THE   FOCUS
centerforatheism.org

August 8, 2007 Volume 3, Issue 32
Published by the Center For Atheism (CFA)

Editor: Kenneth Bronstein

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.
         
       Featured Articles
    
     See in Special Notices Section below: US Army Major (fundamentalist
      Christian) threatens Atheists meeting in Iraq.
 
    looking for candidates - send resume
 
       Slate Magazine 
 
       Florida Opens First Hebrew Public School - Jewish Exponent -
       "The Jewish community has succeeded in America largely thanks to the principle of
       separation of church and state. "But with charter schools like Ben Gamla, ...
 
       Islamic Creationists Launch PR Campaign - CBS News
       One colorful poster advertised the "myth" of the evolution of the horse. Another, displaying a flying pterodactyl, denounced the evolution of birds as "fake ...
 
      Churches feed from fed trough - In-Forum
      The federal grant program for "faith-based" social services could be questioned as defying the long-standing principle of separation of church and state. ...
 
      U.S. Marshals Let Fugitives Come to Them, in Church - New York Times
      A program by the United States Marshals Service works to give nonviolent fugitives a chance to resolve their court problems in a neutral setting.

                        

 

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


     ATHEISM 

   Atheists of the world unite! - Guardian Unlimited
   Hot on the heels of the million-selling, God Delusion, Richard Dawkins has put his
   name behind the Out Campaign, an attempt to bring atheists out of the

    http://outcampaign.org/ - Richard Dawkins Out Campaign

   Answering Atheism - Catholic Online 
   Atheism is experiencing a resurgence. And that's not a bad thing. We have 
   experienced at least three different forms of atheist resurgence in the past ...

  BOOKS, FILM, TV

  Books of the Times Language Evolution's Slippery Tropes - New York Times 
  The topic remained disreputable for more than a century, but in the last decade or 
  so, language evolution has eased toward the front burner, attracting the ...
      
     

     EVOLUTION, CREATIONISM, I.D.

   World's largest 'Thermometer Camera' to shed light on evolution ... - DailyIndia  
    The world's largest bolometer camera for sub-millimetre astronomy has been put 
    into service at the 12-m APEX telescope, located on the 5100m ...

   SCIENCE  

 
    SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE     

   Do church-run 'adopt-a-school' programs cross the line? - Visalia Times-Delta
   "As a district, we are open to partnering with people in the faith community, but we
   are also very aware of separation of church and state," Visalia Unified ...

   Church begins the 'impossible' - Pioneer Press
   Minnesota is one of 28 states that does not offer grants to active religious properties
   because of separation of church and state practices. ...

   Dad crusades against God at Carrollton school - Dallas Morning News
  Joseph Croft of Abilene said he supports his son's stance on the law and the
  separation of church and state. "It's a waste of valuable classroom time," 


  MISCELLANEOUS

  Pat Tillman: Anti-War Leftist Worm Dirt. - Huffington Post
  It finally came out that Tillman had been against Bush's policies, and was an atheist. 
 

      IHS :: Humanist Network News :: 1 August 2007
      Americans Gave $97 Billion to Religion in 2006. Americans continued to give more
      money to religion in 2006 than to any other organization or cause. ...
      The Belief Factor [Letter to the Editor]- New York Times                                              
      Until Americans start voting based on issues rather than theologies of candidates,
      they will not elect representatives who truly share both their values and policy goals.
      Lori Lipman Brown, Director, Secular Coalition for America
     
     Non-religious doctors just as likely to care for poor: study - Chicago Sun-Times
     Atheist and agnostic doctors are as likely to provide care for the poor as religious
     physicians, ...
   
      What’s in a Name? Parsing the ‘God Particle,’ the Ultimate Metaphor - NYT
      The biggest name-dropper in science, Albert Einstein, mentioned god often enough 
      that one could imagine he and the “Old One” had a standing date for coffee or tennis.  
 

 

          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.

 

 

          Special Notices

The report below is forwarded by Bart Melzer, American Atheists, from the Military Director for American Atheists, Kathleen Johnson who is currently serving on active duty in Iraq.

You are probably aware that religious proselytizing - specifically Christian proselytizing - has become rampant in the military. It is not easy being an Atheist in the military now - to say the least - as illustrated in the following, disturbing report.

Kudos to this brave young soldier for having the courage to stand up for his beliefs and right to express them freely in the face of such drastic opposition. Kudos to the other brave soldiers who had the courage to participate. And Kudos to Kathleen Johnson for leading our cause in such a hostile environment. They all deserve medals for bravery. 

Thought you'd be interested in this report of the first-ever meeting of Atheist service-members in Iraq under the umbrella of the MAAF-Iraq chapter of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers. This meeting was put together by the same young MAAF member who recently had his second letter published in the Stars and Stripes.

One of our members, a young Atheist enlisted soldier, thought he would like to see if he could generate some interest in MAAF meetings at his Forward Operating Base (FOB) here in Iraq (not the base I'm at, by the way). He got things coordinated and started hanging flyers, and after weeks of having to re-hang his flyers almost daily because some vandal kept tearing them down, he finally succeeded in having a small MAAF meeting. I wasn't there because the meeting wasn't on my FOB, but I knew he was holding it and was expecting to hear from him after the meeting. Keep in mind that this young soldier did everything right - he went through the Chaplain's office and jumped through all the hoops it takes to legally hold meetings that are religiously or philosophically based. Four soldiers attended this meeting - all of them very junior enlisted soldiers with the exception of one Major (an O-4), who claimed to be a "freethinker".

Well, to make a very long story a little shorter, the Major turned out to be a fundamentalist Christian who verbally berated the other attendees, accused them of plotting against Christians and disrespecting soldiers who have died protecting the Constitution, and threatened them with punishment under the UCMJ for their activities (said they were "going down") and said he would do whatever it took to shut the meetings down. Keep in mind that by this point, he had two of the attendees (one soldier fled when the shouting started) standing at the position of attention so that he could yell at them, berate them, and humiliate them. This apparently went on for several minutes at which time the Major shut down the meeting by saying he wasn't some "push-over Chaplain" and that he would not tolerate the meetings to continue.

The young MAAF member who hosted the meeting is absolutely freaked out about what happened, but he said he's going to continue with the meetings and isn't going to be bullied by the prayer warriors. I've advised him to immediately notify the Chaplain sponsor of what happened to get guidance while I try to figure out what to do next. I should hear something back from him tonight sometime and there's even a small possibility I might be able to score a mission to his FOB and attend one of his meetings in the next few weeks (if I do, I'll meet with the Chaplain in person).

As for immediate action, he's going to get me the names of his Chaplain sponsor and the name of the officer who disrupted the meeting. My intent right now is to make a formal report to the most senior Chaplain I can find along with possibly an Equal Opportunity complaint against the officer if we can get him fully identified I may not be eligible to make that complaint because I wasn't there, but I can at least smooth the way for this young troop to make one if he elects to. At the very least, I can make the EO office formally aware of what happened there.

More info will follow when I get it, but right now, feel free to disseminate this information since I've intentionally sanitized it for names and locations. I will be happy to forward any words of support to him if they get mailed to my milatheist@aol.com address - he could really use some encouragement right now, I think.

 

 

          Legislation Alerts

There are no legislation alerts this week.

 

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