Firstly — “Of Gods and Gardens”, from IntelligentLife.com. It first appeared in 2009, but no matter!

Believers have got into a tangle trying to fend off the likes of Richard Dawkins. And then there’s the problem of the horticultural parable. Anthony Gottlieb does some digging …

Of Gods and Gardens

Secondly — “Atheists — naughty and nice — should define themselves” by Susan Jacoby

I was somewhat taken aback recently when I found myself on a list of “kinder, gentler atheists”–most of them women–compiled by a religious historian attempting to distinguish between socially acceptable atheism and the presumably mean, hard-line atheism expounded by such demonic figures as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett. This nasty versus nice dichotomy is wholly an invention of believers who are under the mistaken impression that atheism is a religion in need of a good schism.

More…

And lastly from Oz: “‘Ruthless’ church accused of re-writing history”, By Nicole Butler for AM

The Catholic Church in Brisbane, last year labelled as “un-Christian” by some, is now being accused of attempting to re-write history.

Here…