Atheist ‘Mega-Churches’ Take Root Across US, World

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Photo Credit: AP/Jae C. HongIt looked like a typical Sunday morning at any mega-church. Several hundred people, including families with small children, packed in for more than an hour of rousing music, an inspirational sermon, a reading and some quiet reflection. The only thing missing was God.

Nearly three dozen gatherings dubbed “atheist mega-churches” by supporters and detractors have sprung up around the U.S. and Australia – with more to come – after finding success in Great Britain earlier this year. The movement fueled by social media and spearheaded by two prominent British comedians is no joke.

On Sunday, the inaugural Sunday Assembly in Los Angeles attracted several hundred people bound by their belief in non-belief. Similar gatherings in San Diego, Nashville, New York and other U.S. cities have drawn hundreds of atheists seeking the camaraderie of a congregation without religion or ritual.

The founders, British duo Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans, are currently on a tongue-in-cheek “40 Dates, 40 Nights” tour around the U.S. and Australia to drum up donations and help launch new Sunday Assemblies. They hope to raise more than $800,000 that will help atheists launch their pop-up congregations around the world. So far, they have raised about $50,000.

They don’t bash believers but want to find a new way to meet likeminded people, engage in the community and make their presence more visible in a landscape dominated by faith.

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French MP: If Sanctions on Iran are Loosened, Israel Will Attack (+video)

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Photo Credit: Marc Israel Sellem/Pool/Flash90By Times of Israel Staff.

A French member of parliament telephoned French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in Geneva at the weekend to warn him that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would attack Iran’s nuclear facilities if the P5+1 nations did not stiffen their terms on a deal with Iran, Israel’s Channel 2 News reported Sunday.

“I know [Netanyahu],” the French MP, Meyer Habib, reportedly told Fabius, and predicted that the Israeli prime minister would resort to the use of force if the deal was approved in its form at the time. “If you don’t toughen your positions, Netanyahu will attack Iran,” the report quoted Habib as saying. “I know this. I know him. You have to toughen your positions in order to prevent war.”

France’s Fabius is widely reported to have scuppered the finalizing of the emerging deal late Saturday, leading to the halting of the negotiations with Iran, and an agreement to reconvene on November 20.

Explaining his concerns to reporters in Geneva, Fabius said Tehran was resisting demands that it suspend work on its plutonium-producing reactor at Arak and downgrade its stockpile of higher-enriched uranium.

Habib, the deputy president of the Jewish umbrella organization in France, was elected to the National Assembly in Paris in June, to represent the district of southern Europe, which includes French nationals residing in Israel.

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller Iran general: No doubt Israel and America will be attacked

By Reza Kahlili.

Even before the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the 5+1 world powers ended in Geneva early Sunday with no deal, an Iranian general lashed out at America Saturday and warned both the U.S. and Israel that they will be attacked.

According to Fars News Agency, the regime’s outlet run by the Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Massoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, said “America’s interests and all of Israel are within the range of the Islamic Republic and there is not the slightest doubt among Iran’s armed forces to confront the American government and the Zionists (Israel).”

Jazayeri said Israel is pulling the strings of Washington and “the American government is one of the most hated and evil governments in the world.”

The general mocked President Obama’s position that the military option remains on the table over Iran’s nuclear development. “If America had the ability and the will for war, it would allow no doubt in attacking Syria. America will soon find out that Iran’s power cannot be ignored.”

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CAIR Discussing Establishment of Shariah Divorce System in Michigan

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Photo Credit: WND A leader in a front group for the movement that aims to turn the U.S. into an Islamic state is among the Muslims in the Detroit area talking about establishing religious courts that would grant women a divorce under Islamic law, or Shariah.

About 15 Muslim leaders – including Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Michigan chapter – discussed the issue at a monthly gathering Sept. 25.

The discussion was prompted by a story in the Arab American News that described the difficulties that Muslim women experience when their husbands refuse to grant them a religious divorce, noted the blog Creeping Sharia.

The Arab American News article said many are forced to go “imam shopping” and travel across the U.S. to find an imam willing to grant them an Islamic divorce.

The publication commented that many Muslim women are denied a divorce, even when their husbands are physically abusive.

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This Wind Turbine Will Pay for Itself in 452 Years, Generates $8 a Month

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller Government bureaucrats have just been given a sobering reminder that you can’t place a wind turbine just anywhere. Welsh officials have been chastised for building a wind turbine in a calm area that will only generate about $8 of electricity per month — a 452-year payback period.

The Welsh government claims that the turbine is generating a low return because of mechanical problems, reports the Daily Express, but the company that built it says it’s the poor location that’s causing the turbine to underperform.

“The problem is quite simple — it’s been put in the wrong place,” said Paul Burrell, a wind turbine expert. “It’s very important with any wind turbine to ensure it’s in the most exposed location possible. They need unobstructed access to wind from all directions.

“Unfortunately the Welsh Government’s one is located in a valley two miles from the sea and has quite a short tower,” he added.

The wind turbine was built near the headquarters of the Labour Party-controlled Welsh government in 2009, but its performance was not monitored until a year ago. The turbine has only generated 33 kilowatts of power per month in that year, meaning it only generates about $8 worth of electricity per month.

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US Sees 25 Percent Surge in Women Hunters Since 2006

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Photo Credit: Renee VThe number of American women spending time hunting has spiked 25 percent between 2006 and 2011.

According to Census Bureau statistics cited by National Geographic, while men still make up the majority of the 13.7 million hunters in the United States, 11 percent are women.

Many states, the magazine reports, are now hosting workshops, titled “Becoming An Outdoors-Woman” (BOW), which instruct participants in archery, shotgun and rifle shooting.

“There is definitely a high demand. We have over 3,000 women on our mailing list, and workshops fill up quickly,” Patricia Handy, information and education program manager at the Department of Natural Resources in Maryland, told National Geographic.

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Homeless Man’s Good Deed Punished When He Turns in $850 Found on Sidewalk

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Photo Credit: VIOREL FLORESCU/THE RECORD OF WOODLAND PARKOffers of support have been pouring in from around the nation for a formerly homeless New Jersey man whose good deed proved costly.

James Brady of Hackensack was notified recently that his government benefits were being suspended after he failed to report as income the $850 he had found on a sidewalk and turned over to police.

Brady, who was homeless when he found the money on a sidewalk in April after leaving a local homeless shelter, turned the cash over to police. He was allowed to keep it six months later after no one claimed it during a mandated waiting period.

But the Hackensack Human Services Department denied him General Assistance and Medicaid benefits through Dec. 31 because he failed to report the cash as new income. The director of human services said the agency was just following the rules.

The 59 year-old Brady is a former photographer and market data analyst who has suffered from depression since losing his job a decade ago, according to The Record of Woodland Park.

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Conspiracy Theorist: Kerry Says, ‘I Have Serious Doubts Lee Harvey Oswald Acted Alone’

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Photo Credit: APIn an interview with Tom Brokaw of NBC, Secretary of State John Kerry said he has “serious doubts” that Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated President John F. Kennedy, acted alone.

The Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination, came to the opposite conclusion. The commission did suggest, however, that Oswald’s motive for murdering Kennedy might have arisen from Oswald’s “avowed commitment to Marxism and communism.”

“Where do you come down on the conspiracy theories?” Brokaw asked Kerry in a clip from the interview that was broadcast on CNN’s “Situation Room” on Friday.

“To this day, I have serious doubts that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone,” said Kerry.

“Really,” said Brokaw.

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Most of Satellite Likely Incinerated as it Entered Atmosphere

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Photo Credit: My FOX NY Officials say they have confirmed a 2,000-pound European satellite that has been steadily sinking toward Earth after it ran out of fuel last month has re-entered the atmosphere Sunday, and say most of it likely incinerated.

In a status report posted on the European Space Agency’s website, scientists said tracking stations last made contact with the GOCE, or Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, at 5:42 p.m. GMT when it was 75 miles above Antarctica.

Spokesman Robert Meisner tells FoxNews.com the agency has confirmed the GOCE has fallen to Earth, but has not confirmed any other details.

The agency estimates on its website that about 25 percent of the spacecraft survived re-entry and has fallen into the ocean.

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NJ Biologists Remove Arrow from Deer’s Head (+video)

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Photo Credit: APWildlife officials have removed an arrow from a young deer’s head and released the animal back into the New Jersey woods.

The arrow that had completely pierced the 5-month-old male deer’s head was removed Saturday by biologists with the Department of Environmental Protection.

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Impeaching Himself, Period

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Photo Credit: APThe side-by-side comparisons of President Obama’s statements then and now are devastating. Especially the “period.” Period here is no punctuation mark. It’s a way of underscoring the word of the President of the United States.

“If you like your health care plan you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away. No matter what.” – June 15, 2009

“And I am sorry that they, you know, are finding themselves in this situation, based on assurances they got from me.” – November 7, 2013

For him to have made such unqualified assurances to the American people — not once but dozens of times — and for us to learn that he always knew that promise could not be kept — will haunt his presidency. He has impeached himself.

The president’s word has been called “the coin of the realm.” Well, we don’t have a realm, and we have far fewer coins these days. But the point is made: His word has value. Or had value.

Of course, many opponents of this president will raise the specter of impeachment. The legislative process for enactment of ObamaCare was surely debauched by these knowingly false assurances. Of that there can be no doubt.

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