20th Dec 2007 : For the Love of Christ

Justin Fatica yells, threatens and humiliates teens into finding Jesus. You got a problem with that?

Justin Fatica has a cross to bear, and last year he did it in front of more than 60,000 American teens. The 27-year-old self-proclaimed prophet is hellbent on "raising up warriors for the Lord," and finds his recruits on the fraying edges of the MP3 generation. In "Hard as Nails," an HBO documentary by David Holbrooke (producer of the documentary "The Trials of Henry Kissinger" and son of former U.N. ambassador Richard Holbrooke), Fatica's MO is more akin to the "Scared Straight!" phenomenon of the early '80s than the traditional Roman Catholic sermons he grew up with in Erie, Pa.

20th Dec 2007 : 2007, a bad year for God squadders

It was the believers that did most to discredit religion this year, not the atheists

20th Dec 2007 : CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Al Qaeda has invited journalists to send questions to its No. 2 figure, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in the first such offer by the increasingly media-savvy terror network to "interview" one of its leaders since the 9-11 attacks.

20th Dec 2007 : The leader of the world's Anglicans has described the Christmas story of the three wise men as nothing but a "legend" and says not all followers must believe in the virgin birth of Jesus.

20th Dec 2007 : The whale is descended from a deer-like animal that lived 48 million years ago, according to fossil evidence.

19th Dec 2007 : TOPEKA, Kan. — A foundation that has sued the military alleging widespread violations of religious freedom said Tuesday that it has evidence showing that soldiers are pressured to adopt fundamentalist Christian beliefs.

19th Dec 2007 : New Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has answered "no" when asked on BBC radio if he believed in God.

18th Dec 2007 : The ad for electronic goods retailers Betta Electrical recreates the Christian nativity scene, showing three wise men offering gifts to baby Jesus as he lies in the manger.

18th Dec 2007 : Please enjoy this weeks flea, compliments of the religious backlash.

18th Dec 2007 : Richard Dawkins shares his thoughts on Christmas.

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18th Dec 2007 : A controversial Christmas card reading "O come all ye faithless" has been strongly criticized by Christians as an "ill judged and insensitive joke." Borders book stores began giving away the card free with every copy of Richard Dawkins' well known atheist work, The God Delusion, this Christmas.

18th Dec 2007 : The number of states refusing federal money for "abstinence-only" sex education programs jumped sharply in the past year as evidence mounted that the approach is ineffective.

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17th Dec 2007 : I thought I'd post a little full-quality clip of The Four Horsemen discussion on Christmas.

17th Dec 2007 : What with all the crowds and the shopping and the formulation of complex family Christmas treaties, you may have missed the enchanting news about Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion. In a good mood Professor Dawkins dismisses all faith as "harmless nonsense... the great cop-out". In a bad mood he tends to call it a wicked, "infectious virus". He is not shy to air his views on the subject.

17th Dec 2007 : It's perfectly reasonable to reject a candidate because of his religious views.

17th Dec 2007 : Sam Harris is best known for his barn-burning 2004 attack on religion, The End of Faith, which spent 33 weeks on the New York Times best-seller List. The book's sequel, Letter to a Christian Nation also came out in editions totalling hundreds of thousands. Last Monday, however, the combative Californian produced a shorter (seven pages) and seemingly calmer publication that will be a hit if it reaches 10,000 readers [note from Josh: we've had 75,000 unique visitors since last Tuesday when it was posted here] : "Functional Neuroimaging of Belief, Disbelief and Uncertainty." It appears in the respected journal Annals of Neurology. And Harris, 40, claims it has little if any connection to his popular two books. Believers, however, may draw their own conclusions — and may want to read his subsequent neurological studies even more carefully.

17th Dec 2007 : Scientist Richard Dawkins, an atheist known worldwide for arguing against the existence of God, has described himself as a "cultural Christian".

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17th Dec 2007 : It has been 50 years since scientists first created DNA in a test tube, stitching ordinary chemical ingredients together to make life's most extraordinary molecule. Until recently, however, even the most sophisticated laboratories could make only small snippets of DNA -- an extra gene or two to be inserted into corn plants, for example, to help the plants ward off insects or tolerate drought.

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16th Dec 2007 : EDINBURGH — We may never know exactly why 16-year-old Aqsa Parvez was strangled in Msissauga this week. Her father, Muhammad, has been charged with murder, and he is, by all accounts, a very religious man, whereas his daughter didn't want to cover her head in the style favoured by Muslims in his native Pakistan.

16th Dec 2007 : The latest salvo in creationism's increasingly ferocious battle with evolution is about to be fired in Lancashire.

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15th Dec 2007 : Texas' debate over teaching evolution is going to college.

15th Dec 2007 : December 25th is a date to celebrate not because it is the disputed birthday of the "son of God" but because it is the actual birthday of one of the world's greatest men

14th Dec 2007 : On the 30th of September 2007, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens sat down for a first-of-its-kind, unmoderated 2-hour discussion, convened by RDFRS and filmed by Josh Timonen.

14th Dec 2007 : Richard Dawkins has always asserted the irrationality of belief in God and the grievous harm it has inflicted on society.

13th Dec 2007 : An English backpacker who killed a Scottish tourist at a NSW caravan park after a row over creationism versus evolution has been sentenced to a minimum three years' jail.

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13th Dec 2007 : When they talk astronomy, you can almost be sure they will trot out long-outdated ideas, ridiculous twists of logic, and outright lies. And now you can find all these and more in a series of videos pointed out by Sadly, No!

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13th Dec 2007 : All worldviews are merely paradigms, narratives having no more inherent value than any other narrative. (Postmodernist nonsense)

13th Dec 2007 : A universe that follows "laws" implies a "law giver" and our ability to comprehend those laws is evidence of the divine purpose of the Universe. Or alternatively: A rational universe implies a creator.

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13th Dec 2007 : Why do atheists care about what others believe when it doesn't affect atheists? Or alternatively: Why do atheists care about something they claim not to believe in?

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13th Dec 2007 : Our priorities in the West are wrong. Secularism is what we should be spreading across the globe

12th Dec 2007 : Joe Ratzinger, who calls himself "pope bendict XVI", recently issued an encyclical arguing against atheism and outright blaming it for most of history's atrocities.

12th Dec 2007 : Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian
faith.

12th Dec 2007 : Islam's compatibility with democracy, the rule of law and freedom of speech is a subject of immense salience and importance in the early 21st century. In the Royal Society of Arts in London, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who lives under a death threat imposed by Muslim fundamentalists, debates this problem with Timothy Garton-Ash, who has in the past criticised her for being an 'enlightenment fundamentalist'.