Free Republic

Steve Mosher, one of the America’s most prominent China experts, was kicked out of China — and Stanford University — in the early 1980s for breaking the “gentlemen’s rule of silence” regarding Communist China: he tore back the curtain on the country’s “one-child” policy, a draconian campaign that resulted in forced abortions performed in barbaric conditions on millions of Chinese women every year. I was working for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time, and was surprised that the State Department showed little interest in Mosher’s exposure of what was clearly one of the most egregious violation of human...

“All true philosophy must opt between these two hypotheses: either a new religion is going to come into existence or Christianity will be rejuvenated in some extraordinary way,” wrote Joseph de Maistre. But this speaks less to individuals (who may be theists or atheists) than it does to society, which is theistic by nature. “If the religious spirit is not reinforced in this part of the world, the social bond will dissolve,” Maistre warned. Maybe that’s why both North Korea and the Soviet Union became more cultish as their regimes wore on. Maybe at the start they earnestly thought they...

Only 5% of Stanford University graduates Figured it out! Can you answer all seven of the following questions With the same word? 1. The word has seven letters.... 2. Preceded God... 3. Greater than God... 4. More Evil than the devil.. 5. All poor people have it.. 6. Wealthy people need it.. 7. If you eat it, you will die. Did you figure it out? Try hard before looking at the answers

You know who you are. You are the person other people tip toe around when it comes to discussing current events or religion. You are the person who can spend hours devouring scripture or news with equal vigor, pointing out ‘last days’ events to anyone who would listen to you. You are semi-shunned at church. You are disinvited from church socials, because you are just too intense and narrow-minded. You are called a ‘conspiracy theorist’ or a ‘Jesus Freak’ behind your back. You are always going on about the Lord’s return and that “Rapture thingy”. Admit it. You are one...

While discussing religion with Stephen Colbert on the "Late Show," Ricky Gervais described himself as an "agnostic atheist." Gervais said, "No one knows if there's a God, so technically, everyone's agnostic. We don't know. An agnostic atheist is someone who doesn't know if there's a God or not, as no one does."And from Gervais's point of view, such a statement makes perfect sense. After all, one would expect a self-proclaimed agnostic atheist to assume that even Christians don't know for a fact that God exists, right?In reality, you can know for sure that God is real by entering into a...

Recently a man burst into a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, and shot and killed 26 parishioners (including an unborn child). The killer’s former high school classmates described him as a militant atheist. “He was always talking about how people who believe in God we’re stupid and trying to preach his atheism,” wrote former classmate Nina Rose Nava in a Facebook post, according to the Daily Mail. “I legit just deleted him off my fb cause I couldn’t stand his post.” Which raises this question: To what extent was the killer’s rampage inspired by his atheist beliefs? Obviously, I am...

Originally an atheist, C.S. Lewis credited his Catholic colleague at Oxford, J.R.R. Tolkien, whom he met in 1926, as being instrumental in his coming to faith in Jesus Christ. *snip C.S. Lewis wrote: “The best popular defense of the full Christian position I know is G. K. Chesterton’s ‘The Everlasting Man.'” In “Surprised by Joy,” 1955, C.S. Lewis described how he resisted “kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance to escape,” until in 1929 he came to believe in God: “You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen (College, Oxford) night after...

A top Vatican astronomer has said that a number of public scientists claim to be atheists in order to appear credible, noting that a surprising number of scientists attend church. Brother Guy Consolmagno, director of the Vatican Observatory, who has spoken on a number of topics concerning science and faith, told Vancouver Sun in an interview earlier this week that many "public scientists" are insecure about their rank. "The scientists that you see on TV who are proclaimed atheists because they think it gives them credibility in science — which it doesn't — are turning off the nine-tenths of the...

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia recently expressed his view that that the causes of the October Revolution ultimately lie in events that took place 200 years beforehand. Speaking after the Divine Liturgy on Saturday, the Russian National Day of Unity, in the Kremlin Dormition Cathedral, the primate of the Russian Church spoke of events that led to a loss of faith and the spiritual darkness of the Russian people, Interfax-Religion reports. “If we sweep aside the entire political environment connected with the events of a century ago, if we detach ourselves from this ideological view, then...

When I was growing up, my parents almost daily rounded up my four siblings and I for family prayer, the seven of us—albeit with differing degrees of attention—reciting out loud the Catholic prayers of the rosary, while meditating on different events in Jesus Christ’s life. At the end of the rosary, after my dad had rattled off the oh, roughly 785 intentions he wanted the Lord to take some action on, it was the kids’ turn to announce to God what we’d like to see happen. And so when one of my brothers was 2, he began to pray for...

Since 1990, the fraction of Americans with no religious affiliation has nearly tripled, from about 8 percent to 22 percent. Over the next 20 years, this trend will accelerate: by 2020, there will be more of these "Nones" than Catholics, and by 2035, they will outnumber Protestants. The following figure shows changes since 1972 and these predictions, based on data from the General Social Survey (GSS):

Turning to the future, Brown said technological change and the development of artificial intelligence would transform the concept of the divine. "We will start to find our spiritual experiences through our interconnections with each other," he said, forecasting the emergence of "some form of global consciousness that we perceive and that becomes our divine". "Our need for that exterior god, that sits up there and judges us ... will diminish and eventually disappear."

In early 1914, though, it seemed almost impossible that Britain and France would go to war with Germany to defend Russia against Austria-Hungary over a dispute with Serbia. Yet by June 28, war moved straight from impossible to inevitable — without ever passing through improbable. Four years later, 10 million people had died. (From World War One: First war was impossible, then inevitable; Anatole Kaletsky) Although I’ve used this quote in the past, I’ve found myself drawn to it again due to its precise accuracy describing the seemingly incredible and often unpredictable nature of geopolitics. Prior to World War I,...

Pope Francis established a “World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation” to be celebrated on September 1. The day should “contribute to resolving” an alleged ecological crisis. Francis asked the bishops and Christian communities worldwide to inaugurate and further develop the initiative. He himself celebrated in 2015 and 2016 a liturgy of the word for the occasion. In 2016 the celebration was a fiasco because St Peter's Basilica was nearly empty. This years event was cancelled.

1. A breakthrough study from the Institute of Crystallography in Italy has just confirmed that the image of the man on the Shroud of Turin is composed of real blood and in fact a microscopic analysis of blood particles reveals that the blood had to come from someone undergoing torture.  This just further confirms the possible authenticity of the Shroud (see here). 2. Using a recently developed X-ray imaging technology, archaeologists were able to read the inside of a biblical scroll that was covered in ash during the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD.  The results?  The current manuscripts...

Sometimes my natural skepticism asserts itself, but I cannot walk away. My father-in-law is one of the fairest, most patient, and most virtuous people that I know. He’s always available to help out, his capacity for forgiveness is immense, and when he’s unavailable it’s usually because he’s caring for or teaching people in his community. He’s intellectual honest, and he’s a profoundly decent human being. He’s also an atheist. He’s part of the reason why I have respect for people in the atheist community, and why when I write about atheism I usually have positive things to say. I don’t...

Many Khmer Buddhists have become Christians "because they are looking for answers". Sok Sophon was a battle-hardened Khmer Rouge commander when he found Jesus. The now 63-year-old Cambodian was visiting a refugee camp when a wounded soldier gave him a Bible. At first, he was reluctant but did take it. Then after reading from the Bible the officer of the Pol Pot regime got interested and visited a church service. "I remember the first time I made a detour to get to the church," he says. "I didn't want people to know. I felt ashamed for going there." It took...

FULL TITLE: The number of atheists in America could be 10 TIMES more than previous estimates: Shocking study shows a decline in people who believe in God The number of atheists in this country could be as much as 10 times more than previous estimates, according a study published earlier this year. The percentage of atheists in the US varies depending on who - and how - you ask. According to a Gallup poll in 2016, only one in 10 Americans answered 'no' to the question: 'Do you believe in God?' Even fewer actively identify as atheist, with numbers clocking...

What is repentance?  Is it turning from sin?  Is it not sinning?   Is it reforming one's life?  Is it getting cleaned up first, before coming to Christ? No word causes greater trepidation and uncertainty among those considering a decision of faith and no word causes greater fear and confusion among those already in the Church. This word has caused me some of the greatest angst in my life, largely because of how I've understood it: turning from sin, reforming my ways, being perfect.  Yet I continue to fail.  Daily.  This incredible dichotomy exists in my mind between the biblical...

Do you remember being a kid and attempting to debate grown up topics with friends? I remember from my youth having a friend whose father was an atheist. After hearing frequently his father mock and criticize theists and religious people, my young friend became rather indoctrinated. By the age of 10, he could take up the arguments he’d heard a million times around the home and challenge classmates and children in the neighborhood. To be that young and such a cynic seems awfully sad now as I look back. In retrospect I suppose my childhood pal figured if he could...