THE   FOCUS
centerforatheism.org

April 20, 2008
Volume 4, Issue 15
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:focus@centerforatheism.org.

SEE

CFA Programs (end of page)
Gift Of Life (Blood Donation Event) 
response to the National Day of Prayer 
May 1, 2008 (Thursday).  
         
Featured Articles
The Future of the Polygamist Kids
TIME - USA
For other experts, however, the concern is not the separation of church and state but deprogramming. The bottom line, according to Utah psychologist Dr. ...

Skillfully preserving Jewish ritual: Mohel program aims to replenish
covenant keepers
By Erica Noonan - Boston Globe - Globe Staff / April 14, 2008
For 19 years, Levenson, 60, was one of the most sought-after mohels in
Greater Boston. But now he is retired, and his shoes...
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/04/14/skillfully_preserving_jewish_ritual/

Bill Maher on Religious Cults, The Pope & Catholic Church

Garden is Beautiful: Public eruption against atheism
Brandeis Hoot - Waltham,MA,USA
.. politics last Wednesday, a tirade which shows how far the United States has to go before atheism is given the respect as a philosophy which it is due. ...

Feud in Frankenmuth centers on crosses
ABC12.com - Flint,MI,USA
He says it's a matter of separation of church and state. "That was appropriate to take the crosses down, now we're looking at the city shield," said Clarke. ...

 
  News Articles
  (Some publications may require that you sign up for membership to view their article.)


ATHEISM
Discovering life without God
PSU Daily Vanguard - Portland,OR,USA
Baidenmann, the founder of Atheist and Agnostic Students at Portland State, started the group last year because of this need.  It was originally an online...

Answering questions of faith
Daily Vidette - Normal,IL,USA
I've had Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and atheist friends and acquaintances who derived deep meaning from their faiths. I've been stunned speechless by the beauty ...

The Scarlet Letter
Gather.com - Boston,MA,USA
.. the city was essentially an arm of a religious organization and that its incorporation thus violated the principle of Separation of Church and State ...

A Pope In Search of Image
American Chronicle - Beverly Hills,CA,USA
Separation of church and state does not exist in Italy. When the Pope visits America, this is a part of the baggage he brings with him, of what he has to ...

Politicians Should Think Before They Speak
Beyond Chron - San Francisco,CA,USA
It was Illinois State Representative Monique Davis, telling an atheist that he was unwelcome at a State Government Administration Committee hearing into ...

Celebrating life in death
Sheffield Telegraph - Sheffield,England,UK
"I've been an atheist since the age of 13," he says, proudly. "In the 1960s, I couldn't square what I saw around me with the belief in a loving God. ...

A private Atheism
NYU Washington Sqaure news - New York,NY,USA
When GSP freshman Xana McCrea was in first grade, her best friend told her she was going to hell because she didn't go to church.  By the time she was 11,...
http://www.nyunews.com/news/2008/04/16/Faith/A.Private.Atheism-3327540.shtml
 
BOOKS, FILM, THEATRE, TV, YOU TUBE
Movies: Hiding ‘Expelled’ from critics a not so intelligent move
Salt Lake Tribune – United States
So did Myers’ guest: British biologist – and much-quoted atheist – Richard Dawkins (who’s also in the movie).  Accounts vary on what happened next. …
Failing to make the argument
Baltimore Sun – United States
A newspaper movie review is, of course, not really the forum for debating the ins, outs and what-have-yous of intelligent design, but it certainly can be …
 
EVOLUTION, CREATIONISM, I.D.
Antievolution bills in Florida progress
National Center for Science Education – Oakland,CA,USA
The report (PDF) TO THE Judiciary Committee also noted, “because evolution and countervailing theories are subject to intense controversy, …

Evolution bill passes House council
Charlotte Sun Herald – Charlotte Harbor,FL,USA
TALLAHASSEE – A pending House bill could make a perfect double feature with the upcoming Ben Stein evolution documentary “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed…

Devoid of intelligence
The Observer – UK
Why won’t intelligent design just go away?  This week sees the US release of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, a documentary film that attacks the theory of …

‘Body of Evidence’ exhibit spotlights human evolution
Akron Beacon Journal – Akron,OH,USA
By JOANN LOVIGLIO AP Writer A new exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania about human evolution gives a new meaning to the expression “nobody’s perfect. …

Darwinism Under Siege
Beyond Chron – San Francisco,CA,USA
“Intelligent design” – creationism repackaged – holds that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent …

Gods and earthlings
Los Angeles Times – CA,USA
Intelligent design “theorists” (a misnomer, for they have no theory) often use the alien scenario to distance themselves from old style creationists: “for …
 
SCIENCE
Complex evolution of the DAL5 transporter family
7thSpace Interactive (press release) – New York,NY,USA
We studied the complex evolution of this group in species from the kingdom of fungi particularly the ascomycetes.  Results: We identified numerous gene …

Evolution Shocker: Sponge Wasn’t First Form of Animal
FOXNews – USA
This second possibility underscores the fact that “evoluition is not necessarily just a march towards increased complexity, “Dunn said, …”

Insect Evolution Shakes Things Up
RedOrbit – Dallas,TX,USA
Darwin’s tree of life represents the path and estimates the time evolution took to get to the current diversity of life.  Now, new findings suggest that this…

ReXSpecies - a tool for the analysis of the evolution of ...
7thSpace Interactive (press release) - New York,NY,USA
Annotated phylogenetic trees that display the evolution of ranscription factor binding in regulatory regions are useful for eg 1) narrowing down true ..

Wheeler, who gave "black holes" their name, dead at 96
TREND Information - Baku,Azerbaijan
( dpa ) Wheeler, a young contemporary of Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, died Sunday at home in Hightstown, New Jersey. Wheeler was born in 1911 in Florida, ...

cloned child is a question of when
Times of India - India
Lanza said, using the new method, it is possible to take a few skin cells from, say, Albert Einstein, and have a child that is 10% to 70% Albert Einstein by ...

Three black holes collide like this
ABC Science Online - Australia
This sort of super-heavyweight battle is of particular interest to physicists hunting for the so-far elusive gravitational waves that Einstein predicted ...

Before the Big Bang - the Big Bounce
Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom
As described by Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, which dates back almost a century, the origin of the Big Bang is a mathematically nonsensical state ...

18 billions of suns support Einstein
innovations report - Bad Homburg,Germany
This evolution is dominated by one of the most intriguing predictions of Einstein's theory of General Relativity: the emission of gravitational waves. ..
 
SEPARATION CHURCH / STATE
Queried on faith
MiamiHerald.com – Miami,FL,USA
What happened to separation of church and state?  This is America.  This is why our ancestors came to this country.  The candidates should not have been …

Church Group in a Fight over a Pastor’s Endorsement of a Political …
KIII TV3 – TX,USA
“If Americans United really cared about ‘separation’ of church and state, they wouldn’t be so interested in having the government involved in trying to tell …

Boosting Bigotry: Two Thumbs Down For Medved’s Presidential …
American’s United – Washington,DC,USA
Medved recently decided to give bigotry a boost by pointing out why  Americans would be wise to reject an atheist as president. Blithely tossing aside the …

Fight over San Diego cross back in court
United Press International - USA
The original suit was brought by Philip Paulson, an atheist and Vietnam Veteran who has since died. US District Judge Larry Burns, during Monday's hearing, ...

Some walls are more important than others
Edmond Sun - OK,USA
It is also interesting that church-state separation now is widely vilified by the religious right, whose religious ancestors were the very people whom James ...

Storms Grilled About Evolution Bill
Tampa Tribune - Tampa,FL,USA
"I absolutely believe that evolution should be taught in public schools," Storms said. "I also believe that we should teach the full range of the critical ...
 
MISCELLANEOUS
Darwin's original theory of evolution goes online
AFP - 
LONDON (AFP) — The original version of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was published online Thursday among a "treasure trove" of the scientist's papers ...

Ex-Scientologist Beghe Denounces The Religion
San Francisco Chronicle - CA, USA
It's very, very dangerous for your spiritual, psychological, mental, emotional health and evolution. I think it stunts your evolution. ...

MythBusters tells crowd why they blow things up
Gainesville Sun - Gainesville,FL,USA
Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage may never clinch a Nobel Prize for their scientific explorations, but even Einstein would envy the legion of adoring fans that ...

Jesus Hearts Darwin: Visual Proof
Wired News - USA
Pictured above is the next-to-last iteration of Charles Darwin's journey into 21st century media technology. (The last iteration sends him into the deep ...


NATIONAL ROUNDUP
Windy City Times - Chicago,IL,USA
Media Matters for America reported that on an April 5 episode of MSNBC show “Tim Russert,” Christopher Hitchens used the word “lesbian” as an insult. ...
 
 
CONVENTIONS / MEETINGS / EVENTS 
 
 Gift Of Life Day                                                 May 1, 2008 
 
 Atheists  Alliance International                    Sept. 2008                Long Beach, Ca.
 
 Freedom From Religion                                 Oct. 10-12, 2008       Chicago
 
 Gift for Life Day                                                Nov. 4, 2008    
 
             
 
        CFA Program
 
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.
 




  For Immediate Release
--------------
Atheists to Counter ‘National Day of Prayer'
with Blood Donations
------------------
 
Positive Life-Saving Action, Not Passive Prayer, Is the Message 

NEW YORK, March 31—What do you do on May 1, 2008, the “National Day of Prayer,” if you are an Atheist, do not believe in prayer and are opposed to the observance of a prayer day being imposed on all American citizens?
 
Some Atheists have come up with an answer: Do something positive, something active, something that may save lives and point out to the nation that there are alternatives to silently beseeching a deity to perform miracles.
 
The Center for Atheism, a New-York-City-based nationwide informational and activism group headed by Kenneth Bronstein, came up with the idea of nationwide blood donations by groups of Atheists on that day to demonstrate the power of rational thinking.
 
“We want to make a public statement about how nonreligious people can observe that day, which we have re-named The Day of Reason, and at the same time, let America know that there are millions of us who think that prayer does not work--but that medical science does,” says Bronstein. “We are offering a positive alternative to prayer, something that will reflect the life-affirming ideas of nonbelievers.”
 
Thus, on May 1st, groups of Atheists in scores of American cities will go to their local Blood Banks to donate blood and sign up for organ-donor programs—a tradition that Atheists in Manhattan have observed for four years.
 
Last year, New York City Atheists celebrated our Day of Reason by donating blood at the New York Blood Bank in upper Manhattan. A group of  Atheists arrived together to donate their life-giving blood and then celebrated together in a small anteroom with coffee, juice and light refreshment supplied by the Blood Bank.
 
“We called our blood donation program B.L.O.O.D., an acronym for Benefiting Lives of Others Donations, and we intend to do it every year on what we have renamed The Day of Reason,” added Bronstein.
 
If you want to start a B.L.O.O.D program in your locale, it’s simple. Here’s what you do:
 
1) Find your local blood bank by accessing wwwamericasblood.org 
  (Bottom left corner, type in your zip code to find your local blood bank.)

2) Phone the blood bank to make arrangements for a group donation.


  (You will find them amazingly supportive and accommodating.)

3) Notify your local newspaper, TV and other media that your group is  
   doing this and why. It’s important to alert them ahead of the event.

It's simple, it's positive, it's effective. Come on, Agnostics, Atheists, Freethinkers, Humanists, Secularists, Non-believers, Separation of Church and State advocates, join us in our positive protest against the Day of Prayer! Show the world that while religious people are on their knees, Atheists are on their feet and giving a part of themselves for the good of humanity!

For further information, contact Ken Bronstein at firebell1@aol.com or 212-535-7425
 
####


 
          Special Notices

          There are no special notices this week.
 
 
 
Comments, suggestions, and subscriptions: focus@centerforatheismorg