Free Republic

...‘Christian’ Putin has returned the brutal heel of the Marxism-Leninism ideology which made atheism the official doctrine of the Soviet Union down on the people of Russia’s newly-acquired Crimea. Throughout the 70-year history of the Soviet Union, Christianity was suppressed and persecuted uninterrupted until Pope John Paul 11, President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher brought down the Iron Curtain and Soviet Communism. {SNIP} The Soviet Union didn’t change when it became plain Mother Russia. The KGB tiger called Putin has never changed his stripes. With yesterday’s cheers still resounding from the overwhelming 96.77 percent for Crimea to...

Author’s Note: Those wishing to follow this column should note that the subject of the controversy, a course syllabus, can be accessed here (http://www.uncw.edu/soccrm/documents/proceduresyllabus.pdf). Last Friday I was sitting in my office with a couple of students. We were going over an exam and talking about the schedule for the rest of the semester. While we were talking, I got an unexpected email from another professor. I shared it with my students. After reading it, they begged me to respond and to share my response with others. Because I am a faithful public servant, I decided to honor their request....

There has been so much news lately of schools, organizations, and individuals being harassed by atheist groups, but this one sets a new low. In this case, a grieving mother erected a roadside cross where her son was killed, and now an atheist group has forced her to take it down. What is wrong with these people??? As reported by The Press Enterprise, a roadside cross was erected for 19-year-old Anthony Vincent Devaney who in May 2012 was killed crossing a street. A complaint prompted the American Humanist Association in Washington, D.C., to intervene, contending the placement of the symbol...

An atheist group is suing to prevent the World Trade Center Cross from being put on display at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. The 17 foot steel crossbeam was found in the wreckage at Ground Zero in the days after the September 11 attacks. For many, the cross was a symbol of hope during a time of tragedy. …

"It is an attack on God Himself." This was how Brent Bozell, founder of the conservative Media Research Center, felt about the prospect of representatives from the American Atheists attending the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual gathering of conservative leaders and organizations in Washington, D.C. On Tuesday, the Atheists announced they would host a booth at the conference next week; within hours, they had been disinvited. The group "misrepresented itself about their willingness to engage in positive dialogue and work together to promote limited government," a CPAC spokesperson told the Washington Post yesterday. The American Atheists were invited—and...

MOORESVILLE, N.C. – A high school football coach in North Carolina has been ordered to cease leading his team in prayers following a complaint by a prominent atheist activist organization. Officials with the Mooresville Graded School District recently told Mooresville High School football coach Hal Capps to stop leading the Blue Devils in prayer, and Capps has agreed to discontinue to the practice. The Madison, Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) had contacted the district last fall after learning of Capps’ practice and asserted that the prayers were unlawful. According to reports, a parent of a student had complained to...

British professor Antony Flew wrote over thirty philosophical works which established the foundations for atheism for half a century. His 1950 paper "Theology and Falsification" was the most reprinted philosophical publication of the 20th century. In December 2004 Flew announced in a symposium and subsequent video that he had completely changed his view and now, based on scientific evidence, believed that God exists. In 2007 he wrote the book There Is a God (Amazon USA) (Amazon UK) , subtitled How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind. This is the man without whose ideas the various Richard Dawkins,...

Former Seventh-day Adventist Pastor Ryan Bell made an unusual New Year's resolution: to live for one year without God. He used to lead a congregation in Southern California, but in March, he was asked to step down after voicing some of the doubts that led to this decision to "try on" atheism. Just a few days into the new year, after announcing his resolution, Bell was asked to leave the teaching positions he held at the Christian Azusa Pacific University and Fuller Theological Seminary. Bell spoke with NPR's Arun Rath about his flirtation with atheism and how he arrived at...

Ryan Bell, a former pastor who lost all his jobs after announcing he will experiment with atheism for a year, is currently getting overwhelming financial support from atheists and others after revealing in the fourth day of his controversial experiment that he was running out of money. "So I find myself, on Day 4, without any employment. My savings will run out in about two weeks and I'm scrambling to find immediate work doing, well…anything—manual labor, waiting tables, other teaching and consulting, or whatever I can find," wrote Bell, a Seventh Day Adventist, on his blog 'Year Without God'. Atheist...

A new display proposed for the Florida Capitol rotunda may leave you asking if the devil made them do it. After the state agreed to allow a private Christian group to put up a nativity scene and a private group to put up a Festivus pole made up of empty beer cans; more groups are applying to put their own displays in the rotunda. The latest filings for a Capitol display are from the Satanic Temple and from the Tallahassee Atheists, according to the News Service of Florida. The Satanic Temple hasn’t said what it would put on display in...

It seems that those who favor the all or nothing inclusion of December symbols in the annual display in front of the municipal building have been successful in making that happen. Over the weekend - with it still unclear if the lighted tree is to be called a "Christmas tree" or a "Holiday tree" - a crèche and an atheist sign were added to the display. Meanwhile the official name for the lighted tree in the display remains an issue for some. Resident Tim Wagner and others said they will continue to press for administrative action to call the "Holiday...

Prompted by a billboard calling Christmas a myth, the Catholic League erected a pro-Jesus billboard Tuesday. MANHATTAN — The Catholic League, upset over an anti-Christmas billboard at the New Jersey entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, threw a "counterpunch" at atheists Tuesday with a billboard of their own on the New York side of the tunnel.The new 26-by-24-foot billboard at Dyer Avenue and West 31st Street features a depiction of Joseph and Mary looking adoringly at baby Jesus, with the message: "You know it's real. This season, celebrate Jesus. Merry Christmas from the Catholic League," according to the Catholic League's website....

A group called American Atheists has posted a high-profile billboard in New York City's Times Square depicting Christianity as a “myth,” apparently mocking Jesus Christ on the cross. The group, which first launched its Christmas “myth” campaign in 2010, ramped up its campaign with a giant sign that features an image of Santa Claus, an equally large picture portraying a suffering Jesus on the cross, along with the phrase, “Keep the Merry — Dump the Myth!”David Silverman, president of the atheist club, claimed in a press release that his group thinks “a large population of Christians are actually 'atheists'...

I was asked by the Young Adult group in my parish to address some ads on our local buses and subway trains here in Washington. The members of the Young adult group found the ads offensive and troubling, especially since they were aimed at kids. The ads are posted by the American “Humanist” Association (AHA) and are indeed aimed at kids and teenagers. The focus of the message is “Kids without God: You’re not the only one.” I have altered the ad at the upper right of this post to avoid listing its website but as you can see God...

A reporter for a small Florida newspaper decided that he wanted to see if he could get the city of Chipley to remove its nativity scene from public property because he claims it is somehow against the US Constitution. There is that unbiased media we are so in love with, eh? Reporter” Randal Seyler of the Washington County News decided to try and use his position in the media to destroy a community nativity scene when he noticed that the decoration was put up at city hall. This biased, troublemaker ran to city hall and warned them he was going...

<p>SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. — Officials at Shaw Air Force Base are trying to determine what to do about a holiday display after a Nativity scene was taken down last week.</p> <p>Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Keavy (kev-EE) Rake said Tuesday a Nativity display was set up Friday by a group of volunteers from the base chapel at a small lake on the installation. The site was near where a tree lighting ceremony was scheduled Friday evening.</p>

There’s nothing like the holidays for laughing at anti-religious malcontents being driven to madness by the thought of Christians and Jews celebrating their faiths. Crosses, menorahs, happy people with satisfying personal lives – these things drive the militant atheists into a sputtering rage. Watching them fume is the gift that keeps on giving. Normal atheists just don’t believe in God, and those of us who do, figure that’s between them. They respect our religion and we respect their right to have no part of it. Sure, some religious folks talk to people about their faith, but it’s not clear why...

Imagine if an activist group blanketed a major city with 55 billboards urging that illegal aliens go back to their own country. Or that homosexuality is a crime against nature. Or that Muslims are responsible for most of the world’s terrorist attacks. The mainstream media would be all over the story. Organizations – like La Raza, like GLAAD, like CAIR – would organize protests. President Obama would publicly condemn the billboards (while defending illegals, homosexuals and Islam). And the sponsors of the billboards would be branded a “hate group.” Yet, there has been little outrage over the 55 billboards that...

Why do some atheists embarrass themselves year after year trying to eradicate Christmas from American culture? Why do they make themselves societal hemorrhoids during this hallowed season? Is it because they are crusaders for equality, secularism’s saviors and humanism’s heroes? I’m sure that’s what they tell themselves when they’re pouting on their couches all alone on Christmas Eve after every single one of their friends has dumped them for being a rabid jackass. I believe, however—and I could be wrong—that the reason some rage against the machine is that they hate God and love their sin, and bringing up Jesus...

Not long ago, I blogged about a movement led by British comedians Sanderson Jones and Pippa Evans to establish atheist “churches” across the globe. They’ve been on a world tour covering Great Britain, the U.S., and currently my homeland Australia, helping atheist groups establish “Sunday Assemblies”—basically, churches for atheists. (You can read my prior blog posts on these atheist churches at the following links: Atheist Church (Yes!) Now Meets on Sunday and Why Would They Do This?) Now, I’ve said before that the reason these atheists feel the need to establish some sort of church-like gathering is because they know...