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Pope Francis says God opens heaven's doors to non-believers who "obey their conscience," shattering a widely-held assumption about Christian beliefs and reinforcing his image as the most progressive pontiff in history. "You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don't believe and who don't seek the faith," Francis wrote Friday in an open letter published in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. Francis was responding to questions from the paper's 91-year-old founder Eugenio Scalfari, reports Britain's The Independent.

Once upon a time in a galaxy right here and now the Creator God who made it all decided that although his man children had become nasty pieces of work (consult your local headlines) He loved these fallen creatures enough to try and give them a last chance at the really good stuff called the afterlife (or heaven). So He sent His Son (who was also Him) down to Earth to give His life for them, and all they had to do was believe that the Father God loved them enough to do such an outrageous thing, and then they...

Atheism is cool. At least, that's the popular perception of a worldview that's enjoyed a rebrand and a renaissance in the last couple of decades. Authors like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens have issued forceful public challenges to the claims of the major faiths and the rights they've traditionally been granted, while well-respected and high-profile public figures have lent vocal support to their ideas. When Stephen Fry outlined an atheist (or even anti-theist) position on an Irish talk show, the interview went viral in hours, while comedian Ricky Gervais frequently uses his substantial platform to attack and undermine religion in...

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. -- A prominent professing atheist group is seeking to put an end a Tennessee police department's "Adopt a Cop" program, which invites local residents to pray for members of the city's police force. The Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation sent a letter on Tuesday to the Johnson City Police Department to object to the program. The initiative involves assigning an officer to those who sign up for the effort, who in turn promise to pray daily for the officer's safety and well-being, as well as to send him or her a word of encouragement.

MUSLIM students repeatedly disrupted a lecture on blasphemy given by a human rights activist with one making a death threat, it has been claimed. Maryam Namazie was giving a lecture on blasphemy at the Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society (ASH), of Goldsmiths in London. Her talk was repeatedly disrupted by members of the university's Islamic Society (ISOC) with hecklers shouting and turning off her Powerpoint presentation when she showed a cartoon of Jesus and the prophet Muhammad. One member of the audience also claimed he received a death threat during Ms Namazie's talk.

Protesters from the Goldsmiths University Islamic Society have heckled and aggressively disrupted a talk from ex-Muslim and feminist campaigner Maryam Namazie. Ms Namazie was giving a speech on blasphemy and apostasy at the invitation of the Atheist, Secularist and Humanist Society at Goldsmiths University when several men from the Goldsmiths Islamic Society (ISOC) arrived and started disrupting the event. The night before the event the president of the Islamic Society wrote to the ASH society saying "we feel extremely uncomfortable by the fact that you have invited Maryam Namazie. As you very well probably know, she is renowned for being...

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...

Atheists Blast Ted Cruz's Response When Asked How Important It Is for a President to 'Fear God' Atheists are decrying Ted Cruz’s recent claim that any president who does not pray to God each day is unfit to serve as commander-in-chief.The Center for Freethought Equality, a secular lobbying group, released a statement on Monday condemning the Texas senator and Republican presidential candidate over a response that he gave to a question at the National Religious Liberties Conference in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday.Cruz, who was asked how important he believes it is for “the president of the United States to...

Americans with no religious affiliation have supplanted Catholics as the largest such group in the Democratic Party, according to a new Pew Research study set to be released on Tuesday. “Nones,” as the religiously unaffiliated are called, make up 28% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning adults, Pew’s Religious Landscape Survey found, compared with 19% in 2007, the last time it studied the issue. Christians overall still make up a majority of the Democratic Party, 63%. Catholics comprised 21% of the party as of 2014, down from 24% in 2007, the Pew study concluded. Evangelicals remain by far the largest single religious...

CHILDRESS, Texas (KETK) A Texas police chief is garnering national attention after responding to the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Childress Police Chief Adrian Garcia posted to his department's Facebook page, he received a letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, "demanding we remove the 'In God we trust' off our patrol units." He responded with the following letter: "After carefully reading your letter I must deny your request in the removal of our Nations motto from our patrol units, and ask that you and the Freedom From Religion Foundation go fly a kite." He posted his response to the department's...

We’ve often reported here on the efforts of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FRFF) to remove all vestiges of “religious” symbols in public places – and by religious, it’s really only the Christian religion they object to. Their actions extend to public schools, military facilities and public offices. Most recently, FFRFF has drawn a red line in the sand in Breathitt County, Kentucky. Jesus must go. For some time, the FRFF has been trying to get a picture of Jesus removed from the courthouse. There’s just one little problem. FRFF can’t find anyone in Breathitt County to act as their...

There’s been a series of violent murders of Bangladeshi internet bloggers, accused of being atheists by Islamist groups—with four killed so far this year. […] Bonya Ahmed is herself a writer and was also married to perhaps the most famous atheist killed this year, Avijit Roy—the moderator of a popular online blog called “Free Thinking,” which defended secular and humanist ideas. She and her husband were attacked together in February. Bonya lost fingers and was scarred, but lived. Her husband was hacked to death with machetes in a manner that followed the same gruesome pattern of later killings. They had...

A police department in a Texas Bible Belt community has placed large “In God We Trust” decals on its patrol vehicles in response to recent violence against law enforcement officers, drawing criticism from a watchdog group that says the decals amount to an illegal government endorsement of religion. The decision by police this month to unveil the phrase in Childress, an agricultural community of some 6,100 people at the southern edge of the Texas Panhandle, follows a similar move by dozens of other police agencies elsewhere in the country. […] … (O)f the dozens of complaints about the decals lodged...

Religous conservatives aren't going quietly into the night, Americans United's Barry Lynn tells Salon.Because non-politicians like Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson have garnered the most attention during the GOP presidential primary thus far, another distinctive feature of this cycle’s batch of candidates has gone relatively unnoticed. For all the talk and hype about the GOP modernizing and learning the lessons of the George W. Bush era — and for all the breathless speculation about the millennial generation and how it demands of politicians a different approach — the religious right’s presence within the party remains formidable. The aforementioned...

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...

A Missouri sheriff has slapped “In God We Trust” decals on patrol cars saying “there is no better time than now” to be displaying the national motto. Sheriff Doug Rader of Stone County in the Ozarks said he was proud to announce that the decals are now on the back of department vehicles, but not everyone is pleased, Fox2Now reports. “Very simple and ill state for the record, I’m not offended that these decals exist, IT’S INAPPROPRIATE TO HAVE THEM ON GOVERNMENT PROPERTY. No voting required, it’s a violation of church and state. You are showing preference to a...

Jeff Schweitzer heralded the discovery of an apparent Earth-like planet as a nail in the coffin for religion in a Thursday item on Huffington Post. Schweitzer, a scientist, "rationalist," and former Clinton administration senior policy analyst contended that "with this discovery, we come ever closer to the idea that life is common in the universe," and added that religions would "all will come out and say such a discovery is completely consistent with religious teachings. My goal here is to declare this as nonsense before it happens."The Huffington Post contributor led his article, "Earth 2.0: Bad News for God," by...

Group sought to convince Republicans that their rhetoric was pushing away atheist voters.AMES — As they arrived at an all-day cattle call of conservative presidential hopefuls, Christian conservatives were greeted by demonstrators from the Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers who sought to convince Republicans that the party’s rhetoric was pushing atheists away as voters. “They’re telling me they don’t want me in their party,” said John Fruetel, of Newton, who was part of a protest outside of Stephens Auditorium in Ames where more than 2,500 people were arriving to hear from the 2016 GOP candidates at the 2015 Family Leadership Summit....

Title shortened because of space limitation. Complete title: Christian Colleges' Right to Deny Married Housing for Gay Couples Is 'on the Edge of the Indefensible,' Barry Lynn Asserts WASHINGTON — Americans United for Separation of Church and State announced Monday the launch of an "aggressive" initiative to combat any state or federal legislation, or court ruling seeking to protect religious objectors of same-sex marriage from government consequence for living according to their religious convictions. The organization, which advocates a strict separation view of the religious freedom clauses of the First Amendment, has started the "Protect Thy Neighbor" project, which will...

In a nation that based its Declaration of Independence on the principle that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights,” a record 58 percent now say they would vote to elect “a generally well-qualified” atheist as president if their political party nominated such a person. In a poll conducted June 2-7, Gallup asked 771 adults living in the United States this question: “Between now and the 2016 political conventions, there will be discussion about the qualifications of presidential candidates—their education, age, religion, race, and so on. If your party nominated a generally well-qualified person for president...