Do atheists hate God?

No. Consider: Do you hate Santa Claus? Or Zeus and Poseidon? The fact is, atheists just don´t believe in "God" or gods. You can´t hate something you don't believe in.

My profile which controls the group was hacked. I still have no idea how; if anyone wants to blame me for stupidly falling for a phishing scam, I probably am guilty, but I honestly don't know how it happened.

The group was renamed jesus is love; 100s of regular users were banned (which oddly is permanent in a myspace group; cannot be undone, even by the group's moderator). All our huge threads were deleted and the hacker was systematically deleting users from the group as well.

The role of religion in education is a subject rarely out of the headlines. Despite Britain's multi-faith society, schools are still required to include a collective act of worship of a Christian nature, while faith schools and religious academies have raised fears about community cohesion and covert selection.

Claims by some religious educationalists that faith is the best way to teach moral values is challenged by others in schools who believe religious morality to be outdated and dangerous.

Dimbleby is joined by Professor Richard Dawkins, Schools Select Committee chairman Barry Sheerman MP, and a multi-faith studio audience.

Alright, I went ahead and created an atheist group, which also welcomes debate and is open to all, since OpEdNews seemed to be lacking one. I would like any submissions, thoughts, whatever from any interested parties. Hopefully, we can make this an informative and thought-provoking little section where we can also get to know some like, or not-so-like, minded people.

-Kelly

The one exception is Richard Dawkins, a popular science writer, holds the number three spot.

The issue of religious offense was run through the press quite frequently last year, what with the Danish cartoon fiasco, questions over the deportation of some of the more unfavorable elements of Islam, the attempt by Christian Voice to bring a private prosecution for blasphemy against the BBC and - more recently - with the school teacher tried for blasphemy for naming a bear ‘Mohammed'. In each case, the issue has not been so much about the limits of freedom of expression, but the extreme reaction by the religious to otherwise innocuous actions. In each case, the defining characteristic has not been any intent to deliberately offend, but the willingness of the religious to be offended.

And here I return to my terminological criticism. This "spiritual" side to the new anti-dogmatism is not helped by the conflation of the terms "religion" and "faith". Dennett, as one would expect from a professional philosopher, has been by far the least sloppy in his use of the terms; but he is also the most subtle and least read of four.

Harris can slide between the terms "faith" and "religion", but his sophisticated treatment of spirituality makes it clear that his real target is the dogma of faith.

When you’re rich and an atheist, most Christians will say that you’ve become an atheist because money is your God. You will be accused of forgetting Jesus because you spend more time making money than praying or going to church. People here in Manila stereotyped atheists as filthy rich, collage kids or intellectual snobs who seem to be too pompous of himself, that’s why he deny the existence of God.

But how about if you’re in a state of poverty yet you’re an atheist?

I am really starting to believe that Dinesh D'Souza doesn't understand what a "delusion" is, or what it means for something not to exist. His incredibly idiotic arguments against atheism have been pushing me in that direction for quite a while, as he constantly dodges the issue of whether or not gods exist to make unsupported assertions about the pleasant social effects he imagines result from religion.

At the recent meeting of atheist organisations, Margaret Downey, president of Atheist Alliance International (AAI) suggested holding a conference featuring all of the American atheist organisations. Hemant at Friendly Atheist has an edited transcript of Margaret’s call for a “Unity Conference in 2010″, and has posted his thoughts and called for suggestions.