France Declares Scientology a Fraud, Not Religion

Isn't this a bit link saying the Strawberry ice cream isn't really ice cream?

Link: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/france/120202/france-labels-scientology-business-not-church

In Honor of Black History Month: Ex-Slave Tells Ex-Master to "Shove it"

This is brilliant and really needs minimal comment

Dayton, Ohio,
August 7, 1865
To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee  

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. 

Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance. I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. 

They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them colored people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. 

I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire. 

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits. Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.
From your old servant, Jourdon Anderson.

Indiana Slouches Toward Idiocy

As was mentioned in an earlier post, the Indiana state senate was scheduled to vote on allowing school districts to require "creationism", aka religious drivel, to be taught in public schools.

They did, and it pasted with 28 out of 50 votes.

Sigh.

I am angry about this but we all know how this will play out.

If it becomes a law, it will be challenged in court, and even if it goes all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court, it will be overturned, but not until enormous amounts of cash are spent defending this rediculous and very harmful law.

The Europeans, Chinese and Indians are breathing down America's collective necks in terms of science education. This type of insanity does not help the situation.

Remember this with the 21at century's "Apple" or Facebook" is invented in Bangalore.

On January 31, 2012, the Indiana Senate voted 28-22 in favor of Senate Bill 89. As originally submitted, SB 89 provided, “The governing body of a school corporation may require the teaching of various theories concerning the origin of life, including creation science, within the school corporation.” On January 30, 2012, however, it was amended in the Senate to provide instead, “The governing body of a school corporation may offer instruction on various theories of the origin of life. The curriculum for the course must include theories from multiple religions, which may include, but is not limited to, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Scientology.”

Full Article: http://ncse.com/news/2012/01/indiana-creationism-bill-passes-senate-007182

Keep your Temples; We Have Greater Things

Alain de Botton, wants to build an
Atheist Temple in London.

Alain de Botton has announced plans to construct a 150 foot high temple to atheism in the heart to London.

He claims that it is a terrible thing that many of our most historic and beautiful buildings were constructed for the worship of the religious and that atheism should have the same.

Mr. de Botton has faced criticism from both the atheist community and the believing public.  Atheists, such as Richard Dawkins object to the wasteful use of such funds, "Atheists don't need temples. I think there are better things to spend this kind of money on. If you are going to spend money on atheism you could improve secular education and build non-religious schools which teach rational, skeptical critical thinking."

The defenders of belief use this fraternal disagreement to attack and skewer atheists in general, “I must say that some of my closest friends are atheists, and they are among the cleverest people I've ever known. In fact, they are so wise that they usually steer clear of matters philosophical, concentrating instead on things like politics, art, law or social commentary. Perhaps they tacitly agree with me, though they'll never admit this, that 'atheist philosopher' is an oxymoron. One can be either an atheist or a philosopher, not both.” (Alexander Boot, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2093778/We-temples-atheism-Mr-Botton.html?ito=feeds-newsxml)

And being used as an attack on Dawkins in specific, “The shrill voice of Dawkins is gradually being marginalized by those of no more faith than him, but who nevertheless perceive mystery in humanity and, while not accepting the presence of God in the world, are prepared to face in the same direction as the rest of us and stand in awe and wonder.” (George Pitcher, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2093852/From-Attenborough-Alain-Botton-faithless-rejecting-shrill-atheism-Dawkins.html?ito=feeds-newsxml)

These attacks come from a deep misunderstanding of what atheism it and is not.  It is true that atheism does not need a temple, but that does not mean that atheists do not like to gather to consider the mysteries of the universe or speak of philosophical issues. The deeply insulting idea that atheists can’t be philosophers (the worst insults are seemly always predicated with the phrase “some of my closest friends”) barely needs refutation except to say that even in the early days of the renaissance the leading humanist of the era and one of its greatest thinkers, Conrad Celtes began questioning the existence of a god over 500 years ago.  In fact, one of the first goals of the early humanists, the first true philosopher in Europe sicnce the fall of the dark ages, was to attack scholasticism; the pseudo-philosophical belief that all forms of thought and philosophy could be reduced to a brach of Christian thought.

When one honestly explores the implications of the quest for knowledge and ethics one could just as easily argue more successfully that atheism is part of the ultimate expression of philosophy.  If we agree with American philosopher John Dewey that philosophy is most useful when based on reason, and if we remember that Christian leaders from St. Augustine to Martin Luther, horror shows that they were, realized that reason is the greatest enemy of faith, we can see that philosophy equals reason, but reason does not equal faith. 

To accuse Dr. Dawkins of lacking wonder at the universe simply because he forthrightly and effectively points out the fallacies of the faithful is to also say that Einstein lacked the ability to conceive of the wonderful awesomeness of time and space or that Sagan dismissed the beauty of the cosmos; they held the same views as Dawkins.  Having awe in the face of reality in all of its fierce, order-from-chaos action and the counter-intuitive laws of the physical realm is much stronger than the fear of a capricious god.

Secular schools, public colleges and universities, community volunteer centers, offices of democratic government, modern hospitals, and the like are all temples to secular humanism which is as like atheism to have no difference.  For me, it is the public library that is my temple of choice; a place where at public expense the knowledge of the world, presented without prejudice or comment, is made available to anyone who asks, presented in a peaceful and unobtrusive environment.

So, no, atheists do not need a temple because the modern world is our cathedral.  No facet of modern life is untouched by the values of the atheist; science, reason, equality before the law, and respect for knowledge. We believe the world that we live in can be made better, that people can choose to improve their condition, and the lot of our existence as human beings can be improved; these are the inherent hopes of a people who do not place the responsibility for their decisions on ephemeral sky fathers or believe that some unknown heaven is more important than the well being of people in the here and now.  These are the values and gifts of secular, humanistic atheists.

So, keep your temples; we’ll take the universe.

A Review of "A Universe From Nothing"

From the AVClub:

"With an afterward by Richard Dawkins, A Universe From Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing is solidly in the New Atheism camp, a cosmologist’s version of Dawkins’ The Blind Watchmaker. Krauss takes several jabs at theologians who insist on fitting science into their preconceived notions of how the universe should work, when they aren’t ignoring science altogether."

Link: http://www.avclub.com/articles/lawrence-m-krauss-a-universe-from-nothing,68195/

The Myth of Jesus

UCF Professor Tells Ignorant Students What Higher Education is Really About

Charles Negy

Charles Negy directly address the impact of students' religious bigotry, small mindedness and irrationality in the college classroom.  Anyone who has ever taught a college class, especially in the humanities, knows that every word he wrote is accurate.

Negy addresses his students in an email and reasonably but sternly takes them to task for wanting university to be like high school and to conform to their pre-conceived notions or beliefs, wanting no challenge to the doctrines instilled by church and parents.

This of course is not what college is for.

The purpose of a university…is to struggle intellectually with some of life’s most difficult topics that might not have one right answer, and try to come to some conclusion what might be “the better answer”…

Link: http://i.imgur.com/6XCBq.png

Charles Negy's webpage: http://www.psych.ucf.edu/faculty_negy.php

Indiana, You're Going to have to Sit Beside the Teacher

An Indiana Senate committee has voted to allow the full senate to vote on whether or not creationism should be taught in public high school science classes.  In fact, it passed 8 to 2.

This might be the dumbest action taken by the Indiana Legislature since 1897 when it tried to redefine the value of Pi as 3.2.

An Indiana Senate committee on Wednesday endorsed teaching creationism in public schools, despite pleas from scientists and religious leaders to keep religion out of science classrooms. Senate Bill 89 allows school corporations to authorize “the teaching of various theories concerning the origin of life” and specifically mentions “creation science” as one such theory. 

State Sen. Scott Schneider, R-Indianapolis, who voted for the measure, said if there are many theories about life’s origins, students should be taught all of them.
But John Staver, professor of chemistry and science education at Purdue University, said evolution is the only theory of life that relies on empirical evidence from scientific investigations. “Creation science is not science,” Staver said. “It is unquestionably a statement of a specific religion.” 

 The Rev. Charles Allen, head of Grace Unlimited, an Indianapolis campus ministry, said students would be served better by teaching religion comparatively, rather than trying to “smuggle it in” to a science course. The Republican-controlled Senate Education Committee nevertheless voted 8-2 to send the legislation to the full Senate.

Obviously, this continues to be a problem because lack the scientific education in both politicians and their constituents.  Specifically the difference between a theory, a hypothesis and a belief:

• A belief is a deeply held idea that requires no reason, observation or analysis.  This has nothing to do with science.
• A hypothesis attempts to connect variables together in an effort to demonstrate that a relationship exists between them.  This is the beginning step of science.
• A theory focuses on explaining why a phenomenon or relationship exists has a process or a "sense of movement, a dynamic element by which one state of affairs leads to another" and is falsifiable, or able to be tested and possibly disproved.  (Special thanks to Marshall University professor Dr. Bobbi Nicholson for her definition of hypothesis and theory)

This is why evolution is a theory; it suggests an explanation for an observable phenomenon that can be tested ( and has proven to be a good descriptor of observations) and has an observable process (natural selection) that is falsifiable .

This is why this is why claiming that one's first name and one's level of success are linked is just a hypothesis; it suggest a relation but not a reason for it.

And why this is just a belief:



Beliefs belong in private organizations, in free speech and in church.  But not in science lesson plans.

Did Romney Dishonor his Atheist Father-in-Law with Baptism?

"Temple Garments" or Mormon holy underwear.

Salt Lake City is worth a mass (of holy underwear)?

"One of the creepier corners of Mitt Romney's uncannily flawless life story is the fact that he not only drew his bride, Ann Romney, over to his weird religion: He converted her entire family as well. This despite the fact that Ann's father, Edward Davies, was a committed atheist who insisted on raising his children without religion."

"Mormons, of course, are known for their habit of posthumously converting dead souls. They also believe that families are reunited in eternity after death. So the incentive for Ann Romney to convert Edward Davies in death so that they may one day frolic together in the interplanetary afterlife was presumably fairly powerful. Did she posthumously baptize him, despite his belief while he lived that such a baptism and the beliefs that undergird it are pure "hogwash"?"

Full Article: http://gawker.com/5879278/did-mitt-romney-convert-his-dead-atheist-father+in+law-to-mormonism

UPDATE: Yes, they did.  http://gawker.com/5879888/yes-the-romneys-converted-mitts-dead-atheist-father+in+law-to-mormonism

Atheist Forced To Stop Attending School

"That's all right, that's ok, they going to work for you some day."

 That is an old football cheer that small, smart schools often used when getting pummeled by more athletic students from less successful high schools. While a little rough, it does have some truth in this case. Jessica Ahlquist will be a success; a statistically safe bet as the more successful you are the less of a belief in god you are likely to have. Once you escape that crappy little town you will never need to interact with these Neanderthals again.  To borrow a phrase it does get better.

 And SHAME on teachers and staff who let this type of thing happen in their sight.   They need to be fired and never allowed to teach in public school again.

 Jessica Ahlquist, the 16-year-old Cranston West High School junior, who took on the Prayer Banner said she is not going to school for the time being. Ahlquist, an atheist, said at school she has needed police protection the entire school day and is constantly being bullied by other students. “Even just in homeroom people screaming under God at me during the pledge of allegiance. It’s just a really hostile atmosphere. I’ve had police escorts to all of my classes all day. It is very difficult to concentrate on school in an atmosphere like that.”

Full Article: http://630wpro.com/Article.asp?id=2381209&spid=37719

Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice

You ain't from around here, are you?

"There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy."

Full Article: http://www.livescience.com/18132-intelligence-social-conservatism-racism.html

Run!

Presented without comment.

Bigoted Parents Want Homophobia in Schools

I think we need to stop calling people like this conservative.  That gives them too much cover and respect.  They are bigots and religious extremists.

"A group of conservative Christian parents are demanding Minnesota's Anoka-Hennepin School District teach "ex-homosexual" therapy and "gay-related-immune deficiency" (or "GRID"), the Twin Cities Daily Planet reports.

 The demands come as the school district is in the middle of changing their "sexual orientation curriculum policy," which students claim produces a "hostile school environment" by banning the discussion of LGBT issues.

 Zack Ford of Think Progress writes that the parent's mention of GRID makes the proposal "particularly offensive," since the the term hasn't been used by the medical community to describe HIV/AIDS for over 25 years, making it outdated and inaccurate."

Full Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/25/conservative-parents-demand-school-teach-ex-gay-therapy_n_1231409.html

Video:

10 Popular Misconceptions Debunked

Why Coexistence May Not be Possible

Isn't the entire point of monotheistic religion that those who believe in a particular religion are the only ones who will be rewarded in the afterlife and that all others will go to hell? Certainly, “polite” believers will not go out of their way to point that out, but it is very clear in their holy books that disbelievers are destined for eternal torture. If someone is required to believe that all but their co-religionists are hell bound, regardless of how ethical they are or how much they say they love them, I find it difficult to believe that such a person can treat “non-believers” with respect.

To quote truth-saves.com, “Most Christians are Moderate Christians, those who take the Bible in moderation. They tend to only treat select claims as truth, the claims related to what they are seeking answers on. Regardless they still claim the Bible, in its entirety, is the inerrant inspired word of an infallible god. Because of this they are still making it socially acceptable to act upon all of the Bible's claims as truth.”

 I propose that when you, the polite, sane, moderate Christian claim that the Bible is the word of a god, you are guilty of giving intellectual cover and complete license to those who take the entire Bible at its word (instead of cherry-picking the nice parts) to enact its Neolithic dictates in all of their barbarity.

So, can they coexist?

Washington to Be 7th State to Approve Marriage Equality

43 to go...

"OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Washington's Legislature has enough votes to legalize gay marriage with a statement from Democratic Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen Monday who said she will support the measure, becoming the 25th vote needed to pass the bill out of the Senate. The House already has enough support, and Gov. Chris Gregoire has endorsed the plan. 

Washington would become the seventh state to legalize same-sex marriages, following New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont."

Full Article:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/washington-gay-marriage_n_1224397.html

Being an Atheist Can be Dangerous

This is just one more reason so many free thinker are afraid to come out of the closet.

My One Law for All Co-Spokesperson Anne Marie Waters was to speak at a meeting on Sharia Law and Human Rights at the University of London last night.

 It was cancelled by the Queen Mary Atheism, Secularism and Humanism Society organisers after police had to be called in due to Islamist threats. One Islamist filmed everyone at the meeting and announced he would hunt down those who said anything negative about Islam’s prophet. 

Outside the hall, he threatened to kill anyone who defamed the prophet. Reference was made to the Jesus and Mo cartoon saga at UCL. The University’s security guard – a real gem –arrived first only to blame the speaker and organisers rather than those issuing death threats. He said: ‘If you will have these discussions, what do you expect?’ Err, to speak without being threatened with death maybe?

Full Article: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2012/01/to-be-atheist-is-an-offense/

FYI: Does God Want Me To Have Sex?

From Tom the Dancing Bug at Boing Boing

Kentucky: Creationism More Important than Education

Proposed Ark Encounter Theme Park

So massive cuts to public and higher education are ok so long as a "theme park" based on an infantile belief in Noah's Arc gets eight figure tax breaks. And people make fun of West Virginia...

 "Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear just released his budget for 2012-2013 and it looks like he’s investing in the dumbing down of his citizens: The budget makes $286 million in cuts, including a 6.4 percent cut to a higher education system that has been plagued by funding cuts and rising tuition for years. But guess who’s getting a tax break? Ken Ham and his extension-of-the-Creation-Museum theme park: At the same time, the $43 million tax break Kentucky approved for a Bible-themed amusement park — which will include a 500-foot by 75-foot reproduction of Noah’s Ark — goes into effect for the first time under Beshear’s budget. In addition, the budget includes $11 million to improve a highway interchange near the park. Proponents of the park, Beshear included, have claimed it will boost tourism and create jobs, but those assumptions are based on a report done by the park’s developers."

Full Article: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/01/21/kentuckys-governor-wants-citizens-to-get-less-educated/

and: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/21/ark-encounter-kentucky-budget-tax-breaks_n_1220806.html

Go Ahead and Live in Sin! Science Says It’s Okay!

As many counselors, police, educators, Republican presidential candidates and a growing number of parents already know, if people would just live together for a while before deciding to get married, (with a liberal use of birth control) there would be much less legal drama in the world.

"There are plenty of nice reasons to get married, but increasingly the basic experience of being married doesn't seem all that different from simply living together without ever making it legal—or living in sin, as our grandmothers like to call it. Now there's some new research that proves that the line between marriage and cohabitation has been blurred to such an extent that it's barely visible."

Full Article: http://jezebel.com/5877438/go-ahead-and-live-in-sin-science-says-its-ok

American Public Believes Atheist = Rapist

She doesn't seem very worried.

Christians are often offended  when atheists and other free thinkers take measures, rhetorically and legally, to defend themselves and their civil rights.  Too often believers say that the free thought community is over sensitive and has a persecution complex.  Her is one more piece of evidence that one of the last groups you can hate with impunity in America are the Free Thinkers.

In a new study, the only group participants found as untrustworthy as nonbelievers were rapists. According to the Vancouver Sun, University of British Columbia researchers conducted a total of six experiments on 350 Americans and 420 UBC students, of varying religions (67% of the Americans were Christian). In one experiment, they presented participants with the story of an "archetypal freerider" who cheats and steals a lot, and asked what group they thought that person might belong to. Participants were more likely to categorize the person as an atheist than as a Christian, Jew, Muslim, gay person, or feminist (some of the groups were chosen because they were "often described as threatening to majority religious values and morality"). Only rapists fared as poorly — participants were about as likely to put the "freerider" in this group. According to the study, "People did not significantly differentiate atheists from rapists."

Full Article: http://jezebel.com/5864303/people-think-atheists-are-just-as-bad-as-rapists-christ?tag=religion

Indonesian Atheist Faces Jail for Disbelief

This is disgusting. What is sad is that Indonesia is usually cite, along with Turkey, as an Islamic majority nation that is not given to extremism.  I guess that doesn't apply when atheism is concerned.  I fear many American have the same opinion, namely that belief in a god, nearly any god, can be accepted, but atheism is usually targeted for out right and public hatred.

After surviving an attack from an angry mob, an Indonesian atheist is facing jail time for posting the phrase "God doesn't exist" on his Facebook page.

The man, who is being identified only as Alexander, posted the message on the social networking site and was later reported to authorities by the Indonesian Council of Ulema, an Islamic religious authority, according to the Telegraph.

Alexander arrived for work at a government office Wednesday, where he was met and attacked by a mob of people upset by his beliefs. He was arrested on Friday and charged with blasphemy against Islam, a crime punishable by up to five years in jail.

According to a local police chief, Alexander said he's not going down without a fight. "He said he realized what he had said and was prepared to lose his job to defend his beliefs," Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Chairul Azis told the Jakarta Post.

Full Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/20/atheist-attacked-faces-jail-time-facebook-god_n_1219778.html?ref=religion

Mexico Bans Miracle Cures

Mexico gets the gold star for today.  I think it would be a mark of civilization if this ban were exported to other nations and were expanded to include faith healers, televangelists, Christian Scientists and anyone else who makes "miracle" claims for health trouble that can be clearly measured.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico enacted tough new rules Thursday to ban advertising of "miracle cures" for weight loss, sagging body parts and more serious illnesses like prostate ailments, chronic fatigue and even cancer.

Mexico has a long history of faith healers and home remedies, but the problem has come to a head in the last few years with a constant stream of ads on television for more "scientific" sounding creams that supposedly lift or enlarge breast and buttocks, magnets that help users lose weight, or pills and powders that cure gastric problems or diabetes.

In a country with levels of diabetes and obesity among the highest in the world, the combination of a sick population and fake cures can be deadly. "This is a fraud," said regulator Mikel Arriola, whose Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks is the agency in charge of regulating pharmaceuticals in Mexico.

"It is a very serious public health problem, because people take these things instead of going to the doctor ... they lose time in getting treatment or getting cured." Under the new rules, which take effect in 30 days, authorities can order media outlets to remove such advertising within 24 hours, and it steeply raises fines that can be levied on manufacturers and distributors that advertise the products.

The rules require that any product making a therapeutic claim will first have to prove it is listed in Mexico's pharmaceutical register. The register requires scientific proof of effectiveness and a scientific description of how the medicine or medical apparatus achieves its claimed effects. 

 That is probably not going to be possible for products like "Acu-Mag." Its advertising purports that when the tiny pad with eight bumps is placed in the outer ear and massaged a few minutes each day, it helps customers lose weight through what ads call "auricular therapy" — an alternative medicine supposedly derived from acupuncture.

Full Article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i51uyunh6cgqpTlo21NQXFVYXOkA?docId=24732b9fbd8c466caf32fe81cf286e4e

De-Baptism Movement Spreads in Europe

Bravo for people like this in finding a clear and honest way to register their adult decision regarding a faith that was forced upon them as a child.

PARIS — A decade ago, Rene Lebouvier requested that his local Catholic church erase his name from the baptismal register. The church noted his demands on the margins of its records and the chapter was closed. But the clergy abuse scandals rocking Europe, coupled with Pope Benedict XVI’s conservative stances on contraception, hardened Lebouvier’s views. 

Last October, a court in Normandy ruled in favor of his lawsuit to have his name permanently deleted from church records — making the 71-year-old retiree the first Frenchman to be officially “de-baptized.” 

“I took the judicial route to get myself de-baptized because of the church’s excesses,” said Lebouvier, speaking by telephone from his village of Fleury, near the D-Day beaches. “It’s a sort of honesty toward the church because they have a guy on their register who doesn’t believe in God.” 

Lebouvier’s case is among a growing wave of de-baptisms in Europe, one of the most visible manifestations of the continent’s secular drift. 

Websites offering informal de-baptism certificates have mushroomed. Other Christians are formally breaking from the church by opting out of state church taxes. “The movement is happening across Europe,” said Anne Morelli, who heads a center studying religion and secularity at the Free University of Brussels.

“It was very apparent during 2011 — in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Austria. It is obviously related to the scandals of pedophile priests, but it has been going on for some time.” While there are no official statistics, experts and secular activists count the numbers of de-baptisms in the tens of thousands. It’s a phenomenon that has touched Protestant as well as Catholic communities.

Full Article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/flood-of-de-baptisms-worries-european-church-leaders/2012/01/18/gIQACX3m8P_story.html

Mother Not Allowed to Donate Books to Son's School

This is why you exclude all religious material outside of critical academic student from public institutions. Because if you allow one, you must allow them all. However, even if you did allow all religions equal access to students, you will just be create a charged environment for religious confrontation and strife. Don't kids already have enough to confront without being proxies for their parents battle over their imaginary friends?

WEAVERVILLE, N.C. -- A North Carolina mother says her son's school is refusing books supportive of her pagan beliefs after last month offering Bibles.

Buncombe County school officials are not accepting donations that could be viewed as advocating a religion while attorneys review policies. 

Ginger Strivelli says that's a change that blocks her from donating books affirming her pagan beliefs to her son's North Windy Ridge school in Weaverville. 

Strivelli says the school's principal had said she would handle all donated religious books in the same way as the donated Bibles made available to children who wanted them. 

Strivelli says her fifth-grade son felt peer pressure to collect the Bible he brought home. She says if schools allow one religion a place in schools they should be open to all religions.

Religious Employers Must Cover Birth Control

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

Because your term of employment should not make you eligible for discrimination.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Many church-affiliated institutions will have to cover free birth control for employees, the Obama administration announced Friday in an election-year move that outraged religious groups, fueling a national debate about the reach of government.

 In a concession, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said nonprofit institutions such as church-affiliated hospitals, colleges and social service agencies will have one additional year to comply with the requirement, issued in regulations under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.  

"I believe this proposal strikes the appropriate balance between respecting religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services," Sebelius said in a statement. Yet the concession was unlikely to stop a determined effort by opponents to block or overturn the rule. 

If they fail, some predicted that religious employers would simply drop coverage for their workers, opting instead to pay fines to the federal government under the health care law. "Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience," said New York Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

"This shouldn't happen in a land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights." Officials said the administration's ruling was carefully considered, after reviewing more than 200,000 comments from interested parties and the public. 

The one-year extension, they said, responds to concerns raised by religious employers about making adjustments. Administration officials stressed that individual decisions about whether or not to use birth control, and what kind, remain in the hands of women and their doctors.

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