By Sam Harris Reposted from: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com For better or worse, I am partly responsible for the recent emergence of "atheism" as a topic of conversation. This is somewhat ironic, as I do not like the term and rarely use it. I did not, for instance, refer to myself as an "atheist" when I wrote The End of Faith —and yet this book is my most substantial contribution to the discourse of atheism. As I pointed out in my subsequent book, Letter to a Christian Nation , we do not have a term for a person who rejects astrology, nor do we need one. If legions of astrologers sought to bend our public policy to their pseudo-science, we wouldn't need to dub ourselves "non-astrologers" to put them in their place. Words like "reason," "evidence," and "commonsense" would suffice. So it should be with religion. Still, one can only spend so much time quibbling over words, and there are far more consequential matters for ...

A Lutheran minister who also served as the treasurer for the Fisher Chamber of Commerce for five years now faces charges of embezzling nearly $14,000 from the organization. Polk County Attorney Greg Widseth issued a press release Thursday stating that his office has filed a criminal complaint in Polk County District Court against Rev. Michael Kevin Eminger, 47, formerly of Fisher and now reportedly living in his home state of Wisconsin. Eminger faces four counts of theft by swindle and four counts of felony theft, with possible penalties of 5 to 10 years in prison and fines of $10,000 to $20,000. Eminger is not currently in custody and is scheduled to make his first court appearance Jan.19. According to the criminal complaint, Sue Meyer, president of the Fisher Chamber of Commerce, informed the Polk County Sheriff's Office in early October that the former treasurer had stolen more than $13,000 from Chamber's checking account. This came to light when the Chamber received an ov...

Imagine the following event in your mind's eye. President George W. Bush is addressing the United Nations amid global tensions about nuclear weapons. He closes with evangelical language that expresses his yearning for the triumphant second coming of Jesus Christ and prays that this apocalyptic event will unify the world - sooner rather than later. Do you think the speech would cause a media storm? Do you think journalists would dissect his mysterious words, along with his theology? Would this be considered one of the year's most controversial religion-news events? Bush, of course, never delivered an address of this kind. However, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did say the following as he ended his dramatic United Nations speech on Sept. 20. "I emphatically declare that today's world, more than ever before, longs for just and righteous people with love for all humanity; and above all longs for the perfect righteous human being and the real savior who has been pro...

The following is from Agape Press (Reliable News from a Christian Source): WM note: All you science minds out there, please read the following, watch the video clip, and let us know what's wrong with their thinking. Have fun! A well-known evangelist and Christian television show host is trying to equip believers to respond effectively to atheists. In his book Intelligent Design vs. Evolution: Letters to an Atheist , Ray Comfort uses actual e-mails between himself and an atheist that took place several years ago. When the atheist inquired why Comfort did not accept "scientific facts" supporting the theory of evolution, the evangelist responded that there was more proof that the world is flat. That interchange eventually led to Comfort's writing of the book. Comfort contends that many Christians do not know how to respond to atheists' questions about intelligent design, or ID. The evangelist maintains that God's Word can be defended scientifically, historicall...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A self-styled religious patriarch known as "Papa Pilgrim" pleaded no contest Tuesday to felony charges including incest. Robert Hale, 65, was accused of molesting one of his 15 children over a seven-year span, including a period when his family lived in seclusion at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. The Pilgrims, as they once called themselves, gained notoriety for their feud with the National Park Service over access to the family's remote homestead within the 13.2 million-acre park. In Tuesday's hearing, Hale pleaded no contest to consolidated counts of first-degree sexual assault, incest and coercion. He told Superior Court Judge Donald Hopwood that he never sexually assaulted anyone but decided to plead "for the good of his family," said Palmer assistant district attorney Richard Payne. Hale had been scheduled for a January 16 trial on 30 felony counts involving one of his daughters. The incest and two other counts were consolidated ...

By Sam Harris SAM HARRIS is the author of " The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason " and " Letter to a Christian Nation ." SEVERAL POLLS indicate that the term "atheism" has acquired such an extraordinary stigma in the United States that being an atheist is now a perfect impediment to a career in politics (in a way that being black, Muslim or homosexual is not). According to a recent Newsweek poll, only 37% of Americans would vote for an otherwise qualified atheist for president. Atheists are often imagined to be intolerant, immoral, depressed, blind to the beauty of nature and dogmatically closed to evidence of the supernatural. Even John Locke, one of the great patriarchs of the Enlightenment, believed that atheism was "not at all to be tolerated" because, he said, "promises, covenants and oaths, which are the bonds of human societies, can have no hold upon an atheist." That was more than 3...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A pastor who worked with young adults at New Life Church has admitted sexual misconduct and resigned just weeks after former church leader Ted Haggard stepped down over sexual immorality. Christopher Beard, who headed the "twentyfourseven" ministry that taught leadership skills to young adults, resigned Friday, said Rob Brendle, an associate pastor at the 14,000-member church. Brendle said Beard told church officials about "a series of decisions displaying poor judgment, including one incident of sexual misconduct several years ago." The church said in a statement that the misconduct was with another unmarried adult several years ago. Beard, who worked at the church for nine years, has since married. Brendle would not elaborate about the nature of the misconduct. Beard's resignation was first reported Monday by The Denver Post and The Gazette in Colorado Springs. The church said it wouldn't comment further. A residential phone numbe...

A pastor charged with swiping antique Bibles from a Royersford, PA, church in Montgomery County and peddling them on eBay is now facing another charge: stealing money intended for needy families from a fund he established at the church. When confronted, the Rev. William Shrout Jr. admitted taking the money from the fund at First United Church of Christ and using it for personal purposes, according to a news release Monday from Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor. Shrout will have a preliminary hearing Thursday in Limerick on his charges. The news release didn't disclose the amount of money taken. As pastor of First UCC, Shrout set up "The Sunshine Fund" to help needy families. Shrout had sole control of the fund to keep the recipients anonymous, the news release said. As investigators worked on the charges that Shrout and his wife, Carla, stole antique Bibles from the church, they learned Shrout had stolen from the fund, the news release said. Shrout served...

Liberal and progressive Christian groups say a new computer game in which players must either convert or kill non-Christians is the wrong gift to give this holiday season and that Wal-Mart, a major video game retailer, should yank it off its shelves. The Campaign to Defend the Constitution and the Christian Alliance for Progress , two online political groups, plan to demand today (Tuesday, this week) that Wal-Mart dump Left Behind: Eternal Forces , a PC game inspired by a series of Christian novels that are hugely popular, especially with teens. The series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins is based on their interpretation of the Bible's Book of Revelation and takes place after the Rapture, when Jesus has taken his people to heaven and left nonbelievers behind to face the Antichrist. Left Behind Games' president, Jeffrey Frichner , says the game actually is pacifist because players lose "spirit points" every time they gun down nonbelievers rather than convert them. Th...

Every soul in Christendom knows that sometimes, a supper is more than just a supper. “We are apostles,” Jim Hong, president of the Mid-Michigan Atheists and Humanists, exhorts at a Sunday, Dec. 3, meeting in East Lansing, Mich. “We need to go out and expand. We need to network.” In recent months, biologist Richard Dawkins and several other high-profile philosophers and scientists fed up with religious fundamentalism have urged atheists to come out of the closet. Judging by the current membership boom in Hong’s group, a lot of local atheists are doing just that. In less than two years, Hong, a structural engineering consultant who lives in Jackson, has seen attendance at monthly meetings spike from a single-digit trickle to an average of 20 and a high of 35, with 60 people on the group’s register. Most members are from the Lansing area, but others come from as far away as Lake Orion, Monroe and Flint. This afternoon, Hong has invited a manageable fraction of the group to share tho...

TOLDEO, OH — The Rev. Michael Pitts, senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in Maumee , pleaded not guilty today to a charge of operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol during an arraignment in Maumee Municipal Court. Judge Gary Byers released Mr. Pitts, 42, of 4055 South Wilkins Rd., Swanton Township, on his own recognizance after he entered the not-guilty plea. A pretrial conference with a Lucas County prosecutor was set for 2 p.m. on Jan. 16. Mr. Pitts was randomly stopped at 3:54 p.m. Wednesday on U.S. 20A by a trooper who was pulling over motorists for routine vehicle inspection checks, said Lt. Robin Schmutz, commander of the Highway Patrol's Toledo post. During the stop, Lieutenant Schmutz said, the trooper felt that Mr. Pitts was impaired and put him through a standard field sobriety test. He was arrested and taken to the patrol post, where a urine sample was taken. Results of that test might take a month to get back, the commander said. Mr. Pitts was charged with a...

BALTIMORE -- A Kansas church has been ordered to pay $3,150 for costs and fees associated with a summons and complaint filed by the father of a Marine whose funeral was picketed by the extremist group. Albert Snyder, of York, Pa., is suing the Rev. Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church after church members demonstrated at the funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder , of Westminster, and posted pictures of the protest on their Web site. Lance Snyder was killed in Iraq in March. Members of the Topeka church claim U.S. soldiers are killed as God's punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality. His father's federal lawsuit, filed June 5 , alleges church members violated the family's right to privacy and defamed the Marine and his family at the funeral and on the church's Web site. Phelps and the church refused to grant a waiver in the serving of summonses in connection with the federal lawsuit, making the church liable for those costs. Court documents say the ch...

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The founding pastor of the 2,100-member Grace Chapel has resigned after he said he had sexual relations with other men. In a tearful videotaped message Sunday to his congregation, the senior pastor of a thriving evangelical megachurch in south metro Denver confessed to sexual relations with other men and announced he had voluntarily resigned his pulpit. A month ago, the Rev. Paul Barnes of Grace Chapel in Doug las County preached to his 2,100-member congregation about integrity and grace in the aftermath of the Ted Haggard drugs-and-gay-sex scandal. Now, the 54-year-old Barnes joins Haggard as a fallen evangelical minister who preached that homosexuality was a sin but grappled with a hidden life. "I have struggled with homosexuality since I was a 5-year-old boy," Barnes said in the 32- minute video, which church leaders permitted The Denver Post to view. "... I can't tell you the number of nights I have cried myself to sleep, begging God to take ...

Catholic and Protestant worshippers will dutifully file into churches across North Texas today as they do every Sunday. They will listen to sermons, some of which will be tailored for the holiday season and serve as a traditional reminder of the real meaning of Christmas. They will listen, but the question is how many will be thinking more about last week's revelations of how the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese covered up allegations of sexual abuse by priests . Will there be more empty seats as a result? Will some look up from pews with a wary eye at the man behind the pulpit? The Watergate-type cover-up of sexual abuse detailed in diocese documents released by a district court judge Tuesday has saddened and angered people of all faiths, locally and across the nation. There is also a strong sense of betrayal by spiritual leaders, which is devastating to worshippers, religious authorities say. "No religious community is untouched by this," said Nadia Lahutsky, assoc...

ELYRIA, OH — Sarah Presnell did not think she would ever come home from the hospital. Before she went in, the Tennessee woman got her finances in order for her elderly husband and disabled daughter. She cobbled together $25,000 from the couple's savings and her daughter's mea ger earnings from bundling silverware at a restaurant and sent it to Gary McNaughton , an Elyria church leader recommended to her by relatives. As promised, he sent her a check for $250 the next month. The first check would be the last. McNaughton, former youth assistant at Church of the Open Door , sits in jail without bond. The 51-year-old Canadian was charged last month in federal court with fraud and tax evasion, accused of selling $17 million in bogus securities. He tricked 200 people from 1999 to 2003. Many of those people attended the church or had relatives who did, prosecutors say. Authorities say scams that sprout in church pews and beneath steeples are among the fastest-growing frauds in Americ...

DALLAS -- Recent sex scandals among Catholic and evangelical leaders are prompting renewed calls for action against clergy sexual abuse. But with research indicating such abuse is more prevalent among clergy -- including Baptists -- than other counseling professionals, abuse-victim advocates are asking if enough is being done. Comprehensive studies are difficult to find. But a 1993 survey by the Journal of Pastoral Care found that 14 percent of Southern Baptist ministers admitted to engaging in inappropriate sexual behavior. Seventy percent said they knew another minister who had. A 2000 Baptist General Convention of Texas report indicated more than 24 percent of ministers said they had counseled at least one person who had sexual contact with a minister. The BGCT report called the level of sexual abuse by clergy "horrific" and noted that "the disturbing aspect of all research is that the rate of incidence for clergy exceeds the client-professional rate for both phy...