THE   FOCUS

February 26, 2010
Volume 6, Issue 9
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.


 
The Center for Atheism (CFA) was established by the New York City Atheists as a separate and independent national organization to propose, develop, and be a catalyst for new national activities supporting the objectives of atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers, skeptics, secularists and separation-of-church-and-state advocates. 

CFA will accept and review suggestions from individuals and other secular organizations that will foster our goals.
 
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FEATURED ARTICLES 

Atheist Group Files Suit to End Tax Break for Ministers 
First Coast News 
TENNESSEE -- A nationwide atheist group is asking religious leaders to take Jesus' advice and render unto Caesar what is Caesar's - especially when it comes ... 
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/strange/news-article.aspx?storyid=152114&catid=82 

ATHEISM 

Atheism's true believers gather 
Sydney Morning Herald 
Something you will never see: an atheist boarding a plane with a bomb strapped to him, waving a copy of On The Origin Of Species, before he blows himself up ... 
http://www.smh.com.au/national/atheisms-true-believers-gather-20100212-nxm5.html 

The conscience stifled by Amnesty 
Times Online 
“Although it is said that we must defend everybody no matter what they've done, it appears that if you're a secular, atheist, Asian British woman, ... 
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7026143.ece 

Atheist billboard vandalized 
UPI.com 
17 (UPI) -- A billboard near Sacramento promoting atheism was vandalized by someone depicting atheists as lost, one of the billboard's sponsor said. ... 
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/02/17/Atheist-billboard-vandalized/UPI-73071266387409/ 

Don't Buy Mother Teresa 
Beyond Chron 
Rules aside, the stamp has now become the center of a national controversy, pitting atheist and “pro-life” Catholic groups against each other in a battle ... 
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=7813 

BOOKS, FILM, THEATRE, TV, YOU TUBE 

Evolution of Darwin as a family man 
Philadelphia Inquirer 
According to Collee's script, the marriage of Darwin and Emma must, ahem, evolve before the prophet of evolution can allow himself to publish his ... 
http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/movies/20100212_Evolution_of_Darwin_as_a_family_man.html 

LiveLeak.com - Separation of Church And State is being misinterpreted 
Separation of Church And State is being misinterpreted. CLOSE [X]. Keith Olbermann: Glenn Beck's Next Target -- Separation of Church And State ... 
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=aef_1265961881 

'Creation' evolves into smart look at Darwin 
St. Louis Post-Dispatch 
As Darwin is pulled in one direction by an atheist benefactor (Toby Jones) and in another by the family cleric (Jeremy Northam), the marriage — and the ... 
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/reviews.nsf/movie/story/8A147BDA413270B7862576C600741C01?OpenDocument 

Bill Maher: But I'm Not Wrong Premiered - Sarah Palin, George W. Bush, and ... 
Associated Content 
The liberal host of Real Time and self-proclaimed atheist and pothead came out to the audience as his regular political discussion show theme music played ... 
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2699847/bill_maher_but_im_not_wrong_premiered.html?cat=2 

Atheism and sex and gender 
ScienceBlogs (blog) 
Jen has a video of Greta Christina talking about atheism and sexuality, and for several days I've been trying to get it to work…and no matter what I do, ... 
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/02/atheism_and_sex_and_gender.php 

YouTube - Intelligent Design Is Still A Lie! 
"Intelligent Design Is Still A Lie" by• http://www.youtube.com/ godlesswonderParody of "Still Alive" from the game 'Portal' discussing the recent ... 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ4mGqLmfv8 

Filmmaker: Prop. 8 movie's distribution rights sold 
pride source.com 
"I think it's a very important issue to us, not only gay marriage, but the issue of separation of church and state," said Federbush. ... 
http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=40118 

EVOLUTION, CREATIONISM, I.D. 

$25M grant to MSU for bio-digital evolution center 
The Associated Press 
He said he was "extremely excited" about the prospect of bringing natural and digital evolution researchers together in one program. ... 
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jKZvdYkBhlmx-vqXnsRj7WCbq5ugD9DU3HA02 

SCIENCE 

Beyond the Abyss: Deep Sea Creatures Build Their Homes from Materials That Sink from Near the Ocean Surface 
ScienceDaily (Feb. 14, 2010) — Evidence from the Challenger Deep -- the deepest surveyed point in the world's oceans -- suggests that tiny single-celled creatures called foraminifera living at extreme depths of more than ten kilometres build their homes using material that sinks down from near the ocean surface... 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100211100758.htm 

Breakthrough for Mobile Television 
ScienceDaily (Feb. 14, 2010) — Long Term Evolution, a new mobile telecommunications standard, is poised to revolutionize mobile Internet. High transmission rates will soon be possible on mobile devices. For this purpose Fraunhofer researchers at HHI Berlin developed the cross-layer design SVC over LTE... 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100212101253.htm 

New Fiber Nanogenerators Could Lead to Electric Clothing 
ScienceDaily (Feb. 13, 2010) — In research that gives literal meaning to the term "power suit," University of California, Berkeley, engineers have created energy-scavenging nanofibers that could one day be woven into clothing and textiles... 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100212141246.htm 

Genetic Secrets to Jumping the Species Barrier 
ScienceDaily (Feb. 13, 2010) — Scientists have pinpointed specific mutations that allow a common plant virus to infect new species, according to research published in the March issue of the Journal of General Virology... 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100211211439.htm 

Nanoscale Structures With Superior Mechanical Properties Developed 
ScienceDaily (Feb. 13, 2010) — Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed a way to make some notoriously brittle materials ductile -- yet stronger than ever -- simply by reducing their size... 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100209183137.htm 

Male College Students Also Victims of Violence at Girlfriends' Hands 
ScienceDaily (Feb. 13, 2010) — Thinking about a typical victim of college dating violence, you're probably imagining her, not him... 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100212112028.htm 

Saturn's Aurora Offer Stunning Double Show 
ScienceDaily (Feb. 12, 2010) — An enormous and grand ringed planet, Saturn is certainly one of the most intriguing bodies orbiting the Sun. Hubble has now taken a fresh look at the fluttering aurorae that light up both of Saturn's poles... 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100211111537.htm 

NASA Successfully Launches a New Eye on the Sun 
ScienceDaily (Feb. 11, 2010) — NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, lifted off Feb. 11 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 41 on a first-of-a-kind mission to reveal the sun's inner workings in unprecedented detail... 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100211152456.htm 

SEPARATION CHURCH / STATE 

Mexican Church and State Go Nose to Nose Over Who Can Marry Who 
CounterPunch 
Separation of Church and State as mandated by the Mexican Constitution has narrowed dramatically in the ten years that the PAN has held the presidency. ... 
http://www.counterpunch.org/ross02122010.html 

Should government get out of the marriage business? 
Salt Lake Tribune 
And the added separation between church and state would bolster religious liberty. All couples, gay or straight, would have equal access to state and ... 
http://www.sltrib.com/faith/ci_14374738 

Oregon debates ending ban on teachers wearing religious clothing in the classroom 
National Post (blog) 
Today there are still fights over religious celebrations in schools and teaching creationism or intelligent design, he said. “I would be concerned about ... 
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/holy-post/archive/2010/02/14/oregon-debates-ending-ban-on-teachers-wearing-religious-clothing-in-the-classroom.aspx 

How Christian Were the Founders? 
NYTimes - By RUSSELL SHORTO 
A WEEK before the Senate seat of the liberal icon Edward M. Kennedy fell into Republican hands, his legacy suffered another blow that was perhaps just as damaging, if less noticed. It happened during what has become an annual spectacle in the culture wars... 
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/magazine/14texbooks-t.html?th&emc=th 

Senator seeks to open public schools to religious views 
Denver Post 
... the speech left the perception that the school endorsed a particular religious belief, a no-no thanks to the separation of church and state, Rubin said. ... 
http://www.denverpost.com/politics/ci_14398399 

The Eyes of America Are on Texas 
District Administration 
Groups such as the Texas Freedom Network and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State advocated for balanced standards free of religious bias ... 
http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=2312 

Public funding for Christian youth centre sparks criticism 
National Post 
WINNIPEG -- An MP is picking a fight over the separation of church and state, blasting a proposal to give government funding to a Christian group that wants ... 
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2582606 

Bible Study in Kentucky Schools? 
WTVQ 
Boswell claims the legislation does not cross the line between separation of church and state. "There are state and federal laws on the books that govern ... 
http://www.wtvq.com/news/2309-bible-study-in-kentucky-schools 

MISCELLANEOUS 

Dutch Protestant church declines to discipline rebel pastor 
Ekklesia 
By Ecumenical News International A self-proclaimed atheist can continue to serve as a local pastor of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, ... 
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/11264 

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