Free Republic

Chesterton is perhaps the most articulate twentieth century practitioner of this Christian paradoxical imagination. He judges that a serious breakdown of the fundamental moral suppositions deposited by biblical faith and the classical tradition is underway and accelerating. He believes that this declension is due to a loss of conviction in our culture about the reality of the Incarnation, that God truly became a human being in Jesus Christ with all the import that that has for human existence. For Chesterton, the doctrine of the Incarnation is the hinge that holds together what is, for the Christian, a vision of the...

Over the past few years, evangelical atheists have switched places with fire-and-brimstone Christians: where once it was the Christians who brooked no disagreement, now it is the atheists; and it is the atheists, too, who perform cartwheels on the heads of pins. Christopher Hitchens once even managed to argue of the Reverend Martin Luther King, of all people, that ‘In no real as opposed to nominal sense . . . was he a Christian’. A weaselly self-righteousness is now the hallmark of the celebrity unbeliever. Meanwhile, it is the Christian who nods diligently in any discussion, taking pains to reassure the atheists...

Whittaker Chambers and Totalitarian Islam Playwright David Mamet recently acknowledged that he had been profoundly influenced by Communist apostate Whittaker Chambers’s 1952 anti-Communist memoir, Witness. Mamet described how reading Chambers’s opus inspired “the wrenching experience� of forcibly reevaluating the way he thought, particularly his confessed leftist-herd co-dependence. Also, echoing the delusive herd mentality of the Left’s ad hominem attacks in the 1950s on Chambers — whose allegations of Communist conspiracies have been entirely vindicated with irrefragable documentation from the captured Soviet Venona cables — Congressman Peter King’s staid initial hearings of March 10, 2011, on American Muslim radicalization engendered similarly...

Why has the American society changed so drastically in the past few decades? How did the feminist movement get started? How did Obama get elected? Why are there so many single parent families? Where is God?

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...

The American Humanist Association is promoting a new Web site that is designed to furnish children with a naturalistic or atheistic perspective on science, sexuality, and other topics. The stated goal of the Web site is laudatory: “to encourage curiosity, critical thinking, and tolerance among young people, as well as to provide accurate information regarding a wide range of issues related to humanism, science, culture, and history.” The problem is that those values have no inherent connection with naturalism, which is a philosophical viewpoint that holds that there is nothing beyond the physical contents of the universe. One doesn’t need...

The truth is a hard thing to hear and even a more bitter pill to swallow. But until we face the truth, we are doomed to sink lower into the abyss as a society. The truth is that a godless nation is a nation doomed to fall. We as a nation have slowly accepted and pompously come to believe that wisdom begins and stems from us. Secularism is the view that all things religious should be excluded from daily public living, specifically pertaining to political and social concerns. Thanks to secularism, the mindset today is that God and religious opinion...

In Ghana, where deeply held religious beliefs unite much of the population, a new group has formed around a shared disbelief in religion. The Humanist Association of Ghana practices a philosophy that is mostly unheard of in Ghana, which a recent survey ranked as the most religious country in the world. Nonetheless, the group has already made waves in West Africa. Last weekend, the association hosted humanists from across the region for a conference in the capital Accra, where attendees listened as speakers discussed the impact humanists could make on West African society. Lecturers talked about how humanists can stand...

The upcoming elections aren’t about Republican vs. Democrat; conservative vs. liberal; Romney vs. Obama. Not entirely, at least. They’re much bigger than all that. November signifies nothing new. It’s a microcosm of a much greater struggle – one that predates mankind. These elections are about truth vs. lies; light vs. darkness; good vs. evil. Ultimately, November represents a high point – or a low point if you prefer – in the epic clash between diametrically opposed and fundamentally incompatible worldviews. On the one hand, we have the Judeo-Christian worldview. It is both informed by and fully acknowledges absolute truth as...

A veteran’s memorial in the form of a “peace cross” in Bladensburg, Md., has come under criticism by the American Humanist Association, which has said the memorial is a “religious symbol” on public land and that the government “should not be in the business of promoting religion.” “This cross amounts to an unconstitutional government endorsement of Christianity on public land. It is an exclusively Christian symbol that does not represent the sacrifice of non-Christian soldiers. Its prominent presence on public land leaves any observer with the notion that Christianity is exclusively favored and promoted by the government, said Bill Burgess,...

According to Catholic faith, every sin can be forgiven during life because of God’s surpassing love (DS 349). However, the Scriptures speak of sins that cannot be forgiven in the sense that they constitute a terrible offense against the truth and the light, against the Holy Spirit (Mt 12: 31-32; 1 Jn 5:16). In speaking of sin this way, the Scriptures refer to a sin more radical than most mortal sins, for it is a sin whose nature blocks forgiveness. Since the time of Saint Augustine, theologians have provided us with a list of sins against the Holy Spirit, proceeding...

Kids at Soule Road School in Wilbraham, MA ate green veggies and wore green today but, begorra, under no circumstances were they celebrating St. Patrick’s Day! Instead, it was “Happy O’Green Day.” “Inclusive and diverse,” and to “ease any discomfort that may go along with celebrating St. Patrick’s Day” was the (non) reasoning behind the name change, according to principal Lisa Curtain. “Not so,” says the more diplomatic school superintendent, M. Michael O’Shea who undoubtedly has his share of Irish ancestry.

Kids at Soule Road School in Wilbraham, MA ate green veggies and wore green today but, begorra, under no circumstances were they celebrating St. Patrick’s Day! Instead, it was “Happy O’Green Day.” “Inclusive and diverse,” and to “ease any discomfort that may go along with celebrating St. Patrick’s Day” was the (non) reasoning behind the name change, according to principal Lisa Curtain. “Not so,” says the more diplomatic school superintendent, M. Michael O’Shea who undoubtedly has his share of Irish ancestry. “Soule Road has not changed the name of St. Patrick’s Day. St. Patrick’s Day is on the Soule Road...

And Moses gathered all the congregation of the Children of Israel and he said to them: These are the things that G-d commanded to do them. For six days you shall work and on the seventh day, it will be holy for you, a Shabbat of Shabbats for G-d, whoever does work on it will be put to death. You shall not burn fire in your dwellings on the day of Shabbat. (From this week's Torah portion, Vayakhel, Exodus 35: 1-3) The commandment to observe the Shabbat is often woven together with the commandments of the Temple. What is the...

Featured Term (selected at random):HUMANISM Name originally given to the intellectual, literary, and scientific movements of the fourteenth century through the early sixteenth. Their aim was to base every branch of learning on the culture of classical Greek and Roman antiquity. On its pagan side, it extolled the early non-Christian writers who stressed the full development of human nature, only vaguely interested in life after death. On its Christian side, believing humanists encouraged the free use of the treasures of antiquity without compromising the truths of the Gospel. Christian humanism began with Dante (1265-1321), while pagan humanism reached its peak...

Comparing Christianity and the New Paganism The most serious challenge for Christianity today isn't one of the other great religions of the world, such as Islam or Buddhism. Nor is it simple atheism, which has no depth, no mass appeal, no staying power. Rather, it's a religion most of us think is dead. That religion is paganism — and it is very much alive. Paganism is simply the natural gravity of the human spirit, the line of least resistance, religion in its fallen state. The "old" paganism came from the country. Indeed, the very word "paganism" comes from the Latin...

A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers.The study found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation.The team's mathematical model attempts to account for the interplay between the number of religious respondents and the social motives behind being one.The result, reported at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, indicates that religion will all but die out altogether in those countries.The team took census data stretching back as far as a century from countries in which the census queried religious affiliation: Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic,...

More than eighty years ago, America began moving away from its' founding Biblical-based worldview to what President Calvin Coolidge identified as "pagan materialism." Fearing for the future of our Constitutional Republic he said in a speech delivered on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 5, 1926: "Democracy is Christ's government in church and state," said Coolidge as he quoted John Wise (1710). "Here was the doctrine of equality, popular sovereignty, and the substance of the theory of inalienable rights....When we take all these circumstances into consideration, it is but natural that the first paragraph of the Declaration...

And Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh; and he said to them: 'Go, serve Hashem your God; who exactly is going?' (From this week's Torah portion, Bo, Exodus 10:8) The real issue debated in the exchange between Pharaoh, Moses and Aaron is Pharaoh's political/theological status. "The river is mine and I made myself," says Pharaoh, according to the Midrash. Modern man has repeated this statement in varying forms, many times over. I am the focal point of creation, it is my will that determines what will be and everything else is simply a narrative or other post-modern postulation....

The Lehigh Valley Humanists — an 18-month-old group of rationalists, agnostics and atheists — is bringing the so-called "anti-Claus" to speak about the sacred and secular meanings of Christmas at the Allentown Brew Works this weekend. His name is Tom Flynn. Best-known as the author of a book called "The Trouble With Christmas," he has spent nearly two decades lecturing on why the holiday celebration ought to be tamed for the sake of non-Christians who resent the annual full-scale assault of cheer. "The bloated feast demands the sacrifice of 36 million trees and causes almost 80,000 tons of discarded wrapping...

The 19th century was the nursery for contemporary politics. Every form of modern political activity -- fascism, communism, socialism, liberalism -- has its roots in that epoch. (Yes, I'm fully aware of such figures as Locke, Burke, Madison, and Jefferson, but their work was hijacked and twisted all out of recognition, in large part by French revolutionaries and assorted German academics. Edmund Burke was so appalled by this that, having invented modern liberalism, he turned around and invented modern conservatism.) Anything coming out of the 19th century is going to be imbued with rationalism, the dominant intellectual credo of the...

Another Columbus day has come and gone and those who resent Western Civilisation have used the occasion to try to shame us into a state of collective guilt for being happy about the discovery of the New World. Tongue in cheek indeed, they mockingly say that the way to celebrate the day Columbus set foot on an island in the Caribbean, would be to take someone else’s house, or to give them a case of smallpox. There are many who are even calling for October 11 to become a national day of mourning for what Europeans have done to indigenous...

And all the earth was of one language and one speech. (From this week's Torah portion, Noach, Genesis 11:1) It is impossible not to draw parallels between the opening of the story of the Tower of Babel and the modern global village. Once again, the entire world is of one language and one speech. Everyone is connected to everyone, speaking to everyone and at least in the Western world, everyone is motivated by the same ideas. Ultimately, this uniformity leads to a war against the Creator and to the re-scattering of humanity. We are at the threshold of a new...

Seniors at a New Haven, Conn., high school will not be graduating “in the year of our Lord” this year – or any future years, according to the superintendent of schools. The school district has removed the traditional phrase from high school diplomas after someone complained. “It’s a religious thing,” Superintendent Reginald Mayo told the New Haven Register. “I’m surprised it took this long for someone to notice it. We certainly don’t want to offend anyone.” Last year, former alderwoman Ina Silverman filed a complaint about “in the year of our Lord" when her daughter was a student at Wilbur...

Pico della Mirandola was a thinker who lived in 15th century Florence. The notion of the world he nurtured was somewhat differing to the one we favor today. Not to speak of the ideas of the unforgiving clerics of that time. Despite this, Pico della Mirandola's ideas on the image of man are relevant. This is how educated inhabitants of Renaissance Florence interpreted God's one and only message to man: ``We have given you, O Adam, no visage proper to yourself, nor endowment properly your own, in order that whatever place, whatever form, whatever gifts you may, with premeditation, select,...

One week before the most solemn day in the Christian year, the city of Davenport, Iowa removed Good Friday from its municipal calendar, setting off a storm of complaints from Christians and union members whose contracts give them that day off. Taking a recommendation by the Davenport Civil Rights Commission to change the holiday's name to something more ecumenical, City Administrator Craig Malin sent a memo to municipal employees announcing Good Friday would officially be known as "Spring Holiday." "My phone has been ringing off the hook since Saturday," said city council alderman Bill Edmond. "People are genuinely upset because...

A 10-minute historical look at one of the most enduring theological debates within the Christian religion. The scholars in the video make a case for how and why Arminianism (Free Will theology) is the root of the vast liberalism we see in the professing church today (and arguably the liberalism we see in the greater Western culture and modern world.)

Even though the Bible was completed 2,000 years ago, long before the invention of the microscope, the telescope, satellites, etc. it does not contain any scientific errors. This might be considered a miracle in itself. Without exception, every ancient religious writing has certain unscientific views of astronomy, medicine, hygiene, etc. The Qur’an says in Surah 18:86 that the sun sets in a muddy spring. Qur’an 18:86 “…when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring” The only exception to these kinds of errors, among ancient religious writings, is the Bible. Not only is...

The American Humanist Association is expanding its “Godless Holiday� advertising campaign to five major American cities this Christmas -- taking its message of a holiday season without religion nationwide for the first time. The ads read: “No God -- no problem! Be good for goodness’ sake. Humanism is the idea that you can be good without a belief in God� and feature several people in red and white Santa hats. The new ads come on the heels of an AHA campaign last year which asked “Why believe in a God?� and featured ads on public transit in Washington, D.C. Previously,...

There are only 35 shopping days left until Christmas. I'm keenly aware of this primarily because of those overcaffeinated Glee-show-choir-in-red-white-and-blue-alpine-sweaters-and-ear-flaps-making-high school-cheerleading-pyramids Gap ads that started running about a week ago. You know, the ones where they chant a little ditty titled, annoyingly, "Happy Dowhateveryouwannukah." "Go Christmas! Go Hannukah! Go Kwanzaa! Go Solstice!" the exceptionally good-looking, multicultural, skinny-jeans-clad cheerbots shout. "You 86 the rules, you do what just feels right," they cheer, before entreating us to "do whatever [we] wannukkah" this ambiguous winter holiday season. Their jangly dance number ends by wishing us "a cheery night." How festive, you say? Meh....

The role of religion in public life in Sweden has been brought into sharp relief by a provocative ad campaign questioning the existence of God. Earlier this week, billboards went up in several Stockholm subway stations and elsewhere around the city proclaiming, “God probably doesn’t exist” (Gud finns nog inte). Accompanying the proclamation are images of three flags featuring symbols from Judaism, Islam, and Christianity fashioned in the same shades of blue and yellow found on the Swedish flag. The ads come from the Swedish Humanist Association (Humanisterna), and are part of a campaign to further debate about the impact...

Why not legalize same-sex marriage? Who could it possibly hurt? Children and the rest of society. That’s the conclusion of David Blankenhorn, who is anything but an anti-gay “bigot.” He is a life-long, pro-gay, liberal democrat who disagrees with the Bible’s prohibitions against homosexual behavior. Despite this, Blankenhorn makes a powerful case against Same-Sex marriage in his book, The Future of Marriage. He writes, “Across history and cultures . . . marriage’s single most fundamental idea is that every child needs a mother and a father. Changing marriage to accommodate same-sex couples would nullify this principle in culture and in...

Dangerous Turn Ahead: Traveling down the road to compromise by Henry Morris, Ph.D.* Genesis 1:1 states, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." This is the first and foremost apologetic. If a person stumbles on this one profound truth, a lifetime of doubt and confusion lies ahead for him, full of uncertainty about the ultimate purpose for being alive. But when a Christian attempts to alter this ultimate statement of reality to fit the compromising philosophies of men--even scientifically-trained professionals--then woe to him for his unbelief and, even graver still, for teaching others that unbelief. The following...

....That noble form of humanism has its roots in the Enlightenment, in Kant's defense of the moral law, and in the progressivism of well-meaning Victorian sages. And the memory of it leads me to take an interest in something that calls itself "humanism," and is now beginning to announce itself in Britain. This humanism is self-consciously "new," like New Labour; it has its own journal, the New Humanist, and its own sages, the most prominent of whom is Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene and vice-president of the British Humanist Association. It runs advertising campaigns and letter-writing campaigns and...

310 million Americans have allowed 546 political pigs in Washington DC to completely destroy the greatest nation ever known to mankind. The people didn’t destroy the nation themselves, even though they will be the ones who will have to pick up the pieces and start all over, once it all comes unhinged… But they have allowed it. We have one president, one vice president, nine Supreme Court justices’, 435 members of the people’s House and 100 US senators. That’s 546 people responsible for forcing 310 million Americans into the proverbial soup line, where 546 political pigs hope Americans will choose...

Antidisestablishmentarianism is on the march. Which is odd, considering there is only the faintest whiff of disestablishmentarianism to fight. The Archbishop of Canterbury set this hare running with his usual confused mumbling into his beard. To disestablish the church would be "by no means the end of the world", he said bravely. He hastened to add that he did not want the church sundered from the state right now. And he would oppose "secularists [boo, hiss] trying to push religion into the private sphere". This sent the Telegraph and Mail into a spin, claiming a devilish distestablishment plot on the...

By Gina L. DiorioThe American Humanist Association (AHA) yesterday unveiled what it is calling its “godless holiday campaign.� Launched just in time for the Christmas season, the campaign queries, “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake.�According to AHA’s press release:“Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake,� proclaims a new holiday ad from the American Humanist Association. Already appearing today in the New York Times and Washington Post, the message will soon be blazoned on the sides, taillights, and interiors of over 200 Washington DC Metro buses. It’s the first ad campaign of...

What is the New Age Movement? What is secular humanism? What influence do they have on America’s society and public schools? Are they making our society and public schools better or worse? What kind of following do they have? Who are their leaders? It is my purpose to answer these questions and many more as they relate to the effects of the New Age Movement and secular humanism in America’s society and public schools. Hopefully, those who read this article will become enlightened as I did to the realization that America is rapidly becoming a New Age nation.

The identity consciousness of pupils and students must be countered. They must be prepared to take their place as planetary citizens in a multi-cultural, multi-religious, non-racial and non-sexist society. Narrow-mindedness must be replaced by the largest possible degree of open-mindedness on all matters, thereby superseding any narrow ideological orientation.

Different types of educational curriculums, programs, and strategies are being used to support the acculturation of humanism in American schools.. Some of these are global education, non-directive education, affective education, and active learning. These methods use the guise as acceptable programs recognized by leaders of different aspects of our government and society. By having the acceptance of our governmental leaders, it has made the transition of these programs into mainstream America and its school systems a simple task. However, it is not too late to begin a counter attack. America must find out the truth about the evils contained in...

Many of the leading educators in the United States have accepted the humanist approach to education. These are the same people who have developed our curriculums, spent federal money on educational programs, and advised our government on educational trends. William H. Kilpatrick, one of John Dewey’s followers, stated that the old education format was based on “a psychology that stressed acquisition, even drill, and minimized critical thinking.”

[An oldie-but-goodie appropriate for Earth Day.] April 22, 2005 -- Today is a religious holiday that should make us all into atheists. April 22, 2005, marks the 35th anniversary of Earth Day. For many people it's simply a day to think warm and fuzzy thoughts about clean air, crystal lakes, verdant forests and soaring eagles. Until the 1990s May Day marked the worship by the communists of an abstraction called the "workers" at the expense of real flesh-and-blood workers and every other human being on the planet. The result was human carnage. Now Earth Day marks the worship by eco-extremists...

That triumphal barnburner of an Easter hymn, Jesus Christ Has Risen Today – Hallelujah, this morning will rock the walls of Toronto's West Hill United Church as it will in most Christian churches across the country. But at West Hill on the faith's holiest day, it will be done with a huge difference. The words “Jesus Christ” will be excised from what the congregation sings and replaced with “Glorious hope.” Thus, it will be hope that is declared to be resurrected – an expression of renewal of optimism and the human spirit – but not Jesus, contrary to Christianity's central...

Last week, New York Times columnist Roger Cohen wrote a column titled "Secular Europe's Merits," in which he explained why he prefers the secularism of Europe to the religiosity of America. To his credit (other New York Times columnists do not generally agree to debate anything they write -- Paul Krugman, for example, has refused to discuss his new book on liberalism with me), Cohen agreed to come on my show, and proved to be a charming guest. A distinguished foreign correspondent for Reuters and the International Herald Tribune, Cohen nevertheless betrayed what I believe is endemic to those who...

Let's face it: Atheism is in. Not since Nietzsche have disbelievers enjoyed such ready public reception to their godless message—and such near-miraculous royalties. But even that hasn't put them in a good mood. Snaps Christopher Hitchens, who wrote God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (although not, presumably, the pronouncements of atheists), "Many of the teachings of Christianity are, as well as being incredible and mythical, immoral." A feuding Richard Dawkins suggests that believers "just shut up." Apparently, they didn't get the tolerance memo. Other authors—including Douglas Wilson and Francis Collins—have capably refuted the new atheist shtick. But remembering...

Board pulls out of program; Organizers try to understand reasoning Posted By Jennifer Hamilton-McCharles The Nugget Posted 10 hours ago Rose Haufe doesn't buy the reason given by the area's largest school board to no longer support Operation Christmas Child. The Powassan resident told The Nugget Tuesday the project is "simply caring for people and is beyond any religious boundaries." "I'm trying to think of their motivation, but I can't think of why they wouldn't want to do this," Haufe said. "When a child gives they never forget. It's a lesson they need to learn. It teaches them there's others...

Holiday task force gives decoration suggestions for city This article discusses a proposal by the city of Fort Collins, CO to establish a task force to consider policies related to city-sponsored holiday displays. The "educational and multicultural" display would represent both religious and non-religious celebrations that occur between Nov 1 and Jan 30.

The worldview of Evolutionary Humanism (or scientific naturalism) has two central components. The first is metaphysical; the second epistemological. Metaphysically, Evolutionary Humanism infers that the natural or material realm either self-created or has existed eternally. This doctrine is known as scientism. In addition, this worldview teaches us to believe that everything---including life and intelligence---came about through unseen (immaterial) processes of motion called evolution. Epistemologically, it demands that sensory knowledge (empiricism) be the only authoritative source of knowledge. In the words of the Humanist Manifesto II: “Knowledge of the world is derived by observation, experimentation, and rational analysis…science is the best...

2004 Volume 4The Greatest Killer The 20th Century has been the bloodiest century in all of history. And humanism has proven to be the most destructive religion of all time. Far more people have been killed in the name of atheism than by all other religions combined. Historian Paul Johnson has observed that ”the 20th Century state has proved itself the great killer of all time.” The 20th Century has seen the worst atrocities ever committed. The word ”genocide”, a new term coined in the 20th Century, describes what has occurred repeatedly in secular humanist states - which had...

Harry Potter and "the Death of God" - by Michael D. O'Brien Special to LifeSiteNews.com Editor's Note: LifeSiteNews.com, the news service which first put online the letter signed by Cardinal Ratzinger - now Pope Benedict XVI - against the Harry Potter books, is proud to present Michael O'Brien's latest essay on the Potter series.  The author, North America's foremost Potter critic, has written many articles that analyze in detail the Harry Potter novels. Here he reflects on the significance of the series as a whole. Well, July 21st has come and gone and the world is muggling onward. The date,...