Free Republic

Thanksgiving is coming! For most people, despite what the media try to tell us, the day is just that – a day to give thanks to God for all of the blessings we have enjoyed over the past year. Every year Thanksgiving is tough on some people who are facing tough times and this year that may be especially true with many Americans separated by war, some who grieve for the loss of loved ones because of that war, others without jobs and always for those who are alone. Most of us will at least offer a prayer for our...

Two smiling child models featured on an atheist billboard are actually Evangelical Christians, it has been claimed. The boy and girl can currently be seen next to the slogan "Don't Label Me" on adverts funded by the British Humanist Association (BHA) and endorsed by Prof Richard Dawkins, the scientist and prominent atheist. The posters form part of a campaign urging parents not to define their children by their own faith, which some secularists claim amounts to an abuse of their human rights. But the campaign appears to have backfired after a Christian community leader said that the models pictured in...

A poster from the atheist billboard campaign. Photograph: Public Domain This week, the final phase of the atheist bus campaign will appear in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast – not on buses, but on billboards. Due to the amazing sums donated to the campaign fund by many Cif readers at the end of last year, we raised enough for a second wave of adverts – and the above posters will launch today. When, in this Cif piece back in October 2008, we asked how the extra funds should be spent, one of the issues which came up repeatedly in the...

Way, way back in Econ 101 you might remember hearing about a guy named Adam Smith. He described what nowadays would be called an "emergent event of a complex system" that he named "the invisible hand of the free market." Simply put, it means that the economic market is too complex for conscious control, but is self-correcting (the invisible hand) if everyone pursues their own interests on a level playing field (equal rules). After Smith, some historical stuff happened for awhile, and then a writer appeared named Ayn Rand. People read her books, and immediately started arguing whether she is...

Whenever Ayn Rand met someone new—an acolyte who’d traveled cross-country to study at her feet, an editor hoping to publish her next novel—she would open the conversation with a line that seems destined to go down as one of history’s all-time classic icebreakers: “Tell me your premises.” Once you’d managed to mumble something halfhearted about loving your family, say, or the Golden Rule, Rand would set about systematically exposing all of your logical contradictions, then steer you toward her own inviolable set of premises: that man is a heroic being, achievement is the aim of life, existence exists, A is...

Coalition of Reason An advertisement that promotes atheism will run in a dozen subway stations in Manhattan for a month starting next Monday. Atheism is coming to the subway — or at least subway ads promoting it are. Starting next Monday, a coalition of local groups will run a monthlong advertising campaign in a dozen Manhattan subway stations with the slogan “A Million New Yorkers Are Good Without God. Are You?” The posters also advertise the Web site BigAppleCoR.org, which provides a listing of local groups affiliated with the Coalition of Reason, the umbrella organization that coordinated the campaign.

Atheists recruited to be part of a lawsuit that is trying to rid government ceremonies such as the inauguration of a president of any invocation or other prayer have claimed they are made physically ill by prayer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FAITH UNDER FIRE Atheists say prayer makes them physically sick 'My stomach did a somersault with disgust' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: October 07, 2009 10:30 pm Eastern By Bob Unruh © 2009 WorldNetDaily Michael Newdow Atheists recruited to be part of a lawsuit that is trying to rid government ceremonies such as the inauguration of a president of any invocation or other prayer...

Dr. John P. Jackson / The Shroud of Turin Colorado Springs, Colo., Oct 6, 2009 / 09:27 pm (CNA).- An Italian scientist is claiming to have re-created the burial cloth believed to have covered the crucified body of Jesus, called the Shroud of Turin.  However, CNA spoke with experts who maintain that there are till several major differences between the new shroud and the ancient one.According to Reuters, Luigi Garlaschelli, an organic chemistry professor at the University of Pavia announced that he and his team “have shown it is possible to reproduce something which has the same characteristics as...

SNIPPET - Quote: Ex-Muslim receives death threats after publishing article critical of Islam -- in Tulsa He criticized all religious belief in his essay. But he's not in fear for his life from an angry mob down the road at Oral Roberts University. "Former Muslim receiving death threats," by Bill Sherman for Tulsa World, October 1 (thanks to Basil): Sabri Husibi, a former Muslim who is now an atheist, says he has been ostracized and threatened with death since publication of a Tulsa World article Saturday in which he was critical of Islam and all other religions. That article can...

"Pastor's question to blasphemous artist: The date of Blasphemy Day was specifically chosen to commemorate a Danish newspaper’s publication in 2005 of cartoons that were unfavorable toward Islam and Muhammad. Muslims around the world rioted. Yet I notice that you, like virtually all atheist artists I have encountered, express your disdain for religion only by blaspheming Jesus. I’ve looked at all your paintings, but nothing in your work is aimed at Islam. Why do you and so many of your anti-religion colleagues give Islam a “free pass" but roast Christ mercilessly? You’re afraid of Muslim reprisals, and that’s just good...

The most popular dinosaur is probably Tyrannosaurus rex, a Latin term that loosely translates as “king lizard.” Based on evolutionary assumptions, scientists have long held that these dinosaurs lived for “only” 3 million years, approximately 68 to 65 million years ago. A fossil looking remarkably like a small version of T. rex, however, has been located in a much lower rock layer.[1] Using the evolutionary dates assigned to the relevant strata, this adds 60 million years to the T. rex timeline. If the evolutionary interpretation was this wrong about one creature, can it be trusted on the rest of the...

Atheist and religious skeptic student groups are on the rise across the country's high school and college campuses. The Secular Student Alliance added its 160th affiliate campus group last week and reports that demand for their group starting packets are high. "It’s been a challenge to keep up with the demand for services, especially group-starting packets and follow-up," said Lyz Liddell, senior campus organizer, in a statement earlier this month. "That’s a nice problem to have." The number of SSA campus affiliate groups has increased from 100 in 2008 to 160 this year. In 2007, the alliance counted only 80....

Did Penn & Teller Set a World Record for Most Falsehoods in One Show? Bill Donahue, president of the Catholic League, has said, "Penn & Teller's Nazi-like assault on Catholicism that took place on August 27 will go down in history as one of the most vile, obscene programs ever aired in any nation." However, will the show also go down in history for airing the most number of lies, falsehoods, and misleading statements in a single half-hour show? Not counting credits, the guilty episode runs less than 26 minutes. Here's a lie-by-lie list of the falsehoods that Penn Jillette...

Large portions of evilbible.com have been considered, dissected and declared fallacious on very many levels. Two examples of this fact are as follows: Whilst besmirching the Bible for allegedly commanding rape evilbible.com, for some odd reason, neglects to mention the most relevant biblical text related to the biblical view of and law about rape. Why this omission? Who knows, but it would certainly have gotten in the way of a good session of emotive expression of prejudice—it would have discredited evilbible.com to reference this most important text. Indeed, those annoying little facts have an annoying way of getting in the...

Camp Quest UK, which is being held near Bath, offers 24 places. Its website claims the camp is for the children of 'atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers and all those who embrace a naturalistic rather than supernatural world view.' There are currently six branches of Camp Quest operating in North America. Organisers said the purpose of the camp was to encourage critical thinking and provide children with a summer camp "free of religious dogma". The camp, supported by scientist Richard Dawkins, plans to expand after receiving hundreds of inquiries. The event has been set up by Samantha Stein, a postgraduate psychology...

EXCERPT [...] BILD: How would you rate your film if you were a critic? Brad Pitt: “Lots of fun! I’m happy with it, because all the actors are great. Each one is a mini star!” BILD: What does your wife Angelina Jolie think? Brad Pitt: “She really likes it. She laughed a lot.” BILD: You play an American soldier who scalps Nazi’s in a hit team and finally kills Hitler. Brad Pitt: “Yes there’s a lot going on in the movie, we had lots of fun. You have some great actors in Germany.” BILD: Who is the real Brad Pitt?...

In Crespo v. Crespo, the New Jersey Appellate Division overturned the June 18, 2008 ruling of Francis Schultz, who vacated the final restraining order (FRO) entered against defendant Anibal Crespo. Judge Schultz vacated the FRO entered pursuant to the Prevention of Domestic Violence Act because the standard of proof provided by the Act, the preponderance of evidence standard as opposed to the clear-and-convincing standard, violated the defendant’s right to due process. (He also noted that the Act’s “practice and procedure” components violate the separation of powers doctrine, but this finding had no affect on his decision to vacate the FRO...

What happens when you put a Muslim imam, a Christian priest, a rabbi and a Buddhist monk in a room with 10 atheists? Turkish television station Kanal T hopes the answer is a ratings success as it prepares to launch a gameshow where spiritual guides from the four faiths will seek to convert a group of non-believers. The prize for converts will be a pilgrimage to a holy site of their chosen religion -- Mecca for Muslims, the Vatican for Christians, Jerusalem for Jews and Tibet for Buddhists. ...secular Turkey are not amused by the twist on the popular reality...

The Government’s ‘equality’ watchdog is recruiting 14 and 15-year-olds for its second annual summer camp. The camp, called Our Space, will consist of a few days in the Lake District with outdoor activities and “modules to discuss diversity, equality and rights”. The camp is being organised by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the body which recently funded a leading homosexual lobby group to write a guide for employers on how to deal with religious workers. The same watchdog gave an atheist group £35,000 last year which was used to fund another set of guidance which told employers that...

The Government’s ‘equality’ watchdog is recruiting 14 and 15-year-olds for its second annual summer camp. The camp, called Our Space, will consist of a few days in the Lake District with outdoor activities and “modules to discuss diversity, equality and rights”. The camp is being organised by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the body which recently funded a leading homosexual lobby group to write a guide for employers on how to deal with religious workers. The same watchdog gave an atheist group £35,000 last year which was used to fund another set of guidance which told employers that...

An atheist group is running ads on two dozen New York City buses to raise "atheist pride'' among nonbelievers. The 12-foot-long ads have a blue background and three-foot-high white letters that proclaim "You don't have to believe in god to be a moral or ethical person." Members of the New York City Atheists will hold a Saturday press conference to discuss the ads at Manhattan's Columbus Circle. Spokeswoman Jane Everhart says American society is increasingly accepting of atheists and says President Obama even mentioned "nonbelievers'' in his inaugural speech. The ad campaign wants to reassure secretive nonbelievers that "it's OK...

Do you believe in God? Really? And you're willing to admit it in public? Oops. Sorry, for a moment I slipped back into the arrogant Atheism of my youth. Before my parents had children, they decided to raise their kids in a secular home. We had gifts at Christmas time and chocolate covered matzoh during Passover, but there was no religion and certainly no God. When I was in grade school, God was just a kind of nondescript character who popped up in Little House on the Prairie books from time to time. He seemed like a decent enough fellow,...

Prodigal SonBENJAMIN WIKERFor all too many years, eminent novelist and biographer A.N. Wilson was a self-satisfied atheist, a proud member of the British unbelieving intelligentsia, along with Richard Dawkins and expatriate Christopher Hitchens. But no more. Andrew Norman Wilson has come home. I still remember the taste of ashes in my soul reading A. N. Wilson's biography of C. S. Lewis. It was filled with the kind of meticulous spite that can only be mustered by someone entirely bent on chipping away at a larger-than-life figure until he is largely unrecognizable, riddled with pock marks and imperfections. I sensed...

Have you ever heard the one about the Christian who started to study calculus and ended up losing his faith? Of course you have. Such "conversion" to atheism is supposed to be the story of all modern, thinking people. But imagine it happening the other way around. Moreover, imagine the convert being a well-informed, public intellectual who had long made it his business to argue that faith is irrational? Just such a conversion has happened to A.N. Wilson, the 58-year-old British biographer, novelist and man of letters. He was once an observant Anglican and, later, a Roman Catholic, but in...

Examiner Columnist | 6/8/09 5:14 PM News fairly unbalanced. We report. You decipher. Riding the wave of Muslim approval after his historic speech from Cairo last week, President Barack Obama will reportedly travel to a major secular capital next week in an effort to "hit the reset button on relations with the Atheist World." "The president knows how it feels to be marginalized," said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, "So he won't be going there to lecture the Atheist World on morality or to try to impose American values on them, like the U.S. has done so often in...

A member of Free Republic recently posed a couple of questions to me. This is not the first time these questions have been asked of me, or on this forum, and it most likely will not be the last. I’d like everyone on both sides of the issue of the Evolution/Creation debate to have the chance to chime in, so here goes. “I would like to see the statistics to back up your assertion that “Most Church going, Bible believing Christians believe in Creation and not Evolution.””I refer you to this post... This answer is not cut and dry, but...

Ron Reagan is the direct namesake of the man whom many on the right consider to be “The Greatest American Hero.” Much to their dismay he has spent his broadcasting career taking aim at the very politicians who have sought to attach themselves to his father’s (the late President Ronald Reagan) conservative legacy in order to justify everything from extreme corporate deregulation to the war in Iraq. For decades Ron Reagan has forged a path that embraces left wing ideals and touts science and progression over alleged antiquated religious rhetoric, a position that infuriates the Republican Party and warms liberals...

Kinsey, Darwin and the sexual revolution by Jerry Bergman Alfred Kinsey is the father of the modern Western sexual revolution. A review of the life and work of Kinsey reveals Darwinism was critically important in his crusade to overturn traditional sexual morality. He tried achieving this goal by convincing the public and the scientific world that what was widely regarded as deviant behaviour then, including adultery, fornication, homosexuality, sadomasochism and paedophilia, were all widely practiced and therefore ‘normal’ and acceptable. Kinsey’s conclusions have now been shown by extensive empirical research to be fatally flawed. Kinsey’s sexual revolution has caused major...

Mos Def is curbstomped by Christopher Hitchens

‘Unshakable’ Rationalist Blogged Her Way Into the ChurchJennifer Fulwiler “always thought it was obvious that God did not exist.” Fulwiler grew up a content atheist. Having a profound respect for knowledge, particularly scientific knowledge, Fulwiler was convinced that religion and reason were incompatible. Not surprisingly, she was also emphatically anti-Christian and, especially, anti-Catholic. “Catholic beliefs seemed bizarre and weird,” she says. Fulwiler would have been astonished to know that she and Joe Fulwiler, her husband, would come to embrace those “bizarre,” “weird” beliefs. On Easter 2007, they entered the Catholic Church with deep joy and a sense of coming home...

...President Obama’s reversal of the embryonic stem cell ban sentences these embryos to the category of disposable life, a clear indicator that the president values the free exercise of science over the life of the unborn. But there is much more to the president’s decision. Dr. Guliuzza continued:

The truth is finally out, atheists, and it’s from one of your own science publications!

My church sponsored an event called Global Impact Celebration last week, in which missionaries from around the world came and visited with various groups at this 6000-member congregation, to give a glimpse into the life of a Christian missionary. It was, to say the least, enlightening. Some of the missionaries were Americans, sent by various "sending agencies" to preach the gospel and plant churches in places like Thailand, Colombia, Costa Rica and (don't get ahead of me) France. Others are indigenous missionaries in, to name a few, Mexico, Pakistan, Ukraine, Cambodia (Kampuchea, as he informed us - "nobody in Cambodia...

In reality, evolution has done nothing to help real science, and has actually hindered it in many ways...

Books claiming that science disproves ‘young-earth’ creationism are very common, and books that claim the Bible itself does not mandate a literal interpretation of the first few chapters of Genesis are not in short supply either. David Snoke’s book A Biblical Case for an Old Earth ostensibly falls in the latter group, though his main reason for rejecting biblical creation is really uniformitarian ‘science’. Books like these generally don’t pose a threat to informed creationists, and this one is no exception. In fact, Snoke could have saved himself a lot of trouble if he had actually taken the time to...

Last night, I watched the Kennedy Center show honoring (posthumously) George Carlin. A truly brilliant, insightful, funny comedian, Carlin's bits over his 40 year career in standup were introduced by a number of comedians and I thoroughly enjoyed the chuckles down memory lane. Until the next-to-last presenter: Bill Maher, the smirking, rabidly liberal former funnyman who is not only a professed atheist, but virulently anti-religious.

...Two arresting new books, timed to co­incide with Darwin’s 200th birthday, make the case that his epochal achievement in Victorian England can best be under­stood in relation to events — involving neither tortoises nor finches — on the other side of the Atlantic. Both books confront the touchy subject of Darwin and race head on; both conclude that Darwin, despite the pernicious spread of “social Darwinism” (the notion, popularized by Herbert Spencer, that human society progresses through the “survival of the fittest”), was no racist...

Many statistics and people say that atheists aren’t charitable people. However, they seem to miss that the nation’s largest charitable foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was founded by an atheist – Bill Gates. It was reported by the Associated Press today that several charitable groups have committed to continue charitable giving during this time of economic crisis. Among those committing to do so is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. What’s more is they have gone a step further.

Believers and unbelievers of all stripes have equal standing under the law. We have no national religion, thank God. President Obama, like all presidents before him included "So help me God" in his oath of office and engaged in prayer during the inauguration ceremony. This is free exercise of religion, and it compels no one to do anything against their belief system. Opposing this is Un-American and historically ignorant. The Religion Clause of the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.It's a...

A plan to put atheist slogans on buses in Italy has been shot down by the Roman Catholic Church. The campaign, which follows a similar one in Britain, had caused controversy in the deeply Catholic country. The ads read 'The bad news is that God doesn't exist. The good news is that you don't need him' and were to have made their first appearance today in the streets of Genoa. The city was targeted because it is home to the head of the Italian Catholic Bishops Conference Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, an outspoken opponent of artificial insemination and gay marriage.

Nativity scenes made of real straw. Wise Men 2 feet tall. Menorahs bigger than a human being.   Holiday display in Teaneck. In many North Jersey municipalities, those sacred symbols can be found at the same place people get dog licenses, pay taxes and apply for building permits — town hall.  The display of religious items on public property has long been a charged discussion in American communities, and the case law governing holiday displays is still murky enough to confound local governments trying to create a festive atmosphere for residents.* Fair Lawn for years just lit a holiday tree....

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline)-All of the nation's state attorneys general have signed onto a brief to include references to God in President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration this month. Authored by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, the amicus brief was filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in the case of atheist Michael Newdow v. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Newdow, a Sacramento physician, seeks to eliminate prayer from the ceremony and prevent Obama from being able to say "so help me God" in the presidential oath of office.

On a Saturday night in early December, it's business as usual on downtown Tempe's Mill Avenue. Dreadlocked buskers beat on bongos across from a head shop called Hippie Gypsy, banging over the strains of Jimi Hendrix's guitar on "All Along the Watchtower" screaming from the store's speakers. The scent of patchouli fades into the reek of horse manure into the sugary coffee smells of Dunkin' Donuts as people shuffle down the street, below brawny frat guys in ASU jerseys beating their chests and bellowing from the balcony of Hooters. Beneath the neon glow of Hooters, a large crowd has gathered...

  Professor Richard Dawkins told the launch ceremony that the existence of God was as likely as the tooth fairy     The archsceptic professor Richard Dawkins today launched Britain's first atheist campaign posting the message: "There's probably no God. So stop worrying and enjoy your life" on the side of 800 British buses. The posters – launched in conditions cold enough to freeze a presumably non-existent hell over – co-incided with the Christian feast of the Epiphany, when according to tradition three magi from the East presented the baby Jesus with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Dr...

The head of an atheist group that has filed a lawsuit against prayer at Barack Obama's presidential inauguration says the government is picking a winner between "believers" and "those who don't believe" and subjecting atheists and agnostics to someone else's religious beliefs. Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, has joined with Michael Newdow, who fought to have the words "under God" removed from the Pledge of Allegiance, in a federal lawsuit seeking to enjoin the Presidential Inaugural Committee from sponsoring prayers at the official inauguration. The 34-page legal complaint similarly seeks to enjoin Supreme Court Chief Justice...

Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa's biggest problem - the crushing passivity of the people's mindset. Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it's Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work. It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I've been trying to...

Andrew Shaffer was a starving artist in the US midwest until he tapped into an improbable market in this holiday season of economic woe: he began designing and selling "Great Depression" and atheist Christmas cards.

The anti-religious placard placed in the State Capital in Washington State along side a Christmas tree and a manger scene have inadvertently served to point out the true meaning of Christmas. How is that so? The Freedom from Religion Foundation based in Madison Wisconsin placed a placard next to the manger scene in the Washington State Capital in early December 2008 that has a clearly anti-Christian message. In part it says “There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

Agnostics won't stuff stockings with misguided belief sets this year. Penn State agnostics and other groups who find the word, "Christmas," insensitive will work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as an act of defiance to religious hegemony. "Why should we be forced to take a day off that celebrates some religious superstition," said Baruch Lemming, a Penn State human resources manager. "I'm calling it Workmas." Jeraldine Nallace, another Penn State agnostic, said she, too, will work on Dec. 25, but may take a long lunch. She said she will work even though the non-holiday season is a stressful time...

T’is the season for another minority segment of our population to publicize their discontent. But this group is taking on someone bigger than all of us. The placement of an atheist sign next to a Nativity scene, billboards in Colorado, ads on buses in DC, why are atheists so hateful these days?