First the new numbers from the Pew Center. Of course this is skewed in the wrong direction, but I can fix that:

two-thirds of adults ages 65 and older say religion is very important to them, compared with just over half of those ages 30 to 49 and just 44% of those ages 18 to 29.

Translation: 56% of the younger generation thinks religion is not very important. That’s more than half, folks!

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Here’s the Catholic Review’s report on the report, which seems to have been pulled out of thin air, unless the report I found is not the one they cited.

Here’s my View: We’re growing AGAIN, they are shrinking AGAIN, and they are panicking AGAIN. Hah.

Maybe because the Bible is completely man-made… and made up? Maybe artifacts like the 1600-year-old Bible, which is dramatically different from the ones currently used, will highlight the fact that the Bible is at very least, changeable, flexible, and subject to man-made decisions? A little proof of fallibility?

LONDON, England (CNN) — The world’s oldest known Christian Bible goes online Monday — but the 1,600-year-old text doesn’t match the one you’ll find in churches today.

Discovered over 160 years ago, the Bible includes two books that are not part of the official New Testament and at least seven books that are not in the Old Testament. The New Testament books are in a different order, and include numerous handwritten corrections — some made as much as 800 years after the texts were written, according to scholars who worked on the project of putting the Bible online.

The changes range from the alteration of a single letter to the insertion of whole sentences. Very important passages are missing, including verses dealing with the resurrection of Jesus, scholars said.

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In an interview with Esquire magazine, Radcliffe risked the US box office prospects of the new Harry Potter film by declaring himself to be an atheist.

In a pronouncement that will dismay America’s religious Right, which has long voiced suspicions about Potter’s “anti-Christian” message, the 19-year-old actor said he did not believe in God.

He also expressed his admiration for Professor Richard Dawkins, the prominent atheist and bete noir of Evangelical Christians.

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More people coming out and using the A-word. Young movie stars, politicians, writers, and just every-day people. The world is changing, the pendulum swinging.

Here’s a great way to show your support. Send emails to newspapers now, or wait for the anti-atheist op/eds to come out and respond. The works needs to hear our support for atheists coming out!

The problem for us is that the Religious Right are scandal by scandal, person by person, taking away people at whom we can laugh. The problem for the Religious Right is they have nobody positive to substitute for their laughable buffoons. Hmmm. What does that say….

American Atheists would like to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy Independence Day. Times are tough, but we have many things for which to celebrate in this country.

Tonight I attended a fireworks display in Red Bank NJ, which is one of the largest in the area, and choreographed to music and simulcast on the radio. One of the songs to which they shot fireworks was Imagine. Very cool.

Anyway, here’s a cute video you may enjoy.

There’s this town in Florida called Ft. Lauderdale. Some of you may have heard of it. About 20,000 atheists live there.

Florida Atheists and Secular Humanists (FLASH), an American Atheists affiliated group led by our Southern Florida Regional Director, put up a terrible sign.

Of course, there are some who can’t stand to have a harmless and positive-message billboard near them. They want to hate, but they have nothing to hate, so they just hate. They make their children drone on about how the sign must come down. They expose their own ignorance to their children, who clearly aren’t interested.

Congrats to Ken Loukinen and FLASH for the billboard and the press generated therefrom. And to those who hate the billboard, stop being so intolerant. The billboards are there because there are atheists there — in your neighborhood. Believe me, you know plenty of atheists, and they need signs like these.

And these — now in Idaho!