THE   FOCUS
centerforatheism.org

November 23, 2007 Volume 3, Issue 48
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
     Megachurches Add Local Economy to Their Mission - New York Times
       The business interests of megachurches include aviation subsidiaries and investment
       partnerships.
     MuskogeePhoenix.com, Muskogee, OK - Church-state divide threat
       Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, should be careful with his investigation. Church-state 
       divide threat ...
 
      Auditing mega-churches - Los Angeles Times
      To believers in the strictest possible separation of church and state, this preferred
      position for religious nonprofits is heresy. ...
 
      Q. Do You Believe in god? A. Yes, No and Well . . . - New York Times
      In “Do You Believe? Conversations on god and Religion,” 18 cultural eminences
      discuss whether they believe that god exists.

     NPR : Discovering the Man Behind a Boy's Protest
     In 1956, 16-year-old Pennsylvania schoolboy Ellery Schempp decided to protest ... with
     Stephen Solomon, author of the book Ellery's Protest ...
   When Night Falls at School, Should Darwin Go Home? - New York Times
     "The two stories are diametrically opposed," Mr. Harrison says of creationism and 
     Darwinism. "It's Molecules to Man vs. Design and Purpose. ... 

 

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


ATHEISM

Dinesh D'Souza on What's So Great About Christianity? - Virtue Online                      Given the rise of "militant atheism" in America, Albert Mohler recently interviewed author and columnist Dinesh D'Souza about his new book, What's So Great ...

America's 'New Atheists' - Christian Broadcasting Network 
Dinesh D'Souza has written a new book that answers the claims of the atheists called  
What's So Great About Christianity. Click play to watch the 700 Club ...

It's Come to this: Atheist about to Pray - The Conservative Voice
And now an atheist is about to stand before his city council to "pray." Jesus said that in the last days there would be false prophets and false christs. ...

Eight reasons why I am not an atheist - Allentown Morning Call
An atheist assigns himself to life without ultimate purpose. Yes, atheists enjoy smaller meanings of life like friendship and love, pleasure and sorrow, ...
 
The Joiner: Boston Atheists - Bostonist
Nonetheless, he argues that atheism should be self-evident to everyone, eventually. "It does not take a lot of genius to decide that a magical creator of ...
 
Sunday School for Atheists - TIME
The growing movement of institutions for kids in atheist families also includes Camp Quest, a group of sleep-away summer camps in five states plus Ontario, ...

BOOKS, FILM, TV, YOU TUBE

Anti-god books: The god they don't believe in certainly isn't ... - Men's News Daily - First, it does not follow a surge in atheism Indeed, according to the 2007 Princeton Survey for Newsweek, only 3 percent of Americans self-identify as ...

Not in Our Classrooms lauded in BioScience - National Center for Science Education
... book that will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in the various aspects of 'intelligent design' and the evolution-creationism debate. ...

EVOLUTION, CREATIONISM, I.D.

UK Dolly creator gives up cloning method
The Scottish scientist who created Dolly the sheep more than a decade ago said he is abandoning the cloning technique that he pioneered, ...
 
J. Michael Bodi: Creationist bugaboo back again - Providence Journal
How does this "separation of church and state" idea work? What does it really mean to our liberty? What does it mean for our students? ...
 
Evolution of a dinosaur - Toronto Star
This Cretaceous plant eater was found buried in rock with an infant. It is considered the best specimen in the world, because of the structure of the beak ...
 
SCIENCE
Turning human skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells without having to make or destroy an embryo could quell an ethical debate.
 
Are Scientists Playing god? It Depends on Your Religion - New York York
There is an East-West divide over stem-cell research and genetic engineering.
 
Method Equalizes Stem Cell Debate - New York Times
An alternative method of developing embryonic stem cells will allow people on both sides to say they have fruitful research to pursue.
 
SEPARATION CHURCH / STATE
 
Judicial Equality Foundation » No Tuition Colorado Christian College
“The effect of the ruling is to say that Colorado students will be denied state tuition aid for college if they want to attend a religious school,” said ...
 
Suit Forces Chicago School District To End Moments Of Silence - WEEK-TV -    Atheist activist Rob Sherman challenged the moment of silence order in his daughter's suburban Chicago school district. For now, Rob Sherman's daughter's ... 
 
NJ agency OKs tax-free financing for religious schools - NorthJersey.com
But a lawyer with the group Americans United for Separation of Church and State said the process sounds highly suspect. "The state's really eviscerating ...
 
Judge rules crosses are not always religious - Salt Lake Tribune
The ruling by US District Judge David Sam was a blow to American Atheists Inc., a Texas-based group that filed suit two years ago claiming that because the ...

 

MISCELLANEOUS
  Freethought Today, January/February 2007
  Articles. Funding Hypocrisy by Clemens T. Wiechecki. Darwin Is My Hero by Craig
  Gosling. Scientists Must Counter Fundamentalism by Clarence Darrow ...
  Doomsday cult refuses to leave cave - Russia- msnbc.com
  Officials were talking Friday with more than two dozen doomsday cult members holed up 
  in a snowy forest near the Volga River to await the end of the world, ...
 
  Evolution Is Deterministic, Not Random, Biologists Conclude From ... -Science Daily
  A multi-national team of biologists has concluded that developmental evolution is
  deterministic and orderly, rather than random, ...
 
  The time has come to move past religion - Oneonta Daily Star
  Evidence and studies suggest that more non-believers or atheists today are willing to
  speak out, perhaps illustrating that their numbers are increasing as ...
 
  Taking Science on Faith - New York Time - PAUL DAVIES
  Until science comes up with a testable theory of the laws of the universe, its claim to be
  free of faith is manifestly bogus.
 
 Response from: 
 Massimo Pigliucci - Depts of Ecology & Evolution, Philosophy - Stony Brook University
 http://rationallyspeaking.blogspot.com

 In a recent editorial Paul Davies has joined the small but vocal number
 of scientists who claims parity between science and religion because
 both are based “on faith.” Davies' extraordinary assertion arises from a
 series of philosophical and factual misunderstandings: first, scientists
 do not have “faith” in an orderly universe, they assume that there are
 explanations for natural phenomena and go about testing that assumption.
 Second, the idea that there are “laws” in the universe is misleading, as
 it suggests some sort of law-maker; in reality, there are simply
 patterns of regular behavior that make predictions possible. Lastly, it
 is time that physicist – who are not trained in biology – stop
 pontificating about our universe being “just right for life.” It is not
 at all likely that the universe is teeming with life, since most star
 systems are utterly inhospitable to it. It requires a very large ego
 indeed to think that billions of lifeless worlds have come into
 existence so that we could speculate on who did it. Science is not at
 all like religion: the latter provides no explanation and is based on
 blind faith, the former is a highly successful human endeavor that keeps
 delivering the goods.
 
 ChristianNewsToday.com
 The aggressive tone of his arguments could be a result of the fact that today's  
  intellectuals do not automatically embrace atheist positions any longer. ...

  Digg - Are Scientists Playing god? It Depends on Your Religion
  Are Scientists Playing god? It Depends on Your Religion. There is an East-West divide 
  over stem-cell research and genetic engineering. ...
 
  secular season's greetings: atheists celebrate the holiday season ...
  now, thanks to e-tailer order of st. nick (www.orderofstnick.com), atheists finally have 
  their own holiday cards. order of st nick is the holiday ...
        

 

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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.

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