France’s move to outlaw wearing the hijab in public places for girls under age 18 was proposed under France’s “Separatist Bill” and approved by Members of Parliament (MP) on February 16th. The French Senate decided in favor of the bill on March 30th.

The Separatist Bill was officially named for “reinforcing Republican principles.” The objective of this legislation is to give France the resources to fight Islamic radicalism.

Several studies in recent decades found that being religious correlates with good health. New studies have challenged the finding that being an atheist correlates with poor health!

Believers who attend church services regularly are less likely to smoke, use drugs or become obese. They may live longer than those who do not attend any religious church services. Some have been led to conclude, according to those findings, that if religion is good for you, then being an atheist must be bad for your health. 

West Virginia Legislature introduced a controversial bill on February 10th, 2021, to remove essential teachings from public schools.

House Bill 2157 proposes eliminating any teachings of sexuality and forbids displays meant to promote understanding among all students related to such instructions in public schools. Although it doesn’t specify any particular group or sexuality in written form, it is widely known as an attempt to ban any mention of the LGBTQ+ community.

In February 2015, a renowned Bangladeshi-American blogger and published author, Avijit Roy, was gruesomely murdered in Dhaka at age 42. Roy was a notableadvocate of the free-thought movement, particularly in Bangladesh,

Roy was an American citizen of Bangladeshi provenance and a critic of religious extremism. He was publicly assaulted by machete-wielding assassins who butchered him to death as he and his wife were leaving a Dhaka book fair in February 2015. His wife, Rafida Ahmed, suffered head injuries and lost a finger.

Among white evangelicals, over 25 percent still believe in “QAnon” conspiracy theories. This may suggest some people experience difficulty abandoning one conspiracy theory when they believe whole-heartedly in another.