Free Republic

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...

ANTI-CHURCH MOVIE REVIEW ‘NARNIA’ KNOCKOFF WAY OFF COURSE FIVE minutes before “The Golden Compass" started, I was wondering when it was going to start. Forty minutes into it, I was wondering exactly the same thing. “The Golden Compass," a sort of “The Empire Strikes Harry Potter of the Caribbean," only with giant polar bears wearing suits of armor and punching each other in the face, reminded me why I stopped reading sci-fi and fantasy when I was 15. It was the nouns. “Hark thee, my fair Stenerud, and wield well this ancient benirschke. Journeyest then to the plain of Septien,...

Years ago I had a series of debates with the literary scholar Stanley Fish. Our topic was political correctness. I portrayed Fish as the grand deconstructor of Western civilization, and he fired back in There’s No Such Thing As Free Speech, several chapters of which are an answer to my arguments. As I got to know Fish, however, I recognized that although he defended some of the practices being promoted in the name of multiculturalism and diversity, he was not himself a politically correct thinker. We became friends, and in 1992 he and his wife attended my wedding. Fish has...

Has the Sunday morning worship in some churches become an exclusively predictable feel-good entertainment experience? Do many services begin with good music and a brief feel-good scripture passage followed with a honey-coated three point feel-good fluff sermon, catered by the preacher, that is totally devoid of the anti-God issues that we face in our lives, community and nation as a body of Bible believing Christians? If so, then this is very distressing for that church. Where is the hard-hitting worship? If Americans respected God today, as they should, they wouldn’t distance themselves from God’s word. They wouldn’t be using their...

Congressman Duncan Hunter and other local officials will be on hand for the President's signing of the bill to transfer the cross to the federal government. President Bush is scheduled to sign the bill into law transferring the Mt. Soledad Cross and property on which is sets to the federal government. The U.S. Senate and House have voted to approve the bill sponsored by Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter, Brian Bilbray and Darrell Issa that was approved by the U.S. House earlier. On hand for Monday's signing ceremony will be Congressman Hunter, along with the attorney for the city who has...

A media company that produced a best-selling documentary asserting that Jesus Christ never existed today launches its "War on Easter," encouraging volunteer atheists to plant copies of the film "The God Who Wasn't There" in churches across the United States. Dubbing the effort "Operation Easter Sanity," Brian Flemming, a self-described "former Christian fundamentalist" and president of Beyond Belief Media, hopes to covertly place 666 copies of the documentary in churches by Easter Sunday, April 16. The number 666 is the biblical mark of "The Beast," which also is the name of another film by Flemming set for a 06-06-06 release....

A lawsuit against memorial crosses is set to be filed Thursday by a group that feels they violate the separation of church and state. Three Utah atheists, backed by a national organization based in Texas, are filing suit against the state for allowing crosses to be erected in honor of highway patrol troopers, who have died in the line of duty. Richard Andrews said, "I feel the same way a Jew might feel if you put a state symbol on a swastika" According to the UHP Association, a support group for troopers and their families, many fallen troopers' relatives consider...

Michael Newdow, who has already filed a suit to take "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance, is now suing to remove our national motto from our currency. Newdow told the ACLU of Oklahoma that the national motto on U.S. currency is a violation of the separation of church and state. He is offended because he is an atheist. He wants to use the Federal courts to make his atheism the official religion of America. Newdow filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which recently ruled that judges, not parents, have the final say in what will...

We all knew it was coming and here it is. Michael Newdow’s has officially announced his most recent attempt to remove God from the public square. Read More... Craig DeLuz Visit The Home of Uncommon Sense... www.craigdeluz.com

BEIJING (Reuters) - China, which bans its Catholics from recognising the Pope, has turned down a Vatican invitation to four Chinese bishops to go to Rome, saying it showed no respect.  Beijing has not had diplomatic ties with the Vatican since 1951, two years after the Communist takeover in China, and insists that relations cannot be resumed unless Rome severs links with self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own.  The four bishops invited to Rome were on a list of prelates from around the world that the Pope had named to be members of next month's synod, the Vatican...

At Cindy Sheehan's side since Aug. 6 when she began her anti-war protest outside President Bush's Texas ranch have been three groups that openly support the Iraqi insurgency against U.S. troops: Code Pink-Women For Peace, United for Peace & Justice, and Veterans For Peace. Those organizations were represented at a mock ''war crimes'' trial in Istanbul....

PRAYING for people who are facing heart surgery does not raise their chances of a cure or of avoiding death, according to an unusual study published in the British medical weekly The Lancet. US doctors enrolled 748 patients with coronary artery disease who were about to undergo cardiac or arterial treatment using a catheter, a technique that can be done under local anaesthetic and is less invasive than open surgery but still carries a risk. The patients were assigned to two groups of roughly equal numbers. The first group had prayers said for them at a distance by Christians, Muslims,...

In certain precincts of a world encouraged to embrace differences, Christ is out. The terms "B.C." and "A.D." increasingly are shunned by certain scholars. Educators and historians say schools have been changing the terms "Before Christ," or B.C., to "Before Common Era," or B.C.E., and "anno Domini" (Latin for "in the year of the Lord") to "Common Era." In short, they're referred to as B.C.E. and C.E. The new terms were introduced by academics in the 1990s in public elementary and high school classrooms. Candace de Russy, a national writer on education and Catholic issues and a trustee for SUNY,...

Area atheists are planning to protest local Circuit Court Judge Ashley McKathan's "Ten Commandments robe" today, in front of the First Baptist Church in Opp. At noon today (Wednesday), former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore will be in attendance at a Rotarian meeting in the church's fellowship hall, where he has said he will publicly support McKathan's robe. Larry Darby, president of the Montgomery-based Atheist Law Center, organized the protest and has called for fellow atheists to join him to voice their non-support. "Our presence in Opp (Wednesday) is important because Alabama is receiving a lot of negative publicity at...

Science Gives Famous Atheist Faith in God. NEW YORK - A British philosophy professor who has been a leading champion of atheism for more than a half-century has changed his mind. He now believes in God, more or less, based on scientific evidence, and says so on a video released Thursday. At age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake, Antony Flew has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, Flew said in a...

Dear friends, GAMPAC, the GODLESS AMERICANS POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE, has endorsed Sen. John Kerry and Sen. John Edwards for President and Vice President of the United States. The November election is a crucial one for our nation, and in particular the First Amendment separation of government and religion. The winner will likely be in the position of naming key appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court and the rest of the federal judiciary. Other important legislative issues, as well as the fate of the faith-based initiative — a dangerous experiment aiding religious groups and imposing a “Religion Tax” on the American...

.S. District Judge Sim Lake ruled today that a Bible displayed in a monument outside the Harris County Civil Courts Building must be removed within 10 days and that the county must pay $41,000 in court costs and attorney fees. Real estate broker and attorney Kay Staley sued the county in federal court to have the monument removed, contending the display violates the First Amendment ban on an establishment of religion. The King James Bible rests under glass inside a 4-foot stone monument on the west side of the Civil Courthouse, 301 Fannin. The monument was constructed with private funds...

The Godless Americans Political Action Committee (GAMPAC) has formally endorsed John Kerry for President. The committee, that was formed in March, announced at a press conference that they represent nearly 30 million Americans that could translate into as many votes. Their website is: www.godlessamericans.org This endorsement of Kerry, by those who do not believe in God, and want to outlaw all references to God in public places, re-define marriage, make homosexuality the norm, advance a culture of vulgarity and kill all babies of inconvenience, [should not] come as a surprise. If elected, Kerry will fully represent them. Before this...

The atheists just had their day before the U.S. Supreme Court, but they are not in good spirits about it. Their attempt to strike "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance now looks like a legal boomerang. Michael Newdow, an emergency room physician with a law degree, a non-custodial parent of a 9-year-old daughter with an ax to grind with monotheistic religion, decided he wasn't happy about students at his daughter's school standing to say the pledge each morning. Newdow contends the words "under God" in the pledge violate his daughter's First Amendment rights because they constitute the establishment of...

U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday dismissed a suit brought by atheist activist Michael Newdow against the House and Senate chaplains, stating Newdow’s claim that he was injured by his observations of the Senate chaplain’s prayer was “insufficient.” The decision coincided with Newdow’s appearance before the Supreme Court in an unrelated high-profile case Wednesday. Newdow argued that his 9-year-old daughter’s recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, including the uttering “under God,” violates the constitutional separation of church and state. He is an ordained minister affiliated with the Universal Life Church and founder of the First Amendmist Church of...