Stuff like this makes me fear that we are approaching a new Dark Age.  We may as well live in the Middle East (which I do right now) with all of their overboard fanatacism; ours is becoming much the same.  This is in response to a Florida student who took a communion wafer out of the church and was quickly followed up with death-threats and cries of hate-crime from those 'good' Catholics.  Funny thing is that Fox (who originally ran the story) took down the story... Here is a sample:

 

"We don't know 100% what Mr. Cooks motivation was," said Susan Fani a spokesperson with the local Catholic diocese. "However, if anything were to qualify as a hate crime, to us this seems like this might be it."

We just expect the University to take this seriously," she added "To send a message to not just Mr. Cook but the whole community that this kind of really complete sacrilege will not be tolerated."

 

The saddest part is that Webster (the student) actually feared for his life for what he 'did'. How is this any better than threatening a cartoonist for a portrayel of a prophet? Answer: IT ISN'T!

 

Webster just wants all of this to go away. Especially now that he feels his life is in danger.

 

Things like this make me fear for the US.

 

ARTICLE: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/07/its_a_goddamned_cracker.php

He somewhat quote Jefferson; I bolded the part he seemed to have forgotten...

 

May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government.

 

Isn't it odd that he forgot just that one line?  Then again, in one of his many discussions with God he might have been told to leave it out, because that's probably not really what Jefferson meant anyways.

 

READ MORE: http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2008/07/bush_edits_out_jeffersons_reli.php

I sure hope Louisiana is alone in their utter stupidity to pass these laws.  Disputing a scientific theory is fine, but this is ridiculous when your only opposing view comes froma  story book, while evidence shows time and time again that is at least a viable option.  Why no dispute gravity, thermal dynamics or basic physics?  They are jsut theories after all... get that stuff out of our schools.

the students of the state will be subjected to an "anything goes" approach to science—if it looks scientific to a school board, it can appear in the classroom.

Whatever happened to that concept of seperation of church and state?

 

SOURCE: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080627-louisiana-passes-first-antievolution-academic-freedom-law.html

We can only hope this is true for the betterment of human society

Research by the Orthodox Jewish organisation Aish found that just over a third of people thought religions like Christianity and Judaism would still be practiced in Britain in 100 years' time.

READ MORE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2160495/Christianity-%27could-die-out-within-a-century%27.html#continue

A very uplifting article presented by the UK telegraph entitled:

 

Intelligent people 'less likely to believe in God'

 

religious belief had declined across 137 developed nations in the 20th century at the same time as people became more intelligent

 

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2111174/Intelligent-people-'less-likely-to-believe-in-God'.html

In my own home state of MN, there has been an Islamic state-funded school being run.  This seems to have been done a bit shady as it was sort of hidden and unpublicized that it was a religious school, but the truth came forward and I sure hope this school loes 100% of it's funding.

Afterward, Getz said, "teachers led the kids into the gym, where a man dressed in white with a white cap, who had been at the school all day," was preparing to lead prayer. Beside him, another man "was prostrating himself in prayer on a carpet as the students entered."

"The prayer I saw was not voluntary," Getz said. "The kids were corralled by adults and required to go to the assembly where prayer occurred."

Source: http://www.startribune.com/local/17406054.html

Thousands of years of human learning and education. Men and women's lives have been devoted to finding out about the history of the world. Now some people are trying to allow our children to simply dismiss facts; makes perfect sense to me...?

The Oklahoma House of Representatives has passed a bill that says that a student can receive a passing grade in an Earth Science class if they say that the Flying Spaghetti Monster created the Earth an hour ago, and then planted false memories into every single living creature on Earth to make it seem like they’ve been around longer.

Of course, that’s not the intent of the bill. The intent is that a student can say the Earth is 6000 years old and still get a passing grade. The bill itself says that a student cannot be graded down if they say that what they are being taught interferes with their religious beliefs.

Welcome to the dark ages.

SOURCE: http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2008/03/09/oklahoma-one-step-from-doom/

He was told that he would be

'unable to put aside his personal convictions and pray with his troops' and would have trouble bonding with them if promoted to a leadership position.

Apparently believing in god is required to be a leader? Since when? Constantine led the Normans in the crusades as an atheist (though he had to hide it).

This is just completely appaling. As a former Officer in the United States military, this sickens me. To think that our country was founded on freedom , one of those most important freedoms being religious freedom(this man actively fought for it). And the very institution that is employed to protect those freedoms are being denied it themselves.

I hope the board/people that denied his promotion is dealt with properly and recieves a fair punishment as at least that would show that the military itself has some backbone.

His attorney put it well:

It is beyond despicable, indeed wholly unlawful, that the United States Army is actively attempting to destroy the professional career of one of its decorated young fighting soldiers, with two completed combat tours in Iraq, simply because he had the rare courage to stand up for his constitutional rights

SOURCE: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080306/ap_on_re_us/military_religion_lawsuit

This is a site that does exactly what you think it would do.  Rotates insightful atheist quotes daily.  There is also the feature to submit your own quotes that are reviewed and added daily.  There will be more and more features added as time goes on and as I have time.  Please post any suggestions/criticismts you may have in the comments.

 

Keep in mind that atheist quotes need not come from atheists, as they often don't.  This site is more to promote the acceptance of atheist thoughts and maybe challenge someone's belief.  Religion in itsef is a fascinating thing.