Free Republic

In the passionate world of American atheism, the venom usually directed at believers has now been turned against the wrong kind of atheists. The cause of this freethinking furore? A new movement called Atheism+. According to its website, "Atheism+ is a safe space for people to discuss how religion affects everyone and to apply skepticism and critical thinking to everything, including social issues like sexism, racism, GLBT issues, politics, poverty, and crime."

What history we recall on the Fourth of July typically involves stirring words of freedom, and rightly so. But why stop there? After all, not every colonist in 1776 was a patriot, and at this particularly fractured political moment, we might do well to remember that, according to contemporary accounts, one third of Americans wanted revolution, one third were loyal to the crown and one third could go either way. Loyalists did more than talk; they formed Tory regiments and fought alongside the British, against their fellow Americans. Even those who did support breaking from Britain could be surprisingly lax...

Tony Blair has disclosed that he once wanted to end an address to the nation with the words “God bless Britain”. However, the former Prime Minister said his suggestion provoked such strong concern from civil servants that he was forced to drop the idea. Mr Blair said he had intended to echo the traditional closing remark of Presidents in the United States, who typically sign-off television broadcasts by saying, “God Bless America”. For much of his time in office, Mr Blair was accused of adopting a “presidential” style of leadership, and became close to former American presidents Bill Clinton and...

An elementary school in Massachusetts has told kids not to say the word “God” in the Lee Greenwood song “God Bless the USA” during a recent assembly. Instead, they wanted students to say, “We love the USA.” Many parents were not happy with this move, but some agreed that the principal did the right thing. The school decided that they would pull the song from the assembly all together instead of continuing a debate about it. Michael Graham, a conservative radio talk show host with WTKK in Massachusetts, joined Martha MacCallum on America’s Newsroom to discuss the matter. Graham disputes...

LAKELAND, Fla. – A group of atheists in Florida spent part of their weekend washing away a blessing placed upon a local highway by a religious group. Armed with brooms, mops and "unholy water," the atheists gathered Saturday to symbolically clean up holy oil that Polk Under Prayer put down on Highway 98 near the Pasco-Polk county line last year, Bay News 9 reported. "We come in peace," Humanists of Florida director Mark Palmer announced before he and members of other atheist organizations launched their cleanup.

The Obama administration has stepped into another controversy by announcing its opposition to the inclusion of a plaque depicting Franklin Roosevelt's D-Day prayer at the memorial that celebrates his life and presidency. The proposal to include the prayer is being offered by Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, and has bipartisan support. It is expected to pass committee, then be passed by the House. Its fate in the Senate is unclear. The objection was raised by Robert Abbey, the director of the Bureau of Land Management, who claimed such a plaque would "dilute" the memorial's central message and therefore should not be...

Sometimes you can focus so hard on a single tree, you lose sight of the forest. For instance, every sane person, which automatically excludes leftists, realizes that we can easily un-elect Barack Obama next year. But we should not lose sight of the fact that we will simultaneously be sending Hillary Clinton, Cass Sunstein, Timothy Geithner, Janet Napolitano, Eric Holder, Jeffrey Immelt, Jay Carney, Valerie Jarrett and Joe Biden, back where they came from. That should certainly provide all Republicans, no matter which candidate they happen to support at the moment, with plenty of incentive to vote for our ultimate...

A federal judge has ordered a Texas school district to prohibit public prayer at a high school graduation ceremony. Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery’s order against the Medina Valley Independent School District also forbids students from using specific religious words including “prayer” and “amen.” The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by Christa and Danny Schultz. Their son is among those scheduled to participate in Saturday’s graduation ceremony. The judge declared that the Schultz family and their son would “suffer irreparable harm” if anyone prayed at the ceremony. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said the school district...

BALDWIN BOROUGH, Pa. -- Baldwin borough is now telling a man who put a giant illuminated cross outside his home to take the structure down or face a penalty. Carl Behr built the 24-foot cross and two other crosses on his property along Robbins Street in Baldwin. "If you have a problem with that, I think you have a problem with the Lord," said Behr. Behr said it's an act of faith, but one neighbor claims it's an act of revenge. Next-door neighbor Lisa Fera said she contacted police and the borough because she felt Behr purposely built the large...

Kevin McKenna’s  review of 2010 in The Observer newspaper includes his assessment of Richard Dawkins behaviour during Pope Benedict’s visit to the UK:‘ The Pope’s visit was great but tinged with sadness because it reduced that once-great biologist Richard Dawkins to a rambling and wild-eyed madman hurling foam-flecked adolescent insults at the Roman holy man. I trust someone is giving the scientist his soup and caramelised biscuits as he recuperates. I even hear of a Richard Dawkins care fund. Could someone forward me the address?’Protect the Pope comment: Couldn’t agree more! It was a relief that the BBC cut away from...

THE BBC has angered Christians with a TV drama in which the Virgin Mary is branded a prostitute and sex cheat. In The Nativity, written by EastEnders scriptwriter Tony Jordan, 15-year-old Mary is attacked by people who do not believe her claim that she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph accuses her of “whoring” and even suggests that her pregnancy might have been the result of rape. The Church of England has described the four-part drama, which goes out before the 9pm watershed from tomorrow, as “a gritty interpretation”. But Stephen Green, of the ministry Christian Voice,...

The atheist group behind last year's controversial bus ads suggesting "there's probably no God" is rolling out a provocative new set of posters on buses across the country that places Allah beside Bigfoot and Christ beside psychics. The new posters bear the slogan: "Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence" with "Allah, Bigfoot, UFOs, Homeopathy, Zeus, Psychics, Christ" listed below. They will hit Toronto streetcars in January, pending final approval from the Toronto Transit Commission, said Justin Trottier, national executive director of the Centre for Inquiry, an atheist organization. After the Toronto debut, the organization plans to post the ads to buses...

Did you know that the English-speaking world is in the midst of an Atheistic revival? It is fueled by a small but widely celebrated group of authors and thinkers who call themselves “the Brights”, and who lecture, debate and write best-selling books which have a wide following among young college and University students. These are not your father’s atheists either. They are articulate, impassioned, and effective at the use of the media, and the internet. The “new Atheists” believe that the old atheists were too tolerant of religion, and not aggressive enough in their attacks upon it. To them, religion...

In Tangled, the Walt Disney Company’s new animated, feature-length, 3-D adaptation of “Rapunzel,” critic Armond White finds, sadly, that the story of the girl with the very long locks not only “has been amped up from the morality tale told by the Brothers Grimm into a typically overactive Disney concoction of cute humans, comic animals, and one-dimensional villains,” but also that the film’s “hyped-up story line . . . gives evidence that cultural standards have undergone a drastic change” in the decades since Walt Disney first set out to charm both children and adults with his animated retellings of fairy...

I've always liked Director Peter Weir's films. Master and Commander, Witness, Gallipoli. Even things I didn't care for like The Year Of Living Dangerously and The Dead Poets Society were still well done and stylish. Now he has this coming out in January about an escape from a Soviet gulag in 1940 (be sure to click on the link to the trailer below): Trailer here ---------------------------------------------------- Then there is this little number from Director Kevin Smith. I'll provide the synopsis from IMDB but I'll be damned if I'm going to provide a link to the trailer. From IMDB: "A horror...

The battle over America's Judeo-Christian identity is heating up, and at least one author isn't taking the fight lying down. Two new books from best-selling author Brad O'Leary put the lie to secularist claims that America is not a Christian nation and that Christianity isn't under an intense attack. "God and America's Leaders" is the definitive collection of quotations by our Founding Fathers and past presidents on matters pertaining to God, Jesus Christ and Christianity. This invaluable resource leaves no doubt that America's top leaders were men of faith, and that ultimately, their strong faith in God inspired their faith...

Aaaaaand it’s not just any Congresswoman, but Minnesota’s own Betty McCollum, who’s defending the seat against a strong challenge from Republican Teresa Collett in the 4th CD this year. Normally, I’d let this slide, but in this case McCollum wanted to lead the chamber in saying the Pledge of Allegiance. If she objects to the “under God” portion of the pledge, then why volunteer for the job? But this is from quite a while ago as well:

If you believe any of the hogwash about the irrelevance of the religious right to this election, take a look at the numerous right-wing evangelical websites promoting the 40/40 Prayer Vigil, which began in September with a prayer for Christian voter registration and ends--you guessed it--just before election day, Nov. 2. The 40/40 stands for the forty days and forty nights that Jesus supposedly spent wandering in the desert before finally saying no to Satan's temptations. I'm sure that you won't have any trouble figuring out which political party the Southern Baptist Convention--America's largest religious denomination and one of the...

Not sure about what can be posted from MSNBC.

Let me start out by saying I'm an atheist. Am I absolutely sure there is no God, no supreme being looking over us? No, of course not. Contrary to some opinions, that doesn't make me agnostic. I hold the possibility of God to be so remote as to be inconsequential, but I don't for a moment think I possess all knowledge on the matter. I would also add that I am a hopeful atheist, not only confident in my lack of belief, but assured that it is ultimately the belief system most in the world will come to. When we...