so we all know about Johnny's fantastic Sunday Morning Service. you've no doubt noticed Johnny's clever play on church ritual with the name of his weekly blog series. well, since i follow a lot of blogs and news feeds on atheism, skepticism, and science Johnny and i decided we'd put our heads together and do separate "services" under the same theme of a Sunday ritual. the new Sunday School series will follow Johnny's Sunday Morning Service each Sunday. where Johnny's series has always and will continue to greet you each Sunday morning, Sunday School will appear in the afternoon. the service will serve as a weekly recap of all the atheism, skepticism, church/state, evolution, astronomy, cosmology, archaeology... really just anything i think the community will be interested in!

so, now that that's out of the way let's get to this week's wrap-up!

first of all, welcome to all the new members that have joined us this past week! why not pick one random person and leave them a comment on their page to welcome them to the community?

second, does everyone know that TA has its own weekly podcast? the next one is tonight at 10PM Eastern. come and check it out. rumor has it that if enough of us show up for the podcast Jesus will show himself! details on the podcast are here!

finally, do yourselves a favor and check out the videos Angie's been posting in the Videos section. good stuff!

now to the links!


-altruistic behavior in primates relies on reciprocity.

-a new report shows that there are 85 sharia courts operating in Britain.

-Roger Ebert to Rush Limbaugh: "you should be horse-whipped"

-Austin Cline on Good vs. Bad Arguments; the reliability of emotion, stories, and scientific evidence.

-any members in and around Calgary will be interested to know that Richard Carrier will be debating Michael Horner on the question of the existence of gods on January 27th.

-Prop 8, California's voter-enacted ban on same-sex marriages, contributed to the social stigma that makes gay men and lesbians more susceptible to depression, suicide and substance abuse.

-we've stepped back a bit from the brink. the Doomsday Clock has been set back 1 minute for the first time in its 63-year history.

-John D at Philosophical Disquisitions asks "why be moral?"

-Brian Dunning at Skepticblog urges you to report medical quackery to the FDA.

-The Counter Creationist Handbook is now available as an app for the iPhone and Blackberries!

-Americans United has a couple of good posts on the fight in Texas for reality-based social studies standards. check them out here and here. relatedly, Chris Mooney at The Intersection posted about more attempts to bring textbooks in line with ideology in Texas; this time on the topic of global warming.

-Chris Mooney at The Intersection and John Timmer at Ars Technica both put up hard hitting pieces on the media's reporting on science.

-NASA's New Horizons probe is just past the halfway point in its journey to Pluto. Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy puts the distances in perspective: "the solar system is frakkin BIG!"

-Andrew Moseman at 80 Beats blogs on a new study appearing in Nature showing that the Y chromosome is evolving furiously. (not sure we can use that to argue that we're the more evolved gender though fellas! lol)

-Mike McCormick at Proving the Negative has a helpful rundown on some atheistic philosophical positions. just as helpful is the list he's put together of a bunch of godless heathens and their contributions- i've bookmarked the post as a bibliography of sorts. good stuff.

-both Hemant Mehta and Greta Christina blog on "ministerial exceptions" in Maryland. why does a pastor who sexually harasses an employee and then fires that employee when his sexual advances are rejected get off scott-free?

-Barry Duke at The Freethinker: "I was only saving unborn babies", pleads the man who shot Dr George Tiller.

-Sam Ogden at Skepchick posted with information on dates and locations for the US premier of the Charles Darwin biopic "Creation". unfamiliar with the film? check it out here, here, and here.

-Hemant Mehta has a good post on church/state separation issues within the Iowa State Government.

-Luke at Common Sense Atheism kills one of the atheist's sacred cows when he urges us to stop using the "who designed the designer" response to arguments from complexity and first cause arguments.

-there's a new Pew survey showing that attitudes on inter-marriage are changing for several groups that people have traditionally been against inter-marrying. guess which group people are still against... you got it! PZ Meyers breaks it down.

-got kids? this post on RichardDawkins.net has links and dates for this summer's Camp Quest sessions in the US and UK.

-The Onion does it again with this new article: "Gay Teen Worried He May Be Christian"

-Douglas Mangum at Biblia Hebraica follows up last week's post on the Khirbet Qeiyafa ostracon with an update.

-another "gap" has been closed: for the first time, two astronomers have explained the diversity of galaxy shapes seen in the universe. no god required.

-the 20 imams associated with the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada issued a fatwa stating that any attack on the US or Canada by Muslim extremists was in fact an attack against all 10 million Muslims living in North America. Hemant Mehta says that's one fatwa he can get behind while pointing to a new Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill study that shows that moderate Muslims in the US have helped prevent radicalization.

-an Oregon City trial raises some interesting questions in the debate over faith-healing.

-Ken Perrott at Open Parachute explains why the idea that the recent cold weather in certain parts of the world is a refutation of global warming is deeply wrong.

-John Loftus at Debunking Christianity posted a good reference for anyone interested in getting a nutshell idea of the Documentary Hypothesis (the JEPD Theory).

-Greta Christina points out the immorality of heaven and asks if heaven is even something we would want.

-freethinkers are the hottest... but some freethinkers are more hottest! Luke at Common Sense Atheism has a list of 16 of the sexiest female atheists (possibly NSFW).

-Nicholas Kristoff wrote a great op-ed piece for the New York Times on Relgion and Women. Hemant Mehta comments.

-there's more evidence that Neanderthals weren't the dull brutes they're often made out to be. coverage on Nature.com, Andrew Moseman's 80 Beats, and Physorg

-check out last Sunday's The Atheist Experience. hosts Russell Glasser and Jen Peeples debate Pastor Kyle Miller on The Problem of Evil. i'll bet Matt Dillihanty's bummed he missed out on that one!

that's all for this week! make sure you check out Johnny's SMS for this week! see ya next Sunday!