Thanks to Zac for this one…Sooo… the creationists, who claim the world was created 10K years ago, are selling a skull that’s 40K years old….

By PAUL J. WEBER Thu Jan 17, 7:16 PM ET DALLAS – A Texas museum that teaches creationism is counting on the auction of a prehistoric mastodon skull to stave off extinction. The founder and curator of the Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum, which rejects evolution and claims that man and dinosaurs coexisted, said it will close unless the Volkswagen-sized skull finds a generous bidder. “If it sells, well, then we can come another day,” Joe Taylor said. “This is very important to our continuing.”Heritage Auction Galleries says the skull is estimated to be 40,000 years old and projects it will fetch upward of $160,000. The artifact discovered in La Grange in 2004 is believed to be the largest of its kind, Heritage spokesman David Herskowitz said.The auction will be held Sunday in Dallas, with bids accepted on the Internet until Saturday night.”We’re trying to reach out to someone who would buy it, then reach out to a museum in Texas,” Herskowitz said.Taylor said he would love to keep the skull of the elephant-like mammal as the centerpiece of his tiny museum just outside Lubbock, which includes creationist exhibits.Claims on the museum’s Web site include that Noah took dinosaurs aboard his ark. The prevailing scientific wisdom is that humans and dinosaurs missed each other by tens of millions of years.Taylor said he’s been financially crippled by about $136,000 he’s been ordered to pay in a legal dispute over finder’s rights to an Allosaurus skeleton unearthed in Colorado. About $141,000 has also been put into the mastodon skull’s restoration, he said.If the mastodon auction doesn’t cover the judgment, Taylor said local authorities will seize his 10-year-old museum and sell off its contents in February.”We’ve struggled so long here just to keep this thing going,” Taylor said. “We’re kind of losing interest. You can just tread water for so long.”The Heritage auction will also include other natural history items, including a 26-pound gold nugget found in Mexico that is expected to fetch at least $1 million.

All part of God’s great, unknowable plan…

This story is one of my all time favorites for religious hypocrisy. Once again, a religious leader is charging that he is being censored by the Internal Revenue Service because the law says he cannot engage in political speech or endorse candidates for partisan political offices and maintain his non-profit tax exemption.Reality Check!This Calvary Assembly of God Paster is not the least bit concerned about the IRS censoring his sermons. He can’t be, because the IRS is not censoring anything. He is only concerned about maintaining his tax exemptions. He is only interested in money.Rob Boston of American United takes on the hypocrisy from the angle that the Becket Fund is trying to co-opt the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in their politics.When you talk to people about the tax exempt status of churches and this whole issue revolving around political speech from the pulpit, please remember to relate that this issue does not involve the religious conservatives’ freedom of speech, but the religious organizations right to take more money.Peter Nuhn

Does anyone out there know of any quotes by Dr. King about Atheists? I often wonder but never looked up the reverend’s views on unbelievers.

Heading off to Arisia this weekend — it’s a large Sci-fi convention in Boston. I always bring plenty of American Atheists materials to distribute, because of the large crossover between Atheists and Sci-fi. So what’s your pleasure? Are you a sci-fi geek like me (and do you subscribe to Space and Time)? or are you more of an action/romance/reality junkie?

WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney’s assertion about lobbyists and his presidential campaign was challenged by an Associated Press reporter Thursday. The blogosphere immediately lit up over the exchange. Speaking at a business supply store in Columbia, S.C., Romney was telling reporters, “I don’t have lobbyists running my campaign. I don’t have lobbyists that are tied to my — ” when AP writer Glen Johnson interrupted.”That’s not true,” Johnson said. “Ron Kaufman’s a lobbyist.” Kaufman, chairman of communications firm Dutko Worldwide, is a frequent presence in the Romney campaign.”Did you hear what I said? Did you hear what I said, Glen?” Romney asked. “I said I don’t have lobbyists running my campaign, and he’s not running my campaign.”"He’s one of your senior advisers,” Johnson said.”He’s an adviser,” Romney replied, “and the person who runs my campaign is Beth Myers, and I have a whole staff of deputy campaign managers, and –”Johnson interrupted again. “Ron Kaufman is just there as window dressing? He’s a potted plant on your plane?”Romney called Kaufman a friend and unpaid adviser and repeated, “I do not have lobbyists running my campaign.”

The United States Constitution never uses the word “God” or makes mention of any religion, drawing its sole authority from “We the People.” However, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee thinks it’s time to put an end to that.”I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution,” Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. “But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that’s what we need to do — to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.”When Willie Geist reported Huckabee’s opinion on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski was almost speechless, and even Joe Scarborough couldn’t immediately find much to say beyond calling it “interesting,”Scarborough finally suggested that while he believes “evangelicals should be able to talk politics … some might find that statement very troubling, that we’re going to change the Constitution to be in line with the Bible. And that’s all I’m going to say.”

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Huckabee_Amend_Constitution_to_meet_Gods_0115.htmlThis is the very definition of unAmerican. Imagine.. a president that wants to actually change us into a theocracy, while we fight theocrats in other countries. I thought Bush was bad, but now… I actually am kinda cheering for Majic Underwear

An Act for establishing religious Freedom.Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free;that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being Lord, both of body and mind yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor, whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the Ministry those temporary rewards, which, proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labours for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry, that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence, by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages, to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right, that it tends only to corrupt the principles of that very Religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments those who will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed, these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy which at once destroys all religious liberty because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that Truth is great, and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them: Be it enacted by General Assembly that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of Religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities. And though we well know that this Assembly elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of Legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding Assemblies constituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare, and do declare that the rights hereby asserted, are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right.Thomas Jefferson

Many preachers and politicians have joined together in a new movement: to distort and rewrite history to favor their own agendas. On the airwaves they routinely condemn atheists and claim Adolph Hitler was a follower of their unholy views. True historical fact neither favors or spares allegiance to any cause, politics, or religion. The belief that America was founded as a Christian nation is the vital animating element of the ideology of the Christian Right. As one of the most successful and powerful political movements in American history, it currently affects every aspect of life and culture. The notion that America’s alleged Christian identity has by some means been wrongly taken, and must somehow be restored, shapes the psychology and vision of the entire movement. No understanding of Christian Fundamentalism and Christian Revisionism is remotely sufficient without this foundational concept. The need for Christian Revisionists to distance themselves from the reflections of an ignoble past is best exemplified by their aversion to recognizing the fundamentalism of Hitler, Nazism, and the third Reich. While displaying an ideological hatred for homosexuality, atheism, and pluralism, and while advocating militarism and unquestioning nationalism, the resemblance between these two fundamentalist ideologies has created a movement rooted in denial. The similarities of these two distinct movements account for their obsessive need to replace the history of fact with a more appealing image. Trampling over the bitter saga of Hitler?s blight on humanity and obscuring the vision of this horrific past is an error of grave proportions. And for this reason only, affirmations of fact about Hitler?s religious observance is presented herein. Heartfelt objections to historical fact must not become the impetus for compromising these significant truths.

Click link to read the whole articlehttp://www.propeller.com/viewstory/2008/01/14/an-atheist-hitler-was-not/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freewebs.com%2Fspadecaller%2Ffutureofhistory.htm&frame=true

Get Ready For The Freethought Event of 2008! The 34th National Conference ofAMERICAN ATHEISTSMarch 21-23, 2008 * Minneapolis, MN.Register now on-line for this exciting event! http://www.atheists.org/conference Join us for a weekend of workshops, panels, talks by noted speakers and other activities. Minneapolis is also one of the premier tourism destinations in this part of the nation, so you’ll want to consider making your Conference visit an extended weekend.The venue is the new, luxurious Minneapolis Marriott City Center Hotel in the heart of downtown. It offers everything from stunning views to magnificent accommodation, and you?re within walking distance of many regional attractions. There are also convenient mass-transit and other connections to spectacular destinations including THE MALL OF AMERICA, the world-class Minneapolis Institute of Art and so much more! The special convention room rate for the American Atheist conference is only $99 per night (single, double, triple or quad).Reserve your room now. Be sure to specify that you are with the American Atheist conference to qualify for the special room rate? and don?t forget to ask about ?shoulder dates? if you want to extend your stay before or after the conference weekend! You can visit the YAHOO! Travel web site for the Marriott City Center to learn more about the hotel and the local tourism sites and amenities. Click here for the hotel web site. Remember, you must make your reservations directly with the hotel at:Minneapolis Marriott? City Center30 South 7th StreetMinneapolis, Minnesota 55402 USAPhone: 1-612-349-4000Fax: 1-612-332-7165Getting There?Major airlines service the Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport. Once there, you can take a cab or private shuttle, or for only $2.50 hop the light rail which takes you downtown to the Marriott! Visit MSP Interntional Airport for information on flying to the conferenceSpeakers…Richard Dawkins is the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford. Born in British colonial Africa, he was educated in England, where he now lives. He did his doctorate at Oxford under the Nobel Prize winning zoologist Niko Tinbergen, then was briefly an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1967 to 1969, after which he returned to Oxford, first as a Lecturer in Zoology, then Reader, before being elected to his present professorship.He is the author of nine books: The Selfish Gene (1976, 2nd Ed 1989), The Extended Phenotype (1982), The Blind Watchmaker (1986), River Out of Eden (1995), Climbing Mount Improbable (1996), Unweaving the Rainbow (1998), A Devil?s Chaplain (2003), The Ancestor?s Tale (2004) and The God Delusion (2006). The God Delusion has sold more than a million copies in English, and is being published in 30 other languages. Dawkins is now editing an anthology of scientific writing for Oxford University Press, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing. In 2006, to promote the values of education, science, and critical thinking skills, he established The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (RDFRS) which is now a registered charity in both the UK and USA.Richard Dawkins has Honorary Doctorates of Literature as well as Science, and is a Fellow of both the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature. He has been awarded the Silver Medal of the Zoological Society of London, the Michael Faraday Award of the Royal Society, the Nakayama Prize, the Cosmos International Prize, the Kistler Prize, the Shakespeare Prize and the Lewis Thomas Prize. Ellen Johnson has been the president of American Atheists since 1995. She became the Editor of American Atheist Magazine in 2006. She has twice testified before the United State Commission on Civil Rights. In 2002 she organized the Godless Americans March On Washington and she was the organizer of the November 11, 2005 ?Atheists In Foxholes? March On Washington. In 2003 she established the Godless Americans Political Action Committee and she serves as its Executive Director.Ms. Johnson has co-hosted the cable television program, ?THE ATHEIST VIEWPOINT? since 1994. In 1998, she met with the Office of Public Liaison for the Clinton White House to discuss the subject of giving Atheists a ?place at the table? in the discussion of issues of concern to our nation?s Atheists.She is also a frequent guest on national radio and TV shows including the Fox Network?s ?Hannity & Colmes,? ?Heartland? with John Kasich, ?The O?Reilly Factor,? ?Scarborough Country,? ?Tucker Carlson,? ?Larry King Live,? ?CNN?s Paula Zahn Now, ? The CBS Early Show, Glen Beck on Headline News, CBS Sunday Morning, a Barbara Walters Special and C-SPAN?s prestigious public affairs program ?Washington Journal.?Ms. Johnson is an Honorary Associate of the Rationalist International, and an Honorary Board Member of ?Scouting For All,? a nationwide group that seeks to end discrimination against Atheists and gays within the Boy Scouts of America.Ms. Johnson has a Master?s Degree in Political Science from The New School For Social Research in New York City. Dr. Jack David Eller – ?Religion is Not What You Believe: How Religion Works without Belief or Meaning to Colonize Experience?Dr. Eller holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology and teaches anthropology in Denver, Colorado. He conducted field research on Australian Aboriginal religion and has published numerous articles and books for scholars and the public. His most recent anthropological works are Violence and Culture: A Cross-Cultural and Interdisciplinary Approach and Introducing Anthropology of Religion. He is also the author of Natural Atheism and the recently-released Atheism Advanced: Further Thoughts of a Freethinker. His latest project is a study of religious violence across cultures and religions. He is the former Colorado state director for American Atheists and current coordinator of the Atheists and Freethinkers of Denver. Robert Lanham – The Sinner?s Guide To The Evangelical RightRobert Lanham is the author of the books The Sinner?s Guide to the Evangelical Right, The Hipster Handbook, and Food Court Druids. Neal Pollack calls him ?the Margaret Mead of the North American Weirdo.? Lanham was born in Richmond, Virginia in the heart of the Bible Belt and was raised in a strict Southern Baptist church. He grew up in an environment where rock music was considered the devil?s music and with parents who speak in tongues, vote Republican, and have a vanity plate that says ?Prayzin.? Lanham?s first babysitter was Republican Senator Tom Coburn, best known for advocating the death penalty for abortion providers. As a teen, before his fall from grace, Lanham tried to speak in tongues, but failed. Lanham now lives in the den of iniquity, New York City. Lanham?s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Independent, Time Out, Nylon, Playboy, Maxim, and many other publications as well as in the collections The Subway Chronicles and Bookmark Now. Debate between Frank Zindler and Dennis PragerFrank R. Zindler is the managing editor of American Atheists Press and the author of The Jesus the Jews Never Knew, a book that argues that the ancient Jews never heard of Jesus of Nazareth. In fact, they had never heard of Nazareth either. Formerly a professor of biology and geology, for many years now he has worked as a linguist and science writer.Dennis Prager is one of America?s most respected radio talk show hosts. He has been broadcasting on radio in Los Angeles since 1982. His popular show became nationally syndicated in 1999 and airs live, Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to Noon (Pacific Time) from his home station, KRLA. Widely sought after by television shows for his opinions, he?s appeared on Larry King Live, Hardball, Hannity & Colmes, CBS Evening News, The Today Show and many others.Rene Salm – THE MYTH OF NAZARETH: THE INVENTED TOWN OF JESUSRene Salm was raised Roman Catholic. Researcher Rene Salm soon abandoned the tenets of that faith and as a young adult began to search for purely secular answers to life?s basic questions. Thirty years later, he has come to believe not in a personal ?God,? but in the power of understanding, reason, and truth. After receiving Bachelor?s degrees in Music and German, Salm embarked on post-graduate training in religious studies and Hebrew, and has worked as the fields of mental health and music instruction. He is self-taught in Pali (a dialect of Sanskrit), Aramaic, and other ancient languages. Salm?s research efforts have been directed especially towards the misunderstood origins of Buddhism and Christianity, religions he now considers two very corrupt forms of a vibrant and universal ?gnosticism? (i.e., quest for truth). Salm sees religion as very imperfect in practice, though aspiring to perfection.Greydon Square – PerformerGreydon Square is an artist who promotes rationality and freethinking reality through hip-hop. He is originally from Compton California, but now lives in Phoenix Arizona where he is a physics major in college.Mary Stanton – Return To Sender (Atheist Bill Moore?s 1963 Freedom Walk)Mary Stanton is a historian whose primary research interest is white civil rights activism. She has written four books on the subject: Journey Toward Justice: Juliette Hampton Morgan and The Montgomery Bus Boycott, The Hand Of Esau: Montgomery?s Jewish Community and the Bus Boycott, From Selma To Sorrow: The Life and Death of Viola Liuzzo, Freedom Walk (The University Press of Mississippi, 2004) follows white postman Bill Moore on a determined walk from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi to deliver a plea for racial tolerance to segregationist Governor Ross Barnett. On the third day of his journey Moore was ambushed and murdered near Gadsden, Alabama.Stanton has taught at the University of Idaho, the College of St. Elizabeth, and Rutgers University. Her articles have appeared in Government Executive, Southern Exposure, Gulf South Historical Review, Alabama Heritage, and Southern Jewish History. She lives in New York City and works as an administrator for the Town of Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York. Eddie Tabash – The Threat of the Religious Right to Our Modern LibertiesEddie Tabash is a life member of American Atheists. He is a constitutional lawyer in the Los Angeles area. He is on the board of directors of the Center for Inquiry?Council for Secular Humanism. He has represented the Atheistic point of view in numerous debates against some of the world?s foremost theistic philosophers, including William Lane Craig and Richard Swinburne. He has been coached for his debates by some of the world?s most prominent non believer philosophers, including, Hector Avalos, Theodore Drange, R. Joseph Hoffmann,Paul Kurtz, Michael Martin, Keith Parsons, Quentin Smith, and the founder of Internet Infidels: Jeff Lowder. Lois Utley – Medicine and Morality: How Religious Restrictions Can Affect Your Health CareLois Uttley, MPP, is Director of the MergerWatch Project, a national initiative working to protect patients? rights and access to care from the threat of religiously-based health care restrictions. The project is an affiliate of Community Catalyst, a national health care advocacy organization.Check back for updates on Conference events! We promise you a blockbuster line-up of speakers, fun social events and so much more ? what you?ve come to expect from this annual bash. Make reservations now! We?ll see you in Minneapolis!Greydon Square – Artist, performer who promotes rationality and freethinking reality through hip-hop. A native of Compton, California, he now lives in Phoenix, Az where he is pursuing his degree in physics. Register now on-line using our secure server! Visit http://www.atheists.org/conference .(AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends civil rights for Atheists, Freethinkers and other nonbelievers; works for the total separation of church and state; and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy.)

We have two reports from the Baptists themselves about their own candidate, Mike Huckabee. The Mainstream Baptist points out a lie made by presidential nominee Huckabee at the Jan. 10, 2008 Faux News Republican Debate. He is asked about his endorsement of the SBC position that wives are to be subservient to their husbands. He stated during the debate that the bible says both parties in a marriage are to serve each other. This is decidedly not the policy he endorsed back in 1999, when the conservative Baptists kicked out more moderate Baptists who rejected the more conservative policy.Now the hypocrisy part of our story is from the Baptist Press article linked to in the title to this posting. It contains a statement from “Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said in a Jan. 9 Baptist Press column that Huckabee should not be asked such questions because the U.S. Constitution says “no religious test shall ever be required” for public office.”Wow, after telling us for the past several decades to vote based on the religious test of only voting for conservative religious SBC candidates, such as George the first and George the second and the holy of all Holies, the Reagan; now the Baptists are telling us not to employ a religious test for their candidate who intentionally lies about his past religious statements.Peter Nuhn