Free Republic

A public school district in Oklahoma has agreed to stop allowing for the distribution of Bibles following threatened legal action from an atheist organization. Duncan Public Schools sent a letter to the American Humanist Association in response to a complaint leveled against an elementary school teacher who distributed several Gideon Bibles to her students. Scott W. Stone, legal counsel for Duncan Schools, explained to the AHA's legal arm the Appignani Humanist Legal Center that actions were being taken in response to their complaint. "All teachers and administrators in the district are being advised that they are not permitted to distribute...

Yesterday, humorist Andy Borowitz published a piece at the New Yorker with the headline “Cruz’s Constant References to Jesus Drive Millions to Atheism“: The Republican Presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s constant references to Jesus Christ in his speeches and campaign ads are sparking a strong interest in atheism among millions of Americans, atheist leaders report. … “It’s been amazing,” [executive director of the American Society of Atheists Carol] Foyler said. “We’re getting calls from people who are curious about atheism for the first time in their lives. And when we ask them what got them thinking about it, they all say...

Those who don’t believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, but do profess an overwhelming belief in the constitutional separation of church and state, may soon have to round up their lawyers and head to Arkansas under the banner of the organization known as American Atheists, Inc. Arkansas state politicians have approved legislation to build a Ten Commandments monument, which would be paid for with private donations, on the grounds of their state Capitol in Little Rock. American Atheists, Inc. does not have a problem with the Ten Commandments or building monuments, per se, to immortalize the basic...

Who Are the Atheists? [excerpts] For reporting purposes at Barna, we often combine atheists and agnostics into one group, which we call skeptics. Skeptics either do not believe God exists (atheists) or are not sure God exists, but are open to the possibility (agnostics). Skeptics represent one-quarter of all unchurched adults (25%). Nearly one-third of skeptics have never attended a Christian church service in their lives (31%). That’s nearly double the proportion of “virgin unchurched” who are not skeptics (17%)... Five Demographic Shifts among Skeptics They are younger. Skeptics today are, on average, younger than in the past. Twenty years...

11 silly things that some atheists say. February 27, 2015 · by James Bishop · in Articles, Atheism. · Introduction: The atheist that this blog article is briefly referring to is the fundamentalist head-in-the-sand, fingers-in-their-ears type, which contrary to atheism makes up the majority of the religion hating New Atheists. My last point, point 11, addresses Stephen Hawking but I want to make it clear that I do not view him as a fundamentalist atheist like Richard Dawkins, or Sam Harris would be. Although I, alongside many, disagree with Hawking and his conclusions, I don’t take anything away from his...

Eastern Michigan University students taped their mouths shut in a silent protest Thursday. The students wrote #ChapelHillShooting across the tape in honor of the deaths of three students from the University of North Carolina. Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, were Muslim-American students at the University of North Carolina. They were shot Tuesday, Feb. 10, by their neighbor, Craig Steven Hicks, 46. The Chapel Hill police released a statement Tuesday evening citing a parking dispute as Hicks’s motivation. EMU Junior Layali Alsada and senior Zaeem Zafar created a flyer...

Atheist Richard Dawkins has declared, "The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good. Nothing but blind pitiless indifference. ... DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is, and we dance to its music." But Dawkins doesn't act like he actually believes that. He recently affirmed a woman has the right to choose an abortion and asserted that it would be "immoral" to give birth to a baby with Down syndrome. According to Dawkins, the "right to choose" is a good thing and...

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is trying to “improve the image of atheists.” Never mind much of their “image” problem is self-inflicted. When it was proposed that a piece of leftover rubble, that many believe resembled a cross, be included as a part of the World Trade Center Memorial, the American Atheists organization released a statement saying, “The WTC cross has become a Christian icon. It has been blessed by so-called holy men and presented as a reminder that their god, who couldn’t be bothered to stop the Muslim terrorists or prevent 3,000 people from being killed in his name,...

Amid mounting pressure from both atheist groups and concerned parents, Orange County (Fla.) Public Schools have banned Bible distribution in several area high schools after Satanists and an anti-religion group announced plans to pass out their own literature. One of the largest school systems in the country with more than 180,000 students, OCPS had allowed World Changers of Florida, a Christian group, in conjunction with the Florida Family Policy Council to passively distribute Bibles to high school students on Jan. 16—which is National Freedom of Religion Day—for the past three years. Under the school system’s policy at the time, Bibles...

KING, N.C. – Effective immediately, all religious symbols at the veterans memorial in King have been removed as part of a settlement with Steven Hewett, a man who sued the city claiming his constitutional rights were being violated because of a Christian flag flown at the memorial and the inclusion of a cross as part of a statue honoring veterans. The decision was made at Tuesday night’s city council meeting. The city council also repealed a 2010 law establishing a flag lottery that allowed flags of any religious denomination to be flown at the memorial.

The Secular Coalition for America asked members of Congress to reject using religious texts such as the Bible or Torah to swear into office Tuesday, urging them to instead use the Constitution — or nothing at all. “By taking the oath of office on the Constitution, senators will demonstrate their commitment to our secular government, the laws that they’re affirming to uphold, and the people they were elected to represent,” said the coalition, which bills itself as a group of atheists, agnostics and humanists who are fighting against religious influences in politics. All members of the House and more than...

<p>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida's Capitol has displayed a Pabst Blue Ribbon Festivus pole, atheist banners and even a tribute to the Flying Spaghetti Monster. But a display showing an angel falling into flames with the message "Happy Holidays from the Satanic Temple" was too much for one woman.</p>

How’s this for an explanation of Santa Claus: Santa and Mrs. Claus have a twelve-thousand square foot mansion at the North Pole, heated by geothermal power.  The North Pole complex boasts an electrical generation system which directly extracts unlimited electricity from the Earth’s magnetic field for lights and equipment.  Santa’s workshop maintains two million square feet of warehouse space (reaching 30 stories underground with a cubic volume well exceeding Amazon.com’s North American 17 million square foot capacity) and an advanced production facility that combines robotics with elf-based manufacturing. The entire facility is hidden beneath the Arctic Ocean, under almost 14,000...

When one lady asked for volunteers to join her at a Rivertown Mall in Grandville, Michigan, to sing "Amazing Grace," 250 people responded with RSVPs, and over 1,000 showed up at the mall. What makes this different from other "flash mobs" is that the lyrics were given out in a high-quality gospel tract form (so that anyone could join in with the singing). "Fortunately the singing at the Rivertown Mall was video-taped, and it brought tears to my eyes," says Ray Comfort, who came up with the idea. "In the clip you can see people holding the tracts as they...

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, one of the largest secular groups in America, announced it is erecting 11 different billboards across Chicago this week with various messages. Some of the ads ask people to "think for (themselves)," while others argue that kindness "comes from altruism" and not from "seeking divine reward." "Research shows that atheists and other nonbelievers remain at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to social acceptance. One reason for that is that even though at least 20% of the population today is nonreligious in the United States, many Americans have never knowingly met an...

The Army has disciplined a military chaplain for making references to the Bible during a suicide-prevention seminar last month.A serviceman brought the Judeo-Christian religious content to the attention of an atheist group, which complained about it. Now, the chaplain is fighting back, maintaining he did nothing wrong. The dispute has renewed a debate over the appropriate role of faith in the military.The chaplain, Capt. Joe Lawhorn, conducted the training session on suicide prevention Nov. 20 at the University of North Georgia. During the session, he shared his personal struggles with depression while an Army Ranger.What upset the atheist group is that...

An Oklahoma school district is reportedly walking back plans to begin offering students an elective course on the Bible after facing pressure from a major atheist group. The class, called “The Book: The Bible’s History, Narrative and Impact,” was developed, in part, by Hobby Lobby president Steve Green, and it was set to launch in Mustang Public Schools, Raw Story reported. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) said on its website Tuesday that the district canceled the class after Hobby Lobby allegedly did not provide the district with the final curriculum for approval and did not “commit to providing legal...

(Statement of William J. Murray first released in 1999) My mother, brother and daughter were murdered by fellow atheists. There is no getting around the evidence. For almost three years the national atheist organization my mother once led has claimed she left the country with a large amount of money. This was false and I will tell you in this letter why they told this lie over and over again. First, I want to talk to you about spiritual matters that the general media does not understand. My mother was not just Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the atheist leader. She was...

SALEM, Mass. – A video showing a little girl with pigtails screaming at a street preacher to ‘shut up’ as she relentlessly mocked him and his message of redemption through Jesus Christ has gone viral. The video posted on Live Leak, which has been viewed more than 250,000 times, shows a child approaching Austin Coppock, who had been preaching on Salem’s busy Essex Street pedestrian mall during the city’s annual Halloween celebration. Salem, which is also known as “The Witch City” and where police uniforms and patrol cars are even marked with the slogan and an image of a witch...

Democrats love to dog-whistle how the Republicans are the party of the one-percenters.  Projection of your own agenda onto others is the hallmark of an insecure soul; the false bravado, nervous laughter and deflecting conversation—“this is just a normal midterm swing”—marks the Democrats stunned awakening to truth.  Yeah, a midterm swing.  Democrats, just keep on saying that, and maybe even you’ll believe it. The one-percenter accusation applies all right, but not to the Republicans.  It’s the Democrats who have been co-opted by the far-Left fringe promoting the one-percent.  Look at all the battles we conservatives have been fighting for years: ...