Author: Francis X. Rocca

Original Source: BeliefNet News

Wire Service: RNS

https://religionnews.com/2011/01/29/vatican-to-launch-dialogue-with-atheists/

The Vatican...

Author: David Briggs

Source: The Washington Post/ Association of Religion Data Archives

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-briggs/study-rising-religious-ti_b_811665.html

One of the last great efforts at state-sponsored atheism is a failure.

And not just any kind of failure. China has enforced its anti-religion policy through decades of repression, coercion and persecution, but the lack of success...

Author: Chris Stedman

Source: The Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-stedman/my-new-years-resolution-c_b_808023.html

It may be mid-January, but I'm still thinking of Christmas.

The week between Christmas and New Year's Eve just might be my favorite of the year. It is the one time that my entire family gets together. We spend several days eating our favorite foods, catching up and...

Author: Molly Muldoon

Source: Irish Central

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irish-atheists-want-to-be-recognized-in-census-113260599.html

A campaign has been launched by Irish atheists to have the preference to mark their religious preference in the next census, due to take place on Sunday April 10, 2011.

Author: Rikki Klaus

Source: WHNT 19 News

http://www.whnt.com/news/whnt-billboard-reaction,0,2544518.story

There's a sign that's firing people up across north Alabama. An Atheist organization paid for a billboard in Huntsville that says "You KNOW they're all SCAMS" and displays various religious symbols. The Interfaith Mission Service is voting Wednesday on whether to put up a sign of its own ... defending those religions. They say it...

Author: G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Source: BeliefNet News

http://blog.beliefnet.com/news/2011/01/atheists-diversity-woes-have-n.php

Alix Jules is an atheist, but for years he felt uncomfortable at gatherings of nonbelievers. The reason: He's black.

"I got really tired of going back and forth to free thought events and being the only black person there," said Jules, 36, who lives in Dallas. "It was not...

Author: Kiernan Maletsky

Source: The Denver Westword

http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2010/12/atheist_invocation_city_council_colorado.php

An atheist will give the invocation at Grand Junction City Council's first meeting of 2011. It will be the crowning achievement of a two-and-a-half-year effort by the Western Colorado Atheists & Freethinkers to get their voice heard at City Hall. And it will be the...

Author: Gordon Dickson

Source: The Star-Telegram

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/12/15/2708144/religious-ads-banned-from-fort.html

Two weeks after controversy erupted because the Fort Worth Transportation Authority accepted ads with the atheist message "Millions of Americans are Good Without God," the T board revised its policy Wednesday night to ban all religious ads effective Jan. 1.

Author: Shirley Jinkins

Source: The Star-Telegram

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/12/02/2674421/fort-worth-pastors-call-for-bus.html

A group of Fort Worth African-American pastors is calling for a passenger boycott of city buses displaying advertising signs that they say are offensive to Christians.

The disputed signs read "Millions of Americans are Good Without God" and were paid for by the...

Author: Rich Barlow

Source: Boston University Today

http://www.bu.edu/today/node/11962

John McCargar found religion fascinating by the time he was seven, an age when most children would sooner eat broccoli than attend church. “I was a strange kid,” he says with a laugh. Growing up, he sampled a number of religions—from Christianity to Deism—and by the time he got to BU, he was a Mormon.

Author: Sandra Bookman

Source: WABC-TV

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=7817315

There are now dueling billboards at the Lincoln Tunnel in the battle over Christmas by Atheist Americans and The Catholic League.

American Atheists fired the proverbial first shot with this billboard along the approach to the Lincoln Tunnel in New Jersey.

Author: Karissa Bursch

Source: The Crimson White

http://www.cw.ua.edu/2010/11/30/non-religious-group-offers-alternative/

There are many religious organizations on campus that cover a wide spectrum of faiths, sects and beliefs. However, where do students go who consider themselves non-religious?

The University’s student-led atheist and agnostic organization, Alabama Atheists and Agnostics, or AAA, is a...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11854429

Former UK PM Tony Blair has defended the role of religion in global affairs, in a televised debate in Canada with atheist columnist Christopher Hitchens

Mr Blair, a Catholic convert, said faith was a force for good and it was futile to attempt to drive it out.

Author: Sam Hodges

Source: The Dallas Morning News

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/religion/stories/111710dnmethitchens.40dba40.html

If you're a Christian school bent on bringing in an atheist to test students' faith, why not shoot for the stars?

That was the thinking at Prestonwood Christian Academy, which landed Christopher Hitchens, a celebrity skeptic and author of...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Novinite.com

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=122222

Bulgarian atheists from all around the country gathered Saturday in front of the National Statistical Institute in order to protest for the right to be properly indicated in the population census.

They insist on the Statistical Institute including the "atheist" option as an answer to the religious beliefs question in the census papers.