: “This is yet another attempt to ...
http://www.bicesteradvertiser.net/news/oxfordshire/8871791.Comic_defends____blasphemous____show/
EVOLUTION, CREATIONISM, I.D.
Antievolution bill in New Mexico tabled
National Center for Science Education
Thomas and Newton also charged that HB 302 was based on model legislation from the de facto institutional headquarters of "intelligent design" creationism, the Discovery Institute. Anderson replied that the bill was his own — but a detailed comparison ...
http://ncse.com/news/2011/02/antievolution-bill-new-mexico-tabled-006495
Antievolution bill loses in committee in Oklahoma
National Center for Science Education
House Bill 1551, which would, if enacted, encourage teachers to present the "scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses" of "controversial" topics such as evolution, was rejected by the House Common Education Committee on February 22, 2011. ...
http://ncse.com/news/2011/02/antievolution-bill-loses-committee-oklahoma-006500
Teachers still in discord over creationism vs. evolution
OSU - The Lantern
Many high school teachers are failing to teach their students evolution, widening the learning gap between high school and college biology, an Ohio State professor says. The Jan. 28 edition of Science magazine published the survey of 926 public high ...
http://www.thelantern.com/campus/teachers-still-in-discord-over-creationism-vs-evolution-1.2014202
SCIENCE
A Romp Into Theories of the Cradle of Life
The New York Times
Darwin speculated that life began in a warm pond on the primordial Earth. Lately other scientists have suggested that the magic joining of molecules that could go on replicating might have happened in an undersea hot spring, on another planet or inside an asteroid. Some astronomers wonder if it could be happening right now underneath the ice of Europa or in the methane seas of Titan...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/science/22origins.html?_r=1&ref=science
Oldest Fossils of Large Seaweeds, Possible Animals Tell Story About Oxygen in an Ancient Ocean
ScienceDaily (Feb. 19, 2011) — Almost 600 million years ago, before the rampant evolution of diverse life forms known as the Cambrian explosion, a community of seaweeds and worm-like animals lived in a quiet deep-water niche under the sea near what is now Lantian, a small village in Anhui Province of South China. Then they simply died, leaving some 3,000 nearly pristine fossils preserved between beds of black shale deposited in oxygen-free waters...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110216132032.htm
Mind Over Matter: EECoG May Finally Allow Enduring Control of a Prosthetic or a Paralyzed Arm by Thought Alone
ScienceDaily (Feb. 19, 2011) — Daniel Moran has dedicated his career to developing the best brain-computer interface, or BCI, he possibly can. His motivation is simple but compelling. "My sophomore year in high school," Moran says, "a good friend and I were on the varsity baseball team. I broke my arm and was out for the season. I was feeling sorry for myself when he slide into home plate head first and broke his neck...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110218142440.htm
Conventional Wisdom of How Neurons Operate Challenged: Axons Can Work in Reverse
ScienceDaily (Feb. 19, 2011) — Neurons are complicated, but the basic functional concept is that synapses transmit electrical signals to the dendrites and cell body (input), and axons carry signals away (output). In one of many surprise findings, Northwestern University scientists have discovered that axons can operate in reverse: they can send signals to the cell body, too...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110217171344.htm
How Couples Recover After an Argument Stems from Their Infant Relationships
ScienceDaily (Feb. 19, 2011) — When studying relationships, psychological scientists have often focused on how couples fight. But how they recover from a fight is important, too. According to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, couples' abilities to bounce back from conflict may depend on what both partners were like as infants...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110218142453.htm
Hydrogen Cartridges Fuel Laptops and Phones for Outdoor Enthusiasts
ScienceDaily (Feb. 18, 2011) — How does a Michigan State University scientist fuel his enthusiasm for chemistry after 60 years? By discovering a new energy source, of course...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110217151455.htm
Controlling a Computer With Thoughts?
ScienceDaily (Feb. 18, 2011) — Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have been awarded funding for two projects that will place brain-computer interfaces (BCI) in patients with spinal cord injuries to test if it is possible for them to control external devices, such as a computer cursor or a prosthetic limb, with their thoughts...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110217124913.htm
3-D Video Without the Goggles
ScienceDaily (Feb. 18, 2011) — High-quality video communications capable of supporting flawless video conferencing and home entertainment without goggles could become a reality...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110217083024.htm
Herschel Measures Dark Matter for Star-Forming Galaxies
ScienceDaily (Feb. 17, 2011) — The Herschel Space Observatory has revealed how much dark matter it takes to form a new galaxy bursting with stars...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110216133951.htm
Choosing Your Neighbors: Scientists See How Microbes Relate in Space
ScienceDaily (Feb. 17, 2011) — Like people in cities, microbes often live in complex communities that contain many different microbial types. Also like us, microbes tend to gravitate to and "hang out" with certain other types in their community, more than with the rest. And sometimes, when opportunities arise, they move to more favorable locations...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110214155451.htm
SEPARATION CHURCH / STATE
DID SCHOOL DISTRICT VIOLATE CONSTITUTION BY HOLDING EVENT AT CHURCH?
East County Magazine
By Miriam Raftery February 18, 2011 (San Diego's East County) – Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, a national nonprofit organization, says that it's “problematic” and likely unconstitutional for the Grossmont Union High School ...
http://eastcountymagazine.org/node/5508
Movement afoot to end blue laws here
The Times and Democrat
DeBarr, citing separation of church and state, said council members should not base their vote on personal religious preferences but should base it upon democracy. "One of my main philosophies ... is to give everyone in Orangeburg County the ability to ...
http://www.thetandd.com/news/local/article_5c994388-3d79-11e0-9d51-001cc4c002e0.html
Ten Commandments Removed from Giles Co. Schools Again
WSET
Civil-rights groups say the displays violated the Constitution's separation of church and state. Officials have not said what the next move will be for the district. You must be logged in to rate this story. Login or register.
http://www.wset.com/Global/story.asp?S=14077067
Subcommittee votes to keep school banner
Turn to 10.com
The ACLU says it violates the separation of church and state. Several local religious leaders said they would fight to keep it there. The banner, which starts "Our Heavenly Father" and ends with "Amen," exhorts students to do their best and bring ...
http://www2.turnto10.com/news/2011/feb/23/4/subcommittee-votes-keep-school-banner-ar-404127/
Lawsuit threatened over Christian display in Cheboygan Co.
UpNorthLive.com
"It's a violation of the establishment clause which mandates the separation of church and state to display Christian items from a public office," said Rebecca Markert, the Staff Attorney for Freedom from Religion Foundation. ...
http://www.upnorthlive.com/news/story.aspx?id=584728
Court weighs God in homeland security
UPI.com
American Atheists National Legal Director Edwin Kagin, whose group advocates for the complete separation of church and state, argued laws pointing to God are part of an attempt to create a "theocracy." The sides are appealing a trial court judge's 2009 ...
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/02/24/Court-weighs-God-in-homeland-security/UPI-69021298587516/
Atheists: No dependence on God in war on terror
Legal News Line
According to its website, American Atheists is a nationwide movement "that defends civil rights for Atheists; works for the total separation of church and state; and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy." In 2009, a circuit court judge ...
http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/231357-atheists-no-dependence-on-god-in-war-on-terror
Appeals court considers law crediting God for Kentucky's security
Louisville Courier-Journal
She questioned what would happen if an atheist became executive director of the Office of Homeland Security and balked at requirements to post the plaque and annual reports crediting Almighty God. But Thomas said the law doesn't require anyone to ...
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110224/NEWS01/302240044/-1/ZONE07/Appeals-court-considers-law-crediting-God-Kentucky-s-security&odyssey=nav|head
MISCELLANEOUS
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