By Eric Jayne

About one in five known pregnancies ends in a natural abortion (i.e. miscarriage) according to the Mayo Clinic website.  If the American Pregnancy Association is right there are about 6 million known pregnancies every year in the United States. That means that there are roughly 1.2 million natural abortions each year in this country.  The estimate is a conservative one since many miscarriages occur in the early stages of pregnancy before women realize they’re pregnant. Add the number of induced abortions performed in a year—1.2 million according to the Guttmacher Institute —and we have exactly doubled the rate of total abortions. Since 1973 there have been almost 50 million induced abortions and at least that many natural abortions. That’s 100 million abortions in less than four decades—and that’s just in the United States. All of the natural abortions are a direct act of God, if we suspend reality and entertain a belief in “Him.” However, if we accept the existence of an omnipotent and omniscient god, as many do, then induced abortions are also surely an act of God’s purposeful inaction to intervene and rescue the unborn (not to mention those of us living outside the uterus from fatal tragedies). This leaves me wondering why any rational person would use prayer as a means to end abortion. As it stands, there is a popular movement to do just that and I’m reminded of it each time I pass the large memorial outside St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Savage that reads “Pray to end Abortion.”

By Lee Salisbury

In a recent letter to the Stillwater Gazette editor, Chris Nitardy claims that Secular Humanism is a religion and that this religion kicked God out of our schools, thereby prohibiting prayer in schools.
 

  “It is time to stand up and support children from non-religious families,” says one freethought community leader.

by Nathan Ray

I was raised in Elk River and went to church as a child with my family. Around age twelve I was given a choice of continuing to go to church or stop going. The choice was clear: I was done. I knew church was not for me. There were always more questions than answers and some of the things they taught me were just plain stupid. My Mother and brother are still practicing christians, but are supportive of my own beliefs. I'm now 34 and typically keep my beliefs to myself; as people aren't shoving religion down my throat i am okay with it.

By George Kane

The separation of church and state triumphed in the case Freedom from Religion Foundation v Obama in April when District Judge Barbara B. Crabb, presiding at the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, ruled that the National Day of Prayer violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. She struck down the National Day of Prayer, Title 36 US Code § 119, as amended in 2003, according to which “The President shall issue each year a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as a National Day of Prayer on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals.” Crabb ruled:

By George Kane

The separation of church and state triumphed in the case Freedom from Religion Foundation v Obama in April when District Judge Barbara B. Crabb, presiding at the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, ruled that the National Day of Prayer violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. She struck down the National Day of Prayer, Title 36 US Code § 119, as amended in 2003, according to which “The President shall issue each year a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as a National Day of Prayer on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals.” Crabb ruled: