Free Republic

From Tommy Smothers.

The church, which is the worldwide head of the Anglican Communion, tweeted well-wishes for Dawkins, 74, and his family on Friday night, writing, “Prayers for Prof Dawkins and his family.” “The tweet was a prayer,” he wrote. “Nothing controversial in that.” Despite intending no ill will in sending the tweet, Arora said that a row quickly unfolded, with some claiming that the Church of England was “trolling” Dawkins over his illness. In the end, Arora said that the reactions made it apparent that there is profound confusion prayer. “What is clear in some of the responses is a misunderstanding of...

THE population of nonreligious Americans -- including atheists, agnostics and those who call themselves "nothing in particular" -- stands at an all-time high this election year. Americans who say religion is not important in their lives and who do not belong to a religious group, according to Pew Research Center, have risen in numbers from an estimated 21 million in 2008 to more than 36 million now. Despite the extraordinary swiftness and magnitude of this shift, our political campaigns are still conducted as if all potential voters were among the faithful. The presumption is that candidates have everything to gain...

Although I’ve been a content atheist for a decade, somehow God has found a way to stick around in my mind. Not the God of the Bible who created heaven and Earth — the God that lingers with me is harder to explain. The idea of God pesters me and makes me think that maybe I’m not as devoted to my beliefs as I’d like to think I am and would like to be. Maybe I’m still subconsciously afraid of hell and want to go to heaven when I die. It’s confusing and frustrating to feel the presence of something...

Growing up, Bernie Sanders followed the path of many young American Jews. He went to Hebrew school, was bar mitzvahed and traveled to Israel to work on a kibbutz. But as an adult, Sanders drifted away from Jewish customs. And as his bid for the White House gains momentum, he has the chance to make history. Not just as the first Jewish president — but as one of the few modern presidents to present himself as not religious. "I am not actively involved with organized religion," Sanders said in a recent interview. Sanders said he believes in God, though not...

Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio told an atheist in the audience that he won't be "forced" to stop talking about his faith on the campaign trail and argued that atheists should want his faith to influence his decisions. During Rubio's Monday town hall meeting in Waverly, Iowa, an atheist attendee named Justin Scott, a member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation who also runs his own YouTube channel, commented during a question and answer session on Rubio's recent campaign ad that simply features Rubio talking about how he follows his faith and that his goal is to live alongside God...

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- A prominent professing atheist group is seeking to put an end a Tennessee police department's "Adopt a Cop" program, which invites local residents to pray for members of the city's police force. The Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation sent a letter on Tuesday to the Johnson City Police Department to object to the program. The initiative involves assigning an officer to those who sign up for the effort, who in turn promise to pray daily for the officer's safety and well-being, as well as to send him or her a word of encouragement.

A federal judge has banished the Baby Jesus and the Three Wise Men from an Indiana high school's Christmas musical. U.S. District Court Judge Jon DeGuilio, appointed to the bench by President Obama, issued an injunction against Concord Community Schools on Dec. 2. The court order forbids students from presenting a live Nativity scene during the Concord High School's Christmas Spectacular. The judge said that portion of the show is overtly religious in nature. "The living nativity scene impermissibly conveys an endorsement of religion and thus runs afoul of the Establishment Clause," the judge wrote in his ruling.

What do you get when a magician buys an A-frame house in the desert? A sprawling, brightly colored compound that looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. It has hidden rooms, fire poles, and a place where visitors must sign in and have their mugshot taken. The Slammer is the creation of Penn Jillette. It sits on 10 acres of land in the Las Vegas desert. The residence started out as an A-frame house and grew as the magician, one half of the act Penn and Teller, added on. It has covered parking, a recording studio, a home...

The Church of England has received unlikely backing from the biologist and prominent atheist Richard Dawkins after the UK’s three leading cinema chains refused to screen its advertisement featuring the Lord’s Prayer. The 60-second advert was due to be shown before Star Wars: the Force Awakens, released on December 18, which would have guaranteed it a huge cinema audience in the run-up to Christmas. But the Odeon Cineworld and Vue chains, which control 80 per cent of screens around the country, have refused to allow it because of a policy not to allow political or religious advertising...The decision prompted an...

The thought that most frequently pops into my head when I read diatribes by militant atheists is "Why won't you read a book?" Of course, put thus, the thought is implausible. The militant atheists who get interviewed in newspapers presumably have read books. Christopher Hitchens had certainly read a lot of books. But there are good books and there are bad books, and then there are necessary books. And, clearly, they haven't read any of the books that should, in a cultured society, be presumed necessary for participation in public debate. Take the theoretical physicist and public speaker Lawrence Krauss....

A new study in the journal Current Biology found children in religious households are significantly less generous than their non-religious peers. . . . . Americans overwhelmingly elect Christian representatives, and they distrust atheists. This study challenges those attitudes. It was the children in non-religious homes most likely to be generous toward a stranger. The longer a child had lived in a religious home, the stingier he was compared to his secular peers.

"I absolutely agree that it is okay for those of the Left to critique, mock, [and] deride Christianity, but Islam gets a free pass," Zuckerman told CNSNews.com. "Which is so strange, because if you care about women's rights, if you care about human rights, if you care about gay rights, then you really... uh... then Islam is much more problematic." From a human rights perspective, Christian nations are among the most successful, yet Zuckerman said he would not criticize Islam for fear of execution. "As an atheist, where on planet Earth is the death penalty meted out to atheists? It's...

An atheist professor said Tuesday that it's acceptable to criticize Christians but not Muslims, because he does not "fear" retaliation from Christians. "I know what keeps me from critiquing Islam on my blog is just fear," Phil Zuckerman said at a discussion on religious liberty at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. "I've got three kids. "So I know I can say anything about Christianity or Mormonism, and I'm not living in fear, which is a testament to Christianity and Mormonism, and that's wonderful. Thank you," said Zuckerman, who is a self-described atheist and professor of secular studies at Pitzer College...

An atheist professor said Tuesday that it’s acceptable to criticize Christians but not Muslims, because he does not “fear” retaliation from Christians. “I know what keeps me from critiquing Islam on my blog is just fear,” Phil Zuckerman said at a discussion on religious liberty at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. “I’ve got three kids. So I know I can say anything about Christianity or Mormonism, and I’m not living in fear, which is a testament to Christianity and Mormonism, and that’s wonderful. Thank you,” said Zuckerman, who is a self-described atheist and professor of secular studies at Pitzer College...

Total vanity here. I know Obama has claimed to be a Christian and I know he has "misspoken" now and then about his "muslim faith." But does anyone know if he has ever actually said flat-out "I am not a Muslim"?

“The fallacy that President Obama is a Muslim has tripped up many a politician,” said NPR’s Jessica Taylor hopefully on Friday, “and on Thursday night, GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump was its latest victim.” Trump’s presumed faux pas was his failure to correct a questioner who asserted that Barack Obama was a Muslim. Taylor’s real error as a reporter, like that of all her mainstream colleagues, was to dismiss the questioner’s assertion as a “fallacy” without providing any evidence to the contrary. Strange but true, reporters pride themselves on knowing nothing about Obama’s roots. Last month, for instance, Catherine Thompson...

John Heilemann was a rather reluctant witness. But when called on to testify, so to speak, Heilemann confirmed a stunning fact: that during the 2008 presidential race, it was Hillary Clinton who started the rumor that Barack Obama might not be a Christian. The matter arose when on today's Morning Joe. Joe Scarborough ripped Hillary's hypocrisy on Face the Nation yesterday for criticizing Republicans who question Obama's religion, "when it all started with her and her campaign passing things around in the [2008] Democratic primary." When Steve Rattner asked Heilemann, in his role as inside-campaign-baseball expert, to confirm whether Joe's...

In a shocking interview yesterday on the Sean Hannity Radio Show, author Ed Klein said Barack Obama’s former pastor helped Obama accept Christianity without having to renounce Islam.