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News -03-30-06 Power of Prayer Study (MSNBC News) "In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery. In fact, patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications." 03-06 -04-02-06 Polls: Atheists Less Trusted (ABC News) "Given the increasing religiosity of American culture, it's perhaps not too surprising that a new study out this month finds that Americans are not fond of atheists and trust them less than they do other groups. The depth of this distrust is a bit astonishing nonetheless." 04-06 Breaking the Spell by Daniel Dennett (Universal Life Church) "For many people around the world—perhaps most people—there is nothing more important than religion. It has comforted them in their suffering, become an integral part of their marriages and child rearing, and encouraged group cooperation to achieve ends both magnificent and terrible. Religion plays such a powerful role in the world that we should try to understand it in all its complexities, but most adherents bristle at anyone who wants to investigate their practices and beliefs in a scientific manner." 04-06 Breaking the Spell by Daniel Dennett (Wikipedia.org) "Daniel Clement Dennett (born March 28, 1942) is a prominent American philosopher. Dennett's research centers on philosophy of mind and philosophy of science, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science." 04-06 Hitchens, Christopher (Wikipedia.org) "Christopher Eric Hitchens (born April 13, 1949) is a English-American author, journalist and literary critic. Currently living in Washington, D.C., he has been a columnist at Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, World Affairs, The Nation, Slate, Free Inquiry, and a variety of other media outlets. Hitchens is also a political observer, whose best-selling books — the latest being God Is Not Great[1] — have made him a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits." 06-08 Secular Camp (ABC News) "Camp Quest is a secular camp operated in Butler County, Ohio, by a group incorporated in Kentucky. It is for kids who come from families who are atheist or agnostic. For these kids, Camp Quest provides a refuge from a society where God feels omnipresent." 06-06 The Self-Made Universe (CosmicLog.com) "Why does the universe seem so fine-tuned for the emergence of life – including intelligent life capable of asking that 'why' question? Believers simply say that God did it, while scientists are trying to come up with complicated extradimensional multiverse theories to explain our lucky break." "Theoretical physicist Paul Davies takes a completely different tack in a new book titled 'Cosmic Jackpot.' He argues that the cosmos has made itself the way it is, stretching backward in time to the very beginning to focus in on 'bio-friendliness.' " 04-06 Papers Atheism (Reference.com) "Atheism is the state either of being without theistic beliefs, or of actively disbelieving in the existence of deities." " 'The problem of evil is probably the most enduring and the most potent argument atheism has to offer against many varieties of theism. Christian apologist William Lane Craig aptly styled it atheism's killer argument. In brief, it seeks to establish that the existence of evil in the world is logically incompatible with the existence of a benevolent God, and that it is more reasonable to conclude that God does not exist than that he does exist but does nothing to stop evil.' " 01-06 Atheism Demographics (Wikipedia.org) "A 1995 survey attributed to the Encyclopædia Britannica indicates that the non-religious make up about 14.7% of the world's population, and atheists around 3.8%.[75]" "According to a study by Paul Bell, published in the Mensa Magazine in 2002, there is an inverse correlation between religiosity and intelligence. Analyzing 43 studies carried out since 1927, Bell finds that all but four reported such a connection, and concludes that 'the higher one's intelligence or education level, the less one is likely to be religious or hold "beliefs" of any kind.' A survey published in Nature confirms that belief in a personal god or afterlife is at an all time low among the members of the National Academy of Science, only 7.0% of which believed in a personal god as compared to more than 85% of the US general population.[76]" 01-07 Atheism, Religion, and Morality (Wikipedia.org) "However, throughout its history, atheism has commonly been equated with immorality, based on the belief that morality is directly derived from God, and thus cannot be intelligibly attained without appealing to God.[85][86] Moral precepts such as 'murder is wrong' are seen as divine laws, requiring a divine lawmaker and judge. However, many atheists argue that treating morality legalistically involves a false analogy, and that morality does not depend upon a lawmaker in the same way that laws do,[87] based on the Euthyphro dilemma, which either renders God unnecessary or morality arbitrary.[88] Atheists also assert that behaving ethically only because of divine mandate is not true ethical behavior, merely blind obedience.[89] "Many atheists, in fact, have argued that atheism is a superior basis for ethics than theism." "Atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris have argued that Western religions' reliance on divine authority lends itself to authoritarianism and dogmatism.[91]" 01-07 Dialogue Between Christians and Atheists: Arguments Against Atheism (The Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry) Suggests how Christians should respond to arguments by Atheists. 01-07 Freedom From Religion Foundation (Wikipedia.org) "The Freedom From Religion Foundation is an American Freethought organization based in Madison, Wisconsin. Its purposes, as stated in its bylaws, are to promote the constitutional principle of separation of church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism." 01-07 Frequently Asked Questions About The God Who Wasn't There Movie (CARM.org) "The Gospels were written anonymously, starting 40 years or more after the supposed death of Jesus, and the names were tagged on to the Gospels much later." 05-07 Introduction to Atheism (Infidels.org) Provides an introduction to the various positions of atheists. 01-07 Introduction to Atheism (Wikipedia.org) "Atheism is the disbelief[1] in the existence of any deities.[2] It is commonly defined as the denial of theism, amounting to the positive assertion that deities do not exist, or as the deliberate rejection of theism.[3][4][5] However, others—including most atheistic philosophers and groups—define atheism as the simple absence of belief in deities[6][7][8] (cf. nontheism), thereby designating many agnostics, and people who have never heard of gods, such as newborn children, as atheists as well.[9][10] In recent years, some atheists have adopted the terms strong and weak atheism to clarify whether they consider their stance one of positive belief (strong atheism) or the mere absence of belief (weak atheism).[11][12][13]" 01-07 Religion, Science, and Atheism (MSNBC News) "A gathering of scientists and atheists explores whether faith in science can ever substitute for belief in God." 11-06 Separation of Church and State (Freedom From Religion Foundation) "Our national association of nontheists has been working since 1978 to promote freethought and defend the constitutional principle of the separation of state and church. With more than 10,000 members (and growing fast), we are the largest group of atheists and agnostics in North America." 06-07 Sunday School for Atheism (Time.com) "An estimated 14% of Americans profess to have no religion, and among 18-to-25-year-olds, the proportion rises to 20%, according to the Institute for Humanist Studies. The lives of these young people would be much easier, adult nonbelievers say, if they learned at an early age how to respond to the God-fearing majority in the U.S. 'It's important for kids not to look weird,' says Peter Bishop, who leads the preteen class at the Humanist center in Palo Alto. Others say the weekly instruction supports their position that it's O.K. to not believe in God and gives them a place to reinforce the morals and values they want their children to have." 11-07 Sunday School for Atheism (Time.com) "An estimated 14% of Americans profess to have no religion, and among 18-to-25-year-olds, the proportion rises to 20%, according to the Institute for Humanist Studies. The lives of these young people would be much easier, adult nonbelievers say, if they learned at an early age how to respond to the God-fearing majority in the U.S. 'It's important for kids not to look weird,' says Peter Bishop, who leads the preteen class at the Humanist center in Palo Alto. Others say the weekly instruction supports their position that it's O.K. to not believe in God and gives them a place to reinforce the morals and values they want their children to have." 11-07

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