---

Atheism

---

Atheists are just as ethical and have as strong a moral compass as churchgoers, new research shows.

People who have no religion know right from wrong just as well as regular worshippers, according to the study.

The team behind the research found that most religions were similar and had a moral code which helped to organise society.

But people who did not have a religious background still appeared to have intuitive judgments of right and wrong in common with believers, according to the findings, published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
» Full Story

An atheist preacher has been allowed to stay in office by the Protestant Church of the Netherlands.

The regional church assembly in the southwestern town of Zierikzee decided that preacher Klaas Hendrikse’s views do not fundamentally differ from those of other liberal theologians in the Protestant Church.
» Full Story

Charging that the Catholic Church should lose its tax-exempt status, a consortium of atheists and Catholic activists filed two lawsuits against Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, Assemblymember Vito Lopez (D-Williamsburg) and the Catholic Diocese over their role in producing a recorded message sent to Williamsburg’s registered voters less than a week before they went to the polls.
» Full Story

Asheville City Councilman Cecil Bothwell believes in ending the death penalty, conserving water and reforming government — but he doesn’t believe in God.

His political opponents say that’s a sin that makes him unworthy of serving in office, and they’ve got the North Carolina Constitution on their side.

Bothwell’s detractors are threatening to take the city to court for swearing him in, even though the state’s antiquated requirement that officeholders believe in God is unenforceable because it violates the U.S. Consititution.
» Full Story

The American Humanist Association, consisting of atheists and others who say they embrace reason over religion, has launched a national godless holiday campaign, with ads appearing inside or on 250 buses in five U.S. cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The placards depict smiling people wearing red Santa hats with the slogan: “No God? . . . No problem!”
» Full Story

Australian atheists are under attack, with the websites of both the Atheist Foundation of Australia and the Global Atheist Convention knocked offline in a major cyber attack yesterday afternoon.

The attacks may be related to the Global Atheist Convention, which is being held in Melbourne in March next year.
» Full Story

A series of controversial billboards recently displayed throughout Metro Detroit is drawing curious stares and criticism from the local faith community.

The seven billboards read “Imagine No Religion” and “Praise Darwin: Evolve Beyond Belief” with a stained-glass window motif. They are sponsored by the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom from Religion Foundation, a nonprofit group that touts itself as the largest free thought association in the nation.

The billboards, at various Detroit locations, are part of a monthlong campaign aimed at provoking debate about the role religion plays in daily life and public policy, said Annie Laurie Gaylord, co-president of the foundation.

But many in the local religious community consider the billboards offensive.
» Full Story

The number of atheist or agnostic student groups on U.S. campuses has more than doubled in the past two years — from 80 to 162 — according to the Secular Student Alliance (SSA), the national organization for the secular student movement.

The rise of the secular student movement parallels that of the broader secular demographic in the U.S.
» Full Story

Philip Pullman, the children’s author, is set to cause controversy with a new book – called The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ – denying that Jesus was the son of God.

Publisher Jamie Byng said that Pullman’s book, which will be published next Easter, “strips Christianity bare and exposes the gospels to a new light”.
» Full Story

Lord May, the president of the British Science Association, said religion may have helped protect human society from itself in the past and it may be needed again.

Speaking on the eve of the association’s annual conference, the committed atheist said he was worried the world was on a “calamitous trajectory” brought on by its failure to co-ordinate measures against global warming.

He said that no country was prepared to take the lead and a “punisher” was needed to make sure the rules of co-operation were not broken.

The former Government chief scientific advisor said in the past that was God and it might be time again for religion to fill the gap.
» Full Story

“If there were no religious advertising, there would be no atheist advertising,” said Ariane Sherine in a phone conversation from her home in London. Sherine is a journalist who spearheaded the idea for ads saying, “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

From a marketing perspective, however, the problem with the atheist brand may be that it is essentially selling nothing; not God, but no God. [video]
» Full Story

A devout Christian has become the first driver to refuse to get behind the wheel of a bus bearing an atheist poster declaring God probably does not exist.

“There would be no way buses would be able to drive around with an anti-Muslim message like that on the side mentioning Allah. There would be uproar,” he says.
» Full Story

Alongside a Nativity scene at the Legislative Building in Olympia, Washington, a sign put up by an atheist organization celebrates the winter solstice. But it’s the rest of the sign that has some residents and Christian organizations calling atheists Scrooges for attacking the celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth.

“Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds,” the sign says in part.
» Full Story

British atheists announced Tuesday a high-profile advertising campaign to put posters on London buses that say: “There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

“We wanted it to be a positive message,” said Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, which plans to advertise on buses starting in January. “It’s about telling people that it’s okay if you don’t believe in God. If it raises a smile, too, good.”
» Full Story

Denver’s secularists wanting freedom from religion have taken over one corner in the public square to make the point.

They’ve emblazoned a billboard six blocks from the state Capitol with the message, inscribed over faux stained glass, “Imagine No Religion.”
» Full Story

---

Atheism Research Resources

---

Our Atheism news feed with only items about Atheism

Books about Atheism

Apologetics Research Resources on Atheism

---

Factlet

---

---

Advertisement

---

---

About Religion News Blog

---

Religion News Blog (RNB), published by Apologetics Index, highlights news items and other resources on world religions, cults, religious sects, new religious movements, alternative religions, abusive churches and - to a lesser extent - related issues (e.g. ethics, human rights).

The information is provided for research and educational purposes.

RNB's non-profit news clipping service is used by - among others - Christian apologists, countercult professionals, anticult organizations, cult experts, teachers, religion professionals, reporters and other researchers.

Categories / News Trackers:
Samples of the hundreds of religious news subjects covered in Religion News Blog include (click links for respective news trackers): the Alpha Course, Alternative Healing, Catholic Church, Christianity, Cults, Falun Gong, Hate Groups, Interfaith issues, Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism / Mormon Church, Polygamy, Religion Trends, Scientology, Transcendental Meditation, Unification Church, Wicca / Witchcraft, and many more.
[More info : How to link]

---

Most Read about Atheism

---

1. A Family of Atheists Sues Their Religious Town
2. Group takes its anti-religion message to billboards
3. Beliefwatch: Blasphemy
4. As religious strife grows, atheists seize pulpit
5. Atheist who sued priest over Jesus' reality fined
6. True Unbelievers: A sectarian split among atheists
7. Atheist Groups Growing Over Last 6 Years
8. Against God
9. The New Atheists loathe religion far too much to plausibly challenge it
10. Several recent books assail faith quite bluntly: Religion kills.

---

Headlines by Email or RSS

---

RNB's RSS feed | What is this?

Subscribe by Email | What is this?

---

Use Our Headlines

---

Free: Place RNB Headlines on your website! It's easy: just copy and paste