The Center for Inquiry sent out   an important message today from Richard Schroeder, Chair of the CFI Board of Directors. The message aims to clarify the situation at CFI for our readers and supporters and respond to some charges that have been swirling around the Blogosphere, most notably recent criticism directed at CFI from its founder Paul Kurtz.
 
The message is frank and honest but overall positive and hopeful in its assessment of CFI’s current and upcoming projects and future prospects.   
 
I encourage you to   read the message in its entirety , and in the interest of fostering dialogue and an open exchange of ideas, comments are welcome.

In my (admittedly biased) view, CFI continues to be the preeminent organization promoting and defending reason, science, and humanism, both in the cultural marketplace of ideas and at the grassroots level.  

Read all about it, and watch a video of the invocation being delivered, in this story published in the  Atlanta Journal-Constitution .

By making Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad its keynote speaker, the United Nation’s Durban Review Conference, dubbed “Durban II,” lived up to the infamy of the original anti-racism meeting in Durban, South Africa, back in 2001 (which disintegrated into an anti-Semitic, anti-Western hate-fest that was abandoned by Israel and the United States). Representatives from dozens of nations streamed out of the hall in Geneva during Ahmadinejad’s speech calling Israel a “paragon of racism,” and railing against Zionist-controlled governments of the West. Still, I am determined to focus on the positive story: by imagining it.

Read the full article at   Religion Dispatches   here . 

  Justin Trottier, executive director of the Centre for Inquiry/Canada:

Such is the irony of the world that a body containing the words “United Nations” and “Human Rights Commission” could be hijacked by a single view of a single religion to enforce a gross violation of human rights. Much has been said about the UN Human Rights Commission resolution to combat “defamation of religion,” but having led the Canadian Atheist Bus Campaign, freedom to criticize religion is of particular personal concern. So here are a few reasons I’m as offended by this attempt at censorship as are the censors by anything that borders on what they consider blasphemy.  

Read the full statement on the   National Post Website   here .

    The Council’s report   —authored by independent researcher and     Free Inquiry     contributor Gregory S. Paul—flatly contradicts these claims, suggesting that Baylor and lead researcher Rodney Stark may have improperly evaluated the data and consequently misinformed the public and the media. Baylor spokespersons, and Stark himself,     have quickly shot back     , defending the integrity of their study. Stark has gone on the offensive, labeling Paul a "militant Atheist" (not true) and dismissing the Council’s report. Stark has suggested that Paul "didn’t do his research thoroughly and is misinformed about much of what he reports on," adding, "It’s important for him, as a militant Atheist, to believe that religion will disappear very soon, and he believes we are covering that up." Baylor spokeswoman Jill Scoggins     told     The Christian Post       on Tuesday, "I know it’s hard to understand that a Christian university doesn’t have an agenda but we don’t."   As of this writing, the Council, in concert with Gregory Paul, is preparing a statement in response to Stark. The statement will be released to the media and posted on our Web site shortly. As part of the response, Paul writes:

    "Stark, in contrast, casts doubt on his scholarship and descends to the level of personal attack when he contends that it’s ‘important for him [Paul], as a militant Atheist, to believe that religion will disappear very soon’ (note the capitalization of atheist as though it is a faith). Stark does not go to the trouble to present evidence that I am a ‘militant Atheist.’ I know he did not bother to conduct proper research before making the claim because there is no documentation to that effect. I have never claimed to be an absolute atheist in print or privately."    

  There are, of course, much more substantive issues addressed in the statement by Paul. For now, our own Tom Flynn (executive director of the Council) has an     excellent guest article examining the pertinent issues     published on the     Washington Post/Newsweek     Web feature "On Faith."

  The controversy continues to unfold; stay tuned!   

  CFI chairman and founder   Paul Kurt   z   was recently interviewed on the Michelangelo Signorile Show, heard on Sirius Satellite Radio. Kurtz discussed, among other things, themes from his new Prometheus title     Forbidden Fruit: The Ethics of Secularism     , and the secular nature of the American founding.

  The program aired on Friday, December 12, 2008.

      Listen to the interview here.        

  From the Michelangelo Signorile Show Web site:

  Every weekday afternoon,       Michelangelo Signorile           takes on the right-wing with hard-hitting analysis and commentary — and with just enough laughter at the sheer lunacy that often passes for political discourse in   Americ   a   . He reports on the news of the day in politics, media and pop culture, and he interviews all the big names — authors, newsmakers and icons from politics to entertainment.