Free Republic

MADISON, Wis. — The nation's largest group of atheists and agnostics is suing President Bush, the governor of Wisconsin and other officials over the federal law designating a National Day of Prayer.

AUSTIN — Scientists from Texas universities on Tuesday denounced what they called supernatural and religious teaching in public school science classrooms and voiced opposition to attempts to water down evolution instruction. The newly formed 21st Century Science Coalition said so far it has 800 members who have signed up online. "Texas public schools should be preparing our kids to succeed in the 21st century, not promoting political and ideological agendas that are hostile to a sound science education," said David Hillis, a professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin. The State Board of Education is considering...

Slavery still stalks the American consciousness, its wounds yet festering in many hearts. If Barack Obama were to set his mind to it, he could heal much of the damage this peculiar institution wrought on our national soul. This great and tragic error that must be given justice. Obama is the best person in the world who can recognize, remember and honor the deaths of 125 million and the enslavement of tens of millions of people. His unique qualifications can be found in his names. Until he was 20 years old, he went by the first name Barry. Then he...

I teach at a Catholic university. I study and write about evangelical Protestants. I have no religious convictions of my own. This bothers people who insist that if you are not yourself religious you cannot possibly "get" religion. I leave it to others to decide whether my lack of faith helps or hinders my capacity to understand the subject. But I do know one thing. Because of where I teach and who I study, I have come across some remarkable people I otherwise would never have met. Familiar with the Catholic tradition, I cannot say I am surprised to meet...

Ukraine's Jewish community is in an uproar over the news that the country's customs service recently destroyed 173 Jewish prayer books and bibles that had been sent from Russia for the use of the Jewish community in Sumy. The Ukrainian paper Fakty reported this week that a Russian courier had brought the religious books to the Ukrainian border, but discovered that he lacked enough money to pay customs. The books were therefore left at the Sumy customs office until the duty was paid. Later, however, the courier informed the office that he was abandoning the books. The customs service tried...

FReep This Poll! "Should the motto "In God We Trust" be removed from U.S. currency?" Yes. - It's a violation of the principle of separation of church and state. No. - The motto has historical and patriotic significance and does nothing to establish a state religion. Click onto the link provided. Vote your choice. Thank you FReepers.

An atheism-promoting organization has withdrawn its lawsuit demanding that Christian baptisms of children be banned in Italy, after a U.S.-based legal team took on the defense of a bishop and the Roman Catholic Church there."This was a preposterous lawsuit, and we are pleased that it has been dropped," said Joseph Infranco, senior counsel for the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund.However, he said, "Americans should be aware that such lawsuits may seem far-fetched, but they really are happening … foreign legal decisions are increasingly cited in American courts."The ADF battled back when the Italian Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics filed a...

A Nebraska state senator is moving forward with his controversial lawsuit against his maker, requesting "a permanent injunction ordering [God] to cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats." State Sen. Ernie Chambers, I-Omaha, appeared before Douglas County District Judge Marlon Polk in a scheduling hearing against God on July 28. Chambers, an atheist, requested that the court acknowledge the presence of God in the courtroom so he wouldn't be required to "serve notice" of the trial, according to the Omaha World-Herald. [Snip] The complaint drew widespread criticism when Chambers filed the lawsuit against God last year for...

A coalition of atheists and Christians will protest during World Youth Day against the Pope's visit to Sydney. With slogans including “Gay is great” and “Condoms save lives“, the NoToPope Coalition is planning a peaceful rally and march on July 19, the day Pope Benedict XVI travels to Randwick racecourse in Sydney's east.    “The Pope is homophobic,” coalition spokeswoman Rachel Evans said in a statement today.    “Pope Benedict also condemns millions of people to AIDS via his world-wide anti-condom policy.”    Members of the NoToPope Coalition include The Metropolitan Community Church, Atheists Sydney, The Socialist Alliance, Resistance, and Community Action Against...

Hi everyone, I'm just wondering if anyone had this experience before. I wrote a column about the proof of the existence of a Divine Creator (see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2029192/posts ) and am now getting google stalked by an Atheist Group in Austin, in addition to phone calls and emails. I'm not going to stop saying/writing what I believe or stop speaking out against these tactics, but was wondering if anyone here had experience and knows what to do about google, etc. I know some of us may disagree on the issues, but I don't think there's much debate about these tactics. The...

"Don't believe in God?" a bright blue billboard with images of puffy white clouds asks. "You are not alone."The 20-by-60-foot sign alongside I-95 was designed by a group of area atheists as an invitation to join the Greater Philadelphia Coalition of Reason, or PhillyCoR, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports."If you don't ... [h]undreds of thousands of your neighbors in the Delaware Valley feel the same as you do," the organization's website declares.Steve Rade, president of Wireless Accessories, Inc., gave the $22,500 to fund the billboard May 1, and he plans to keep it there until the end of August."Our mission is...

VIRGINIA - The objective of a new video game is to stop the spread of Christianity and Islam by brutally killing biblical prophets, says the game’s atheist creator. A graduate student at the University of Virginia created the game --which has not yet been released-- in order to give a voice to atheists, according to WSLS Television News. The grad-student wishes to remain anonymous for “fear of his safety.” His request is understandable --considering at one point in his game players win by beheading the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. Nearly a year ago, an even less bold stunt resulted in death...

Posted by Tom Piatak on May 10, 2008 In response to my recent piece on science and religion, one of the commenters, GM, took me to task: “you may want to consider and ask why atheists seem angry. There’s no indication that you understand why.” I have to confess, GM was right: I do not understand why some atheists are so angry. I have no trouble understanding that some people cannot give intellectual assent to faith, and I have long known atheists and agnostics. But none of the atheists and agnostics I know are angry. In fact, they respect the...

The current "Top Headline Poll" on this page is being skewed by anti-Christian bigot PZ Myers and his Pzombies: http://www.journal-news.net/"Should local governmental bodies be allowed to open their meetings with a prayer?" Please help!

FORT RILEY, Kan. — When Specialist Jeremy Hall held a meeting last July for atheists and freethinkers at Camp Speicher in Iraq, he was excited, he said, to see an officer attending. But minutes into the talk, the officer, Maj. Freddy J. Welborn, began to berate Specialist Hall and another soldier about atheism, Specialist Hall wrote in a sworn statement. “People like you are not holding up the Constitution and are going against what the founding fathers, who were Christians, wanted for America!” Major Welborn said, according to the statement. Major Welborn told the soldiers he might bar them from...

Atheists push 'humanist' holidays By Karen Goldberg Goff April 25, 2008 Now that Earth Day is over, let the planning begin for the summer solstice and World Humanist Day in June. The Institute for Humanist Studies, an Albany, N.Y.-based nonprofit, is calling attention to its calendar of atheist holidays on its Web site, www.secularseasons.org. The group wants nonbelievers (or at least noncelebrators) to have a handy reference guide of the calendar of holidays honoring free thinkers, banned books and nature, among other themes. Matt Cherry, executive director of the Institute for Humanist Studies, says his group is trying to expand...

The fastest-growing faith in America is no faith at all. And now some atheists think they need a church. It seems unlikely that many of the 850 or so people at the Society for Ethical Culture on a recent Saturday night believed that God was still extant. But evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion and possibly the most famous atheist in the world, was not taking any chances. He gave a PowerPoint presentation driving home that religion does not meet any of the standards of basic scientific inquiry, before casually flicking away a few of His last...

Anyone reading this blog who isn’t aware of the dustup that occurred at the Mall of America somewhere in Minnesota this past Friday must not be a reader of the New York Times (or any of the teeming millions of ‘mom and pop’ atheist/Darwinist / boffin blogs that are all atwitter about it and still writing well into the night.) The controversy around Premise Media’s upcoming movie Ben Stein’s EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed became the hottest topic in the blogosphere. According to BlogPulse, a service of Nielsen Buzzmetrics, the issue held the number one slot throughout the day on Monday,...

Are there more atheists and agnostics in this country than is commonly supposed? Two studies -- last week's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey from the Pew Forum and one published two years ago -- suggest so. The 2006 study from the University of Minnesota does not examine the question of how many non- believers there are but rather makes clear the troubling depth of Americans' distrust of them. Asked whether they would disapprove of a child's wish to marry an atheist, 47.6% of the 2,000 randomly selected people interviewed said yes. When asked the same question about Muslims and African Americans,...

The re-awakening of atheism in America is going to make for some very interesting times. Leaders of the Christian Right have spent years trying to cast themselves as the voiceless victims in a secular society, but the scapegoating is over. (Want to talk marginalized? How many atheists have there ever been in Congress or the White House?) Nonbelievers know a lot about Christianity and Judaism, most having been raised in religious families. Believers, however, are somewhat less clued-in about atheists. Here are a few simple truths about who they are, and aren’t. Atheists are well-behaved. Atheists seem to play well...

The New York Times' story about John McCain's "Affair", Ron Paul, Conspiracy theories, Saving the Earth, Outraged people, Political moderates, Those who want to impeach George W. Bush, Oprah and all of her "friends", Every member of the Kennedy family living and dead, Militant Atheists. All of those things in the foregoing eclectic list have one thing in common and if you can't figure out what that is immediately then this post, in all likelihood, will irritate you at some point. You see everything listed above is boring. By that I mean tiresome, dull, uninteresting and tedious.

Postmodern Epistemologies by: Bethany Stotts, February 19, 2008 ...How does style affect our perception of the text, and does style itself impart its own distinct meaning?...Modern Language Association (MLA) professors attempted to answer these questions by drawing upon postmodern academics who remain skeptical of absolute knowledge, one of whom belongs to the radical “naturalist” Brights movement. Among the scholars mentioned were Donald Freeman, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Mark Turner, Daniel Dennett, and Noam Chomsky.... Instead, Chodat referred the audience to the works of radical atheist and Brights Movement member Dennett, who is listed on the site as one of the movement’s “enthusiastic...

Academics have been given a grant to try to find out whether belief in a deity is a matter of nature or nurture. They will not attempt to solve the question of whether God exists but they will examine evidence to try to prove whether belief in God conferred an evolutionary advantage to mankind. They will also consider the possibility that faith developed as a byproduct of other human characteristics, such as sociability. Justin Barrett, a psychologist who has been quoted in support of arguments by both the atheist Richard Dawkins and his critic, Alister Mc-Grath, a Christian theologian, said:...

People that watch HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" are infinitely aware that the host is not only an atheist, but is also an antitheist, meaning that he hates religion. No finer example of Maher's disdain for theism and Judeo-Christian principles occurred on Friday's installment of "Real Time" when he actually declared, "At least half of the [Ten] Commandments are stupid!" This came moments after Maher proudly stated, "If I had a child, the last book I would ever give to teach morality would be the Bible, especially the Old Testament." This led one of his guests to say that...

Radical Christian hackers have been waging an online war against atheism. The hackers repeatedly attacked MySpace's Atheist and Agnostics Group page, deleting groups and members and renaming the site 'Jesus is Love'. MySpace shut down the group last month despite having promised to keep it up after earlier hack attacks. The site was put back up in February, but some members are still being barred and some discussions are lost. MySpace has yet to comment on the issue. "MySpace is running foul of existing laws on religious tolerance," said Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society. "It is disgraceful...

How liberals and atheists have misinformed people about the Founding Father's religiuos beliefs. http://www.thebulletin.us/site/news.cfm?newsid=19238913&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=623508&rfi=6

Not all atheists are supercilious, of course. Many are content to live and let live, and some even grant that religion (which, in America, basically means Christianity) does some good. But atheism as an organized, evangelizing movement has been on the offensive lately. Witness the "New Atheists" such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, with their aggressive stance against God and their bestselling books attempting to debunk religion. So, assuming you are a theist, what do you say to the atheist who asks, "You don't (chuckle) actually believe in God, do you (snicker)?" The natural response would be...

Various atheists have felt confident in the past year or so, expressing themselves through a number of best-selling books authored by the likes of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Victor Stenger, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett. A commonly articulated view among such skeptics insists that religion is irrational, harmful, dangerous, and, in some cases, evil. Whether their case is against religion itself or against people who practice religion can be debated; but recent articles, describing studies of the effect of religion on people and their health, paints a different picture. In its April 10, 2007, issue, ScienceDaily reported on a survey...

Christopher Hitchens has achieved for himself quite a strong position as the American center-right's favorite Trotskyite. To a large extent this is well-earned. Hitch has stood fast in his adamant support for the War on Terror in all its aspects when plenty of fainter hearts far to rightward have fallen into equivocation, second thoughts, and whining. But there is another Hitch, one who defends his remaining hard-left convictions with a vituperation hard to match in the English-speaking media. We usually see this Hitchens when he's writing about religion. Hitch the Rabid was in full display in "Bah, Hannukah" in the December...

“Religion poisons everything,” Christopher Hitchens’s bestseller God Is Not Great declares in a constant, hymn-like refrain. “We believe with certainty that an ethical life can be lived without religion. And we know for a fact that the corollary holds true—that religion has caused innumerable people not just to conduct themselves no better than others, but to award themselves permission to behave in ways that would make a brothel-keeper or an ethnic cleanser raise an eyebrow.” The faithful will not be shocked to learn that religious people do bad things. Oxford defender of Darwinism Richard Dawkins, however, has taken the argument...

Eagle Scout ordered to take God out of park projectI can't post the article, but basically it mentions a Boy Scout's Eagle project for a public park that included a mention of God. After the inevitable complaint, the Parks Dept, which approved the original proposal with "God" included, asked the Scout to remove the offending marker.

Some twelve years ago, I stood watching my university students file into the classroom for our first session in the Theology of Faith. That was the first day I first saw Tommy. My eyes and my mind both blinked. He was combing his long flaxen hair, which hung six inches below his shoulders. It was the first time I had ever seen a boy with hair that long. I guess it was just coming into fashion then. I know in my mind it isn’t what’s on your head but what’s in it that counts; but on that day I was...

A NINE-YEAR-OLD boy was banned from his school Christmas party because he does not believe in God. Douglas Stewart was asked to stay at home while his classmates were treated to jelly and ice-cream, followed by a visit from Santa and presents. Douglas's mother, Dawn Riddell, was informed that he was unwelcome at the celebration because she had withdrawn him from religious education classes at Cluny Primary School, in Buckie, Banffshire, earlier in the school term. Ms Riddell, 38, said the headteacher, Ian Davidson,had told her that as the youngster had no interest in religion, he could not celebrate the...

One presidential hopeful is a preacher, another proudly Mormon, and most openly tout their Christianity. In an arena where faith can make or break a politician, the one in 10 Americans who profess no religion feel left in the cold. "They're very disconcerted," said Darren Sherkat, an atheist sociology professor specializing in religion at Southern Illinois University. "They're horrified by both the Democratic and Republican rhetoric surrounding religion -- that people who are not religious ... are immoral, that they're not qualified to serve in public office," he said.

LOS ANGELES, Dec 9 (Reuters) - "The Golden Compass," a $180 million family fantasy starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, did not meet expectations at the North American box office, opening at No. 1 but with weekend ticket sales of just $26.1 million, its distributor said on Sunday. New Line Cinema, a unit of Time Warner Inc, had hoped the film would pull in between $30 million and $40 million. "It's a little bit disappointing," said Rolf Mittweg, president and chief operating officer of New Line's worldwide distribution and marketing operations.

Connecticut atheists, taking advantage of a town's policy of allowing holiday-season displays in its public park, have erected a 10-foot tall sign in celebration of the winter solstice that includes a message blaming the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, on religious believers. The 3-sided sign was erected in the Town of Vernon's Central Park on Dec. 1 by the Connecticut Valley Atheists. The two sides facing Main Street feature a pre-attack image of the Twin Towers with the sun shining between them and the message, "Imagine no religion," drawn from the John Lennon anthem, "Imagine." Use of the image...

Vernon (WTNH) _ A sign posted by Atheists in the Rockville's Central Park has people talking, prompting calls to the town hall and the local clergy. The Connecticut Valley Atheists posted the three-sided sign, which some call a billboard, and it was the only sign in the town center marking the Holiday season. Two sides of the display feature the Twin Towers, framed by the words "Imagine No Religion." This Christmas, Martha Chennelle and Amy Houser say Vernon could use a few prayers, considering the sign standing in front of town hall. "We believe that Christ is the reason for...

The 12 steps to becoming an informed believer in evolution. Step 1 - I admit that I was wrong about creation and 'intelligent design'. Step 2 - Came to believe that our planet came from an event in space which caused our solar system to expand and develop over millions of years, an expansion which is ongoing. Step 3 - Made a decision to turn my belief in this event into opening up my mind to further new learning. Step 4 - Made a searching and fearless intellectual inventory of what I know about evolution and admitting my lack of...

And so we have a semiofficial celebration of Hanukkah, complete with menorah, to celebrate not the ignition of a light but the imposition of theocratic darkness. Jewish orthodoxy possesses the interesting feature of naming and combating the idea of the apikoros or "Epicurean"—the intellectual renegade who prefers Athens to Jerusalem and the schools of philosophy to the grim old routines of the Torah. About a century and a half before the alleged birth of the supposed Jesus of Nazareth (another event that receives semiofficial recognition at this time of the year), the Greek or Epicurean style had begun to gain...

A national weekly news magazine recently featured a debate between atheist/author Sam Harris and author/pastor Rick Warren ("The Purpose Driven Life"). As part of his debate, Mr. Harris threw down a challenge to prove God's existence by finding a deserving amputee and having 1 billion people pray for God to grow the leg back. In trying to disprove the existence of God, it's unclear why Mr. Harris chooses to focus on amputees growing limbs back rather than looking for a sea to split open or fish and loaves to multiply, and it's equally unclear why Harris specifically asked that it...

Shrill Bible-thumpers boycott 'The Golden Compass'; world's children grin devilishly -It has become some sort of rule, some sort of perfectly delicious law of the popular culture upon which any open-minded and attuned and humor-licked and spiritually aware and intellectually curious and sexually alive human worth her moist, wine-massaged soul can now rely with utter and perfect clarity. . . .

As the election season proceeds apace, we can expect to see increasing attention to the influence of religious figures on the Republican leadership. It made the headlines when the chancellor of Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Christian school, endorsed Mitt Romney. Similarly, televangelist Pat Robertson’s endorsement of Rudy Giuliani was big news. Religious leaders are portrayed by the press as kingmakers in conservative politics. In contrast, we rarely hear about the links between nonbelievers and political power. The assumption is that nonbelievers are disorganized and relatively politically weak. Indeed, this is the explicit lament of some high-profile atheists. In a...

God has come back to life. The world is witnessing a huge explosion of religious conversion and growth, and Christianity is growing faster than any other religion. Nietzsche’s proclamation “God is dead” is now proven false. Nietzsche is dead. “The era of Western Christianity has passed within our lifetimes, and the day of Southern Christianity is dawning.”1 - Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom The ranks of the unbelievers are shrinking as a proportion of the world’s population. Secularism has lost its identification with progress and modernity, and consequently it has lost the main source of its appeal. God is very...

WEST CHESTER — For the first time a regional atheist group will display a holiday tree on the Chester County Courthouse lawn during the winter holidays, potentially setting a seasonal model for other communities. County commissioners have allowed groups to display a Christmas tree and menorah on the lawn. But last year, The Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia, an atheist group, asked the commissioners to either let any group set up a seasonal holiday display or ban the displays entirely. This fall, the commissioners approved a policy that allows any group to put up a seasonal display if it meets...

On Sunday mornings, most parents who don't believe in the Christian God, or any god at all, are probably making brunch or cheering at their kids' soccer game, or running errands or, with luck, sleeping in. Without religion, there's no need for church, right? Maybe. But some nonbelievers are beginning to think they might need something for their children. "When you have kids," says Julie Willey, a design engineer, "you start to notice that your co-workers or friends have church groups to help teach their kids values and to be able to lean on." So every week, Willey, who was...

Militant, fundamentalist atheists have been coming out of the woodwork lately, attacking Christianity. Granted, they are still using the same old, tired and shallow agruments that have been refuted over and over again. But here’s some stellar resources I have found perfect for refuting their vain attacks, which are sure to increase with Christmas approaching: The Case for the Real JesusFormer atheist Lee Strobel, who wrote The Case for Faith, The Case For a Creator and The Case for Christ, returns with a powerful volume that refutes the shallow attacks on the Bible’s authenticity and the attempts of skeptics to...

I have long held that the driving force for DUmmies is their burning hatred of Christianity. So when an ad for an atheist organization appears in DUmmieland, you would think all the DUmmies would stand up and salute. Right? Wrong. One brave soul (or Lousy Freeper Troll?), DUmmie Fly by night, has dared to deviate from DUmmie orthodoxy by complaining about said atheist ad, in this THREAD, "I am deeply offended by the "Rational Responders" ad on the DU "Greatest" page." To top it off, the atheist ad features a "scantily-clad model," and DUmmie Fly by night also is...

On a highway in southern Utah, midway between Tropic and Cedar City, a mammoth cross marks the place where, 29 years ago this month, state trooper Lynn Pierson was killed by a car thief. His son Clint, a 36-year-old county deputy, sees the stark white memorial every time he takes his kids to the local Wal-Mart. "It's a huge source of pride," he says. "As a family, it helped us heal." There are 14 such crosses, all of them 12 feet tall, scattered around the state, each bearing the name of a dead trooper and the Utah Highway Patrol insignia....

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue is the subject of much chatter around the blogosphere for leading several hundred Georgia citizens in a public prayer for rain. Georgia has been in the midst of a drought this year, which is ruining agriculture crops and causing water shortages. So Mr. Perdue asked for divine intervention on Georgians' behalf. He and colleagues came together Tuesday to "pray for a storm." Sure enough, two days later, an unpredicted cloudburst dropped an inch of rain over the southeast. But the rain wasn't everybody's idea of a happy ending. The Atlanta Freethought Society staged a public protest...

If a national atheist organization has its way, a series of 12-foot-tall memorial crosses that adorn Utah's highways will be taken down. But not if the families of the people those crosses honor — state Highway Patrol troopers killed in the line of duty — have anything to say about it. American Atheists Inc. has filed a federal lawsuit, arguing that the 13 white, steel crosses represent the death of Jesus Christ and therefore violate the First Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits government establishment of religion. But the families of the fallen heroes say otherwise. They say the crosses,...