11/13 - UFO Sightings. A presentation by skeptic Robert Scheaffer, University of California at Irvine, CA
Students for Science & Skepticism at UCI are pleased to announce that noted UFO Skeptic Robert Sheaffer will give the talk "UFO Sightings." Sheaffer, a CSICOP fellow since 1977 and a regular contributor to Skeptical Inquirer, is an author, a free-lance writer, and skeptical investigator of all manner of bogus claims. The talk will be given at 7:00 p.m. in the Social Science Hall.

For more information, click here.


11/15 - Stem Cells and Clones: Theological Perspectives on Biomedical Research. A forum at University of Chicago Divinity School, Chicago, IL
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life is hosting this public exchange featuring Gilbert Meilaender (Professor of Christian Ethics at Valparaiso University, and member of the President's Council on Bioethics) and Richard Miller (Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington). Free and open to the public; advanced registration is required. 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. in Swift Hall, 3rd Floor Lecture Hall at University of Chicago Divinity School, 1025 East 58th Street, Chicago, IL.

For more information or to RSVP, click here.


11/24-11/30 - Church and State Separation Week
Celebrated during the week of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, this annual commemoration provides activists with an opportunity to celebrate one of Thomas Jefferson's highest ideals, the separation of religion from government.

For more information, click here.


12/10 - International Human Rights Day
A way to promote, defend, and remember the basic human rights every person in every country. The basic document that outlines these rights is known as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as adopted by the United Nations.

For more information on celebrating International Human Rights Day, click here.


12/23 - HumanLight Celebration
A celebration of humanist values: tolerance, compassion, empathy, honesty, free inquiry, reason and rationality, and more. The event began in New Jersey by the New Jersey Humanist Network in 2001. The event provides an excellent alternative to Christmas celebrations. HumanLight falls on December 23, but celebrations can be held on any nearby date. Celebrations have already been planned in the New York/New Jersey area, Los Angeles, and Long Island.

Click here to visit the HumanLight website.




Freethought News

Secular America Defended at March on Washington
Washington, D.C. - The numbers were more than most had expected. The Washington Post estimated somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000. And they came from all over the nation - from Florida, Nevada, California, Oregon, Missouri, New York, New Jersey and Illinois. The Bible Belt was especially well represented with folks from Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, North & South Carolina, Virginia and Utah.

They held signs that read "Reason is not Treason" and "There was a time when religion ruled. It was known as the Dark Ages." The Council for Secular Humanism's sign "Secular Humanists for a Secular America" was carried by many in the crowd and showed up frequently as C-SPAN's camera projected pictures on the Jumbotron screen.

Ed Buckner, executive director of the Council, was invited to carry the lead banner of the march and his picture along with Council Board Member, Eddie Tabash, and CFI-West Executive Director, Jim Underdown, appeared in the Washington Post. Jan Eisler, Chair of CFI Florida, Toni Van Pelt, executive director of CFI Florida, Debbie Goddard, president of the Campus Freethought Alliance and CFI-MetroNY's Barry Seidman carried the Council's banner. CFA members from all around the country also joined to march with the Council's contingent, organized by DJ Grothe, CFA Coordinator and Field Director of the Council for Secular Humanism.

To look at photos of the March and read more, click here.


Ohio School Board Allows Intelligent Design in Science Classrooms
Columbus, OH - Early last month, the Ohio State Board of Education voted to adopt science curriculum guidelines that that allow individual school districts to decide whether to teach intelligent design, reported the Associated Press. Specifically, the standards recommend that students learn "how scientists continue to investigate and critically analyze aspects of evolutionary theory.''

Intelligent Design is the belief that certain life forms are too complex to be explained through evolutionary processes alone, so some greater intelligence must have played a role. Proponents usually insist that evolution is just a theory, so alternatives should be taught. Critics say there is no scientific evidence supporting intelligent design, and those who try to teach it are trying to sneak creationism back into the classroom.

The debate in Ohio began in January when the science standards first came up for review. The Board was heavily pressured by several board members and outside interest groups to include intelligent design in the new standards. As the issue became public, it sparked criticisms from organizations such as the National Science Teachers Association, which dismisses intelligent design as unscientific. A public hearing in front of the Ohio Board of Education with representatives from the different sides was held in March this year, and drew a crowd of over 1500 people.

A survey performed by Case Western Reserve University recently of 460 natural science professors in Ohio showed that 90% of the professors think that intelligent design is not supported by scientific evidence, while 92% say that it shouldn't be taught in schools. "Intelligent design circumvents the whole process of hypothesis testing," said Christopher Mihos, CWRU associate professor of astronomy, according to the Associated Press.

For the full story, click here.


Eagle Scout Kicked Out of Boy Scouts for Being an Atheist
Seattle, WA - 19-year-old Darrell Lambert was kicked out of the Boy Scouts last week for not affirming a belief in a higher power, reported the Associated Press. Lambert, who has been a Scout since the age of nine and had been commended many times over the years as both a Scout and an Assistant Leader, had gotten in an argument with another leader at a leadership training seminar on whether the organization should expel atheists. Lambert said he has been an atheist since ninth grade, when he concluded that science disproved the Biblical creation stories.

Lambert was later contacted by the Chief Seattle Council of the Boy Scouts and given approximately one week to say he recognized a higher power; otherwise, he would be kicked out of the organization. He did not give such a statement.

Glen Schmidt, District Committee Chair, was quoted in an Associated Press article as telling Lambert, "Anybody that doesn't believe in god isn't a good citizen, and that if an atheist found a wallet on the ground they would pick it up plunder the money and throw the wallet back on the ground."

The Boy Scouts of America claims to have the right to discriminate because it is a private organization that does not receive federal funding. The organization excludes gays and atheists, saying that they do not meet the requirements for membership.

Lambert intends to appeal the ruling within the next sixty days.

To read an article about the story, click here.


Dopamine Levels in Brain Influence Belief in Paranormal
People with higher levels of the chemical dopamine are more likely to believe in the significance of coincidences and in the paranormal, suggests a recent study reported in the News Scientist.

Peter Brugger, a neurologist from the University Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, performed an experiment with 20 self-identified believers and 20 skeptics. Brugger and his colleagues asked each group to distinguish between real and scrambled words and faces that were flashed upon a screen. The believers were much more likely to report real faces and words where there were none, while the skeptics were likely to miss real faces, he stated at a meeting of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies.

The experimenters then administered a drug that increased the levels of dopamine in the brain and performed the experiments again. Mistakes increased in both groups, but the skeptics became more likely to misinterpret the scrambled words and faces as real.

The findings point to the conclusion that dopamine helps in pattern recognition, even where there are no patterns. They also suggest that higher levels of dopamine are associated with paranormal beliefs.

To read the article in New Scientist, click here.


Religious Discrimination at Faith-Based Government-Funded Institutions
Atlanta, GA - A man who applied for a job at a religious-affiliated institution that receives government funds was turned down because of his religion, reported the New York Times.

Alan M. Yorker, applied to be a psychological therapist at the United Methodist Children's Home, which receives about 40% of its financing from the government. As part of the application he had to list religion, church and four references, including a minister. Yorker, who is Jewish, provided the information for his synagogue an rabbi.

A supervisor at the home admitted that Yorker had been one of the top candidates for the position, but concluded the interview when she learned he was Jewish. "We don't hire people of your faith," Yorker said he was told, according to the New York Times.

Court papers show the home saying it had the right to reject Yorker "because he is not a Christian."

A woman, who was fired by the home when they learned she is a lesbian, is also suing the home on the grounds of religious discrimination. She had been fired because the home's religious doctrines do not "condone the practice of homosexuality."

President Bush's faith-based initiative, a plan to provide more government funding to faith-based organizations, led to concerns from many about federally-funded religious discrimination. In recent cases, some courts have ruled that religious organizations accepting government funds must follow federal and state nondiscrimination policies, while other rulings suggest that government financing does not prohibit discrimination by religious organizations.

Legislative Director of the American Jewish Committee Richard T. Foltin said that such cases highlight the dangers inherent in government financing of faith-based institutions that provide secular services. "Organizations that are pervasively religious ought not to be receiving government funds," he said, according to the Dominion Post Newspaper.

To read the full article, click here.


Girls' Schools in Afghanistan Still Attacked by Taliban
Arim Dad, Afghanistan - Schools for girls in Afghanistan, which have sprung up again recently after being forbidden under the rule of the Taliban, are still being attacked by ultra-conservative Islamic forces in Afghanistan, reported the New York Times.

Since dominating Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, the Taliban had forbidden education of women and girls, although some small schools for girls did exist in secret. [The Spring 2001 issue of the Campus Freethinker, a newsletter of the Campus Freethought Alliance, highlighted the Taliban's suppression of women and prohibition of the education of girls. The CFA also conducted a campaign to adopt schools for Afghani refugee women and girls. -Editors.]

Since coming into power, the new Afghan president Hamid Karzai has reversed the education policy, opening hundreds of schools for girls with the help of Western aid organizations. The schools have been met with resistance from some, however. Opposition to these schools has consisted of acts ranging from flyers urging students not to follow Western customs, to rocket attacks, explosives set off in classrooms, and schools set on fire. Letters left behind from the recent attacks accused the schools of secretly preaching Christianity and exposing the girls to sinful Western customs. "If anyone doesn't respect this," said one recent letter, according to the New York Times, "he or she will be sent to hell by the Mujahadeen."

The attacks seem not to deter the students or teachers, however, who are determined to continue attending the schools.

For the full text of the story, click here.


Fatwa Issued Against Feminist Author Kola Boof
On Sept. 26th members of the Arab Muslim fundamentalist government of Sudan issued fatwa on Kola Boof, a bestselling author who was born in Sudan but currently lives in California. Boof, who released a collection of poetry in 1997 which included feminist rantings, was found guilty of blasphemy and treason for "deliberately and maliciously bearing false witness against religious sentiment and of willing treason against her Arab Muslim father's people and against her nation, the Sudan," read the official death warrant. According to the fatwa, she is to be beheaded.

Salman Rushdie, who authored the book The Satanic Verses, also is a target of fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini. The book was seen by some to make a mockery of Mohammed and Islam.

Women's author and physician Taslima Nasrin has also had fatwa issued against her and had to flee her native Bangladesh for writing about Muslim persecution of Bangladesh's Hindu minority and speaking out about the rights of women in India.