americanatheists

American Atheists Media Alert ? ALABAMA21AUG08: Blair Scott on Dominick Brascia Show AM 960 Birmingham, ALBlair Scott, National Affiliate Outreach Director & Alabama State Director for American Atheists, will be appearing in studio on the Dominick Brascia Show on WERC AM 960 in Birmingham, Alabama. Blair will be appearing alongside religious representatives from Birmingham for a roundtable discussion on religion. The roundtable discussion will take place on Thursday, August 21st from 4-6 p.m. CST. You can tune in online at http://960werc.com by clicking on the Listen Live button in the upper-left corner of the Web Page.WHAT: Blair Scott appearing on the Dominick Brascia Show (AM 960 WERC Birmingham) for a roundtable discussion on religion.WHEN: Thursday, August 21st from 4-6 p.m. CSTWHERE: Dominick Brascia Show on WERC AM 960 Birmingham, AL and online at http://www.960werc.com.ON THE NET:American Atheists: http://atheists.orgNational Affiliate Outreach Director: http://alabamaatheist.org/naodAlabama State Director: http://atheists.org/alWERC AM 960: http://960werc.com

Including two with my friend and arch enemy Bill Devlin.Check out Interview with a Christian and the other shows as well. http://viewpoint.illdill.net/ViewShows.aspThanks Tim!

Calif. Supreme Court: Religion Not a Shield for DiscriminationMike McKee08-19-2008Three months after approving same-sex marriage, the California Supreme Court gave gay rights another boost Monday by unanimously ruling that doctors can’t invoke religion to refuse treating homosexual patients. “There’s a great diversity of religious beliefs in California, and they’re all protected,” Jennifer Pizer, senior counsel in the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund’s Los Angeles office, said in a prepared statement. “But not to the point where laws are violated and other people are hurt.” Coming on the heels of the marriage ruling in May, the opinion continued the California court’s tradition of being sensitive to gay issues. In recent years, the justices have approved second-parent adoptions; strengthened non-biological parents’ claims to parenthood in same-sex relationships; prevented businesses from discriminating against registered domestic partners; and approved municipal policies against doing business with groups that discriminate against gays. Monday’s case began in 2001 when Oceanside, Calif., lesbian Guadalupe Benitez sued Drs. Christine Brody and Douglas Fenton, who claimed their Christian faith prevented them from providing intrauterine insemination in some circumstances. The doctors, who worked at the North Coast Women’s Care Medical Group in Vista, Calif., argued that they couldn’t provide fertility treatments to Benitez because she wasn’t married, but Benitez said they refused because of her sexual orientation. Monday’s ruling reversed San Diego’s 4th District Court of Appeal, which held in 2006 that Brody and Fenton should have been able to use their religious objections as an affirmative defense at trial. The Supreme Court’s opinion, authored by Justice Joyce Kennard, said the doctors’ actions violated the state’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, which prohibits businesses from discriminating based on sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition or sexual orientation. Kennard also pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court has never exempted individuals expressing religious objections from following “neutral and valid” laws of general applicability. “The First Amendment’s right to the free exercise of religion,” she wrote, “does not exempt defendant physicians here from conforming their conduct to the [Unruh] act’s anti-discrimination requirements even if compliance poses an incidental conflict with defendants’ religious beliefs.”

This week both major candidates are expected to announce their running mates.Dave’s prediction: BOTH will tap emphatic Christians. Both are catering so much to the evangelicals and avoiding seculars like the plague, that both will find nice, white, Christian men to attract them.

BALTIMORE ? After denying Javon Thompson food and water for two days because he wouldn’t say “amen” after meals, the 1-year-old’s caretakers waited for a divine sign that their message had been heard: a resurrection.For more than a week, police say in charging documents describing the scene, the child’s lifeless body lay in the backroom of an apartment. Queen Antoinette, the 40-year-old leader of a group that called itself 1 Mind Ministries, brought in her followers and told them to pray. God, she said, would raise Javon from the dead.Instead, Javon’s body began to decompose.The boy’s mother, Ria Ramkissoon, 21, and four other people, including Trevia Williams, 21, who authorities say are members of the group face first-degree murder charges. But Ramkissoon’s mother and attorney say that she was brainwashed by a cult and acted only at the group leader’s will.Court documents describe a group that operated secretly, dressed all in white and eschewed medical care. Antoinette, also known as Toni Sloan or Toni Ellsberry, called her followers “princes” and “princesses.” And she and her followers were possessive of the children under their care.Children have been killed in similar groups for failing to follow cult teachings, said Rick A. Ross, who has studied cults for 26 years. That appears to have been the case with Javon, who was viewed as a “demon,” according to police statements.

Dawkins wasn’t the first one to point this out, but he did poignantly express that the problem with moderate religions is that it makes way for extremists. This poor child died, because the mother was conditioned by society to obey religious figures, and she picked the wrong one to obey.Of course, the mother had to be mentally unstable in the first place, but there are a LOT of mentally unstable people out there who are trained by religions to follow orders without question. This leads to some believing their children are demons.I hate death. But more than that, I hate needless death. More than that, I hate needless death of innocent children. And this, my dear friends, is why I support the Death Penalty. Fry some cult leaders, and this will stop happening, IMO.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10103521From Blair Scott

This is neck and neck and it looks like the Christians are rallying their troops to hammer the poll, so we might as well hammer back ? let your ?troops? know about this and get it back up at least to 50/50 where it was earlier today. Is the phrase ?In God We Trust? on US currency a violation of the Establishment Clause? The phrase was put on coinage (the penny) as early as 1901, but it was not put on any paper currency until McCarthyism and the 50?s when ?E Pluribus Unum? was replaced.Take the poll: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10103521

I still cross off IGWT when I get the chance. It’s the patriotic (and perfectly legal) thing to do!

Watchdog Group Criticizes Saturday Forum On Faith At Saddleback Church Voters have heard quite enough about the religious views of Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama and don?t need another forum on the presidential candidates and faith, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State.The church-state watchdog group criticized both candidates? decision to take part in the Rev. Rick Warren?s ?Saddleback Civil Forum? this Saturday at his mega-church in Lake Forest, Calif. McCain and Obama will each submit to hour-long questioning by the church pastor.?Campaign 2008 is starting to feel like a Sunday school Bible drill,? said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. ?We?re electing a president, not a national pastor. I don?t see what good it will do for the American people to again hear the candidates spout pious platitudes about their favorite Bible verses or how devout they are.?Candidates should appeal to the voters based on their qualifications for office and their stands on the issues, not their religious beliefs,? Lynn said. ?This event continues the campaign spiral into religious matters. Americans want to hear the candidates? views on important issues such as constitutional rights, public education, the Iraq War and the economy.?

Here is where I usually jump in and give my two cents, but Barry said it perfectly. ’nuff said.The following is provided by TxAtheist and is edited and verified by me:

You can hear the forum on The Word starting at 7 p.m – 9pm (central), 8pm to 10pm EST. Analysis on how the candidates addressed poverty, climate, AIDS and human rights, etc. will follow for 1 hour. Local callers can dial 637-9673 (WORD). Out-of-town listeners may call toll-free (888) 860-9673. … The program is available on FM radio and over the internet at http://www.theword993.com

Where was God?’ ask refugees from Georgia warBy MANSUR MIROVALEV ?ALAGIR, Russia (AP) ? Sarmat Kapisov ran all night through the forest with his family, fleeing the fighting in South Ossetia and headed for the Georgia-Russia border. On his back, the 17-year-old carried his brother, who has cerebral palsy.”It wasn’t easy,” Kapisov said, huddled alongside his mother and seven siblings, who have taken refuge here at an Orthodox convent across the Russian border.The convent director, known as Mother Nonna, said thousands have passed through since the bloodshed began one week ago in the pro-Russian separatist province claimed by Georgia.Most were South Ossetian women and children on their way to a refugee center set up inside a summer camp by Russian authorities. Many of the fathers and older brothers stayed behind to fight.Mother Nonna said she had never seen so many terrified children clinging to their mothers’ skirts.”The most difficult thing was to answer their question: Where was God?” she said. “They had so much fear in their eyes.”

I am not trying to diminish the horror felt by anyone who is displaced from a war being waged by or on their government. However, I did want to mention the whole idea of people being unprepared for real tragedy because they think an invisible man in the sky is somehow in charge.So here is the assertion du jour — religion IS harmful even at a moderate level because it allows the believer to avoid reality, thereby being unprepared for when reality hits. If they expect a miracle, and one never comes, how can they be prepared? There is hope, but then there is crushing disappointment when reality sets in.

Today is my 42nd birthday. Whoopadee-doo. I’m spending it working all day and sleeping in a moderately-priced hotel room alone. Whee.JWs don’t celebrate birthdays, and I think that’s just silly. We all need one day a year to say “MEEEE”. It’s one thing we all have in common; we all have a birthday (actually, a birthday anniversary), and I really find it repugnant that a religion has taken that away from its people.Then I get over it. Too bad. More presents for Meeeeeee!

Cross Is Central Symbol Of Christianity And Must Not Be Secularized By Government, Americans United Tells CourtAU, Allies Say Officials’ Use Of ‘Secular’ Crosses To Memorialize Utah Highway Patrol Officers Is Offensive And Violates Church-State Separation The cross is a Christian symbol and government should not try to use it as a secular memorial marker, Americans United for Separation of Church and State has told a federal appeals court.In a friend-of-the-court brief filed today, Americans United and allied religious leaders and organizations take issue with a federal court decision allowing Utah officials to place crosses along highways to memorialize state highway patrol officers who have died in the line of duty. State officials insisted that the Christian symbol is a secular symbol and can be used regardless of the personal religious beliefs of the officer being honored. U.S. District Judge David Sam ruled in November of 2007 that the cross is a ?secular symbol of death? and held that Utah officials and the Utah Highway Patrol Association can continue to erect the 12-foot crosses.Americans United is asking the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the lower court ruling. The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, said he is offended by the claim that the cross is merely a secular symbol.?The cross is the preeminent symbol of Christianity,? said Lynn, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. ?For the government to claim that the cross is a secular symbol is deeply offensive and betrays a poor understanding of religion and our Constitution.?In its brief, AU points out that the cross has been tied to Christianity for many centuries.?In upholding the display of roadside crosses on public land throughout the State of Utah, the district court embraced the State?s characterization of the cross the clearest and most universally recognized marker of Christianity as nothing more than a ?secular symbol of death,?? asserts the brief. ?This conclusion is historically inaccurate, blind to contemporary realities, and offensive to believers and nonbelievers alike.?The brief in American Atheists, Inc. v. Duncan argues that governmental display of the cross violates the constitutional mandate of government neutrality toward religion.Joining Americans United on the brief are the Anti-Defamation League, the Hindu American Foundation, The Interfaith Alliance, the Union for Reform Judaism and Dr. Eugene Fisher, retired associate director, Secretariat of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

I’m very pleased that this issue has drawn so many allies and so much attention. The whole concept of the “secular cross” is insidious. If the Cross is declared secular, the next step is “secular” crosses on the White House, in the Supreme Court, everywhere, without a hint of government neutrality.Can you think of a time when a cross is secular? If a cross is secular when it?s erected, as in Utah, for dead cops, would you erect one for a dead Jew? Muslim? Atheist? Why not?I spoke about this on the Catholic Channel (Sirius), and the callers were siding with me! CATHOLICS are on OUR SIDE! Did I just type that?