The American Humanist Association launched recently a nationwide ad blitz, their largest so far, this time disparaging both Christianity and Islam.

AHA will spend at least $200,000 this time, to market its beliefs on television, newspapers, billboards and bus ads. The ads compare texts from the Bible and the Quran to humanist thought, and then urge readers to consider humanism, according to The Christian Post.

Roy Speckhardt, head of AHA, said that both the Quran and the Bible have “horrific material, and to say you get your morality from there” is a hindrance, according to CNN.

Speckhardt told CNN that the goal of the campaign is to “challenge the fundamentalists” for their “backward ideas.” He added, “We’re targeting for criticism those who read the Bible literally, not those who pick and choose what they like.”

He said it is better to pick and choose as humanists do, according to CNN. The campaign raises issues on slavery, women, homosexuality, war and punishment. They then pick and choose verses from the Bible and the Quran and compare these to quotes from AHA or humanists in history, The Christian Post reported.

In some ads quotes are taken from the Quran, and then compared to quotes that show the humanist beliefs on war and violence. In other ads, quotes are taken from the Bible on homosexuality and compared to humanist quotes, The Christian Post said.

There is also a video ad with atheist Richard Dawkins disputing Proverbs 3:5 which urges believers to trust in the Lord and not just depend on their own understanding. Dawkins advocates his belief on “evidence and logic,” The Christian Post reported.

Speckhardt told CNN another goal of the ad campaign is to reach out to those who do not belong to any religion. He said, “There are millions of people – approximately 34 million people – who are unaffiliated.”

The AHA has been running ads in the past advocating their beliefs. (See  http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2010/07/%e2%80%9cunder-god%e2%80%9d-billboard-war-in-north-carolina-continues-12842).

Among their previous campaigns were a number of bus ads that said, “No God? No Problem!”  On the National Day of Prayer, they ran billboards that said, “In Good We Trust,” according to The Christian Post.

The Christian Post said their latest campaign will include a spot on NBC Dateline and newspaper ads in the Seattle Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Atlanta Journal Constitution and USA Today.

Whatever the effect of this nationwide campaign may be, beliefnet considered its strategy noting, “The campaign takes some of the less savory parts of The Bible and the Quran and compares them with reasonable, compassionate quotes from prominent humanists. That’s a great advertising technique, of course, but doesn’t do much to prove anything one way or another (Christians could create a similar ad, of course, using a ‘love your neighbor’ quote from Jesus and contrasting it with something awful from Stalin).”

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Michael Gove, education secretary of the U.K., said that setting up atheist schools can be considered as part of the reforms he will make in his department. This comes after atheist educator and writer Richard Dawkins expressed interest in the idea, ASSIST News said.

Amid government plans to push for independent education institutions, Dawkins, who authored “The God Delusion” and once said faith schools are a type of child abuse, has said he is agreeable to helping to set up what he prefers to call a “free-thinking ” schools.

Dawkins said the schools would teach skepticism and an appreciation for evidence, as opposed to being indoctrinated in atheism. They would also teach about Norse legends, ancient Greeks and the Bible, but the latter would be treated as literature, according to the Telegraph.

The idea of secular schools came to Dawkins when a group of women set the idea before him, saying it would be a response to the prevalence of faith schools which they believe are discordant and unscientific, the Telegraph said.

Dawkins said, “If children understand that beliefs should be substantiated with evidence, as opposed to tradition, authority, revelation or faith, they will automatically work out for themselves that they are atheists,” the Telegraph reported.

Ann Widdecombe, the Former Home Secretary said, “If you can set up faith schools, then I think quite obviously you must also be allowed to set up a school that will cater for people whose parents are bringing them up specifically to have no faith.”

“I think it is a great pity if somebody is brought up that way, but our job is to win those people over, not to look to the law to do it for us,” she said.

Out of 21,000 state elementary and high schools in England, thirty-three percent are faith schools, mainly Anglican and Roman Catholic. A small number are Sikh, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim, according to Assist News.

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Elaine Howard Ecklund, in her book, “Science vs. Religion:  What Scientists Really Think,” acknowledges that Americans are almost evenly divided between those who think science conflicts with religion and those who don’t, according to The Journal Gazette.

Both sides have scientific backers, too, with atheist biologist Richard Dawkins who said faith is unnecessary and irrational and geneticist Francis S. Collins  who gathered evangelical scientists to promote a view of harmony between science and faith, The Journal Gazette said.

Ecklund, a Rice University sociologist and director of religion and public life, surveyed 1,700 scientists at elite American research universities with 275 lengthy follow-up interviews, The Journal Gazette said.

Her findings?  Half of the top scientists surveyed are religious. Among them, 18 percent attend religious services once a month, seven percent are conservative to moderate Protestants or Catholics, and 17 percent are liberal Protestants or Catholics, according to beliefnet.

Only five of the 275 interviewed actively opposed religion.

Even among the third who are atheists, many consider themselves “spiritual,” The Journal Gazette said.

Ecklund for example cites one biologist who described science as “the skeptical improvement of all knowledge,” but added that “the evidence is never perfect,” according to beliefnet.

The biologist said, “Every fact can be overturned, and we all know this.  But when it comes to talking publicly about creationism, suddenly evolution is a fact.  Darwin is completely right,” beliefnet reported.

Ecklund also spoke to a neuroscientist who “took his beliefs about science being the only type of knowledge worth pursuing to their logical conclusion.  Because science is capable of comprehending the totality of life, human life is no more noble than that of a cockroach,” beliefnet reported.

While noting that the comparison to a cockroach was meant to be a joke, Ecklund cited scientists who objected to this type of thinking.  One scientist noted that “science [should] not pretend to solve spiritual or ethical problems and not pronounce on things it has no authority to pronounce on,” beliefnet reported.

Ecklund noted that several biologists felt that to mix purely biological answers concerning mechanism with philosophical and religious questions of ethics is to make science address questions it is incapable of answering, beliefnet reported.

While Ecklund avoided editorializing, she did encourage a genuine dialogue between scientists and the broader public in order to bridge the divide, The Journal Gazette said.

The Journal Gazette also noted that this book is aimed mainly at scientists, but suggested that even non-scientists could benefit from reading it.

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Northern Ireland’s culture minister Nelson McCausland wrote recently to the trustees of the National Museums Northern Ireland, urging them add alternative views on the origin of the universe.

In an interview McCausland said, “There are a range of perspectives and I want simply to have in there consideration given to reflecting the diversity of views in Northern Ireland.

“It’s also in fact a human rights issue and an equality issue because culture rights, the rights of people in Northern Ireland, should be implemented.”

McCausland also asked museums to give more prominence to Ulster-Scots and the Orange Order, the BBC reported.

While his letter did not specifically mention creationism, it does open the door to the option of a creationism exhibit.  McCausland’s party colleague and North Antrim assembly member Mervyn Storey has actively campaigned to urge museums in Northern Ireland to add exhibits on creationism, according to The Guardian.

God gives the divine spark to Adam. Northern Ireland's culture minister urges national museums to include alternative views on universe's origins

McCausland noted that around one third of Northern Ireland’s population believed in creationism and intelligent design.

He said, “I have had more letters from the public on this issue than any other issue,” according to The Guardian.

In his letter, McCausland said he had “a common desire to ensure that museums are reflective of the views, beliefs and cultural traditions that make up society in Northern Ireland,” The Guardian reported.

McCausland’s letter has prompted strong opposition from some members of the media, the academe, and the government spheres.

Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist said “Scientific evidence can’t be democratically decided,” according to The Guardian.

Social Democrat and Labor Party spokesman Thomas Burns said it was “a mark of a liberal society that its cultural institutions should be free of party-political interference,” the BBC said.

Storey, who has chaired the Northern Ireland assembly’s education committee, has denied that man descended from apes, according to The Guardian.  He believes in creationism and intelligent design.

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Two academics who are also respected book authors said recently that secularism is just as much a religion as is Christianity and Islam.

Margaret Somerville, director of the Center of Medicine, Ethics and Law at McGill University, recently called secularism “The most encompassing religion that functions as a basket holding all the other [secular faiths],” in an article she wrote for The Montreal Gazette.

In Somerville’s article, “Religion has a role to play in the public square” she wrote, “It’s a mistake to accept that secularism is neutral. It too is a belief system used to bind people together. We need all voices to be heard in the democratic public square, and they have a right to be heard.”

Somerville also wrote the book, The Ethical Imagination:  Journeys of the Human Spirit.

Her views were echoed by Ian Buruma, the Henry R. Luce Professor of Democracy, Human Rights & Journalism at Bard College, NY.  In rd magazine Buruma said,  “Secularism can be turned into a kind of dogma of its own which is the case of France after the revolution.  Reason was almost treated as a matter of faith.”

Buruma, who also wrote the book Taming the Gods, said secularism, like laicite is ideological.  “To extol reason as the highest form of human expression, that wants to ban religious symbols from public places and so on…it can become quite dogmatic, which secularism doesn’t have to be,” according to rd magazine.

Somerville cited a wide range of secular religions, quoting religious studies scholars Paul Nathanson and Katherine Young.

Some examples are humanism, atheism, scientism and moralism which all have adherents bound through a common belief and ideology.

Somerville said they are harmful when, as Richard Dawkins does with scientism, they are used to deny any space for spirituality and traditional  religion in the public square and replaced with secularism, according to The Montreal Gazette.

Somerville adds that separation of church and state is simply a doctrine meant to protect the state from being controlled or wrongfully interfered with by a religion or religions, and to protect religions, within their valid sphere of operation, from state interference or control.

She contrasts this with Islamic societies like Iran where no separation exists, and China where the government interferes in the appointment of Roman Catholic bishops.

She concludes, “Values conflicts cannot be solved by excluding religious voices from the public square. On the contrary, doing so is likely to exacerbate those conflicts.”

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Evangelist Ray Comfort, author of a new introduction to Darwin's "Origin of Species"

Ray Comfort, the world renowned evangelist, author and speaker known for founding Living Waters Publications and The Way of the Master ministries has become the center of controversy after writing a pro Intelligent Design introduction to evolutionist Charles Darwin’s work “On the Origin of Species.” This special edition of Darwin’s book is laced with Biblical arguments refuting evolution and even suggests connections between Darwin’s theories, Hitler and racism.

Yesterday, Comfort and Living Waters, along with American actor and evangelist Kirk Cameron of Fireproof fame, distributed over 100,000 copies of “Origin of Species” across the campuses of the nation’s top 100 universities. Although Cameron had officially announced the distribution would occur today November 19^th, both he and Comfort were forced to take action early after it was revealed that several students had planned protests against the campaign.

In fact, many students planned to “rip out [Comfort’s] introduction,” according to The Christian Post.

Comfort’s special edition has made waves throughout the atheist community, many of who are preparing, along with the rest of the world, to celebrate the 150 year anniversary of Darwin’s theory of evolution and “Origin of Species” on November 21.

In his official video announcement at the website for Living Waters, Cameron said, “An entire generation is being brainwashed by atheistic evolution without even hearing the alternative and it’s radically changing the culture of our nation.”

Cameron also notes that Comfort’s 50-page introduction includes “the history of evolution, a timeline of Darwin’s life, Adolph Hitler’s undeniable connection with the theory, Darwin’s racism, his disdain for women and Darwin’s thoughts on the existence of God.” These elements are balanced with scientific viewpoints on God gleaned from the minds of such historical figures as Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Copernicus, Bacon, Louis Pasture and Johann Kepler.

“All we want to do is present the opposing and correct view,” said Cameron. “These students aren’t stupid. They should be given both sides of the argument and [be] allowed to make up their own minds. We think that’s healthy.”

In a strong rebuttal to Comfort’s introduction, the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) responded with this YouTube video entitled “Don’t Diss Darwin.”

Comfort’s most recent book, “Nothing Created Everything,” poses strong arguments against evolution, while asserting how many sound, highly esteemed and awarded scientists profess to believe in Intelligent Design.

Speaking on his introduction to “Origin of Species”, Comfort said, “The [entire] 304-page publication will be Charles Darwin’s every word—not one jot or tittle will be removed.” He then asked, “Besides, if they [those opposed] think my arguments have no merit, why are they so upset? They should actually enjoy the fact that I’m spreading more of my idiotic claims that intelligent students will see right through—that way my stupidity will be much more apparent.”

According to an official press release at Living Waters, several atheists have already planned an online resistance movement to Comfort’s introduction through Richarddawkins.net. Ironically, and quite humorously, Comfort officially dedicated “Nothing Created Everything” to the renowned British atheistic biologist, much to the outrage of countless loyal Dawkins followers and Dawkins himself.

Comfort admits that he has been baffled by the protests and cries of offense voiced by countless atheists in online forums, particularly considering that to date there have been over 140 different editions of On the Origin of Species, many of which contain introductions from various authors’ viewpoints.

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FOX News: Fri. October 9, 2009

Atheistic scientist Richard Dawkins attending the 35th annual Atheists Convention.

Evolutionary scientist, best-selling author and self-professing atheist Clinton Richard Dawkins has a new book out. And you should know about it. In an exclusive appearance on the FOX News Network’s The O’Reilly Factor today, Dawkins debated with conservative political commentator Bill O’Reilly about the existence of God, evolution versus Creationism and everything in between. The discussion also included news of his most recent bestseller “The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution.”

Dawkins has a longstanding history of adamantly speaking out against the theory of Intelligent Design in nature and is known for criticizing religion and faith in a “higher power” at every opportunity. And he is good at what he does.

In the 2008 documentary film “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed”, longtime actor and comedian Ben Stein investigated the controversial issue of academic freedom in regards to Creationism and Intelligent Design. Dawkins was interviewed by Stein, among several other notable scientists, on the possibility of Intelligent Design in nature.

The famed atheistic professor naturally denied any such notion. However, by the end of their intense discourse, even Dawkins was unable to account for the origins of certain microbiological processes in creation. He did, however, remain steadfast in his belief that faith in an intelligent Creator is complete lunacy.

In his previous book “The God Delusion” (2006), Dawkins went so far as to claim that the very notion of the existence of a supernatural Creator is absurd and actually qualifies as a psychological delusion.

Today’s mainstream media and the education establishment of the U.S. are becoming increasingly intolerant of professors and scientists who assert even the possibility of Intelligent Design in nature. Countless university level teachers, professors and faculty have either been reprimanded or completely cut for merely suggesting such a theory.

We live in a world where science and God, science and religious faith, have been separated. Many believe the conjunction of the two is simply politically incorrect. Unfortunately, you cannot have science without God or God without science. Not to mention that any science professor has the right to at least present Creationism in their classroom as a possibility for the origins of life, just as Evolution is presented.

There is a cultural call to Christians everywhere to guard their minds against Dawkins and others like him and to “demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” and “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5, NIV).

Research, study, learn and be prepared to defend your beliefs and faith whenever needed.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction…Happy is the man that finds wisdom and gains understanding.” (Proverbs 1:7 and 3:13).

You can watch the official square-off between Dawkins and O’Reilly in this YouTube re-post of the interview.

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