atheists

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Workers Who Called Prayer Meetings 'Cultlike' to Get $50K

2 ex-employees settle in religious discrimination suit against North Carolina home-repair company

(Newser) - A North Carolina home-repair business fired two employees after they refused to continue participating in the company's mandatory prayer sessions—and now, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says the firm will pay out $50,000 over the incident. Per a Wednesday EEOC release , the settlement with Aurora Pro Services...

The 'Nones' Are the 'Small but Mighty' Group Voting for Dems

Per AP VoteCast, voters with no religious affiliation supported Dem candidates, by a lot, in midterms

(Newser) - When members of the small Pennsylvania chapter of Secular Democrats of America log on for their monthly meetings, they're not there for a virtual happy hour. "We don't sit around at our meetings patting ourselves on the back for not believing in God together," said founder...

Harvard's New Chief Chaplain Is an Atheist

Greg Epstein is author of 'Good Without God'

(Newser) - In best-selling book Good Without God, Greg Epstein argues that belief in a higher being is not a mandatory requirement for leading a good, moral life. It's also not a requirement for becoming chief chaplain at Harvard. Epstein, the university's humanist chaplain since 2005, has been unanimously elected...

School Shouldn't Have Barred Child With Atheist Parents: Judge

Gary Mangel, Mai Yasue didn't want holiday decor in school; school said daughter couldn't come back

(Newser) - It began with a dispute over classroom holiday decorations and ended with a preschool keeping a student's registration "hostage to a demand." That's according to a judge on the BC Human Rights Tribunal in Canada, ruling Tuesday that the Bowen Island Montessori School erred in its...

Almost Everyone Thinks Atheists Are the Worst
Almost Everyone Thinks
Atheists Are the Worst
NEW STUDY
Aug 8, 2017 10:58 AM CDT

Almost Everyone Thinks Atheists Are the Worst

'Atheists are broadly perceived as potentially morally depraved and dangerous': study

(Newser) - When given a hypothetical scenario describing a fictional character who progresses from torturing animals as a child to murdering homeless people as an adult, most people assume that this person is an atheist—and that includes atheists themselves. That's what researchers at the University of Kentucky in Lexington are...

Pope Francis on When It Might Be 'Better to Be an Atheist'

He says Catholics are hypocrites if they don't treat their employees well

(Newser) - "How many times have we all heard people say 'if that person is a Catholic, it is better to be an atheist,'" Pope Francis said Thursday while speaking of hypocritical Christians. Reuters reports the pope made the remarks while delivering an off-the-cuff homily during his private...

Atheist Suing Over Denial of 'IM GOD' License Plate

He wants to show it's impossible to disprove that statement

(Newser) - Bennie L. Hart wants to drive around with a license plate declaring "IM GOD" not because he truly believes he's God—he's actually an atheist—but because he wants to show "that it's impossible to disprove anyone's claim to being 'God,'"...

Sheriff's Easter Facebook Post Makes Atheists $15K

'He is risen' to the tune of $41K total

(Newser) - An eastern Tennessee sheriff's Facebook post celebrating Easter has made a group of atheists $15,000 richer, the AP reports. News organizations report that Bradley County reached a settlement Thursday with the American Atheists organization over Sheriff Eric Watson's post on the department's Facebook page over Easter....

Years After Mysterious Death, 1st Nazi Hunter in Limelight

Prosecutor Fritz Bauer wasn't just Jewish, but a gay atheist

(Newser) - Nearly 50 years after he was mysteriously found dead in a bath tub, two new films are helping to put Germany's first Nazi hunter Fritz Bauer "back where he belongs: in the collective consciousness," reports Munich daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung , via AFP . Both Labyrinth of Lies by Giulio...

Famed Atheist: The 'Clock Kid' Is a Fraud

Richard Dawkins lays into 14-year-old kid

(Newser) - Think the "clock kid" has a friend in famed atheist Richard Dawkins? Seems not: Ahmed Mohamed, 14, who was arrested in Texas when authorities thought he'd built a bomb instead of a clock, perpetrated "fraud" and perhaps "wanted to be arrested," tweeted Dawkins today. Here'...

Atheists Banned From Public Office in 7 States

 Atheists Banned 
 From Public Office 
 in 7 States 
in case you missed it
Dec 13, 2014 3:22 PM CST

Atheists Banned From Public Office in 7 States

Nonbelievers attempting to get rules dumped

(Newser) - If you're an atheist living in Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, or Texas, you're technically not allowed to hold public office. Those states have articles in their constitutions requiring public officials to believe in God—in fact, in Maryland, even jurors and witnesses are technically...

'Godless' Churches Open Doors

To the tune of 'Man in the Mirror,' in some cases

(Newser) - Apparently, atheists are yearning for their crack at potluck dinners and picnics: There's no church in the traditional sense, and no steeple, but what opened its doors in Rochester, NY, this past Sunday is no less than an atheist church. Dubbed the Sunday Assembly , the group skipped the pastor...

Air Force Boots Atheist Who Won't Say 'God' in Oath

Critics say requirement is 'unconstitutional,' secular oath should be allowed

(Newser) - Critics are decrying an "unconstitutional" Air Force decision to refuse an airman's re-enlistment after the unnamed officer crossed out the words "so help me God" in the oath papers he had to sign, reports the Air Force Times . Although the Air Force hasn't confirmed details, a...

Atheist Sues After NJ Rejects Her License Plate

State deems '8THEIST' offensive

(Newser) - New Jersey has a free-speech lawsuit on its hands after a woman's attempt to score an atheist license plate got rejected, reports NJ.com . Shannon Morgan says it was bad enough when she typed in 8THEIST on the state website and learned that it was deemed objectionable. But when...

Atheists Converge on Mormon Country

Columnist finds that the two groups have a lot in common

(Newser) - Leaders of a national atheist group say the best spot to find a nonbeliever is in a place of faith. To that end, the American Atheists, in an effort to raise awareness and attract new members, are holding their annual conference over Easter weekend in Salt Lake City, the home...

Bitter Split Riles Atheist Church

New York non-believers break off from London group

(Newser) - Atheist-church leaders in New York have bitterly broken away from their central church in London, creating what may be the first schism in modern organized atheism, CNN reports. Late last year, Lee Moore and two other members of The Sunday Assembly's franchise in New York broke off and created...

Comic Raises $125K for Atheist Tornado Survivor

Doug Stanhope liked her candid CNN interview

(Newser) - Abrasive stand-up comedian Doug Stanhope is helping out a few people in need—if not in the most charitable spirit. The funny man known for drinking and smoking on-stage has raised more than $100,000 for an Oklahoma family whose house was leveled by a tornado earlier this year, Raw...

America Might Be Ready for an Atheist President
America Might Be Ready
for an Atheist President
OPINION
Dec 11, 2013 5:56 PM CST

America Might Be Ready for an Atheist President

New Republic essay thinks another political taboo is poised to fall

(Newser) - A Politico Magazine story sounds a pessimistic note about the prospects for an atheist president, noting that Barney Frank came out as gay 25 years ago but waited until after his political retirement to announce that he was a non-believer. But at the New Republic , Isaac Chotiner finds "surprising...

US Atheists Can Now Attend a 'Mega-Church'

'Sunday Assemblies' springing up across America

(Newser) - Which of these things is not like the other: Sunday mornings, music, inspirational speakers, atheists? Trick question! They all belong together, reports the AP in a look at the "atheist mega-churches" that are now finding a toehold in the US. The "Sunday Assemblies" have relatively short roots, having...

Christian College Student President Comes Out ... as Atheist

Eric Fromm: "I don’t have to hide anymore"

(Newser) - What's worse than coming out as a gay man at a Christian college? Perhaps coming out as a longtime atheist. Student body president Eric Fromm dropped the bombshell on his peers at Oregon's Northwest Christian University last week in the Beacon Bolt student newspaper, as pointed out by...

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