SCA President Tries “Under God” Case in Mass. Supreme Court Today
Sep 4, 2013 · 17 

The Secular Coalition for America today expressed support for the plaintiff in the case "Doe v. Acton-Boxborough Regional School District." Secular Coalition for America President, David Niose, attorney for the plaintiff, today will present oral arguments before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in the case. The case challenges a state law that requires daily school-sponsored and teacher-led …

No adverse effects in volunteers following Phase I clinical trial of Sumagen AIDS vaccine
Sep 4, 2013 · 8 

Sumagen Canada Inc and Western University announced today that the Phase I Clinical Trial (SAV CT 01) of the first and only preventative HIV vaccine based on a genetically modified killed whole virus (SAV001-H) has been successfully completed with no adverse effects in all patients. Antibody production was also boosted after vaccination.  Developed by Dr. …

Is Atheism a religion?
Sep 4, 2013 · 55 

Listen to the program at the link below Do Atheists deserve religious protection? The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal says yes, declaring Atheism is a creed that deserves the same religious protections as other recognized faiths. Last year a secular church opened in Calgary. There's a push to have atheist chaplainsin the Canadian and American military. Next month is 'Super …

Debunking Christianity: Questions In Genesis: Ken Ham’s Creationist Shtick
Sep 4, 2013 · 20 

I have a confession to make. Over a decade ago, I took my family to a Ken Ham creationism event. My kids were taught that dinosaurs and humans coexisted, a few thousand years ago, and they also learned a magic phrase – one guaranteed to stop evolutionists in their tracks. More on that later. In …

Atheist Alliance of America 2013 National Convention: Steven Pinker
Sep 4, 2013 · 15 

Steven Pinker receives the Richard Dawkins Award at the Atheist Alliance of America convention Dr. Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist and one of the world's foremost writers on language, mind, and human nature. Currently Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, Pinker has also taught at Stanford and MIT. …

Language and tool-making skills evolved at the same time
Sep 4, 2013 · 3 

Research by the University of Liverpool has found that the same brain activity is used for language production and making complex tools, supporting the theory that they evolved at the same time. Researchers from the University tested the brain activity of 10 expert stone tool makers (flint knappers) as they undertook a stone tool-making task …

Atheist Alliance of America 2013 National Convention: Andy Thompson
Sep 3, 2013

J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., MD (Andy), is a Trustee of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science and a staff psychiatrist for Counseling and Psychological Services at the University of Virginia Student Health Center, as well as the University of Virginia's Institute for Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy. Thomson also has his own private …

Are atheists smarter and humbler?
Sep 3, 2013 · 20 

What should we make of a recent study that, like earlier ones, says atheists are more intelligent than religious believers? This latest is really a study of 63 individual studies, in which 53 showed less religiosity among the more intelligent participants. Hmmm. Most atheists, myself included, have a skeptical nature and want to delve deeper into such …

Young Students Against Bad Science
Sep 3, 2013 · 14 

Your parents may have had to walk uphill, both ways, to get to school. But as ideological warfare threatens the teaching of climate science and evolution in many schools, it is clear that today’s students face their own obstacles on the road to a respectable science education — and some are speaking out. For his …

Do Christians, Muslims and Jews worship the same God?
Sep 3, 2013 · 34 

Sunni and Shia Muslims are killing each other in several nations, most notably in Syria's escalating civil war. Coptic Christians churches are being torched in Egypt. In Israel, what passes for peace talks has restarted after years of murder and brutality. Religion is a common thread in each conflict. But why? Don’t these folks worship the same deity? After all, …

In Texas and beyond, hot spots for vaccine refusers alarm officials
Sep 3, 2013 · 8 

An outbreak of measles among unimmunized members of a Texas megachurch is fueling new health worries about pockets of vaccine-wary parents — just as more than 50 million public school kids head back to class across the nation. More possible measles cases are being reviewed in Tarrant County, Texas, where at least 21 people have …

Eugenie C. Scott Fights the Teaching of Creationism in Schools
Sep 3, 2013 · 9 

Eugenie C. Scott’s journey to the front lines of the evolution wars began in 1974, when James Gavan, a physical anthropologist at the University of Missouri, accepted an invitation to debate Duane Gish, a biochemist and a leader in the creationist movement. At the time, Dr. Scott was a newly minted professor of physical anthropology …