The Atheism News Magazine

:: Once upon a time, animal sacrifice was an important part of Hindu life, Catholic priests weren't celibate and visual depictions of the Prophet Muhammad were part of Islamic art. And soon some churches in the UK may be marrying gay couples. How do religions manage to change their mind? History shows that any religion that refuses to change dies out. But what about those religions that don't have living prophets - how do they change? ::

:: Before he was elected Pope Francis, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio spent fourteen years as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina. During that time he built a strong friendship with Abraham Skorka, an Argentinian rabbi and biophysicist. Together they promoted interreligious dialogue on faith and reason, seeking to build bridges among Catholicism, Judaism, and the world at large. Last month, Image Books released the English translation of On Heaven and Earth, originally published in Argentina in 2010. The book contains several conversations between both men where they discuss various theological and worldly issues, including God, fundamentalism, abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, and globalization. ::

:: A new national study shows that while Canada remains overwhelmingly Christian, Canadians are turning their backs on organized religion in ever greater numbers. Observers noted that among the survey’s most striking findings is that one in four Canadians, or 7.8 million people, reported they had no religious affiliation at all. That was up sharply from 16.5 percent from the 2001 census, and 12 percent in 1991. The Canadian trend seems to mirror but even exceed levels of non-affiliation in the United States. A 2012 survey from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life pegged the ratio of religiously unaffiliated Americans at just under 20 percent. ::

:: The Tom-Cruise-iest religion on the planet took a break from their attempt to destroy free speech to celebrate the grand-mega opening of their new ironically named Ideal Organization in Portland by producing the worst photoshopped picture this side of the Iranian military. ::

I took an abstinence pledge hoping it would ensure a strong marriage. Instead, it led to a quick divorce

Markus K. didn’t set out in life to father 24 children. He set out to be a priest — but that dream came to an end in 1994, when someone reported to his seminary that he was gay, and they threw him out. But it was then, he told Irene Kiebner, that he saw an bulletin board note from a lesbian seeking a sperm donor. He said he met the couple in 2003 before agreeing to donate, but that they successfully conceived a boy after only two tries. The women’s midwife eventually became the mother of K.’s fourth child, as word spread in “the scene” that K.’s help was “uncomplicated” and the women conceived quickly.

What do you get when a British atheist schools Christian Americans on their country's history? EssenceOfThought's most recent video, a response to the viral video "The Thaw", produced by Idaho-base...

On Tuesday, Tim Lambesis, the singer for Christian heavy metal band As I Lay Dying, was arrested for allegedly attempting to hire a hitman to murder his estranged wife.

:: Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped and raped for nearly a year when she was 14, never thought about running away from her captor despite having opportunities to do it, and part of the reason had to do with her religious upbringing. She was raised in a religious household and recalled a school teacher who spoke once about abstinence and compared sex to chewing gum. “I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m that chewed up piece of gum, nobody re-chews a piece of gum, you throw it away.’ And that’s how easy it is to feel like you no longer have worth, you no longer have value,” Smart said." ::

A group of atheists in Utah is considering taking legal action after the owners of a Christian printing company refused to print T-shirts for an LGBT Pride Parade, saying that the anti-God message “demeaned” their beliefs.

Atheists of Utah said that it was unaware that TIKI Printing had objections to doing business with non-Christian groups when it contacted the company to create pink T-shirts with the message “Gotta Be Real Cuz God Ain’t!”

“I found it quite shocking that an organization that stated that they were Christian would not do business with someone because they were not Christian,” Atheists of Utah member Connie Anast told KUTV.

Area atheists are gathering, for companionship and to offer their services to the community.

Religious believers like to claim that nature shows characteristics of having been "intelligently" designed and this then qualifies as evidence for the existence of a (divine) designer. What about all of the examples of "unintelligent" design around us, though? What about all of the obvious problems and errors?

The desperate efforts to avoid dealing with those aspects of the natural world help reveal that the project is more about theology than science. Only theology attempts to "understand" God by explaining away or ignoring contradictions and errors, for example by pretending that there must be some grand plan so what appears to be bad design must actually be very good.

:: Pope Francis appears to have been captured on video performing an exorcism in St Peter’s Square. The astonishing footage, taken immediately after Pentecostal mass on Sunday 19th May, shows the Pontiff approach the second of two wheelchair bound people, whose face is pixelled out. After a priest leans across the boy or young man to tell Francis something, the Pope’s expression becomes more serious, the voice-over notes. He then grips the top of the subject’s head firmly and is seen pushing him down into his wheel chair. As this is happening the Pontiff recites an intense prayer, and the boy’s mouth drops wide open and he exhales sharply. ::

:: Christianity could be facing a catastrophic collapse in Britain according to official figures suggesting it is declining 50 per cent faster than previously thought. A new analysis of the 2011 census shows that a decade of mass immigration helped mask the scale of decline in Christian affiliation among the British-born population – while driving a dramatic increase in Islam, particularly among the young. It suggests that only a minority of people will describe themselves as Christians within the next decade, for first time. Meanwhile almost one in 10 under 25s in Britain is now a Muslim. ::

:: The Arizona House yesterday passed a bill that would allow anyone to discriminate against anyone for any reason, especially on the grounds of religious liberty. The bill, designed to allow private businesses the legal right to discriminate against LGBT people by citing their personal religious objections to homosexuality, overrules Arizona’s current anti-discrimination statutes. The bill, whose chief sponsor is Rep. Steve Yarbrough (image, above,) passed the House by a 32-24 vote, and has been transmitted to the Arizona Senate. All House Democrats voted against the bill. ::

:: A youth minister attempting to procure a 14-year-old girl for sex was among the 92 people arrested in Orlando, Florida during a four-day undercover operation targeting the area’s sex trade. Youth Minister Samuel Yoon, 45, of the *Holy Cows* youth group of New Community Mission Church in San Leandro, California was arrested when he made arrangements to meet with a person who he thought was a 14-year-old girl, but who was actually a Polk County Detective. Yoon is charged with traveling to meet a minor for sex and use of a two-way communication device to commit a felony. ::

:: The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, is to set up an independent inquiry to investigate allegations of child abuse by a senior cleric. The late Robert Waddington, who was Dean of Manchester Cathedral between 1984 and 1990, is alleged to have abused several boys in the UK and abroad. It has been reported that in 1999 the then Archbishop of York, David (now Lord) Hope, was told that Waddington had abused a pupil while he was the headteacher at a school in Queensland, Australia. And in 2003, a former choirboy at Manchester Cathedral claimed he had been abused by Waddington in the 1980s. ::

Cambridge, Massachusetts Arguably the bluest spot in the bluest state in the union, Cambridge, MA, is creating community based committees to monitor Catholic churches. The city council voted 8-1 in favor of what is being heralded as Our Children, Our Community city ordinance. The ordinance utilizes a neighborhood watch model where the city is divided into zones. Each zone has one Catholic church in it. The goal of these committees is to prevent priestly indiscretions with children and guarantee that if any do occur,  then the police and proper social service agencies are immediately notified.

Archbishop accused of not reporting claims made against former dean of Manchester to police at the time

The Pew Research Center just issued a report on Islamic beliefs: “The World’s Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society”. The researchers surveyed over 38,000 people in one-on-one interviews in 39 countries—all countries having more than 10 million Muslims.  Unfortunately, they left out Saudi Arabia and Iran, where, they note, “political sensitivities or security concerns prevented opinion research among Muslims.” This alone suggests that including those countries would have given the data an even more extremist slant than they had.

Cheesy American evangelical culture, it seems, was a trend that swept America but now that people are beginning to realize it’s not a good look, they’re quietly putting it away and pretending in never happened. It’s like the Macarena, except hateful to women, gays, and science. Or that’s the argument being offered by Daniel D’Addario in Salon, in a piece about how Tim Tebow might be the last openly fundamentalist (which is what he really means, since there are openly evangelical celebrities who aren’t necessarily aligned with the Christian right) mainstream celebrity—and he just got shitcanned.

:: A mother in Michigan has made it her mission to have a "pornographic" book being taught at her daughter's middle school pulled from the curriculum. That book? _The Diary of a Young Girl_ by *Anne Frank*. Gail Horalekv does not want her middle school-age daughter reading the "pornographic version" of The Diary of Anne Frank. What portion of the book does she find so obscene, and what message would censoring the book convey? Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian break it down. ::

In most countries, religious people tend to be happier and less depressed, and it's often suggested that religion somehow provides a happiness boost and protects against depression.

Maybe, so the thought process goes, religious belief alone is enough to perk people up, but even if it doesn't then participating in religious gatherings, and the social support that goes with it - well surely that's got to help.

It's an attractive idea, but the problem is that it's really difficult to unpick cause and effect. Maybe it's simply that depressed people stop being religious. That's certainly what a study that came out last year suggested.