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March 13, 2009
Volume 5, Issue 11
Published by the Center For Atheism (CFA)
Editor: David Birnkrant
The Focus provides links to articles collected from major newspapers and magazines, and is emailed weekly.
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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FEATURED ARTICLES
Vatican defends excommunication in rape-abortion case
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
ROME - A senior Vatican cleric has defended the excommunication of the mother and doctors of a 9-year-old girl who had an abortion in Brazil after being raped...
http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/sunday/news/ny-wovati086062303mar08,0,4671321.story
More Americans say they have no religion
By RACHEL ZOLL - AP Religion Writer
A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that the Roman Catholic population has been shifting out of the Northeast to the Southwest, the percentage of Christians in the nation has declined and more people say they have no religion at all...
http://www.rr.com/news/news/article/9000/7100193/More_Americans_say_they_have_no_religion/1
Catholics Fume Over Proposed Law
MSNBC - USA
Bishops argue this is a direct violation of the separation of church and state and said that, in a time when the state can't balance it's own budget, ...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29595611/
America Is Becoming Less Christian, Less Religious
ABC News - USA
Kosmin says that people may feel more comfortable admitting their lack of faith at a time when atheist books, like Christopher Hitchens' "God Is Not Great: ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=7041036&page=1
Obama lifts Bush-era bans on stem cell research
MiamiHerald.com - Miami,FL,USA
It's one that dates as far back as Galileo's clashes with the Roman Catholic Church and Darwin's theory of human evolution, and extends through the ...
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/940912.html
Belief and the brain's 'God spot'
Scientists say they have located the parts of the brain that control religious faith. And the research proves, they contend, that belief in a higher power is an evolutionary asset that helps human survival...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/belief-and-the-brains-god-spot-1641022.html
Catholics protest Connecticut church finance bill
Reuters - USA
Critics, including the state's governor, said it would set a dangerous precedent by violating the separation of church and state enshrined in the US ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE52A7EQ20090311
ATHEISM
Atheist group places billboard in Boise
IdahoStatesman.com - ID,USA
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a state/church separation watchdog, is the nation’s largest atheist and agnostic association, with more than 13600 ...
http://www.idahostatesman.com/boise/story/689619.html
Calgary joins Toronto in running atheist bus ads
Vancouver Sun - British Columbia, Canada
Starting Monday, Calgary will run a series of atheist ads on city buses, similar to the ones displayed on double-decker buses in London, England (pictured) ...
http://www.vancouversun.com/News/Calgary+joins+Toronto+running+atheist/1366272/story.html
CITY: Atheist bus advertisements come to Montreal
McGill Tribune - Montreal,Quebec,Canada
Ten controversial bus advertisements promoting atheism went up last Tuesday around downtown Montreal as part of the Quebec Humanist Association's new ...
http://media.www.mcgilltribune.com/media/storage/paper234/news/2009/03/10/News/City-Atheist.BusAdvertisements.Come.To.Montreal-3666756.shtml
Atheist Billboard Causes Debate
Fox 12 Boise - Nampa,ID,USA
Boise, Idaho -- A local billboard has spurred some heated debate over it's controversial atheist message, "Beware of dogma." The billboard posted on ...
http://www.fox12news.com/Global/story.asp?S=9969621&nav=menu439_2
Number of Americans saying they have no religion on the rise
Victoria Advocate - Victoria,TX,USA
Only 1.6 percent of Americans call themselves atheist or agnostic. But based on stated beliefs, 12 percent are atheist (no God) or agnostic (unsure), ...
http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/features/faith/story/427875.html
Atheist group planning protest over transit ads
Metro Canada - Ottawa - Ottawa,Canada
Members of a local atheist group looking to have their controversial advertisements placed on OC Transpo buses will be holding a peaceful protest at city ...
http://www.metronews.ca/ottawa/local/article/194496
Atheism ad ban could hit roadblock: Lawyer
Canoe.ca - Toronto,Ontario,Canada
By DEREK PUDDICOMBE, CITY HALL BUREAU The city might not be able to legally justify its refusal to run ads promoting atheism on city buses, ...
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/03/11/8704961-sun.html
City gives green light to atheist bus ads
Centretown News - Ottawa,ON,Canada
By Tim Bryant After a long and raucous debate, Ottawa city council has made a decision on the Freethought Association of Canada’s “There’s probably no god” ...
http://centretownnewsonline.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=793&Itemid=126
Atheist ads will run
Metro Canada - Ottawa - Ottawa,Canada
City council voted 13-7 yesterday to allow ads, which read: “There’s probably no God, now stop worrying and enjoy your life,” on OC Transpo buses. ...
http://www.metronews.ca/ottawa/local/article/195160
Atheist Bus Campaign Gets into Gear in Germany
Spiegel Online - Berlin,Germany
Spain reacted with its own string of atheist slogans, and now a German group is following suit. Those waiting by at bus stops in Berlin, Munich or Cologne ...
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,612908,00.html
BOOKS, FILM, THEATRE, TV, YOU TUBE
Book takes a humorous look into evolution
Pensacola News Journal - Pensacol,FL,USA
Science journalist Hannah Holmes started connecting with nature as an infant at her family farm in Maine. Not only did she grow up tending to farm animals, ...
http://www.pnj.com/article/20090308/LIFE/903080305
Imagine if All Atheists Left America ..
ScienceBlogs - USA
This streaming video highlights what would happen if all atheists were to leave America. It tells you who would leave, what would change, and gives a look ...
http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2009/03/imagine_if_all_atheists_left_a.php
EVOLUTION, CREATIONISM, I.D.
Texas Debate Over Evolution Curriculum Could Affect Nation's Textbooks
FOXNews - USA
By Maggie Kerkman A battle is brewing in Texas that could change the nation's science textbooks and the way evolution is taught in school. ...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,506724,00.html
Education board leader set to challenge evolution
Austin American-Statesman - Austin,TX,USA
And McLeroy, an avowed creationist who is convinced that evolution taught uncritically undermines faith, knows that it will take a different kind of ...
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/03/08/0308mcleroy.html
Darwin's removal from Turkish magazine cover criticised
Irish Times - Dublin,Ireland
In November 2006, AK Party’s minister for education told Turkish television that “evolutionary theory overlaps with atheism, [creationism] with religious ...
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0313/1224242799458.html
US Buddhists, Hindus Back Evolution, Says Study
New America Media - Los Angeles,CA,USA
The resistance has come almost entirely from religious groups, led by Christian groups, who support an alternative theory called intelligent design, ...
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=5dbb57b1707ee3b07cb20c2abc5994e4
SCIENCE
How Hyenas 'Inherit' Their Social Status
ScienceDaily (Mar. 7, 2009) — An international team of scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin, Germany, and the University of Sheffield, UK, now answered the question how social status is inherited in one of the most social of all mammals, the spotted hyena...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090225073209.htm
Health Is Going High Tech WIth Camera Pills, Health Sensors And Ultrasound Maps For Surgeons
ScienceDaily (Mar. 7, 2009) — Camera pills and ultrasound creating maps of the body: health has become high technology. Here are some of the recent advances in medical technology...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090223115327.htm
Desert Shrub, Guayule, May Be Fuel Of The Future
ScienceDaily (Mar. 7, 2009) — Superb natural latex from a desert shrub called guayule (why-YOU-lee) makes high-quality gloves, medical devices, and other in-demand natural rubber products...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090220183706.htm
Students Designing Cockpit For World's Fastest Car: 1,000 Mph Record Attempt Planned
ScienceDaily (Mar. 7, 2009) — World land speed challenger Andy Green, OBE visited the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) on Thursday to try out for the first time a mock-up of the cockpit he will use in his 1000 mph record attempt...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090223115324.htm
Virtual And Real Worlds: Two Worlds Of Kids' Morals
ScienceDaily (Mar. 7, 2009) — Children’s moral behavior and attitudes in the real world largely carry over to the virtual world of computers, the Internet, video games and cell phones. Interestingly, there are marked gender and race differences in the way children rate morally questionable virtual behaviors, according to Professor Linda Jackson and her team from Michigan State University in the US...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090302120102.htm
Chemists Create Two-armed Nanorobotic Device To Maneuver World's Tiniest Particles
ScienceDaily (Mar. 6, 2009) — Chemists at New York University and China's Nanjing University have developed a two-armed nanorobotic device that can manipulate molecules within a device built from DNA. The device was described recently in the journal Nature Nanotechnology...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090215151807.htm
Seeking Earth-like Planets: NASA's Kepler Mission Set For Launch
ScienceDaily (Mar. 6, 2009) — NASA's Kepler mission to seek other Earth-like planets is undergoing final preparations for liftoff Friday, March 6, from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The spacecraft launch aboard a Delta II rocket has two windows of opportunity Friday, from 7:49 to 7:52 p.m. PST (10:49 to 10:52 p.m. EST) and 8:13 to 8:16 p.m. PST (11:13 to 11:16 p.m. EST)...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090305143932.htm
SEPARATION CHURCH / STATE
Church mentors pulled from Marysville school after complaint
MSNBC - USA
... students to see if Turning Point members have initiated conversations about religion, which could muddy, or violate, the separation of church and state. ...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29539570/
Arkansas towns don't anticipate tapping into new alcohol laws
KY3 - Springfield,MO,USA
Its examples like these of why there is separation of church and state. If a person wants to partake in what they would call the devils spirits then that ...
http://www.ky3.com/news/local/40881542.html
To Observe the Sabbath or Not: At Trial, Questions of Religious Devotion
The New York Times
Religion has been a quiet presence in a Queens courtroom during the five-week murder trial of Mazoltuv Borukhova and Mikhail Mallayev, but only rarely has their Jewish faith been the subject of contention. Until last week...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/nyregion/08notebook.html?th&emc=th
Schools, churches walk a fine line between witnessing and volunteering
MSNBC - USA
Still, having church members chatting with students at lunch can be risky, said Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. ...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29577241/
Religious books legal for Penn. lawmakers
OneNewsNow - Tupelo,MS,USA
Americans United for Separation of Church and State is upset over Pennsylvania lawmakers using state funds to purchase religious books for members of the ...
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=439148
Church vs. Government in money handling
WTNH - New Haven,CT,USA
But some church leaders want the state to keep out of their books. Many parishioners are angry because two lawmakers are submitting a bill that would ...
http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/news_wtnh_newhaven_church_government_money_handling_200903082300_rev1
Debate continues on proposed church legislation
Connecticut Post - Bridgeport,CT,USA
... have set off a volatile debate in the General Assembly over the separation of church and state and the rights of parishioners to oversee church affairs. ...
http://www.connpost.com/ci_11873170
Obama Lifts Ban on Embryonic Stem-cell Research
The New American - USA
As with the phrase "separation of church and state," however, this new mantra, "separation of science and politics," reverse the true order of government as ...
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/election/864-obama-lifts-ban-on-embryonic-stem-cell-research
Catholic finance bill dies; GOP to hold hearing; church still ...
Darien Times - Darien,CT,USA
He said that if this law is unconstitutional based on the separation of church and state, so are they. “I think a lot of people, including myself, ...
http://www.acorn-online.com/joomla15/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22166:catholic-finance-bill-dies-gop-to-hold-hearing-church-still-plans-rally&catid=1:darien-local-news&Itemid=1323
Bill To Alter Catholic Church's Corporate Structure Questioned
TheDay - New London,CT,USA
... operations like financial management and administrative oversight - would be permitted under the constitution's mandated separation of church and state. ...
http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=c5eec2d6-e198-4891-8930-8168516afbd2
Judges weigh whether Utah crosses are secular
The Associated Press
A three-judge panel of the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Monday in the case involving what the group American Atheists called ...
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iFjMvVX8YIPJGarDnLExui7PcFIQD96R3TE80
Thousands in Hartford to protest bill
Connecticut Post - Bridgeport,CT,USA
... statutes did not interfere with internal governance issues of the church, it doesn't violate the separation of church and state and the first amendment. ...
http://www.connpost.com/ci_11889412
Court considers Kentucky funding of service agency
Louisville Courier-Journal - Louisville,KY,USA
Alex Luchenitser, an attorney representing Americans United for Separation of Church and State and other plaintiffs, argued that there is a more liberal ...
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090311/NEWS01/90311051/1008
Catholics protest bill at Connecticut Capitol
Norwich Bulletin - Norwich,CT,USA
Emily Gauthier, 23, attends a church in Willington, which is part of the Norwich Diocese. She said when it comes to separation of church and state, ...
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/lifestyles/spirituality/x792888266/Catholics-protest-bill-at-Connecticut-Capitol
EB school officials glad case is in past
East Brunswick Sentinel - NJ, USA
The school district received pro bono representation from Americans United for Separation of Church and State in the appeal. "Well, I was not surprised. ...
http://ebs.gmnews.com/news/2009/0312/front_page/006.html
MISCELLANEOUS
Most religious groups in USA have lost ground, survey finds
USA Today - USA
Meabh Fitzpatrick, 49, of Rutland, Vt., says she is upfront about becoming an atheist 10 years ago because "it's important for us to be counted. ...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-03-09-american-religion-ARIS_N.htm
Creationists, Darwinists Compromise, Create New Shit Religion
Enduring Vision - Philadelphia,PA,USA
"In Shit We Trust" goes the new motto, which has been met with a surprising majority of members from both sides of the intelligent design debate. ...
http://www.enduringvision.com/news/arts_010805.php
Stanford Prayer With Dying Man Pumped Agents in Alleged Fraud
By Michael Forsythe and Alison Fitzgerald
March 9 (Bloomberg) -- When Jason Green wanted his team of financial advisers to sell more of Stanford International Bank’s certificates of deposit, he knew where to turn: Proverbs 13:11...
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct2=us%2F0_0_s_0_0_t&usg=AFQjCNECIkAKcspW-9G5BYXN_Pu1xOMcpQ&sig2=ENU1PuRhdxNz1vex-JKDWg&cid=1312872623&ei=g8G1SaDCHqXWMKKKquQC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fapps%2Fnews%3Fpid%3D20601087%26sid%3Daw1dZUb28Qc8%26refer%3Dhome
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