1. Faith-healing parents charged in death of infant son
(Religion/Enforced religion)

...he said during the couple's preliminary hearing. After the two attorneys representing the Schaibles argued for their innocence, Municipal Judge Patrick Dugan held them for trial on charges of in...

2. Science is just one gene away from defeating religion
(Religion/Atheism)

...h read at La Sapienza University in Rome last year (in the face of opposition from the academic staff) he argued: "If, however, reason ... becomes deaf to the great message that comes from the Ch...

3. Who Started the War on Christmas?
(Religion/Atheism)

...ere people no longer said ‘Merry Christmas.’” In his 1995 book, Alien Nation, Brimelow argued that the influx of “weird aliens with dubious habits” from developing natio...

4. An Atheist Manifesto
(Religion/Atheism)

...hich the obvious is overlooked as a matter of principle. The obvious must be observed and re-observed and argued for. This is a thankless job. It carries with it an aura of petulance and insensitivity...

5. Religion a figment of human imagination
(Religion/General)

...enges the popular notion that religion evolved and spread because it promoted social bonding, as has been argued by some anthropologists. Instead, he argues that first, we had to evolve the necessary ...

6. Getting the public to pay attention to good science
(Science/General)

...s where to reach them. Scientists, like everyone else, get a buzz out of visits to the Hill, but Goldston argued that they should visit members of Congress in their home district if possible—the...

7. View from the lab: creationism
(Religion/Evolution vs Creationism)

...roke away from the clay scaffold and life was born. In the absence of evidence, that scheme has been much argued about, and there are many other ideas. Lipid bilayers - sheets of grease - might have t...

8. US military accused of harboring fundamentalism
(Religion/Enforced religion)

...icies address the freedom of religion, avoiding discrimination because of religion." But Weinstein argued that most personnel are "too terrified" to speak out. "When you actual...

9. Irish cardinal attempts to block publication of child abuse files
(Religion/General)

... police and victims' groups that a new independent inquiry would have full access to church files, he argued that the documents were privileged and protected by lawyer-client confidentiality. Lea...

10. The real danger in Darwin is not evolution, but racism
(Science/General)

...sources needed for the survival of better people, eventually dragging down all civilization. Darwin even argued that advanced societies should not waste time and money on caring for the mentally ill,...

11. The Moral Instinct
(Religion/General)

...m comes out of a robotlike calculation, but in fact Robert Trivers, the biologist who devised the theory, argued that it is implemented in the brain as a suite of moral emotions. Sympathy prompts a pe...

12. Questions Delay Creationist Master's Degrees
(Religion/Evolution vs Creationism)

...delicate politically — many Texas lawmakers (not to mention President Bush, a former governor) have argued that discredited theories such as intelligent design should be given equal billing with...

13. Lessons of Atheist Dictatorships
(Religion/Atheism)

...n Stalin's Soviet Union for but one patriarch. In his essay "Socialism and Religion," Lenin argued that, "Religion is a sort of spiritual booze." This notion was adopted by the...

14. Cultural Selection - The evolution of Evolution
(Religion/Evolution vs Creationism)

...only a pro forma part. In particular, the authors cite a previous study, co-authored by two of them, that argued that Jewish IQs rose in medieval Europe due to literacy, inbreeding, and confinement to...

15. Spate of Executions and Amputations in Iran
(Religion/Enforced religion)

...ted Nations General Assembly resolution, joining in an unusual alliance with the United States. Officials argued that the abolition of the death penalty would be an infringement on Iran’s sovere...

16. Devolution
(Religion/Evolution vs Creationism)

...ld encourage schoolteachers to challenge Darwinism. Senator Rick Santorum, a Pennsylvania Republican, has argued that "intelligent design is a legitimate scientific theory that should be taught i...