An Atheist civil rights group announced today that it will be flying an airplane banner on Super Bowl Sunday around Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The banner will read “Football beats church anytime – atheists.org.” The banner is scheduled to be in the air from 9:30-11:30 AM local time.

http://www.atheists.org/press_releases/american_atheists_to_fly_atheist_banner_at_super_bowl

One Million Moms, a project of the the American Family Association, called upon JC Penny to fire talk show host and comedian Ellen DeGeneres after she was hired as the company's new spokesperson on Jan. 25 -- a move that led to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance to launch an online campign "standing up" for the out lesbian entertainer and raising awareness about employment discrimination faced by LGBT people.

It's the poem about Jesus versus "religion" that's lighting up the blogosphere at a dizzying pace.

"Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus" by spoken-word artist Jefferson Bethke has received more than 15 million YouTube views as of Saturday night since it was posted just four days ago, eliciting more than 100,000 YouTube comments and plenty of debate elsewhere on the Internet.

Why all the hubbub? Its message—which Bethke wrote "to highlight the difference between Jesus and false religion," according to its YouTube entry—is striking a chord with viewers. Love it or hate it or something in between, it seems impossible to not have an opinion about the controversial, hip-hop styled clip.

[Story]

The ethic of conservation is the explicit abnegation of man's dominion over the Earth. The lower species are here for our use. God said so: Go forth, be fruitful, multiply, and rape the planet — it's yours. That's our job: drilling, mining and stripping.
[...]
God gave us the earth. We have dominion over the plants, the animals, the trees. God said, "Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It's yours."

http://en.wikiquote....iki/Ann_Coulter

Philosopher and author Alain de Botton has called for a series of "temples for atheists" to be built around Britain, allowing the non-religious to have impressive buildings to call their own.

De Botton's most recent book, Religion for Atheists, calls for unbelievers to copy the major religions and build grand architectural masterpieces to inspire a sense of perspective in people. He argues that a temple doesn't need to be dedicated to a religion: "You can build a temple to anything that's positive and good. That could mean: a temple to love, friendship, calm or perspective".

He added: "Why should religious people have the most beautiful buildings in the land? It's time atheists had their own versions of the great churches and cathedrals. A beautiful building is an indispensable part of getting your message across. Books alone won't do it."

Putting his money where his mouth is, De Botton has begun work on just such a temple. The first has been designed by Tom Greenall Architects and Jordan Hodgson, and is a concept for a 46-metre-tall black tower, sat in the City of London. The height is symbolic of the 4.6 billion-year age of the Earth, and right at the bottom will be a millimeter thick band of gold that represents humanity's brief existence within that life.

"Even the most convinced atheists tend to speak nicely about religious buildings," said De Botton. "They may even feel sad that nothing like them gets built nowadays. But there's no need to feel nostalgic. Why not just learn from religions and build similarly beautiful and interesting things right now?"

He insists he has no ambitions to set up an alternative religion. “Religions are hierarchical, structured,” he says, while his project is “all about thinking for yourself and not having a central authority”. Would people pray in the temple? “No, no. People would probably behave as they would in a museum.”

What is a bright?

* A bright is a person who has a naturalistic worldview.
* A bright's worldview is free of supernatural and mystical elements.
* The ethics and actions of a bright are based on a naturalistic worldview.

The bright movement's three major aims are:

A. Promote the civic understanding and acknowledgment of the naturalistic worldview, which is free of supernatural and mystical elements.
B. Gain public recognition that persons who hold such a worldview can bring principled actions to bear on matters of civic importance.
C. Educate society toward accepting the full and equitable civic participation of all such individuals.

Reason and Purpose:

Currently the naturalistic worldview is insufficiently expressed within most cultures, even politically/socially repressed. To be a Bright is to participate in a movement to address the situation.

There is a great diversity of persons who have a naturalistic worldview (free of supernatural and mystical elements). Some are members of existing organizations that foster a supernatural-free perspective. Far more individuals are not associated with any formal group or label. Under the broad umbrella of the naturalistic worldview, the constituency of Brights can undertake social and civic actions designed to influence a society otherwise permeated with super-naturalism.

The website of The Bright's Network registers brights into an Internet constituency of Brights and serves as a communications hub for actions that align with the aims and principles of the Brights movement.

Can Brights impact society's outlook regarding the naturalistic worldview and the people who hold it? That remains to be seen, but if you are intrigued by the possibilities, you are invited to explore the Web site, learn more about the Brights movement and, if your worldview fits the definition, then register as a Bright.

MILWAUKEE (AP) — About 550 people have filed claims for restitution for alleged sexual abuse by clergy in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee — the most of the eight dioceses in the U.S. that have sought bankruptcy protection, a lawyer in the Milwaukee case said Wednesday.
James Stang, a bankruptcy lawyer who represents creditors in the Wisconsin case, estimated about 550 claims had been filed by the Wednesday afternoon deadline set by the court. The Milwaukee Archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection last year, saying pending sex-abuse lawsuits could leave it with debts it couldn't afford.
The archdiocese has paid more than $30 million in settlements and other court costs related to alleged clergy abuse. The archdiocese only had $4.6 million in assets to be applied to claims in 2010. The bankruptcy court will decide the final payout, archdiocese spokeswoman Julie Wolf said.

INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 31, 2012 -- /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A bill approved today by the Indiana Senate to allow the teaching of creationism in public schools is being criticized as bad science education by Discovery Institute, the nation's leading intelligent design think tank.

"Instead of injecting religion into biology classes, legislators should be working to promote the inclusion of more science," said Joshua Youngkin, a law and policy analyst at Discovery Institute's Center for Science & Culture. "There are plenty of scientific criticisms of Darwin's theory today, and science students should be able to hear about them, not about religion."

For more information on teaching the scientific controversy over evolution without bringing religion into the classroom and violating the First Amendment, contact Discovery Institute at (206) 292-0401 x107. For Discovery Institute's complete science education policy go to: Discovery Institute Polices

As a matter of public policy, Discovery Institute opposes any effort to require the teaching of intelligent design by school districts or state boards of education. Attempts to mandate teaching about intelligent design only politicize the theory and will hinder fair and open discussion of the merits of the theory among scholars and within the scientific community. Furthermore, most teachers at the present time do not know enough about intelligent design to teach about it accurately and objectively.

Instead of mandating intelligent design, Discovery Institute seeks to increase the coverage of evolution in textbooks. It believes that evolution should be fully and completely presented to students, and they should learn more about evolutionary theory, including its unresolved issues. In other words, evolution should be taught as a scientific theory that is open to critical scrutiny, not as a sacred dogma that can't be questioned.

Discovery Institute believes that a curriculum that aims to provide students with an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of neo-Darwinian and chemical evolutionary theories (rather than teaching an alternative theory, such as intelligent design) represents a common ground approach that all reasonable citizens can agree on.

Although Discovery Institute does not advocate requiring the teaching of intelligent design in public schools, it does believe there is nothing unconstitutional about voluntarily discussing the scientific theory of design in the classroom.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue explains why the Catholic League is starting a new initiative aimed at atheists: Approximately 80 percent of Americans are Christian, and 96 percent celebrate Christmas. Of the 20 percent who are not Christian, non-believers make up the largest segment, though the number of self-identified atheists is tiny. David Silverman, president of American Atheists, knows this to be true, which is why he is frantically trying to inflate his base. “We want people to realize that there may be atheists in their family,” he told the New York Times, “even if those atheists don’t even know they are atheists.”

We think there is some merit in David’s idea, even if he has things backwards, as usual. Today we are launching our “Adopt An Atheist” campaign, the predicate of which is, “We want atheists to realize that there may be Christians in their community, even if those Christians don’t even know they are Christian.”

Here’s what our campaign entails. We are asking everyone to contact the American Atheist affiliate in his area [click here], letting them know of your interest in “adopting” one of them. All it takes is an e-mail. Let them know of your sincere interest in working with them to uncover their inner self. They may be resistant at first, but eventually they may come to understand that they were Christian all along.

If we hurry, these closeted Christians can celebrate Christmas like the rest of us. As an added bonus, they will no longer be looked upon as people who “believe in nothing, stand for nothing and are good for nothing.”

http://www.catholicl...ampaign-begins/

The Big Mountain Jesus statue will be the focus of a congressional committee hearing scheduled on Friday by Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg.
Rehberg, a Republican, is proposing legislation that would allow a land exchange between the Whitefish Mountain Resort and the Flathead National Forest centered on the 625-square-foot parcel of federal land near the top of Chair 2. The exchange would allow the statue to remain at that location.

A Georgia mother who was arrested for allowing her 10-year-old to get a tattoo said she had no idea it was illegal for him to get one, even with her consent.
When Chuntera Napier's son Gaquan Napier asked her if he could get a memorial tattoo for his 12-year-old brother Malik who died after being hit by a car, Napier was touched by the request.

...they represent a threat not just to Christian faith, but also to humanity itself...

http://www.vatican.v...ops-usa_en.htm
3rd paragraph