SPI Newsletter 4 1/15/15

Secular Policy Institute

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Hello,

This week we bring you three original reports. First I bring you a rundown of what is happening in Washington and what the newly Republican controlled congress has planned. Our next piece is from Greg Paul, refutes the idea that the religious community is more charitable than the secular community. Finally we have Madeline Schussel with the SPI Fellow's Corner with Michael Shermer in D.C. and Richard Dawkins' comments on the Paris Charlie Hebdo attacks.

In addition, Turkey's Radio and Television Supreme Council continues fines for immoral content and a Kansas Christian Group tries to bring the local school board to court over new science guidelines.

Edwina Rogers, CEO
Secular Policy Institute

All Eyes on Washington

US Congress - Secular Policy Institute staff are busy attending briefings on the Republican's plans for the new 114th Congress that kicked off last Tuesday amidst snowfall. Republicans lost Congressional dominance in 2007 and have waited eight years for that day.

Will The GOP Prove They Can Govern?

SPI Fellows' Corner

Michael Shermer in D.C., and Dawkins on Paris

Next Wednesday, January 21^st, Fellow Michael Shermer, advisor to the American Council on Science and Health, founder of The Skeptics Society and Editor in Chief of its magazine Skeptic, will return to the Cato Institute as a guest speaker. He will discuss and sign copies of his latest book, The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom.

Learn More About The Shermer's visit and read Fellow Richard Dawkins' opinion on Paris.

Are The Churchly More Charitable?

It is a widely held truism that more religious Americans tend to be more charitable. The thesis that those who are closest to the creator are the one’s most willing to help out their fellow man, woman and child has become a primary justification for the continuation of religion as a societally positive force.

However, studies show this may not be true

Officially Secular Turkey Continues Moral Clampdown with Condom Fines

Turkey's increasingly stringent television watchdog has fined a national private channel over a show where the characters discussed the merits of strawberry-flavored condoms, the Hurriyet daily reported Saturday.

Turkey continues moral censorship with two more television fines

Kansas Christians Sue School Board for Teaching Science

In a bold move, the Citizens for Objective Public Education (COPE) filed federal suit on September 26 against the state of Kansas for their adoption of the Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards NGSS). The organization argues that the standards encourage an atheist world-view which violates the establishment, speech, and free exercise clauses under the First Amendment, as well as the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Christians claim science standards will lead students to question their religious beliefs

World Secular Calender

Religious Freedom Day - Jan 16

Secular Summit (Ohio) - January 20

Free Though Blogs Convention (FtBCon) - January 23-25

University of Humanistic Studies Conference - January 30-31

Darwin Day - Feb 12

Southern California Secular Humanist Conference - February 14-15

Darwin on the Palouse - Febuary 7