I pressed the wrong button on the remote control tonight and instead of landing on the Comedy Channel, I caught a few minutes of the national news on ABC. They were in the middle of an interview with a minister who started reading some contemporary atheist thinking, such as Richard Dawkins, with the intent of [...]

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From the New York Times: More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops
More than ever, America’s atheists are linking up and speaking out…They are connecting on the Internet, holding meet-ups in bars, advertising on billboards and buses, volunteering at food pantries and picking up roadside trash, earning atheist groups recognition on adopt-a-highway signs…They [...]

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According to church teaching, even after sinners are absolved in the confessional and say their Our Fathers or Hail Marys as penance, they still face punishment after death, in Purgatory, before they can enter heaven. In exchange for certain prayers, devotions or pilgrimages in special years, a Catholic can receive an indulgence, which reduces or [...]

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OK. Politicians will reach for anything to demonize their opponents, but Our Gal in D.C., Liddy Dole, has decided to run a commercial portraying her opponent, Kay Hagan, as unfit for office because she—gasp! consorts with atheists.
Her claim to that is that Hagan went to a fundraiser at the house of somebody whose husband is [...]

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I am a real American.
I was born in this country and have lived here for over half a century.
I was educated in this country. I learned to think critically, to appreciate nuance, to research issues that concern me.
I am a working American. I have worked hard…sometimes longer than 24 hours in a row.
I am responsible [...]

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“God was looking out for me that day,” Linda said, “because I called four different exterminators and none of them could come out for four or five hours and I was trapped in my house watching my animals die.”
This is the closing quote from the article Bees trap woman in home, kill her dog ‘Chewy’ [...]

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I was just accosted by a Moonie. In the lobby of the Snow Building.
As soon as he said he was from the Unification Church, I just said two words. “Please leave.”
I knew people who were suckered into going to their “ranch” in Boonville, only to find that they were never left alone with their thoughts, [...]

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5.4 Earthquake. In Illinois.
Whenever an earthquake would rattle San Francisco, there were always a flurry of letters to the SF Chronicle from people in other parts of the country. They would patiently explain that seismic activity is a sign of God’s wrath against gays, feminists, and atheists.
But an earthquake near Champaign, Illinois…what did the computer [...]

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I know lots of people whose religious faith inspires them to dedicate their lives to helping the poor, the homeless, the sick or disabled. And although I’m not a believer, I applaud anything that inspires anyone to work selflessly to benefit those less fortunate, to strengthen communities, protect wildlife and the environment, or cultivate the [...]

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I called the downtown precinct to ascertain if one needs a permit to shout through a megaphone on a downtown street corner (you do.) In less than 10 minutes, a couple of officers showed up. They are talking to the adults in the crowd now, while a passel of kids in school uniforms gallivant around [...]

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