A struggling Christian school teaching creationism in South Carolina is receiving some unexpected financial help after an atheist website posted an exam from the school on the Internet. Aid has come from Answers in Genesis and concerned readers.

"It is unmistakable that our culture greatly needs well-equipped warriors for Christ. Even though the attack on the school was meant to be harmful, God has used it to provide affirmation regarding the importance of our work," Diana Baker, an administrator at the Blue Ridge Christian Academy in Landrum, S.C., said in a press release emailed to The Washington Post regarding the recent controversy over a quiz provided to the school's fourth grade class, which included questions relating to creationism.

"We are hopeful that the recent unexpected interest in our school and in Christian Education will provide support for a future for BRCA," Baker added. more >>

Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking announced this week that he would not be attending a major academic conference in Jerusalem in June as a way of showing "respect" for the Palestinians' academic boycott of Israel. In response, one rabbi said Hawking was joining the Church of Scotland in "demonizing" Israel.

"I was looking forward to hearing the iconic Stephen Hawking," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in an article for Fox News. "After agreeing to deliver the coveted keynote in Jerusalem, the highly unorthodox Hawking, who has visited Israel four times, has caved to the prevailing virulent anti-Israel orthodoxy among the United Kingdom's elite and announced he'll boycott because of Palestinian protests.

"It's interesting that Hawking, who is a principled atheist, has some kindred souls among theologians of the Church of Scotland." more >>

Atheist professor and author Richard Dawkins is set to moderate a panel examining what the American Humanist Association says are the harmful effects of religious fundamentalism on children at its 72nd annual conference in San Diego.

Sean Faircloth, director of Strategy & Policy at the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science, said in a post announcing the news about the June 1 event that in his experience as assistant attorney general in Maine handling child protection cases, he has seen how "disheartening" it is for religion to be "used as a justification for policies that would never be acceptable – but for the imprimatur of religion."

In addition to Faircloth, some of the speakers  who will be participating on the panel moderated by Dawkins include Katherine Stewart, author of The Good News Club: The Christian Right's Stealth Assault on America's Children, and Janet Heimlich, author of Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment. more >>

The scientific belief that everything in the universe came from nothing before there was a "Big Bang," or a moment of creation, is something that all Christians and scientists can agree on, says a leading Christian apologist. Also, J. Warner Wallace argues that the primary premise of Big Bang Cosmology, that everything came from nothing, is consistent with Scripture.

"There are good scientific reasons to believe, good evidential reasons to believe that all space, time, and matter have a beginning. This idea that everything (space, time, and matter) came from nothing is the foundational premise of Big Bang Cosmology," Wallace told The Christian Post. "It turns out that the primary proposal is absolutely consistent with what we see in Scripture – that God has created everything from nothing and that moment of Creation is something that I see as having good evidence to support such a thing from Big Bang Cosmology."

Wallace, who recently released his book, Cold-Case Christianity, said that there are some churches that have a certain view of the earth or the Creation model and for whatever reason are hesitant to embrace even the notion of Big Bang Cosmology. more >>

A Utah T-shirt making business has refused to do an order of shirts for an atheist organization due to an objection to the message on the proposed T-shirt design.

TIKI Printing of West Valley declined the business of the group Atheists of Utah, which sought to have the Christian-owned company make them a two-sided T-shirt. The shirt would have featured the web address of Atheists of Utah on one side and the message "Gotta Be Real Cuz God Ain't."

Sam Saltzman, part owner of TIKI, told The Christian Post that his company was first contacted about the shirts last week, as Atheists of Utah wanted them for an upcoming gay rights parade. more >>

Massive riots in Dhaka and other Bangladesh cities have left at least 36 people dead and 60 injured after tens of thousands of Islamists clashed with police demanding stricter penalties for atheist bloggers.

The demonstrators "were very aggressive, some people were throwing stones and the situation quickly become violent ... the police had no option but to respond," one eyewitness told BBC News.

"Rioters vandalized markets and set fire to bookshops where the Holy Koran is sold. Thousands of Koran and religious books burned. They also attacked the ruling party's political office and national mosque," the man added. more >>