2nd Jul 2009 : Her offence was being seen in public with a man not her husband or a relative.

28th Jun 2009 : The United States is a deeply religious country, over 90% believe in god and 80% believe in miracles. For the US military, dealing with its own religious identity has become an internal battle. Growing evidence points towards a rising influence of evangelical Christianity, and with two wars still raging in Muslim countries with significant religious overtones, there could be serious consequences for the US mission. Pentagon officials say incidents are isolated, aberrations occur, but others closely tied to the military and its religious leadership say a transformation is taking place with dire costs. On this weeks episode of Fault Lines, we look at the battle over the religious soul of the US military.

27th Jun 2009 : ISTANBUL - Just when one thought TVshows could not get more outrageous, Kanal T comes up with the idea to make an imam, a priest, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk try to convert 10 atheists. While some fear the program could create problems, a sociologist says this just shows the yearning to learn more about religions.

26th Jun 2009 : Richard Dawkins is interviewed via satellite and announces the Royal Society of New Zealand's Science Book Prize.

25th Jun 2009 : A dispute over Metro Tasmania's refusal to display anti-religious advertisements on its buses has been set down for a conciliation hearing.

25th Jun 2009 : Before the August recess, a resolution will be voted on by the House of Representatives that will require the Architect of the Capitol to engrave the words "In God We Trust" and the post-1954 Pledge of Allegiance onto the walls of the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC).

25th Jun 2009 : I have twice had the privilege of sitting, poorly shaved, on the floor and attending the Friday prayers that the Iranian theocracy sponsors each week on the campus of Tehran University. As everybody knows, this dreary, nasty ceremony is occasionally enlivened when the scrofulous preacher leads the crowd in a robotic chant of Marg Bar Amrika! -- "Death to America!

24th Jun 2009 :

24th Jun 2009 : Sam Harris and Philip Ball discuss the conflict between religion and science. They do not agree…

24th Jun 2009 : Of the many extraordinary sights revealed in Channel 4’s upcoming four-part series Inside Nature’s Giants, which uses dissection to take us inside the bodies of an elephant, giraffe and crocodile, the most remarkable is surely afforded by an autopsy carried out on a 65-foot long, 60-ton fin whale (a species second only in size to the blue whale) beached off the coast of Ireland.

24th Jun 2009 : Iran is at the top of international news. What led to the mass protests? How did the situation change so dramatically over a week? What do people want? What will be the outcome of this protest movement?

23rd Jun 2009 :

23rd Jun 2009 : The theocratic repression in Iran is a reminder that there can be no freedom without secular government.

22nd Jun 2009 :

22nd Jun 2009 : Article which lead up to the "Part 1 of 3" series. St. Petersburg Times article from June 20. Part 1 was yesterday, Sunday June 21. Part 2 - today, Monday June 22, will be posted shortly.

22nd Jun 2009 :

22nd Jun 2009 : Article about a scam to get another scientist in front of a camera for an interview in a creationist film under false pretenses.

20th Jun 2009 : We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to withdraw support for Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm, and education focused, yet ardently creationist establishment. More details

Deadline to sign up by: 26 June 2009 – Signatures: 236

20th Jun 2009 : New York City is finally joining the Atheist Bus Campaign!

19th Jun 2009 : The Church of Scientology is in the midst of a multi-million dollar media campaign that includes running ads on news sites, satellite dish networks, 37 cable stations, and even Wired.com — a blitz that seems to have not so much won new friends or influenced people as stir up more animosity towards the group many consider nothing more than a greedy cult.

18th Jun 2009 :

18th Jun 2009 : This is the debate at Biola University on April 4, 2009. Christopher Hitchens vs William Lane Craig. Link to playlist for 15 YouTube videos.

18th Jun 2009 : Richard Dawkins' talk from his March 2009 American tour.

16th Jun 2009 : The first exposes how magic exploits cognitive weaknesses that are a result of our neurological design, and sites James Randi and Penn and Teller,and the second the problem of people being unable to assimilate facts that contradict an emotionally held belief.

15th Jun 2009 : Self-diagnosis impresses docs who've missed signs of her disease for years

13th Jun 2009 : Last year I published an article in The Guardian about chiropractors who claim to treat childhood conditions such as asthma, colic and ear infection.

13th Jun 2009 : Julie Price has left the Catholic Church, Christianity and God.
She has entered a new life without angels, saints, prayer, forgiveness and heaven. It’s unsettling at times.
She told her story to a newly formed group called Recovering Religionists, or RR for short.

13th Jun 2009 : For three evenings of discussion and debate, noted authors and thinkers analyze the Ten Commandments and share their ideas for a moral code for our own time. Listen to the opening lecture with Christopher Hitchens, author of the New York Times bestselling book God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.

An article from the National Post event was previously posted but this is a direct link to the Royal Ontario Museum podcast

13th Jun 2009 : The Open University lecture Dawkins gave on 17 March 2009 has been posted, in four parts along with a post-lecture discussion, and is also available for viewing and download.
Update 6/13 - link to a compiled version of all videos in the set added

12th Jun 2009 : Hungarian theists swung back to respond to the "probably no god" campaign. "If there really is no God, we should start worrying", they claim on the posters that have appeared on buses and trams in Budapest.

This cunning move saves the hassle for atheists of starting the campaign in the country in the first place, doing the awareness-raising for us. As the "probably no god" campaign has not reached Hungary yet, the ads respond to a proposition that has not been heard by the majority of the population. Now they might start or stop worrying, but they will think about the question for sure. Thanks, theists! (note in e-mail)

10th Jun 2009 : Richard Dawkins interviews Steven Pinker for "The Genius of Charles Darwin", the Channel 4 UK TV program which won British Broadcasting Awards' "Best Documentary Series" of 2008.

10th Jun 2009 : The first panicky retreat in the war on free speech in the UK has begun.

As I wrote last week, the British Chiropractic Association is suing science journalist Simon Singh for saying that chiropractors practice "bogus" medicine. Instead of defending what they do with research and testing, they are acting to silence Singh and chill anyone else who may want to expose what they do.

10th Jun 2009 : This is an entirely fictional manifesto, but it could be the game plan for a lot of rather devious pro-religion people right now — I could almost imagine it as the mission statement for the Templeton Foundation, for instance.

9th Jun 2009 : According to the new posters in Sweden’s capitol Stockholm *God is not
probable*. The advertisement reads that 7 million Swedes do not claim to be religious (out of a 9 million population). But still, the sub heading say, God affects our lives and all too many citizens still support the former state church (since the year 2000)by their membership and the taxes they pay as a result.

9th Jun 2009 : Reversing a lower court, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously declared unconstitutional the eight-foot-tall religious display, which was erected at the local courthouse in 2004 after a campaign by a local minister and his supporters.

8th Jun 2009 : Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist and internationally renowned atheist, sceptic and humanist is to receive an award for his 'work in promoting reason and science worldwide' on 6th June during an international gathering of humanist organisations from all over the world. The award is being given by the British Humanist Association (BHA) and the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) following a conference during the day on ‘Darwin, Humanism and Science’, at which Professor Dawkins is a key speaker.

8th Jun 2009 : British naturalist David Attenborough has been bestowed with the 2009 Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences. The Jury for the Award announced its decision today in Oviedo.

8th Jun 2009 : Wiener Linien: "Keine Werbung für politische Parteien oder religiöse Glaubensgemeinschaften auf den Fahrzeugen der Wiener Linien" - Initiatoren: "Traurige Überraschung"

Vienna Lines transit authority : "No advertisement for political parties or religious groups on Vienna Lines vehicles". Initiators: "A sad surprise"

8th Jun 2009 : Series of talks (20) by Sir David Attenborough on the natural histories of creatures and plants from around the world.

Friday 5/6/09 Sir David Attenborough began a 20-part series of 10-minute talks about nature on BBC Radio 4 (every Friday, 8.50pm)
[Update 6/8 - link to mp3 added]

5th Jun 2009 : BABY Gloria Thomas's parents have been found guilty of manslaughter by failing to get her conventional medical care before she died from an infection caused by chronic eczema.

Also a post from Phil Plait - 'Homeopathy kills'

5th Jun 2009 : Richard Dawkins introduces the British Humanist Association's annual Darwin Day Lecture February 12, 2009.

Former chief scientific advisor to the government, Professor Sir David King, asks "Can British science rise to the challenges of the twenty-first century?"

4th Jun 2009 :

4th Jun 2009 : Download the song for free. Jill Sobule will also be performing at the Charlotte Pop Fest

4th Jun 2009 : The respected science writer Simon Singh is being sued under the British libel laws (which are rapidly becoming an international laughing stock).

4th Jun 2009 : Central African chimpanzees crave honey so much that they've invented the animal kingdom's most complex known set of tools to get it, according to researchers who found many of the tools still slathered with the syrupy liquid.

4th Jun 2009 : Simon Singh is a journalist in the UK; he writes for the Guardian. Moreover, he’s a science journalist, and a good one who, like so many of us, prefers reality the way it is.

The British Chiropractic Association, however, prefers reality to bend to their will. They’ve been making some outrageous claims lately about the efficacy of their "treatment", things that are clearly wrong.

3rd Jun 2009 : Are the 10 Commandments really enough for today's society? The Royal Ontario Museum will be asking three prominent social commentators over the next three weeks what three new commandments they would add. It kicks off tonight (June 02) with author, journalist and well-known atheist Christopher Hitchens. Next Tuesday is author A.J. Jacobs and the following week Camille Paglia. Religion reporter Charles Lewis will report live from each event. And we are asking readers to tell us what they might add or subtract to make commandment more relevant today in our comment section.

3rd Jun 2009 : A new study published in the June issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior shows that young women in their teens or early twenties who have attended religious schools are more likely than their peers to get an abortion, despite their beliefs.

2nd Jun 2009 : Adama Gopnik in Conversation with Steven Pinker, LIVE from the NYPL, May 20, 2009.

2nd Jun 2009 : In June 2009, the British Humanist Association (BHA) is hosting the General Assemblies of the European Humanist Federation (EHF) and International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) in London.

As part of the associated programme events, and as part of the BHA’s season of events to celebrate 'Darwin 200', we are holding a special day conference on "Darwin, Humanism and Science" together with EHF, IHEU, and the South Place Ethical Society (SPES).

1st Jun 2009 : Here's something guaranteed to tick off the faithful, or at least give them something to pray about: a group of atheists, agnostics and humanists are set to convene in Tempe this week, and they're bringing their godless message to a highway near you. You know, in a spot where hopefully your impressionable tykes will get to read it.

1st Jun 2009 : 1)Scientists have finished sequencing the mouse genome after a 10-year effort.

2)Mice carrying a "humanized version" of a gene believed to influence speech and language may not actually talk, but they nonetheless do have a lot to say about our evolutionary past, according to a report in the May 29th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication.

31st May 2009 : Director's Statement

From Recorded Picture Company, producers of such films as nine-time Academy Award winner The Last Emperor and Sexy Beast comes CREATION.

Part ghost story, part psychological thriller, part heart-wrenching love story CREATION is the story of Charles Darwin and the single most explosive idea in history. Darwin’s great, still controversial, book The Origin of Species depicts nature as a battleground. In CREATION the battleground is a man’s heart.

30th May 2009 : Irish Comedian Dave Allen (1936-2005) remembers his introduction to religion - his first day of school

30th May 2009 : A group that backs the separation of church and state asked the Internal Revenue Service today to review Liberty University's tax-exempt status because the university revoked recognition of a student-run Democratic organization.

30th May 2009 : I have no belief as to whether intelligent life exists on other planets. Furthermore, I don't care. I don't bother reflecting on the matter. It's utterly irrelevant to me.

29th May 2009 : Yahweh apparently demonstrated kindness to Abraham by changing his mind about whether he wanted Isaac sacrificed. What happened when it was Jephthah's daughter's turn under the knife?

29th May 2009 : In an unprecedented effort to crack down on self-serving edits, the Wikipedia supreme court has banned contributions from all IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its associates.

28th May 2009 : Dangling from the sides of Chicago public buses in recent days: large signs bearing the slogan, "In the beginning, man created God."

28th May 2009 :

28th May 2009 :

28th May 2009 : The Discovery Institute – the Seattle-based headquarters of the intelligent design movement – has just launched a new website, Faith and Evolution, which asks, can one be a Christian and accept evolution? The answer, as far as the Discovery Institute is concerned, is a resounding: No.

The new website appears to be a response to the recent launch of the BioLogos Foundation, the brainchild of geneticist Francis Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project and rumoured Obama appointee-to-be for head of the National Institutes of Health

28th May 2009 : How has the geography of religion evolved over the centuries, and where has it sparked wars? Our map gives us a brief history of the world's most well-known religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism. Selected periods of inter-religious bloodshed are also highlighted. Want to see 5,000 years of religion in 90 seconds? Ready, Set, Go!

25th May 2009 : The Church of Scientology has gone on trial in the French capital, Paris, accused of organised fraud.

24th May 2009 : A humorous take on using dog breeds to prove evolution
...calling a Chihuahua a wolf is like calling
someone at the Discovery Institute a scientist.

22nd May 2009 : "In the Beginning, Man Created God."
This provocative twist on the Bible’s opening line was plastered on the side of 25 Chicago buses this week as part of an advertising crusade by the Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign.

22nd May 2009 : She says it's because we're boring. More likely, it's because we speak out against the intellectually bankrupt beliefs of religion.

21st May 2009 : ..The outgoing Archbishop of Westminster, He said, rather controversially perhaps, that a lack of faith is 'the greatest of evils.' He blamed atheism for war and destruction, and implied it was a greater evil even than sin itself.

21st May 2009 : The new Archbishop of Westminster has launched an attack on secularists, warning that they threaten to undermine society in Britain.

21st May 2009 : • All proceeds will benefit RDFRS
• Dates of the event (Sept. 24-27, 2009)
• Venue (Pavilion at EpiCentre)
• Artists performing
• Partnering with Charlotte Film Festival

18th May 2009 : Compass talks to atheists of different stripes.Eminent philosopher John Gray; science writer and editor of Skeptic magazine Michael Shermer; historian and writer Inga Clendinnen and Australia's best known atheist Phillip Adams, all explore the philosophical and practical consequences of being an atheist.

18th May 2009 : On Sunday mornings, when many of their contemporaries are taking their seats in church pews, a group of young parents mingle in the living room of a suburban home while their children run around playing games.

17th May 2009 : Sam Harris has launched the new website for "The Reason Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation. He has a lot of great content up on the site already, head on over and check it out

16th May 2009 : PBS stations are debating the limits of one of public television's basic commandments: Thou shalt not broadcast religious programming.

16th May 2009 : Like the fictional Robert Langdon character played by actor Tom Hanks in the movie "Angels & Demons," he delves into the past to challenge some of Christianity's central claims.

12th May 2009 : John Lennon's 'Imagine' is set to be recreated by the bells of the Anglican cathedral in Liverpool this coming weekend.

11th May 2009 : Gilbert and George, the art world's most controversial double act, have used the Union Jack as the shroud to cover the naked, crucified body of Jesus in their latest picture, Christian England, part of a show called the Jack Freak Pictures 2008 to be exhibited all across Europe this summer.

10th May 2009 : People with mental health problems in Ghana are turning to privately-run 'prayer camps', hoping religion will be a cure for their problems.

10th May 2009 : Pope Benedict XVI addresses Muslim leaders on his tour of Jordan
Pope Benedict XVI has warned against the misuse of religion for political ends, in a speech to Muslim leaders on the second day of his visit to Jordan.

9th May 2009 : Bloomington was first on the Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign’s list of places it hoped to run bus ads. However, the city has rejected our campaign’s slogan, ‘You Can Be Good Without God.’ This is deeply disappointing to our campaign’s members; we all love Bloomington and were very much hoping to run ads in our hometown along with many other cities.

9th May 2009 : A student at a fundamentalist Baptist school that forbids dancing, rock music, hand-holding and kissing will be suspended if he takes his girlfriend to her public high school prom, his principal said.

8th May 2009 : Article and pictures of Atheist Bus Campaign in Spain

4th May 2009 : MOST weeks I read The Sunday Age's Faith column, out of professional duty. Most weeks I am left perplexed, unable to reconcile what I am reading with anything I see around me.

3rd May 2009 : I am a Muslim woman and, like my late mother, free, independent, sensuous, educated, liberal, contrary and confrontational when provoked, both feminine and feminist. I style and colour my hair, wear lovely things and perfumes, appear on public platforms with men who are not related to me, shake their hands, embrace some I know well, take care of my family.

3rd May 2009 : ANALYSIS: The proposal to make blasphemous libel an offence would likely criminalise many writers and publishers, writes CAROL COULTER

2nd May 2009 : Interview with Richard Dawkins on the occasion of being awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Antwerp on April 29. Also a clip from the ceremony awarding Richard and others.

2nd May 2009 : I serve as the chair of the Secular Student Alliance, an umbrella organization that creates and supports atheist (and the like) college groups across the country.
This is how fast we’re growing:

2nd May 2009 : A federal judge has ruled that a Mission Viejo history teacher violated the First Amendment by telling students that creationism is "superstitious nonsense."

1st May 2009 : WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

1st May 2009 : NEW YORK — A global children's rights treaty, ratified by every U.N. member except the United States and Somalia, has so alarmed its American critics that some are now pushing to add a parental rights amendment to the Constitution as a buffer against it.

30th Apr 2009 : Even atheists are joining the rush to take the American way and pack off the kids for fresh air holidays. Jerome Taylor reports

30th Apr 2009 : Buried in the results of a recent survey is the fact that secularists may now be one of America’s largest minorities—larger than gays or African Americans. Will nonbelievers, traditionally one of the most loathed demographics, begin to feel their oats and demand greater recognition in the public square?

30th Apr 2009 : A padre, who does not believe in God, offers spiritual guidance, without all that religion

28th Apr 2009 : Charlotte Pop Fest is a multi-day music festival that will feature well-established internationally known artists in addition to local and regional indie artists in the “power pop” genre. The event will take place in the Fall of 2009 in Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina.

28th Apr 2009 : In a nation that regularly bows its head in prayer -- and that begins many public meetings with the God-fearing Pledge of Allegiance -- atheists may be coming into their own.

27th Apr 2009 : Two months after the local atheist organization here put up a billboard saying “Don’t Believe in God? You Are Not Alone,” the group’s 13 board members met in Laura and Alex Kasman’s living room to grapple with the fallout.

26th Apr 2009 :

24th Apr 2009 :

24th Apr 2009 :

23rd Apr 2009 : What more can be added to the debate over U.S. interrogation methods, and whether waterboarding is torture? Try firsthand experience. The author undergoes the controversial drowning technique, at the hands of men who once trained American soldiers to resist—not inflict—it.