The annual National Public Opinion Reference Survey (NPORS) of the Pew Research Center said around three out of ten US adults now consider themselves unaffiliated to any religion. First conducted in 2020, NPORS is an annual survey conducted online and via mail using a nationally representative group of respondents.
On Monday, November 29, a mob of violent Muslim protesters burned a police station, including four police posts in Peshawar, northeast Pakistan. Police officers repelled the mob's attempt to take a mentally unstable man accused of desecrating the Quran.
In September 2019, Mattia Nanetti filled out a de-baptism form he found online and sent it, along with a letter explaining why, to his parish church. Two weeks later, sbattezzo was written next to his name in his parish’s baptism registry. Sbattezzo means he is de-baptized in Italian.
On Friday, October 29th, the Delhi High Court instructed Twitter to take down posts from the Atheist Republic account. The court refers to the "objectionable" tweets depicting the Hindu goddess Maa Kaali in a sensually revealing pose.
A study published in the Social Psychological and Personality Science journal on March 5, 2021, postulated that the lack of perceiving religious imagery or other displays of faith is more likely to predict atheistic tendencies later in life.
In 2013, two British comedians "wanted to do something that was like church but totally secular." Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans were on their way to a gig when they discussed the idea. On January 6, 2013, the first-ever meeting of the Sunday Assembly took place in The Nave, a pub in the boroughs of London. The Sunday Assembly has since spread all over, mainly in the UK and in the US.
There were about 70 independent congregations. Ever since the pandemic hit, more than half have gone dormant or completely closed.
One of the special interests listed in the profile of Harvard’s new Chief Chaplain is “meaning and purpose beyond religion.” A very striking deviation from the century-old tradition of religious guidance usually expected of a chaplain. 400-years in the making, Harvard, an institution whose original mission was to educate religious ministers, has elected its first openly atheist chapel minister.
Online groups of India-based atheists have seen a rise in number in the past decade. In the last five years, the number of online communities made up of ex-Muslims from almost zero to a handful. These groups boast memberships of over 100 people, with one group's membership reaching 300 individuals.
100 members in an online community is a pretty low figure. That is, if you approach the figure from a perspective that does not include the possibility of life-threatening violence and social stigmatization. Being an ex-Muslim has its inherent problems.
On August 3, the High Court of Kano State in Nigeria formally charged Mubarak Bala, an atheist and president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, for causing a public disturbance. The High Court's charges, which come as a highly delayed action, revolves around Bala's Facebook posts which spanned over 2020. The public disturbance charges fall under Kano State Penal Code's sections 114 and 210.
