What's New Archive ● 2004 ● May
What's New on the Secular Web?
See also: Events & The News Wire
May 22, 2004
Updated the Secular Web Reference Desk page with the addition of a link to Skeptic's Annotated Bible and Qur'an.
"It is time for us all to stop believing in, or pretending to believe in, book[s] that [are] unworthy of belief."
May 21, 2004
Updated the Local Organizations Around the World page with the addition of a link to Iowa Secularists.
Iowa Secularists is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a community of people who believe that the truths of the world can be discovered through logic and reason rather than through blind faith or supersition.
May 13, 2004
Added "Stephen Crane: The Black Badge of Unbelief" by Gary Sloan, to the Agora section of the Kiosk.
One of America's most important writers, Stephen Crane had by the age of thirteen rejected the Christian beliefs of his devout parents. In his repudiation of cultural illusions and pretensions, he was a forerunner of Modernism. In his poetry and fiction, he depicts a god-abandoned universe.
May 9, 2004
Updated the Student Organizations page with the addition of a link to Maryland Atheist Students Association (University of Maryland, College Park).
Updated the Local Organizations Around the World page with the addition of links to two organizations in North Carolina:
- Piedmont Freethought Association (Greensboro/Winston Salem) (Off Site)
- WNCAtheists (Western North Carolina) (Off Site).
May 8, 2004
Updated the Islam: Related Sites page with the addition of a link to Faith Freedom International (Off Site).
Faith Freedom International echoes the voice of Muslim dissidents that strive for freedom of faith and freedom from faith in Islamic countries. "We are against Hate, not Faith. We revere human rights not human beliefs. We endeavor to be factually correct, not politically correct."
May 7, 2004
Updated the Arguments for the Existence of a God: Argument to Design subject page, and the Physics and Religion subject page, with the addition of a link to "A Designer Universe?" (Off Site) by Steven Weinberg, University of Texas at Austin professor of physics, and winner of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics.
"The question that seems to me to be worth answering, and perhaps not impossible to answer, is whether the universe shows signs of having been designed by a deity more or less like those of traditional monotheistic religions. It used to be obvious that the world was designed by some sort of intelligence. Today we understand most of these things in terms of physical forces acting under impersonal laws. Above all, today we understand that even human beings are the result of natural selection acting over millions of years of breeding and eating."
May 5, 2004
Added "Attacks on Religious Liberty Intensify" by Janet Brazill, to the Agora section of the Kiosk.
Separation of Church and State is being undermined by those who see an advantage to promoting their own religious agenda. Emboldened by the favorable political climate in the current administration, and energized by the upcoming election, they seem to be intensifying their attacks; one egregious example is that of the Catholic Church. Unless stopped, they will succeed in changing the very foundation of this country, bringing to an end the religious liberty we now take for granted.
May 1, 2004
Feature article: "The Godly Art of Child Abuse" by Kevin Archer.
This is a powerful and penetrating chronicle of the author's experiences in an abusive, fundamentalist Christian home. Using scripture from both the Old and New Testament as an indictment of the biblical God, Archer demonstrates at the same time that Christian dogma can be harmful to children, to families, and to society as a whole.
Book-of-the-Month: Has Science Found God? : The Latest Results in the Search for Purpose in the Universe, by Victor J. Stenger.
In the past few years a number of scientists have claimed that there is credible scientific evidence for the existence of God. In 1998 Newsweek went so far as to proclaim on its cover, "Science Finds God." Is this true? Are scientists close to solving the greatest of all mysteries? Physicist Victor J. Stenger delves into this fascinating question from a skeptical point of view in this lucid and engrossing presentation of the key scientific facts.
Video-of-the-Month: Inherit the Wind.
In 1925, a schoolteacher is arrested for teaching Darwinism in the community of Hillsboro, where such scientific refutations of the Bible are illegal. George C. Scott plays prosecutor Matthew Brady, bringing majesty and tragedy to a character many would find repugnant, as he prophetically bemoans a society moving "from love of God to love of self." Jack Lemmon plays attorney Henry Drummond and brings his trademark portrayal of the "little guy" to a man determined to protect a citizen's basic right to freedom of thought, proclaiming, "An idea is a greater monument to God than a cathedral." The wonderful supporting cast, including Beau Bridges, Piper Laurie, and John Cullum, all demonstrate their love of a multilayered drama filled with conundrums of faith and contradictions of philosophy, offering so many concepts and emotions that the high points of drama remain with the viewer after the film is over.
See "What's New? " for past months and years.