atheism

There was an interesting article on the Huffington Post yesterday about an atheist who recently converted to Christianity. So who is this atheist? Surely, he must be a prominent scientist, right? Is he the author of an atheist book, a prominent atheist blogger, a well-known atheist activist, or the leader of an atheist organization? No, he is just some random 63 year-old guy. Apparently, it is such a rare occurrence when an atheist converts to Christianity that it has become a newsworthy event.

The now former atheist, Patrick Greene, was called an activist because he threatened to sue to get a nativity scene removed from his county courthouse. No lawsuit was ever actually filed. What the media failed to cover was that Greene threatened to sue a lot of people and that atheists within the local atheist community consider him to have a persecution complex after he threatened to sue Christian apologist Ray Comfort over a bumper sticker promoting National Atheist Day, which Greene found offensive.

Greene gave two reasons for his recent conversion. The first was that Christians raised money for him to help with living expenses. While that is certainly a noble gesture on the part of the Christians, it doesn’t speak well for Greene whose believes appear to be for sale to the highest bidder.

The second reason given by Greene for his conversion is a profound misunderstanding and lack of knowledge concerning the science of evolution.

Source : The Examiner : Read the whole story here:

A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of secularism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: the pope, politicians from both the Conservative and Labour parties, Melanie Phillips ...

It seems odd to borrow the opening words of Marx and Engel's the Communist Manifesto to describe secularism and to find them so apt. For someone such as myself who has always seen the secularist ideal as the most benign legacy of the Enlightenment, it's a bit like discovering that your cuddly teddy bear is being portrayed as a rampaging grizzly.

But there is no doubt that secularism is increasingly seen as a threat to liberty rather than its stoutest defender. Conservative party chairman Lady Warsi is the latest to raise the alarm, speaking of her "fear" that "a militant secularisation is taking hold of our societies". She pulls no punches in claiming that "at its core and in its instincts it is deeply intolerant" and that it "demonstrates similar traits to totalitarian regimes".

Source : The Guardian : Read the full story here :

A Virginia lawmaker is calling on the Air Force to reverse a decision to remove a Latin reference to “God” from a logo after an atheist group complained.

Rep. Randy Forbes, (R-VA), said the Air Force removed the logo several weeks ago from the Rapid Capabilities Office. The patch included a line written in Latin that read, “Doing God’s Work with Other People’s Money.”

But after the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers complained, Forbes said the line was rewritten in Latin to read, “Doing Miracles with Other People’s Money.”

Forbes, along with a bi-partisan group of 35 lawmakers, sent a letter to Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Air Force Chief of Staff Norton Schwartz expressing concern over the decision to remove a non-religious reference to God.

“It is most egregious,” Forbes told Fox News. “The Air Force is taking the tone that you can’t even use the word ‘God.’”

Forbes said his office contacted the Air Force and officials there confirmed that the logo had been changed after the atheist group complained.

Source : FOX News : Read the whole story here.