Free Republic

The American Humanist Association (AHA) has revoked its top “Humanist of the Year” honor from British biologist and noted atheist Richard Dawkins for the academic’s history of demeaning marginalized groups under “the guise of scientific discourse,” the group announced Monday, pointing to a recent statement that questions the validity of transgender people and suggests Black identity can be “assumed when convenient.”

The Secular Democrats of America PAC prepared a report for Joe Biden and his transition team that outlines a roadmap to "boldly restore a vision of constitutional secularism and respect in the land for religious and intellectual pluralism." The federal political action committee "represents secular Democratic individuals and organizations" and advocates for "secular governance, promote respect and inclusion of nonreligious Americans, and mobilize nonreligious voters." The proposal was formally presented by Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin and Jared Huffman, co-chairs of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, and endorsed by Democratic Rep. Jerry McNerney. “We’ve offered the new administration a roadmap to restore...

Minister for Education, Kirsty Williams, is pushing an education Bill which requires all pupils to study atheism or ‘non-religious’ views such as Humanism with no parental right of withdrawal. Under the new system a non-religious committee in each area is given a veto power over all religious teaching. So humanists, who actively oppose all religion, are to be handed control over religious teaching in schools. The sensitive issue of sex education is also being given a total rewrite, imposing compulsory sex education for all pupils from the age of three. All existing safeguards on inappropriate materials are scrapped by the...

I am a 40-something attorney and mother who lives in a quiet neighborhood with a yard and a garage full of scooters and soccer balls. I often walk with my children to get ice cream and spend weekends hiking through a national park. I am not the type of person who would normally consider becoming a Satanist, but these are not normal times. Like so many other women in the United States, when I learned of Justice Ruth Bader GinsburgÂ’s passing, my first reaction was not grief but fear. I fear that American citizens are inching closer to living in...

Attorney General William Barr warned New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan of “an organized, militant secular effort” to suppress religion in “the marketplace of ideas” in an interview Wednesday. “The problem today is not that religious people are trying to impose their views on non-religious people,” Barr told Dolan on his SiriusXM radio show Conversation with Cardinal Dolan. “It’s the opposite — it’s that militant secularists are trying to impose their values on religious people, and they’re not accommodating the freedom of religion of people of faith.” Citing Democrats’ efforts to coerce religious employers to violate their conscience rights as well...

“Nov. 8 was a game changer – and not for our essential work.” So lamented husband and wife atheists Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-presidents of the so-called Freedom from Religion Foundation, which is based in Madison, Wisconsin and which claims 23,500 members nationwide. In fact, there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth within the nation’s anti-God community in the wake of Donald Trump’s seemingly improbable election this past week as America’s next president. “Mr. Trump has made a number of statements,” decried David Silverman, president of American Atheists, “that has given millions of Americans who value constitutional...

This weekend on the Mall in Washington, a bunch of atheists — tens of thousands, including me -- will get together just to be counted as not having a personal god. Why? Whether the pollsters bemoan it or celebrate it, the percentage of Americans who are losing their religion is rising. And in a presidential election year, candidates need to take note. Two of those remaining, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, still give lip service to being religious -- even if many on either side of religion don't believe them or want to claim them. (Why would this be the...

The Denial About Super Bowl 50 Having a Gay Agenda is Laughable! It all started with this simple statement. “How about this: God is Love. I believe we should have had a cross with the same words "Believe in Love" without the rainbow. Got a problem with that?” That’s what I wrote in response to an article written in the Huffington Post the day after the Super Bowl, entitled, “To Those Bothered By The 'Gay Agenda' At Super Bowl 50.” If you’re not in the know, a huge rainbow flag with the words, “Believe in Love” was prominently featured at...

Jesus Christ was not a real person and is probably the result of a combination of stories about several different individuals, according to a writer and leading atheist activist. David Fitzgerald, a San Francisco based author, believes he has compiled compelling evidence that proves Jesus did not exist. He claims there are no contemporary mentions of Jesus in historical accounts from the time when he was supposed to have lived, yet other Jewish sect leaders from the time do appear.

Astrophysicist and cosmologist Neil DeGrasse Tyson is defending Scientology in light of HBO's highly critical documentary on the church. HBO's documentary "Going Clear" did not show the church in an entirely positive light — Scientology has a built a reputation for tormenting members who leave it either by surveillance or harassment. The film highlights the celebrities who made the religion intriguing to the world as well as the horrific stories of abuse from former members. But Tyson, in an interview with The Daily Beast, declined to bash the controversial church, saying people are free to believe whatever they want. "So,...

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; who put darkness for light and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20). Turning right and wrong upside down is a human habit that goes back thousands of years. Modern times are no different. Famous evolutionary biologist and professor of Oxford University, Richard Dawkins, recently showed his hand in a twitter conversation that has gained media attention. The British Broadcasting Corporation, a public service broadcaster among many others in the United Kingdom, reported that a twitter user said to Dawkins, “I honestly don’t...

11 silly things that some atheists say. February 27, 2015 · by James Bishop · in Articles, Atheism. · Introduction: The atheist that this blog article is briefly referring to is the fundamentalist head-in-the-sand, fingers-in-their-ears type, which contrary to atheism makes up the majority of the religion hating New Atheists. My last point, point 11, addresses Stephen Hawking but I want to make it clear that I do not view him as a fundamentalist atheist like Richard Dawkins, or Sam Harris would be. Although I, alongside many, disagree with Hawking and his conclusions, I don’t take anything away from his...

Bangladeshis Protest After Atheist Writer Avijit Roy Hacked To Death Hundreds rally against fundamentalism in Dhaka as Islamists claim responsibility for murder of prominent US-Bangladeshi blogger Bangladeshi secular activists take part in a torch-lit protest against the murder of Avijit Roy, founder of the Mukto-Mona (Free-mind) blog site. He had received death threats from Islamists before arriving in the country. Saad Hammadi in Dakha and Mark Tran Friday 27 February 2015 Hundreds of people have taken to the streets of Dhaka in protest at the murder of a prominent secular American blogger of Bangladeshi origin who was hacked to death...

Richard Dawkins: Children need to be ‘protected’ from religion ‘You have to write off those people’ who put the Bible ahead of science, author says Children need to be “protected” from religious indoctrination in schools, biologist and atheist campaigner Richard Dawkins has said, backing a campaign by Atheist Ireland to overhaul our education system.Speaking to The Irish Times in advance of a public talk at Trinity College Dublin on Tuesday evening, Prof Dawkins said: “There is a balancing act and you have to balance the rights of parents and the rights of children and I think the balance has swung...

Couldn't the New York Times put aside its hostility to traditional religion on Christmas Day and feature a column by a believing Christian? No, it couidn't. Instead, believers who blunder onto the online op-ed page today are hit with a lead column entitled "Religion Without God." And just in case you didn't get the message, there's a second column called "An Atheist’s Christmas Dream."

Writing for the Christian Post, Melissa Barnhart notes that, "The Rev. Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritans Purse, says the government's attacks against Christianity and bans on traditional Christmas themes while society glorifies sin is 'like little children shaking their fist at Almighty God.' 'What's happening is we're glorifying sin, we're lifting up sin. And it's like little children shaking their fist at Almighty God,' Graham told Fox News host Megyn Kelly during a Wednesday segment of 'The Kelly File.' Speaking about atheists and secularists' actions to ban celebrations of Christmas in schools and government...

Sure, Atheism Is a Religion, to which Neil deGrasse Tyson and Cosmos Seek Converts David Klinghoffer October 28, 2014 1:46 PM | Permalink Some Twitter correspondents objected to my comment, in connection with our new book The Unofficial Guide to Cosmos, that "Cosmos is not appropriate for public schools, where you're not supposed to advocate any religion, including atheism." But of course Tyson-style atheism counts as a religion. As I'm hardly the first to say, it has almost all the trimmings that religions commonly do: An account of origins (panspermia and Darwinian evolution), a philosophical commitment to a certain way...

In case you didn’t know it, if you are a conservative Christian, you are just like Boko Haram and ISIS. At least, that’s what the secularists are saying. More absurd still, they actually believe this.Of course, secularism has been waging war against religion for centuries, but more recently, in America and Europe, the rhetoric of secularism has become more extreme and shrill.When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby, critics complained that the Court’s eminently reasonable decision was “anti-scientific.”As noted by Jonathan Adler in the Washington Post, “The Daily Beast‘s Sally Kohn decried the Court’s reliance on ‘bunk...

Darwinist Denies Human Exceptionalism in NYT The New York Times is consistently anti-human exceptionalism, never missing an opportunity to publish articles that seek to reduce humans to just another animal in the forest.Today, the Sunday Review section has University of Washington biology professor, David P. Barash, bragging that he works to destroy faith in his classes (“The Talk”), insisting to his students that science and religion are incompatible.That kind of ideological indoctrination is par for the disturbing course in universities, but not the one of the areas with which I grapple. However, I would be remiss not to point out...

Image credit: Jimmy Demello Artworks[/caption] The last time I was in Houston, I had to change the fuse in my paradox meter after meeting a self-described pro-choice Republican woman, who was also a lawyer.  I told her at least she was better than Wendy Davis, to which no response was offered.  I said it a second time, and with a puff of white smoke, the paradox-meter died. Dang, the fuse just blew again, reading Time’s August 4 issue, Religion section article “Atheist “Churches” Gain Popularity—Even in the Bible Belt” (behind a paywall).  Yup, the “Atheist Church” they wrote about...