The author of The God Delusion is helping to launch Britain’s first summer retreat for non-believers, where children will have lessons in evolution and sing along to John Lennon’s Imagine. ... [More]

Parents who complain that a mandatory public school course contradicts their religious views have taken the provincial government to court. The "Ethics and Religious Culture" class covers Quebec's Catholic and Protestant religious heritage, as well as other faiths represented in the province, including Judaism, Native spiritualism, Islam, and Hinduism. ... [More]

Worship is forced on 99 per cent of children without even asking what they think. For all their whining that they are "persecuted", the religious minority in Britain are in fact accorded remarkable privileges. They are given a bench-full of unelected positions in the legislature, protection from criticism in the law, and vast amounts of public money to indoctrinate children into their belief systems in every school in the land. ... [More]

In a session on religious freedom on Wednesday, Muslim scholars from around the world debated how apostates should be treated according to Islamic law. ... Some participants did not support of the beheading of apostates, but several were adamant in refusing a lighter approach toward apostates in the name of freedom of religion. ... [More]

Several American science organisations explicitly accommodate religious sensibilities. These organisations have considered it necessary to calm the fears of American religionists that science, particularly evolutionary biology, undermines religion. ... In my view, that is a deplorable step. ... [More]

Republican Congressman John Fleming said he was “disturbed” by President Barack Obama’s request to have the symbolic name for Jesus Christ – IHS – covered from a pediment that was visible behind him when he spoke at Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall on April 14. ... [More]

In this witty book, Terry Eagleton argues that Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and their ilk are shockingly ill-informed about the Christian faith. ... The point of Eagleton's "Reason, Faith, and Revolution: Reflections on the God Debate" is to defend the theory and practice of religion against its most ardent contemporary critics. ... [More]

About half of all Americans have switched religions at least once, according to the most in-depth survey on the topic, released Monday. And that may still be "a conservative estimate," says Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. ... [More]

Local and national atheist organizations have flourished in recent years, fed by outrage over the Bush administration’s embrace of the religious right. A spate of best-selling books on atheism also popularized the notion that nonbelief is not just an argument but a cause, like environmentalism or muscular dystrophy. ... [More]

Notorious non-believer Richard Dawkins will ironically be a godlike presence at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival as he beams in from England for a video interview. On the other hand, former Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway will appear in the flesh. ... [More]

From Pakistan to Gaza and Lebanon, militant Islamic movements have gained ground rapidly in recent years, fanning Western fears of a consolidation of radical Muslim governments. But in the world’s most populous Muslim nation just the opposite is happening, with Islamic parties suffering a steep drop in popular support. ... [More]

Berliners voted on Sunday in a referendum on religious education in schools that goes to the heart of how Germany's sizeable Muslim minority is integrated into modern society. ... [More]

Not all that long ago, the great minds of Europe predicted a future with little or no religion. Science would make us highly skeptical of miracles. Psychiatry would direct all of our awe and wonder inward. Changing roles for women would weaken the patriarchal structure that props up clerics. Whatever script for modernity one followed, it had God playing a bit role. ... [More]

The U.S. imprisons more people than any other developed nation. The majority of Americans support the death penalty. We’re willing to put minors on trial as adults and execute mentally ill offenders. So why, given our eye-for-an-eye system of punishment, wouldn’t Congress pass legislation that would give law enforcement officials another tool to get the bad guys off the streets and into prisons? ... [More]

The Washington D.C. Council earlier this month unanimously passed a measure recognizing same-sex marriages (and civil unions) performed in other jurisdictions, and a measure is expected to be introduced later this year to legalize same-sex marriages in the D.C. jurisdiction. ... [More]

Muslim organizations are slowly and steadily stripping Arab Christians of their rights to speak on behalf of “Arab” issues. The conflicts are no longer secular. They are religious. Many Muslims, in fact, who are secular, are also being intimidated into obsequious silence by the religious extremists who dominate many of the discussions. ... [More]

Quantum mechanics is remarkably weird: even though it is well understood mathematically and can produce accurate, ultra-precise predictions, nobody really knows what it means -- but quasi-religious interpretations are not warranted. ... [More]

Some here in the West have reacted with shock in response to the new Afghanistan law that gives Shiite men permission to rape their wives, even though President Hamid Karzai claims that we're simply misinterpreting this law. In other words, we've lost something in the translation. I won't pretend to know if that is the case or not, but I don't think it's too big of a stretch to believe that women's rights are once again being compromised. ... [More]

Individuals may be idealistic, smart and articulate – until they join a group. Individual Thais are among the gentlest, warmest, and most gracious people you could ever meet; groups of them were throwing petrol bombs at each other in the capital of Bangkok earlier this week. ... [More]

In a Washington Post op-ed article Friday, columnist Michael Gerson examines the facts related to a recent Newsweek cover story entitled "The Decline and Fall of Christian America." According to Gerson, the Newsweek story overstates the evidence for decline. ... [More]