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Prominent Scientist Says ‘Religion Will Go Away in a Generation’ If Atheists Use This Tactic to Teach Children (+video)

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Photo Credit: @LKrauss1

Photo Credit: @LKrauss1

Cosmologist and theoretical physicist Lawrence M. Krauss believes that religion could be eradicated — or at least largely removed from society — in just one generation.

Krauss, who made this claim while delivering a speech to the Victorian Skeptics Cafe in Australia in late August, spoke, among other subjects, about how children should be taught about faith in schools, claiming that religious systems shouldn’t be treated “as if they’re all sacred.”

Instead, he argued for changes in how children learn about religion and critical thinking — proposals that are just beginning to gain traction this week.

“What we need to do is present comparative religion as a bunch of interesting historical anecdotes and show the silly reasons why they each did what they did,” he said. “Instead of shying away from it, we have to explicitly educate people to confront their own misconceptions.”

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US Air Force Confronts Atheists: Must Swear to God or Leave Service

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Photo Credit: AFP / Chris SchneiderThe US Air Force has told a sergeant he will have to leave the military unless he agrees to take an oath with the phrase “so help me God,” officials said Tuesday.

In the latest religious controversy to roil the air force, the atheist airman last month was denied his request to re-enlist because of his refusal to swear to God — and he is now poised to take the military to court, his lawyer said.

“We have not received word from the Air Force regarding our letter. It has not indicated a willingness to settle out of court,” said Monica Miller, an attorney for the American Humanist Association, which has taken up the service member’s case.

With the deadline for re-enlisting expiring in November, the technical sergeant at Creech Air Force base in Nevada — whose name has not been released — will be forced to sue the government in a federal court, Miller told AFP.

In the past, an airman could opt for an alternative phrase and omit the words “so help me God,” but the US Air Force changed its policy in October 2013.

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Richard Dawkins On Real Time: ‘I’m Sure Obama is an Atheist and I’m Sure Kennedy Was’

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Photo Credit: mediaite.comOxford professor and celebrity atheist Richard Dawkins joined Bill Maher Friday night to talk about his personal evolution from theism to atheism, why a scientific view of the universe does not entail a series of random events, and which public figures he believes are secretly atheists.

Maher and Dawkins agreed that people like them are often called “militant” atheists, when, in fact, the real problem people have with them is their “clarity” and how steadfast they are on these issues. Dawkins acknowledged he used to be religious, adding, “When I became a man I put away childish things.”

Dawkins dispelled some truly erroneous myths about science and atheism, said that something as simple as a sneeze can change the fabric of human history, and shared this colorful metaphor for the creationists.

“If you believe that the world is only 6000 years old, as some of these people do, given that the true age of the earth is 4.6 billion years, it’s equivalent to believing the width of North America is eight yards.”

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Ohio Pastor Viciously Beaten By Militant Atheist (+video)

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A pastor in Ohio was viciously beaten this past Sunday after a self-described militant atheist knocked him to the ground for asking his girlfriend if she felt safe with the man.

Pastor Norman Hayes of Bridge Community Church in North Hampton says that following the church service, James Maxie, 28, and his girlfriend came to talk to Hayes. When Hayes asked the woman if she was being abused, the man reportedly became angry and punched him to the floor.

“He was very, very upset that I’d even suggest that he would hurt her,” Hayes told the Dayton Daily News. “Then he turned around and hurt me very badly.”

Police Chief Jarrod Campbell remarked to the publication that he has rarely seen “an incident this brutal.”

As Hayes lay on the floor, Maxie sat on top of him and repeatedly beat him until Hayes began to fear for his life. He begged Maxie to stop.

Read more from this story HERE.

Lawsuit Targets Atheist’s Influence with Pentagon

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Photo Credit: WND

Photo Credit: WND

An anti-Christian activist who has such a close relationship with the Pentagon he had a piece of artwork removed from an Air Force base within 56 minutes of calling is now under scrutiny by a team of legal experts.

The non-profit government-accountability group Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act suit in federal court in Washington seeking all records in the Department of Defense regarding conversations with Military Religious Freedom Foundation founder Mikey Weinstein.

Weinstein is well known for comparing evangelical Christians to al-Qaida and demanding the courts martial of Christian chaplains.

Further, he recently convinced the Air Force to remove a copy of a famous essay from a chaplain’s section of the website for Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. It was a copy of the famed World War II essay “No atheists in foxholes: Chaplains gave all in World War II.”

He did, however, taste defeat shortly later when the military re-posted the essay, determining it was within a chaplain’s rights to express his faith.

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Atheists Call 9-11 Memorial Cross “Grossly Offensive”

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Photo Credit: The Times of Trenton/NJ.com

Photo Credit: The Times of Trenton/NJ.com

A Jewish firefighter who wants to display a Christian cross as part of a New Jersey 9-11 memorial is facing stiff opposition from a group of atheists who called the religious image “grossly offensive.”

The American Atheists are threatening to sue Princeton, NJ if they proceed with plans to erect the memorial. They took issue with a beam that was salvaged from the ruins of the World Trade Center because a cross had been cut out of one side of the beam.

“This particular beam has a religious symbol on it,” American Atheists president David Silverman told Fox News. “They have a beam with a religious symbol and that makes it a religious icon.”

Silverman said placing the beam on public land would be a “clear violation of the separation of church and state.”

He also said the cross symbol would send a terrible message to non-Christians. He said the city would be giving the “appearance that all of the people who suffered and died on 9-11 and their families are being memorialized by a Christian symbol.”

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More Problems for Obama: Irreligious Americans Less Likely to Vote

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A new poll released on Monday from Public Religion Research Institute finds that Americans who are unaffiliated in their religious views or who are less religious are less likely to head to the polls this election season. If the findings from this survey hold true, it could spell troubling news for the Obama campaign since voters who are less religious are more likely to support the president.

Americans who identify themselves as religiously unaffiliated are the fastest growing segment in America’s religious landscape. The annual PRRI survey found that 19 percent of Americans consider themselves part of this group. However, only 7 percent say they were raised in a religiously unaffiliated household.

Interestingly, President Obama, who has said he is a Christian, has a substantial lead among the religiously unaffiliated with 73 percent of those polled, while only 23 percent of that group say they support Mitt Romney, who is Mormon.

Americans who are affiliated to a religious group are much more likely to vote than those unaffiliated to a particular religion by a margin of 73 to 61 percent. For this reason, President Obama could be losing votes if the religiously unaffiliated choose not to vote in large numbers.

“The majority of Americans who are now religiously unaffiliated were raised in a particular faith,” said Daniel Cox, PRRI Research Director and report co-author. “Their reasons for leaving vary widely, ranging from a rejection of the teachings of their childhood faith or a fading belief in God, to antipathy toward organized religion, to negative personal experiences with religion or life experiences generally.”

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Cheerleaders May No Longer Display Bible Verses in Texas School District

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[Publisher’s update: A judge intervened temporarily allowing the display of bible verses. Click HERE for an update to the below story].

A high school football team in Texas will no longer run through paper banners that reference the Bible as they take the field after the school district’s superintendent banned the use of religious messages on the banners. The school had received a complaint from a national atheist organization.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a national atheist organization based in Madison, Wis., wrote a letter to the Kountze Independent School District in Kountze, Texas, telling the district to stop allowing its high school football team to run through the Scripture-based banners.

“It is our information and understanding that Kountze High School cheerleaders regularly display religious banners that the football team runs through before athletic competitions. We understand that each week a different bible verse is displayed for all to observe …You must take immediate action to stop these religious banners from being part of school-sponsored events. It is illegal for a public school to organize, sponsor or lead religious messages at school athletic events,” FFRF Staff Attorney Stephanie A. Schmitt said in her letter to the district.

The letter goes on to claim that allowing such banners is offensive to non-Christians and is unconstitutional, even if the creation and use of the banners is student-led. One case FFRF cites in support of its point is the case of Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, in which the Supreme Court decided against allowing student-led prayers to be announced at football games because the games are school-sponsored functions.

The Kountze Independent School District’s superintendent, Kevin Weldon, says he doesn’t like the idea of getting rid of the banners but he feels he has no choice.

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Poll shows atheism on the rise in the US, religion declining

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Photo credit: jumpinjimmyjava

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.

The poll was conducted by WIN-Gallup International and is based on interviews with 50,000 people from 57 countries and five continents. Participants were asked, “Irrespective of whether you attend a place of worship or not, would you say you are a religious person, not a religious person, or a convinced atheist?”

The seven years between the polls is notable because 2005 saw the publication of “The End of Faith” by Sam Harris, the first in a wave of best-selling books on atheism by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and other so-called “New Atheists.”

“The obvious implication is that this is a manifestation of the New Atheism movement,” said Ryan Cragun, a University of Tampa sociologist of religion who studies American and global atheism.

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Amoral Quest for Power Where Truth is Irrelevant

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In the first Harry Potter adventure, a pithy statement is attributed to the villain, Lord Voldemort. He described his own worldview thusly: “There is no good and evil. There is only power and those too weak to seek it.”

Now, that serves as a fairly reasonable motto for the political Left in our day. It is the functional ethic of all liberalism. Oh, to be sure, they’ll prattle on like tonsured prelates about what everyone else should do to live in a manner that is good and right. Also, they’ll preach for days in breathless indignation over the evils they see in their opponents.

But behind the curtain, good and evil are nothing more than useful labels to them. They can’t be more than that, and the reason is that liberalism is the politicized denial of God and His laws. Deny that God’s commandments are, in fact, binding on people, and you’ve effectively done away with the concepts of good and evil.

By asserting that point, I am only repeating what the foremost atheistic philosophers have always acknowledged and taught. In atheism, there is no reason for maintaining categories like good and evil, since there is no transcendent law-giver or judge.

I bring all this up because it is this quote from Voldemort that has bounced around in my head since ABC news famously jumped the gun last weekend in announcing that the Aurora/Batman shooter may have had Tea Party ties.

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Photo credit: kevin dooley