Free Republic

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. "As I watched the inauguration, my stomach did a somersault with disgust for how much our country was violating the constitution (sic), the most important document in our country," wrote a 15-year-old in testimony being given to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The lawsuit was filed before President Obama's inauguration and subsequently was dismissed at the district court...

In God We Trust, a national political inter-faith advocacy group, has called on Sen. Barack Obama to condemn the message on a billboard in Denver, the site of next month’s Democratic National Convention. The billboard, alluding to a song by the late John Lennon of the Beatles, bears the message “Imagine No Religion” imprinted over what appears to be stained glass. It was paid for by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), which describes itself as a membership association of atheists and agnostics. According to a report in the Denver Post, the billboard will only stand through July and will...

Church-State Watchdog Group Says Board's Preference For Christianity Flouts First Amendment Of The Constitution Americans United for Separation of Church and State today filed a lawsuit in federal district court against a town council in New York that opens its public sessions with Christian prayer. Americans United sued the Greece, N.Y., Town Board and its supervisor, John Auberger, on behalf of two local residents who object to government-sponsored religious activities that favor one faith over others. The lawsuit alleges that almost all of the board’s opening prayers are explicitly Christian, and that since 2004, only a single non-Christian has been...

Not all atheists are supercilious, of course. Many are content to live and let live, and some even grant that religion (which, in America, basically means Christianity) does some good. But atheism as an organized, evangelizing movement has been on the offensive lately. Witness the "New Atheists" such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, with their aggressive stance against God and their bestselling books attempting to debunk religion. So, assuming you are a theist, what do you say to the atheist who asks, "You don't (chuckle) actually believe in God, do you (snicker)?" The natural response would be...

ANTI-CHURCH MOVIE REVIEW ‘NARNIA’ KNOCKOFF WAY OFF COURSE FIVE minutes before “The Golden Compass" started, I was wondering when it was going to start. Forty minutes into it, I was wondering exactly the same thing. “The Golden Compass," a sort of “The Empire Strikes Harry Potter of the Caribbean," only with giant polar bears wearing suits of armor and punching each other in the face, reminded me why I stopped reading sci-fi and fantasy when I was 15. It was the nouns. “Hark thee, my fair Stenerud, and wield well this ancient benirschke. Journeyest then to the plain of Septien,...

Years ago I had a series of debates with the literary scholar Stanley Fish. Our topic was political correctness. I portrayed Fish as the grand deconstructor of Western civilization, and he fired back in There’s No Such Thing As Free Speech, several chapters of which are an answer to my arguments. As I got to know Fish, however, I recognized that although he defended some of the practices being promoted in the name of multiculturalism and diversity, he was not himself a politically correct thinker. We became friends, and in 1992 he and his wife attended my wedding. Fish has...

Has the Sunday morning worship in some churches become an exclusively predictable feel-good entertainment experience? Do many services begin with good music and a brief feel-good scripture passage followed with a honey-coated three point feel-good fluff sermon, catered by the preacher, that is totally devoid of the anti-God issues that we face in our lives, community and nation as a body of Bible believing Christians? If so, then this is very distressing for that church. Where is the hard-hitting worship? If Americans respected God today, as they should, they wouldn’t distance themselves from God’s word. They wouldn’t be using their...

Congressman Duncan Hunter and other local officials will be on hand for the President's signing of the bill to transfer the cross to the federal government. President Bush is scheduled to sign the bill into law transferring the Mt. Soledad Cross and property on which is sets to the federal government. The U.S. Senate and House have voted to approve the bill sponsored by Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter, Brian Bilbray and Darrell Issa that was approved by the U.S. House earlier. On hand for Monday's signing ceremony will be Congressman Hunter, along with the attorney for the city who has...

A media company that produced a best-selling documentary asserting that Jesus Christ never existed today launches its "War on Easter," encouraging volunteer atheists to plant copies of the film "The God Who Wasn't There" in churches across the United States. Dubbing the effort "Operation Easter Sanity," Brian Flemming, a self-described "former Christian fundamentalist" and president of Beyond Belief Media, hopes to covertly place 666 copies of the documentary in churches by Easter Sunday, April 16. The number 666 is the biblical mark of "The Beast," which also is the name of another film by Flemming set for a 06-06-06 release....

A lawsuit against memorial crosses is set to be filed Thursday by a group that feels they violate the separation of church and state. Three Utah atheists, backed by a national organization based in Texas, are filing suit against the state for allowing crosses to be erected in honor of highway patrol troopers, who have died in the line of duty. Richard Andrews said, "I feel the same way a Jew might feel if you put a state symbol on a swastika" According to the UHP Association, a support group for troopers and their families, many fallen troopers' relatives consider...

Michael Newdow, who has already filed a suit to take "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance, is now suing to remove our national motto from our currency. Newdow told the ACLU of Oklahoma that the national motto on U.S. currency is a violation of the separation of church and state. He is offended because he is an atheist. He wants to use the Federal courts to make his atheism the official religion of America. Newdow filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which recently ruled that judges, not parents, have the final say in what will...

We all knew it was coming and here it is. Michael Newdow’s has officially announced his most recent attempt to remove God from the public square. Read More... Craig DeLuz Visit The Home of Uncommon Sense... www.craigdeluz.com

BEIJING (Reuters) - China, which bans its Catholics from recognising the Pope, has turned down a Vatican invitation to four Chinese bishops to go to Rome, saying it showed no respect.  Beijing has not had diplomatic ties with the Vatican since 1951, two years after the Communist takeover in China, and insists that relations cannot be resumed unless Rome severs links with self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own.  The four bishops invited to Rome were on a list of prelates from around the world that the Pope had named to be members of next month's synod, the Vatican...

At Cindy Sheehan's side since Aug. 6 when she began her anti-war protest outside President Bush's Texas ranch have been three groups that openly support the Iraqi insurgency against U.S. troops: Code Pink-Women For Peace, United for Peace & Justice, and Veterans For Peace. Those organizations were represented at a mock ''war crimes'' trial in Istanbul....

PRAYING for people who are facing heart surgery does not raise their chances of a cure or of avoiding death, according to an unusual study published in the British medical weekly The Lancet. US doctors enrolled 748 patients with coronary artery disease who were about to undergo cardiac or arterial treatment using a catheter, a technique that can be done under local anaesthetic and is less invasive than open surgery but still carries a risk. The patients were assigned to two groups of roughly equal numbers. The first group had prayers said for them at a distance by Christians, Muslims,...

In certain precincts of a world encouraged to embrace differences, Christ is out. The terms "B.C." and "A.D." increasingly are shunned by certain scholars. Educators and historians say schools have been changing the terms "Before Christ," or B.C., to "Before Common Era," or B.C.E., and "anno Domini" (Latin for "in the year of the Lord") to "Common Era." In short, they're referred to as B.C.E. and C.E. The new terms were introduced by academics in the 1990s in public elementary and high school classrooms. Candace de Russy, a national writer on education and Catholic issues and a trustee for SUNY,...

An effort to boost Christmas Tree recycling in Chicago has come under fire by atheists (search), who say it unfairly benefits Christians. Authorities planned to hand out a year's worth of blue recycling bags in exchange for one used tree, but atheist activist Rob Sherman says the program is inherently unfair to those without Christmas trees. Officials told him he could bring someone else's tree but Sherman complained that "Atheists shouldn't have to go begging from home to home for a Christian who will sponsor them." The city will now offer the blue bags to anyone who visits a tree...

Area atheists are planning to protest local Circuit Court Judge Ashley McKathan's "Ten Commandments robe" today, in front of the First Baptist Church in Opp. At noon today (Wednesday), former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore will be in attendance at a Rotarian meeting in the church's fellowship hall, where he has said he will publicly support McKathan's robe. Larry Darby, president of the Montgomery-based Atheist Law Center, organized the protest and has called for fellow atheists to join him to voice their non-support. "Our presence in Opp (Wednesday) is important because Alabama is receiving a lot of negative publicity at...

Science Gives Famous Atheist Faith in God. NEW YORK - A British philosophy professor who has been a leading champion of atheism for more than a half-century has changed his mind. He now believes in God, more or less, based on scientific evidence, and says so on a video released Thursday. At age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake, Antony Flew has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, Flew said in a...

Dear friends, GAMPAC, the GODLESS AMERICANS POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE, has endorsed Sen. John Kerry and Sen. John Edwards for President and Vice President of the United States. The November election is a crucial one for our nation, and in particular the First Amendment separation of government and religion. The winner will likely be in the position of naming key appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court and the rest of the federal judiciary. Other important legislative issues, as well as the fate of the faith-based initiative — a dangerous experiment aiding religious groups and imposing a “Religion Tax” on the American...

.S. District Judge Sim Lake ruled today that a Bible displayed in a monument outside the Harris County Civil Courts Building must be removed within 10 days and that the county must pay $41,000 in court costs and attorney fees. Real estate broker and attorney Kay Staley sued the county in federal court to have the monument removed, contending the display violates the First Amendment ban on an establishment of religion. The King James Bible rests under glass inside a 4-foot stone monument on the west side of the Civil Courthouse, 301 Fannin. The monument was constructed with private funds...

The Godless Americans Political Action Committee (GAMPAC) has formally endorsed John Kerry for President. The committee, that was formed in March, announced at a press conference that they represent nearly 30 million Americans that could translate into as many votes. Their website is: www.godlessamericans.org This endorsement of Kerry, by those who do not believe in God, and want to outlaw all references to God in public places, re-define marriage, make homosexuality the norm, advance a culture of vulgarity and kill all babies of inconvenience, [should not] come as a surprise. If elected, Kerry will fully represent them. Before this...

The atheists just had their day before the U.S. Supreme Court, but they are not in good spirits about it. Their attempt to strike "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance now looks like a legal boomerang. Michael Newdow, an emergency room physician with a law degree, a non-custodial parent of a 9-year-old daughter with an ax to grind with monotheistic religion, decided he wasn't happy about students at his daughter's school standing to say the pledge each morning. Newdow contends the words "under God" in the pledge violate his daughter's First Amendment rights because they constitute the establishment of...

U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday dismissed a suit brought by atheist activist Michael Newdow against the House and Senate chaplains, stating Newdow’s claim that he was injured by his observations of the Senate chaplain’s prayer was “insufficient.” The decision coincided with Newdow’s appearance before the Supreme Court in an unrelated high-profile case Wednesday. Newdow argued that his 9-year-old daughter’s recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, including the uttering “under God,” violates the constitutional separation of church and state. He is an ordained minister affiliated with the Universal Life Church and founder of the First Amendmist Church of...

Why has a reverent movie about Jesus Christ become one of the most controversial films in history? But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. — Isaiah 53:5 Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ begins with a black screen and the above-quoted passage of Holy Scripture from the prophet Isaiah. It ends with a scene of the resurrected Jesus Christ stepping from the tomb. In the two hours of film that run between those two bookends, writer-director-producer Mel...

Ellen Johnson, President of Godless Americans PAC, shares her comments: *snip* Here, in and around Washington, DC, every conceivable interest group has representation, a presence, a "seat at the table," so to speak. That phrase, incidentally, was often used by Ralph Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition. He lamented the supposed absence of political influence fundamentalist Christians exercised "inside the beltway," and he set out to change that state of affairs. He often said that the so-called "people of faith" simply wanted "a seat at the table in the great discussion called democracy." In fact, religious people of...

<p>Atheists and other nonbelievers set up a political action committee yesterday to endorse candidates and lobby lawmakers to remove all traces of religion from the government.</p> <p>But organizers acknowledged that they face a major problem.</p> <p>Most politicians won't want public support from their new group, which they are calling the Godless Americans Political Action Committee (GAMPAC).</p>

Press Release -- 8-March-2004 LAUNCH OF "GODLESS AMERICANS" PAC TOMORROW AT NATIONAL PRESS CLUB Tuesday, March 9, 2004 9:00 AM MEDIA INVITED The Godless Americans Political Action Committee (GAMPAC) will host a press conference on Tuesday, March 9, 2004 at 9:00 AM, the National Press Club in Washington, DC. GAMPAC grew out of the historic Godless Americans March on Washington (November, 2002) which brought to the nation's capital thousands of Atheists, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and other nonbelievers, for an unprecedented display of unity. GAMPAC will members of this diverse, secular community an alternative in having more of a voice in...

<p>SACRAMENTO, California (AP) --The girl at the center of a constitutional challenge to reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools won't be able to watch her father argue the case before the Supreme Court, a California judge has ruled.</p>

SAN FRANCISCO Feb. 23 — The atheist who persuaded a federal appeals court to strike down the Pledge of Allegiance because of the words "under God" lost a bid Monday to abolish prayer at presidential inaugurations. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Michael Newdow did not suffer "a sufficiently concrete and specific injury" to pursue his latest claim. Newdow is both an emergency room physician and a lawyer and has represented himself in the two legal actions. Newdow argued that the Rev. Franklin Graham's prayer at President Bush's 2001 inauguration was an unconstitutional endorsement...

(CNSNews.com) - American Atheists in Maryland said Friday they want the state to start removing roadside memorials; crosses, flowers and sometimes teddy bears that people leave next to highways where a loved one or family member has died in an automobile accident. The practice is repeated all over the country. While there are currently no petition drives or other widespread grassroots activities, Maryland atheists say they want state officials to be more proactive in the matter. "Our position basically is that we're against it (the memorials)," David Condo, Maryland state director for American Atheists, told CNSNews.com. "We don't think...

Not Such a Bright Idea: Atheists Try a New NameAlbert Mohler Daniel Dennett claims that atheism is getting a bad press. The world is filled with religious believers, he acknowledges, but a growing number of atheists lack the respect they deserve. It's time for a new public relations strategy for the godless, Dennett argues, and he has just the plan. The central point of Dennett's strategy is to get rid of the word "atheist." It's too, well, negative. After all, it identifies an individual by what he or she does not believe--in this case the individual does not believe...

Federal Judge Makes It Official -- America Now an Atheist Nation The issue isn't a granite stone with the Ten Commandments inscribed on it. Never has been. The issue is much more diverse and important than a piece of stone. The issue was best stated by none other than Federal Judge Myron Thompson, who said that the display of the stone containing the Ten Commandments (which also contains a host of other historical documents) is illegal. Thompson said the central, most important issue was this: "Can the state acknowledge God?" After asking the question, he went on to answer it....

Supreme Court Denies Judge Moore Plea For Stay; Midnight Removal Deadline Remains, Says People For the American Way 8/20/03 5:37:00 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National Desk, State Desk Contact: Peter Montgomery of People For the American Way, 202-467-4999 WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The U.S. Supreme Court today denied a last-minute plea by Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore to stay a federal court order requiring the removal of a massive Ten Commandments monument Moore installed in the rotunda of the state's judiciary building. The high court's decision not to intercede today does not necessarily indicate whether or not the...

Boy Scouts' use of Balboa Park land ruled unconstitutional Judge says use violates separation of church and state By Ray Huard UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER 2:29 p.m., July 31, 2003 The Boy Scouts' lease of public land in San Diego's Balboa Park is unconstitutional, a federal judge decided in a ruling released Thursday. U.S. District Judge Napoleon Jones Jr. said the Scouts' lease of the 18-acre Camp Balboa in Balboa Park violates provisions in the U.S. and state constitutions governing the separation of church and state. Jones said the Boy Scouts are a religious organization because the Scouts require members to...

How the media's reporting on the Religious Right keeps it from seeing the story of the Secular Left As a practicing Christian, a political conservative and a professional journalist, I've long been amazed at how ignorant and uncurious my mostly intelligent and urbane colleagues are about conservatives, especially religious conservatives. Many have looked at me--their friend, despite my Catholicism and Republican Party registration--with the same slack-jawed incomprehension as elderly Southerners when they step off the tour bus in London and hear a black man speaking with a crisp British accent (I’ve seen this, and it’s a hoot). People like me--religious...

BLUE HILL, Me. The time has come for us brights to come out of the closet. What is a bright? A bright is a person with a naturalist as opposed to a supernaturalist world view. We brights don't believe in ghosts or elves or the Easter Bunny — or God. We disagree about many things, and hold a variety of views about morality, politics and the meaning of life, but we share a disbelief in black magic — and life after death. The term "bright" is a recent coinage by two brights in Sacramento, Calif., who thought our social group...

This Isn't a Good Sign Hillary Clinton's Senate Web page features a photo (scroll down to the second pic under "Senator Clinton's Latest Events") captioned: "Senator Clinton speaks at a press conference calling on the Senate to pass Hate Crimes legislation." In the background members of the crowd hold signs reading STOP HATE CRIMES and others with a giant equal sign. But look at the green sign at about 11 o'clock; it appears to read RELIGION IS IMMORAL. In case Clinton's office takes the photo down, we've put a copy here. Picture Here

Maybe you’ve cruised past the church marquee in the middle of a sweltering summer afternoon that read: YOU THINK IT’S HOT HERE? For some reason, making light of such a heavy topic just doesn’t seem right to me — though of course I know what they’re trying to accomplish. Hell. It’s not a popular subject these days. No one wants to talk about it, much less go there. I have a friend who actually wrote a full-blown, hardback book on hell. Needless to say, it wasn’t a bestseller! Part of me wants to forget I ever heard the word. I...

<p>Tony Blair is a hero of the liberation of Iraq, but a British prime minister who confronts Islamist terror abroad has to watch himself with his atheists at home.</p> <p>Mr. Blair is in a spot of trouble for trying to be nice to God. No Churchillian gestures allowed.</p>

(CNSNews.com) - Veterans and atheists are converging on Montgomery, Ala. Monday, hoping to rally their respective supporters over the display of the Ten Commandments at the state courthouse. The group American Veterans In Domestic Defense (AVIDD) and the Alabama chapter of the American Atheists are planning competing rallies in support of and opposition to Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's appeal of a federal court ruling that ordered Moore to remove the monument within 30 days. A week before the Dec. 18 deadline, Moore filed his appeal, noting in a statement that federal courts cannot "prohibit the acknowledgment of God that...

A "Godless America" By Bill Mosley Although there has been a surge in religion since the 9/11 bombing of the World Trade Center, the swell is not nearly so great in true Christianity. The impact of that horrible act of terrorism indeed did drive true believers in Christ to their knees in prayer. Not only for themselves but in behalf of the suffering, sorrow, and sadness that filled hearts that day. Hearts remain broken and lives forever changed as a result of the action of a nation without the true God. It also stirred the "religious" to turn to what...

We Need Republicans Here to Give OUR Perspective, The Environmentalists want Ground Zero to be a Park and the Atheists want no mention of God on the Memorial. On Saturday, July 20, 2002, New Yorkers will come together to shape the future of Lower Manhattan.This historic gathering - called "Listening to the City" - will give 5,000 participants an opportunity to consider plans for the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan and the creation of a permanent memorial to the victims of 9/11.Using the latest in modern technology, participants will have the opportunity to voice their opinions on critical issues and vote...