Free Republic

Five years ago, a group of atheist and agnostic students launched a campaign to hire a nonreligious chaplain at Tufts University. With the recent addition of a university-funded “humanist in residence,’ it appears their prayers—or lack thereof—have finally been answered.The new position is believed to be the first-ever university-funded campus chaplain catering to atheist, agnostic and nonreligious students, according to Religion News Service.In early September, Walker Bristol, a former intern of Harvard’s Humanist Community, was hired as the first humanist chaplain at the private, Massachusetts-based university. Bristol previously served as a student leader of Tufts’ Freethought Society, a group of...

A recent study comparing views on morality of religious and non-religious people found something surprising: Religion doesn’t make our everyday lives more moral. Suppose you actually do have an angel over your shoulder telling you the right thing to do. That angel probably wouldn’t tell you anything you didn’t already know. A recent study in Science aimed at uncovering how we experience morality in our everyday lives suggests that religious people are no more moral—or immoral—than non-religious people. Whether or not we believe that divine precepts give us guidance, our behavior is remarkably similar. The fact that atheists are apparently...

Father Gjergj Simoni speaks with CNA in Tirana, Albania on Sept, 21, 2014. Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA. Tirana, Albania, Sep 22, 2014 / 07:44 am (CNA/EWTN News).- An Albanian Catholic priest shared his story of encountering persecution for his faith by the country's repressive state atheism, noting how he waited decades before his dream to be ordained was fulfilled. “When I first said I wanted to be 'like Him,' a priest told me that it was a dark path to take, but I replied: 'I see no darkness,'” Father Gjergj Simoni said. In a Sept. 21 interview with CNA, he recalled...

In case you were wondering, the satanic event scheduled to be held in an Oklahoma City civic center (thus, state operated), is still on and has sold out. HEREBut, hey! Don’t worry. These are just benign people doing their thing. Right? No consecrated Host, no harm, no foul, right?In other news, we read at The Mail: Terrified five-year-old boy has his eyes gouged out with spoon by his mother and five relatives in satanic ritualA Mexican family has been jailed for gouging out the eyes of their five-year-old relative with a spoon during a satanic ritual to bring about the...

Appearing on Charlie Rose's PBS show this week, HBO's "Real Time" host Bull Maher rebuked him for linking Islam to Christianity, defending Christians by saying a vast numbers of them do not believe in violence or treat women as second class citizens. Maher, a self-proclaimed atheist, began by refuting former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean's recent statement that vast numbers of Muslims are not like ISIS in Iraq and Syria, an al-Qaeda offshoot that seeks to form an Islamic emirate in the Levant region through "jihad." Interrupting Maher, Rose asked, "Behind every Muslim is a future member of some radical?"...

How do we decide who deserves a place in history? Generations of devoted American history buffs have spent countless hours reading and writing long books about the American Revolution without ever having come across the name of Dr. Thomas Young. Yet it was Young who came up with the idea for the original tea party—the one in Boston Harbor. And he went on from there to help kick off the Revolution in Pennsylvania, co-write the first modern constitution, and name the state of Vermont. The reason he isn’t well remembered today is just this: The grandfather of today’s Tea Party...

Why did God allow for the striking-down of people in the Old Testament? How is this reconciled with the dogma of a loving God?Protestants and modern-day "Jews" don't have an answer for this -- one beyond dualism or "mystery", I mean. But the Church does. There is mortal sin, and there is venial sin (1 John 5:17). Mortal sin -- willful and of grave nature -- separates one from God, practically killing the soul. Venial sin -- all other -- must simply be cleansed, and it does not eternally separate us from Him. And this distinction is shown in the...

In an unusual gesture for a member high in the Catholic Church’s hierarchy in Cuba, the Apostolic nuncio Bruno Musaro spoke openly about Cuba’s “extreme poverty and human and civil degradation.” Musaro made his controversial remarks while on vacation in Italy after holding a Mass in the San Pio de Pietrelcina park, in the Italian municipality of Vignacastrisi. The Cuban people are “victims of a socialist dictatorship that has kept them subjugated for the past 56 years,” Musaro said, according to the Italian newspaper, Lecce News24. “I’m thankful to the pope for inviting me to this island, and I hope...

Every once in a while people let their guard down and say what they really think. For Richard Dawkins, Wednesday was one of those days. In an extraordinary moment of public honesty, Dawkins, the British evolutionary biologist and militant atheist, wrote on Twitter that “it would be immoral to bring [a child with Down syndrome] into the world if you have the choice.” It was a statement that no doubt delighted the utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer, his friend and fellow traveler, who has advocated the killing of disabled infants on the grounds that they are not rational and self-conscious...

Take a look at some of these reviews for the religious indie hit God’s Not Dead [1]:From Britain’s Socialist newspaper The Guardian [2]: ”This warped evangelist item… veers from the suspect… to the outright hateful: by the jawdropping climax, wherein a preacher is effectively granted divine right to mow down non-believers, ‘doing God’s work’ has become indistinguishable from Grand Theft Auto. Ban this sick filth.”Here’s one from Movie Nation [3]: ”It’s a movie where rare is the voice that is raised, but deep is the rage bubbling through its rabid anti-intellectualism. When a non-believer is considered to be better...

Actor Kevin Sorbo who starred in the Christian film, "God's Not Dead," says he did not have reservations about taking on an atheist role for the movie but he admits that he does not understand the logic behind atheist's lack of beliefs and why they are "so angry." Sorbo, who is most famous for the '90s TV series "Hercules," played an atheist professor in the film whose belief system is challenged by one of his Christian students. He recently sat down with Access Hollywood Live to discuss the film's success and his take on skeptics. "I'm a Christian myself and...

July 8, 2014 - I regret to inform you that satanists are planning a "Black Mass" on city property at the Civic Center in Oklahoma City on Sunday, September 21, 2014. Please spread the word to all your friends so we can stop this sacrilege. Your voice and prayers were decisive at Harvard University ­-- the "Black Mass" there was stopped. Canceled. Saint Michael won a great victory that day. And God can win again. Please help TFP Student Action gather 50,000 petitions. Your petition, together with many more, will be presented to the Civic Center, as well as the...

South Korea’s Catholic Church said Tuesday that North Korea rejected its invitation to a special mass led by Pope Francis next week, throwing cold water on the ceremony dedicated to peace and reconciliation between North and South Korea. The North’s titular Catholic association declined to attend the Aug. 18 mass, linking the refusal to Pyongyang’s opposition to annual military drills the South and the U.S. are scheduled to begin on the same day, a South Korean church spokeswoman said. The summer military exercises as well as other large-scale annual drills tend to bring strong rebukes from Pyongyang, which calls them...

Viewed from the outside, the pointy-roofed building in a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee deep in the heart of America’s Bible Belt, looks very much like a church. And stepping inside, where a congregation is swaying along to music, listening to sermons and discussing ways to help their local community, it sounds very much like a church too. There is, however, one rather fundamental missing ingredient that sets this congregation apart from the hundreds of others turning out to worship this Sunday morning in Nashville: this is a church without God. “I pass seven big churches between my house and the...

Conflict over excommunicated bishop may result in suspensions of seminary students and a loss of vocations China’s Catholic community reeled recently as news spread that Beijing’s seminarians had boycotted their graduation ceremony, scheduled for late June. The decision was made after the seminarians discovered that the illegitimate – and excommunicated – rector of the seminary, Bishop Ma Yinglin, was scheduled to offer the graduation Mass. When the students voiced their objection to assisting at a Mass celebrated by a bishop who is not in communion with the Pope, the seminary officials suggested replacing Bishop Ma with Bishop John Fang Xingyao,...

Americans feel warm toward Jews, Catholics and Evangelicals but they are colder toward Muslims and atheists, according to a new Pew Research Survey. Respondents were asked to rate each faith group according to a "feeling thermometer" ranging from 0 to 100, 0 reflecting the coldest and most negative rating and 100 being the warmest, most positive. The outcome concluded that U.S. adults are more fond of individuals who share their same or similar faith. "In a society like the United States, where religion is such an important part of life, of how people view the world, how people approach politics...

The American Bible Society funds an annual “State of the Bible” survey, and this spring the Christian Post cheered some of their findings: “The Bible continues to dominate both mind space and book retail space as America’s undisputed best-seller.” According to the study, conducted by Barna, over 88 percent of American homes contain a Bible. In fact, the average is 4.7 copies per household. Now, I should note that a young non-religious friend once came home from school with a bright green Gideon’s New Testament that she later touted as a reserve of fine rolling papers, which may explain why...

Eight state constitutions include restrictions on people who don’t believe in a supreme being. In Arkansas, denying the existence of God means you can’t hold civil office or testify in court, while in Tennessee there are also guidelines about belief in the hereafter. However, the Supreme Court ruled in a 1961 case that a Maryland man appointed as a notary public didn’t have to declare his belief in a supreme being to hold office, arguing it violated his rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Since then, these restrictions haven’t been enforced, said Dave Muscato, a spokesman for American Atheists....

I asked the middle-aged man across from me, “Who was the last good American president?” It was the year 2000. As a 19-year old college journalist studying history and political science, I was eager to know my drinking partner’s response to this question. He had just finished railing against Presidents Clinton, Reagan and Bush '41. At this point, I was wondering if he liked any U.S. president at all. To my surprise, I didn’t have long to wait for an answer. Without hesitation, Christopher Hitchens leaned across the table, looked me in the eye, and quipped with boozy conviction: “Eisenhower.”...

Pope Francis must have vomited when he heard the Hobby Lobby news. Nothing could undo the good he has recently done the Church’s image more than yet another case of anti-woman lashing out by a cabal or far right Roman Catholic activists– this time in the Supreme Court. Alarmed by the Supreme Court pandering to the extreme religious right in the Hobby Lobby case, the new pope might ask “Who is responsible for this?” The answer is: Many people. However two people are the real instigators: the late evangelical far right activist, Charles Colson, and Roman Catholic far right ideologue...