Free Republic

A federal judge has banished the Baby Jesus and the Three Wise Men from an Indiana high school's Christmas musical. U.S. District Court Judge Jon DeGuilio, appointed to the bench by President Obama, issued an injunction against Concord Community Schools on Dec. 2. The court order forbids students from presenting a live Nativity scene during the Concord High School's Christmas Spectacular. The judge said that portion of the show is overtly religious in nature. "The living nativity scene impermissibly conveys an endorsement of religion and thus runs afoul of the Establishment Clause," the judge wrote in his ruling.

What do you get when a magician buys an A-frame house in the desert? A sprawling, brightly colored compound that looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. It has hidden rooms, fire poles, and a place where visitors must sign in and have their mugshot taken. The Slammer is the creation of Penn Jillette. It sits on 10 acres of land in the Las Vegas desert. The residence started out as an A-frame house and grew as the magician, one half of the act Penn and Teller, added on. It has covered parking, a recording studio, a home...

The Church of England has received unlikely backing from the biologist and prominent atheist Richard Dawkins after the UK’s three leading cinema chains refused to screen its advertisement featuring the Lord’s Prayer. The 60-second advert was due to be shown before Star Wars: the Force Awakens, released on December 18, which would have guaranteed it a huge cinema audience in the run-up to Christmas. But the Odeon Cineworld and Vue chains, which control 80 per cent of screens around the country, have refused to allow it because of a policy not to allow political or religious advertising...The decision prompted an...

The thought that most frequently pops into my head when I read diatribes by militant atheists is "Why won't you read a book?" Of course, put thus, the thought is implausible. The militant atheists who get interviewed in newspapers presumably have read books. Christopher Hitchens had certainly read a lot of books. But there are good books and there are bad books, and then there are necessary books. And, clearly, they haven't read any of the books that should, in a cultured society, be presumed necessary for participation in public debate. Take the theoretical physicist and public speaker Lawrence Krauss....

A new study in the journal Current Biology found children in religious households are significantly less generous than their non-religious peers. . . . . Americans overwhelmingly elect Christian representatives, and they distrust atheists. This study challenges those attitudes. It was the children in non-religious homes most likely to be generous toward a stranger. The longer a child had lived in a religious home, the stingier he was compared to his secular peers.

"I absolutely agree that it is okay for those of the Left to critique, mock, [and] deride Christianity, but Islam gets a free pass," Zuckerman told CNSNews.com. "Which is so strange, because if you care about women's rights, if you care about human rights, if you care about gay rights, then you really... uh... then Islam is much more problematic." From a human rights perspective, Christian nations are among the most successful, yet Zuckerman said he would not criticize Islam for fear of execution. "As an atheist, where on planet Earth is the death penalty meted out to atheists? It's...

An atheist professor said Tuesday that it's acceptable to criticize Christians but not Muslims, because he does not "fear" retaliation from Christians. "I know what keeps me from critiquing Islam on my blog is just fear," Phil Zuckerman said at a discussion on religious liberty at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. "I've got three kids. "So I know I can say anything about Christianity or Mormonism, and I'm not living in fear, which is a testament to Christianity and Mormonism, and that's wonderful. Thank you," said Zuckerman, who is a self-described atheist and professor of secular studies at Pitzer College...

An atheist professor said Tuesday that it’s acceptable to criticize Christians but not Muslims, because he does not “fear” retaliation from Christians. “I know what keeps me from critiquing Islam on my blog is just fear,” Phil Zuckerman said at a discussion on religious liberty at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. “I’ve got three kids. So I know I can say anything about Christianity or Mormonism, and I’m not living in fear, which is a testament to Christianity and Mormonism, and that’s wonderful. Thank you,” said Zuckerman, who is a self-described atheist and professor of secular studies at Pitzer College...

Total vanity here. I know Obama has claimed to be a Christian and I know he has "misspoken" now and then about his "muslim faith." But does anyone know if he has ever actually said flat-out "I am not a Muslim"?

“The fallacy that President Obama is a Muslim has tripped up many a politician,” said NPR’s Jessica Taylor hopefully on Friday, “and on Thursday night, GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump was its latest victim.” Trump’s presumed faux pas was his failure to correct a questioner who asserted that Barack Obama was a Muslim. Taylor’s real error as a reporter, like that of all her mainstream colleagues, was to dismiss the questioner’s assertion as a “fallacy” without providing any evidence to the contrary. Strange but true, reporters pride themselves on knowing nothing about Obama’s roots. Last month, for instance, Catherine Thompson...

John Heilemann was a rather reluctant witness. But when called on to testify, so to speak, Heilemann confirmed a stunning fact: that during the 2008 presidential race, it was Hillary Clinton who started the rumor that Barack Obama might not be a Christian. The matter arose when on today's Morning Joe. Joe Scarborough ripped Hillary's hypocrisy on Face the Nation yesterday for criticizing Republicans who question Obama's religion, "when it all started with her and her campaign passing things around in the [2008] Democratic primary." When Steve Rattner asked Heilemann, in his role as inside-campaign-baseball expert, to confirm whether Joe's...

In a shocking interview yesterday on the Sean Hannity Radio Show, author Ed Klein said Barack Obama’s former pastor helped Obama accept Christianity without having to renounce Islam.

Donald Trump was criticized for not correcting a questioner at an event Thursday night in Rochester, N.H., who said that President Obama is Muslim.On Saturday morning, Trump used Twitter to defend his non-response to that questioner. Essentially he said it’s up to President Obama to defend himself. Am I morally obligated to defend the president every time somebody says something bad or controversial about him? I don't think so!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 19, 2015 This is the first time in my life that I have caused controversy by NOT saying something.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 19, 2015...

Jeb Bush made it clear on Friday night that, unlike Donald J. Trump, he would not give credence to conspiracy theories about President Obama’s religion or nationality. Speaking at a conference for Republican activists and donors on Mackinac Island off the coast of Michigan, Mr. Bush made a point to say that his issue with Mr. Obama is one of policy. “Barack Obama is a talented man,” Mr. Bush said during a 20-minute speech at the Grand Hotel. “And, by the way, he is an American, he is a Christian.”

Via Sean Sullivan at Twitter Sean Sullivan ‏@WaPoSean · 29m29 minutes ago .@JebBush responds to Trump in Mackinac speech: "Barack Obama is a talented man -- and by the way he's an American. He's a Christian."

At a Donald Trump event Thursday night in New Hampshire, a man asking a question prefaced it by saying that President Obama is a Muslim. Trump is now drawing some heat for: Not in any way disagreeing with that premise. Kind-of maybe also agreeing with the guy's conspiracy theory that there are extremist training camps in the United States that need to be rooted out. Trump did seem somewhat dismissive of the man's question, but in an interview with The Post afterward, Trump's campaign manager declined to say whether Trump believes Obama is a Muslim. This despite the president talking...

WASHINGTON -- Every sulfurous belch from the molten interior of the volcanic Trump phenomenon injures the chances of a Republican presidency. After Donald Trump finishes plastering a snarling face on conservatism, any Republican nominee will face a dauntingly steep climb to reach even the paltry numbers that doomed Mitt Romney. It is perhaps quixotic to try to distract Trump's supporters with facts, which their leader, who is no stickler for dignity, considers beneath him. Still, consider these: The white percentage of the electorate has been shrinking for decades and will be about 2 points smaller in 2016 than in 2012....

It is difficult to determine wither George Will has remained within the confines of the GOP “Establishment” for so long that he actually believes what he writes, or if he’s so steeped in conceit and self-absorption that he’s convinced he can alter reality by the sheer power of his baseless assertions. In either case, it is glaringly apparent that he and his kind have completely lost touch with the nation that surrounds them. And in the face of a Tsunami of grassroots rejection of the D.C status quo (as epitomized by the meteoric political rise of Donald Trump), they flail...

An ordained United Church of Canada minister who believes in neither God nor Bible said Wednesday she is prepared to fight an unprecedented attempt to boot her from the pulpit for her beliefs. In an interview at her West Hill church, Rev. Gretta Vosper said congregants support her view that how you live is more important than what you believe in. “I don’t believe in...the god called God,” Vosper said. “Using the word gets in the way of sharing what I want to share.”

Atheist Jerry Coyne explains why morality is impossible for atheists Let’s review what you need in your worldview in order to have a rationally grounded system of morality.You need 5 things:1) Objective moral valuesThere needs to be a way to distinguish what is good from what is bad. For example, the moral standard might specify that being kind to children is good, but torturing them for fun is bad. If the standard is purely subjective, then people could believe anything and each person would be justified in doing right in their own eyes. Even a “social contract” is just based...