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By Laura Gottesdiener, AlterNet

It’s almost Oscar season, and we all know what that means: a parade of well-dressed, trophy-clutching men and women thanking their friends, family, spouses, and above all, God. As I watch the Academy Awards each year, I’m always left wondering: Aren’t there any atheist celebrities?

Sure, there are a few famous ones who are essentially defined by their lack of adherence to organized religion. Woody Allen, for example, is the quintessential Jewish-atheist. In his autobiographical film, Stardust Memories, Allen's character explains that his atheism is not simply an aspect of his identity; it’s a cosmic act of resistance: “To you, I'm an atheist,” he says. “To God, I'm the loyal opposition.”

In fact, the iconic Allen is actually only one member of a growing club: high-profile celebrities who are finally coming out about their atheism. Regardless of the outcome of Sunday’s awards (I’m still pulling for Quvenzhané Wallis) the presence of many of these performers on the red carpet is certainly something to celebrate. 

1. Angelina Jolie

From her stint as Lara Croft to her 180-degree shift to being a UN ambassador, Jolie has never been one to follow conventions or expectations. So it’s no surprise that she’d be up front about her atheism. In an interview with the A.V. Club, she answered the question, “Is there a God?” with the conciliatory yet firm answer:

“Hmm… For some people. I hope so, for them. For the people who believe in it, I hope so. There doesn’t need to be a God for me. There’s something in people that’s spiritual, that’s godlike. I don’t feel like doing things just because people say things, but I also don’t really know if it’s better to just not believe in anything, either.”

As to whether they're going to raise their six children to be atheists, Jolie and partner Brad Pitt (see #5) haven't yet said.

2. Ani DiFranco

Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Ani DiFranco is not one to shy away from political causes. A feminist and anti-war activist, DiFranco …read more
Source: ALTERNET

By Prachi Gupta, AlterNet

Fox star and makeshift historian Bill O’Reilly has unveiled the subject of his next book, “Killing Jesus: A History,” which in December he teased would be “a blockbuster of epic proportions.” O’Reilly, who has clearly developed a formula for his best-selling historical “thrillers,” will follow up his “Killing Lincoln” and “Killing Kennedy.”

But both came under serious fire. As former Salon politics editor Jefferson Morley pointed out, O’Reilly fabricated a story in “Killing Kennedy,” saying he heard an associate of Lee Harvey Oswald commit suicide when, in fact, O’Reilly did not. And Justin Elliott has noted that O’Reilly’s Lincoln assassination account was so grossly inaccurate that the historic site, the Ford Theater, refused to sell the book on its premises “because of the lack of documentation and the factual errors within the publication.”

It remains to be seen how O’Reilly will spin what publisher Henry Holt and Co. describes as the retelling of “the story of Jesus of Nazareth as a beloved and controversial young revolutionary brutally killed by Roman soldiers,” adding that “O’Reilly will recount the seismic political and historical events that made his death inevitable, and the changes his life brought upon the world for the centuries to follow.”

The book is due to hit shelves on Sept. 24.

Thu, 02/21/2013 – 13:23

…read more
Source: ALTERNET

By Fred Branfman, AlterNet

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” –Martin Luther King Jr. “Beyond Vietnam” speech, April 4, 1967

I recently watched all 10 episodes of Oliver Stone's “Untold History of the United States” (on Showtime). I strongly recommend it to everyone, but particularly to America's young people who have been robbed of a most precious legacy: an understanding of their true history, and thus their future. I can't think of a more meaningful gift to young people for, as Stone says, “history must be remembered or it will be remembered until the meanings are clear.” The same U.S. Executive Branch mentality that produced Vietnam is today illegally and inhumanly murdering and weakening U.S. national security interests throughout the Muslim world, and threatening its own citizens as never before. It has never been more urgent to learn from America’s real history.

I am not ashamed to say this series moved me to tears. First, by its depiction of the millions of lives the U.S. Executive Branch has ruined all over the world. This includes over 21 million — officially estimated — killed, wounded and made homeless in Indochina and Iraq alone, bring back the most painful memories of my life: my interviews with over 1,000 Lao refugees who reported seeing beloved parents, spouses and children burned alive, buried alive, and shredded to pieces by years of secret, illegal and inhuman U.S. Executive Branch bombing. [Showtime has made available some of the episodes free to watch over the internet.]

Second, I was touched by the awful beauty of simply seeing the truth told so clearly and vividly. The combination of the information, the imagery and Stone’s narration touched levels far deeper than the mind.

I was most moved by Episode 7, on the war in Indochina, whose closing words below constitute not only an epitaph for the Vietnam War, but for America itself. I thought of Martin Luther King Jr.'s warning as I watched this segment, which chronicles how U.S. leaders waged aggressive war, killing over 3.4 million Vietnamese according to former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, and hundreds of thousands more …read more
Source: ALTERNET