Author: Todd Richmond

Source: Google News

Wire Service: AP

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hWiD9zVD5IijUKfLEQzg-1jMWLTAD9F911PG0

To pray or not to pray? That's the issue government leaders across the country are facing after a federal judge ruled that the National Day of Prayer set for May 6 was unconstitutional.

The ruling can't take effect until all...

Author: Dirk Johnson

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/24atheist.html

Annie Laurie Gaylor clicked through a flurry of e-mail messages warning her to repent or she would burn in hell.

“Herod,” one messenger called her.

Ms. Gaylor leaned back and sipped from a cup of tea, unfazed and even a bit surprised at the relative tameness of the attacks. Fresh from her latest godless triumph, she had...

Author: Samuel G. Freedman

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/us/03religion.html?ref=us

Four or five Sundays in 2005, his own atheism notwithstanding, Dale McGowan took his family into the neo-Gothic grandeur of St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis on a kind of skeptic’s field trip.

Mr. McGowan went because he wanted his three young children to have “religious...

Author: Steve Pardo

Source: The Detroit News

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100316/LIFESTYLE04/3160348/1041/lifestyle04/Atheist-ads-on-buses-in-area-are-defaced

The vandalism of bus signs supporting atheists shows the prejudice nonbelievers face, the campaign's organizers said Monday.

The signs, which read "Don't believe in God? You are not alone," were defaced on three...

Author: Henry McDonald

Source: Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/15/ireland-referendum-blasphemy-law

Ireland is to hold a referendum on removing a blasphemy ban from the constitution, the justice minister announced yesterday.

At the beginning of the year, the republic introduced legislation making blasphemy a crime punishable with a fine of up to €25,000 (£22,800).

The...

Author: Adelle M. Banks

Source: Beliefnet/Religion News Service

http://blog.beliefnet.com/news/2010/03/pledge-is-constitutional-feder.php

The Pledge of Allegiance, with its inclusion of the words "under God," is constitutional, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday (March 11), reversing a previous ruling.

The 2-1 ruling answers a challenge by California atheist Michael Newdow, who argued that the use of the pledge...

Author: Tom Greenwood

Source: The Detroit News

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100304/LIFESTYLE04/3040427/1041/Bus-messages-try-to-connect-atheists

Atheists are taking their message to the streets.

More than a dozen SMART buses for the rest of the month will carry the message "Don't believe in God? You aren't alone" as part of a national campaign to raise the spirits of atheists. The...

Author: Michelle Boorstein

Source: The Washington Post

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2010/02/white_house_hosts_secular_honchos_today.html

Secular Americans took heart when President Obama gave them a shout-out - believed to be a first - during his inaugural address, now they're looking to push the White House a bit more.

A group of secular leaders is coming to the...

Author: Dong-Phuong Nguyen

Source: St. Petersburg Times

http://www.tampabay.com/news/religion/billboards-on-tampa-bay-roads-duel-over-existence-of-god/1071537

A group representing people who do not believe in God or any gods has revved up an awareness campaign in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.

The United Coalition of Reason paid to have two billboards erected that feature a...

Source: The Kansas City Star

Wire Service: AP

http://www.kansascity.com/news/breaking_news/story/1670238.html

A federal judge in Kansas dismissed a lawsuit Thursday by an atheist soldier who claimed his rights were violated because he had to attend events where prayers were said while stationed at Fort Riley.

U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil ruled Army Spc. Dustin Chalker failed to exhaust all other alternatives before he...

Author: Daniel E. Slotnik

Source: The New York Times

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/atheists-attend-mayors-interfaith-breakfast-for-the-first-time/

Six newcomers to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s annual interfaith breakfast stood out in the crowd of more than 400 religious leaders draped in vestments varying from turban to cassock. But the coterie did not draw...

Author: Karla Adam

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/02/AR2010010201846.html

Atheists in Ireland are risking possible prosecution with an audacious online challenge to the country's new blasphemy law.

Under the law, which went into effect Friday, a person can be found guilty of blasphemy if "he or she publishes or utters matter that is grossly abusive or...

Author: Adam Harrington

Source: CBS 2

http://cbs2chicago.com/politics/capitol.atheist.display.2.1387754.html

A conservative activist and Illinois comptroller candidate was escorted from the Illinois State Capitol building Wednesday when he tried to remove a sign put up by an atheist group. 

William J. Kelly, a Chicago Republican, announced Tuesday that he planned to take down the sign put up by the Freedom...

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Chicago Tribune

Wire Service: AP

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2009/dec/22/news/chi-ap-ia-atheistbuss-iowa

An ad campaign publicizing atheist views is again appearing on the sides of Des Moines buses, letting nonbelievers know they are not alone during the holiday season. 

Ads by the group Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers...

Author: December 22, 2009

Source: The Oklahoman

http://www.newsok.com/laws-against-atheists-stir-controversy/article/3426686#comments

Pat Smith was surprised to hear that a clause in the Texas Bill of Rights bars atheists from office.

Smith, the president of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Lubbock’s board of trustees, said the law is outdated.

"There is separation...