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At a time of year when faith is celebrated by most Americans, it may surprise some to learn that many students of faith and history believe we are living in a post-Christian age. It is not apparent at the local malls now so festively decorated, but it can be seen in some telltale cultural indicators. One of those is the number of attacks on people of faith, particularly Jews. Throughout much of the world today, where Christianity is in decline attacks on Jews are on the rise. In post-Christian Europe, Jews are often victims of a deeply entrenched anti-Semitism. Synagogues...

Introduction The famous evolutionist Julian Huxley once said, "Any view of God as a personal being is becoming frankly untenable. The difficulty of understanding the functions of a personal ruler in a universe which the march of knowledge is showing us ever more clearly as self-ordered and self-ordering in every minutest detail is becoming more and more apparent" (Essays of a Biologist [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1923], p. 217). His sentiments were echoed by the British philosopher Bertrand Russell: "That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin,...

  As Catholics, it comes as no surprise to us that the human brain is hard-wired for religion. We believe in a God who created us in His image so that we would come to know and love Him. But for Enlightenment thinkers, who had committed themselves to the "liberation" of human thought from the shackles of religious dogma, the news would not have been welcome at all.   If political society, as Hobbes wrote, abhors a vacuum, the same is true of religious belief. One cannot destroy without creating something else in its place. The new society or...

The first of five U.S. cities will be hit by a new atheist holiday ad campaign this Thanksgiving weekend. Washington, D.C., residents can expect to see ads proclaiming, "No God?...No Problem!" inside buses and rail cars. Washington, D.C., residents can expect to see ads proclaiming, “No God?...No Problem!” inside buses, rail cars and on the side or tail of buses by week’s end. The campaign, sponsored by the American Humanist Association, will then target the transit systems of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. According to AHA, the holiday ad campaign is the first by a humanist group...

"Magic Mirror on the Wall, who is the fairest one of all?" was uttered by the wicked Queen in the 1937 Walt Disney animated movie 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.' Do you remember that poignant little snippet from the movie that became a childhood classic for generations? The nation did not necessarily embrace the evil Queen as a hero but some were on the edge of their seats wondering if the truth or the continued lie would ever come out. The question which many have speculated over was whether or not this movie's focus on the dark side of...

This weekend’s feedback is in response to a number of queries about the Church of England (Anglicans) officially apologizing to Darwin. However, they don’t speak for all attenders of this church, since many of them are still faithful to Scripture and are appalled by their ‘leaders’. There are numerous mistakes in the article by the official CoE representative, a Rev. Dr Malcolm Brown, on the official CoE website, and Jonathan Sarfati replies point-by-point...

In 1978, a young scholar in his early 30s named Bill Donohue, working on a book about the ACLU, went to New York City to interview its founder, Roger Baldwin. Donohue asked him why the ACLU was opposed to a moment of silent "meditation" in the classroom. Baldwin responded, "I suppose you could get by with that, but it's a subterfuge, because the implication is that you're meditating about the hereafter, or God, or something."   That revealing moment allowed Donohue to confirm that Baldwin opposed a moment of silent meditation because he feared some student might actually think...

Dead End of Secularism Secularism was to be the wave of the future. Leading secular theorists such as Peter Berger taught that secularism would be the inevitable result of the inexorable march of progress and that its many advantages would simply drive out religion in all of its forms. No serious discussion was possible or necessary. Religion would be deposited unceremoniously on the dustbin of history. But a funny thing happened on the way to the dustbin: secularism has not only failed to triumph over religion, it can’t even reproduce itself. In spite of enormous institutional advantages conferred on it...

French president Nicolas Sarkozy's rejection of the burka and the face veil are "in keeping with the republican spirit of secularism," according to the rector of the Grand Mosque in Paris, Dalil Boubakeur, quoted by media. Boubakeur said he supported a proposal by French MPs for a panel of deputies to look at the wearing of the burka "on the condition that they listen to what the experts on Islam have to say". The burka marked "a return towards Islam's past, in line with the preaching and vision of fundamentalists" added Boubakeur (photo)....

Archbishop Francisco Gil Helin Madrid, Spain, Jun 1, 2009 / 08:39 pm (CNA).- Archbishop Francisco Gil Hellin of Burgos, Spain said last week that it has become increasingly evident that both the Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI are confronting the “center of the secular world, made up of significant elements of the European Union, the United Nations, and more recently, the United States.” “This center has shown itself incapable of accepting anything that is not part of its own values. And thus, despite scientific proof, the Pope has been irrationally criticized in the name of reason, and the...

Though President Obama may have irked some Americans when he told the nation of Turkey this week that the United States is not a Christian nation, he might have helped believers in Muslim-dominated areas by saying so. Christians overseas, particularly in the Middle East, are often persecuted under the false pretense that the appearingly immoral and indulgent West is a reflection of Christendom. Now, should anti-Christian Muslims take to heart what Obama said recently, perhaps they’ll see the immoral and indulgent West as a reflection of secularism or even liberalism. “One of the great strengths of the United States is...

Outside of politics, sports, and popular entertainment, how many living Germans, or French, or Austrians, or even Brits can you name? Even well-informed people who love art and literature and who follow developments in science and medicine would be hard pressed to come up with many, more often any, names. In terms of greatness in literature, art, music, the sciences, philosophy, and medical breakthroughs, Europe has virtually fallen off the radar screen. This is particularly meaningful given how different the answer would have been had you asked anyone the same question between just 80 and 120 years ago — and...

Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) said he was “disturbed” by President Barack Obama’s request to have the symbolic name for Jesus Christ – IHS – covered from a pediment that was visible behind him when he spoke at Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall on April 14. “I join many Christians in expressing my outrage at this request,” Fleming said after requesting one minute to speak on the House floor. “This administration has no problem spending money imprinted with the phrase, ‘In God We Trust,’ but won’t have our president speak with any symbol of Christ in public view,” Fleming said. “We begin...

President Obama says, correctly, that we are not "at war" with Islam. But it is also correct to say that certain parts of Islam are most certainly at war with us. That we are having such a difficult time understanding this can be attributed to the inability of secular Western intellectuals to understand movements inspired by non-secular belief systems. The secular mind has difficulty enough understanding Pentecostals and Southern Baptists, let alone the kinds of people who believe that stone walls should be collapsed upon homosexuals and infidels beheaded on video. As Western (particularly European) societies have moved progressively away...

Pope Benedict XVI last night attacked the rise of aggressive secularism in Western societies, warning them that they risked drifting into a 'desert of godlessness'. He used his Good Friday meditations to compare deliberate attempts to remove religion from public life to the mockery of Jesus Christ by the mob as he was led out to be crucified. 'Religious sentiments' were increasingly ranked among the 'unwelcome leftovers of antiquity' and 'held up to scorn and ridicule', he added. 'We are shocked to see to what levels of brutality human beings can sink,' said the Pope at an evening ceremony at...

When these gun owners are pressed about their true dedication to the cause of gun rights, they invariably offer the infamous "… from my cold dead fingers" or "They can have them … bullets first". To these people, I would like to say, "Please stop with the clichés! If your freedom means so little to you that you are not willing to fight for it politically, then do not insult my intelligence by claiming to be willing to lay down your life for it."

The obvious problem arising out of the Golden Calf is how could the Jewish people, fresh from the miracles of Egypt, Sea of Reeds, manna and the revelation at Sinai revert to paganism and to the worship of a man-made deity. What possessed them to be so blind as to their own recent experiences and to their stated destiny? Of course, this incident is the ultimate proof of the allowance for free will in human affairs, even for the most destructive form of free will. And, yet, it is most troubling to realize how seriously error prone the Jewish people...

It started out as the dream job for a passionate Christian -- reporting about religion for a major newspaper. But writing about other people's religions ended up costing William Lobdell his own. The former Los Angeles Times reporter chronicled his soul-wrenching, emotion-laden journey in the recently released book "Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America -- and Found Unexpected Peace," published by Harper Collins. Lobdell's spiritual journey led him from an uninspired Protestant childhood to agnosticism before he attended a weekend Christian men's retreat where he was "born again." Concerned with what he considered...

Tuesday March 10, 2009 Christians Falling under Global Campaign of "Bullying and Intimidation": Cardinal at Oxford Warns modern secularist liberalism now "has strong totalitarian tendencies" By Hilary WhiteOXFORD, March 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - There is a growing culture of suppression among secularist governments that is using the doctrine of "tolerance and diversity" to push Christians entirely out of public life, Australia's Cardinal Pell told an audience at Oxford University this weekend. The Australian cardinal said during an address at the university that human rights and anti-discrimination legislation is being used as a weapon against Christians and Christian opinion in...

Swiss prostitute Griselidis Real will keep the company of theologist Jean Calvin and writer Jose Luis Borges in the afterlife Former Swiss prostitute and human rights activist Griselidis Real was buried next to theologist and religious reformist Jean Calvin at the famous royal cemetery in Geneva, media report on Tuesday. Griselidis Real died in 2005 and seeing how she gave up on her career of a prostitute, she became famous by establishing a charity institution in the 70s with which she helped male and female prostitutes. - Writer, painter and prostitute – is her epitaph and the decision on moving...

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...

ROME, March 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Two prominent Catholic cardinals have struck out at the secularist trend of excluding all religious belief from public life. The patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Angelo Scola, and Cardinal Camillo Ruini, a former president of the Italian Bishops Conference and the vicar for the diocese of Rome from 1991 to 2007, have warned Christians not to withdraw from active involvement in public life. Writing in an editorial published February 20, in Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference, Cardinal Scola wrote, "It seems to me that we often lose sight of the heart of...

America’s Secular Challenge: The Rise of a New National Religion was delivered to me a while ago. I read the book shortly after I received it, and was amazed at how the author, Herbert London, could possibly put so much information that would normally fill volumes into a small, 97 page book. The number of pages fooled me, however. I did not move through the material nearly as quickly as I thought I would. Contained within the pages of Herb London’s small book is a huge message. Mr. London meticulously researched the material, and wrote the book in such a...

The 18th Century English cleric and theologian John Wesley was troubled by a paradox that emerged as his teaching spread. He, like other Protestant thinkers stretching back to Calvin, taught that one could honor God through hard work and thrift. The subsequent burst of industry and frugality generated by Wesley’s message improved the lot of many of his working-class followers and helped advance capitalism in England. But, “wherever riches have increased, the essence of religion has decreased in the same proportion,” Wesley observed, and subsequently pride and greed are growing more common, he complained. The emergence of what Max Weber...

Separation of Church and State, Church and School Excerpts from Religion in the USSR by E. Yaroslavsky, International Publishers, 1934, appearing in an exhibit in The Communist Conspiracy: Strategy and Tactics of World Communism, part 1, Section B, Committee on Un-American Activities, US House of Representatives, 1956, pg. 295-297. E. Yaroslavsky (Central Committee of the Communist Party, President of the League of Militant Atheists)On January 23, 1918, the Soviet Government issued a decree on the disestablishment of the church. This decree reads as follows: Decree of the Soviet of People's Commissars on the Separation of the Church from the...

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama wants to conclude his inaugural oath with the words "so help me God," but a group of atheists is asking a federal judge to stop him. California atheist Michael Newdow sued Chief Justice John Roberts in federal court for an injunction barring the use of those words in the inaugural oath. Newdow and other atheists and agnostics also want to stop the use of prayers during the inaugural celebration. Newdow, who lost a Supreme Court battle to get the words "under God" taken out of the Pledge of Allegiance, has failed in similar challenges to...

.... Everyone, of every creed or lack thereof, needs to get this basic fact through their college-thickened skulls. The shiny, sexy, secular science-fiction society of progressive fantasies is not going to happen. The demographic realities have already killed that dream, the corpse just hasn't finished twitching yet. The material choice is not Christian tradition vs post-Christian utopia, it is Christian tradition vs PRE-Christian dystopia. And if you don't understand what that entails, then I suggest you get caught up on your ancient history, starting with Caesar and Tacitus.

In America anyone who knows the biblical subject of eschatology (the last things) has been warning that all the signs of the last days are culminating in this generation. Whose listening and what does it mean besides a lot of trouble? As America starts off in a new walk down secular liberalisms all new and shiny path many people who knew that this nation alone once stood out as the most uniquely different nation in history are concerned, afraid, and in some cases even panicky.

President-elect Barack Obama's choice of Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation drew one kind of protest. Whether the evangelical pastor offers the prayer in the name of Jesus may draw another. At George W. Bush's 2001 swearing-in, the Revs. Franklin Graham and Kirbyjon Caldwell were criticized for invoking Christ. The distinctly Christian reference at a national civic event offended some, and even prompted a lawsuit. Warren did not answer directly when asked whether he would dedicate his prayer to Jesus. In a statement Tuesday to The Associated Press, Warren would say only that, "I'm a Christian pastor so I...

According to The Sun, Russia has experienced a series of murders, rapes, mutilations, and desecrations linked to Satanists.  No, I did not say Stalinists, although, given how communists will persecute Christians, one could be forgiven for confusing the two.  And a most horrific example of such ritualistic murder has just taken place in the nation's hinterlands, as a ring of Satanists has just killed and cannibalized four teens, three girls, and a boy.  Writes The Sun:The gang of Devil worshippers butchered their victims and roasted them on a bonfire before devouring their flesh.... Their private parts had also been cut...

The Jewish people not only defeated the Greeks on the battlefield, but we defeated them spiritually as well. In fact, the spiritual struggle was the true heart of the conflict. In Greek philosophy, the power and wisdom of man was preeminent. In the Greek worldview, there was no room and no need for G-d. All that needed to be accomplished could be accomplished by man, on his own, with no assistance at all. This is why the Greeks so desperately wanted to crush Judaism. In the case of other conquered peoples, the Greeks were benevolent to their new citizens. They...

Granting that secularism has led to some increased acceptance of Catholics, he criticized the new intolerance directed against those who maintain pro-life and pro-family views.

A Dutch gay group said Monday it has planned a "Pink Christmas" festival for the first time in Amsterdam, featuring a manger stall with two Josephs and two Marys. Other attractions in the 10-day festival include parties, an open-air market, gay-themed films, an ice skating rink and religious services on Dec. 25. ProGay group chairman Frank van Dalen said Monday the event is intended to increase the choices for homosexual men and women during the Christmas holiday week. "Right now, there's not much to do," he said. The festival will also encourage people to think about homosexuality and religion, Van...

OLYMPIA, Wash. - A controversial anti-religion placard was reported missing from the state Capitol Friday - then later found - and now the sign's sponsor wants the State Patrol to provide special protection for it when it is returned. The uproar came as several other groups clamored for permission to post their own holiday displays at the state Capitol. The anti-religion sign, posted by the Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison, Wis., was reported missing Friday morning then was turned over to a Seattle radio station by an unidentified man at about 10 a.m. Annie Laurie Gaylor, a spokesman for...

By exploring history (explore it with me by clicking on this story at NCRegister.com, where a longer version appears), I came to the conclusion that secularism is fed by at least eight ideas and five motives....

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- An atheistic sign is included in the state Capitol's holiday display that includes a holiday tree and a Christian nativity scene. The sign, a new addition this year, is sponsored by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The sign reads, "Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds." Annie Laurie Gaylor, foundation co-president, said in a prepared statement that the sign is a reminder of the "real reason for the season, the winter solstice." The solstice, on Dec. 21 this year, is the shortest day of the year. The Capitol has had a holiday...

Spiritual Warfare, Part III November 19th, 2008 by Mark Shea The apostle to the Gentiles proclaimed the gospel to a multicultural and embattled world very much like ours. Here are some things we can learn from him as we enter more deeply into a time of persecution.We live in the Crybaby Age. The world is chockablock with people in need of Insensitivity Training. From people who gasp in anguish at the little leprechaun who is the Notre Dame mascot (Insensitivity to Irish-Americans!) to the recent kerfuffle over the Dallas County official who complained that the term “black hole” was racist,...

In the last few years, the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ has been celebrated as “winter holidays” with “holiday trees” and “season’s greetings.” December has become the month of the “Christmas wars”: In some schools and public squares, Nativity scenes and Christmas carols are forbidden or replaced by non-religious displays and songs. By now, we are used to seeing movies, TV shows, novels, papers, magazines, websites, works of modern art and stage plays mock religion, especially Christian symbols and practices. The Catholic Church authorities are often portrayed as criminals involved in different kinds of malicious activities. Anti-Christian legislation isn’t...

The Coming Secularist Storm By: Father Alfonso Aguilar, LC In the last few years, the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ has been celebrated as “winter holidays” with “holiday trees” and “season’s greetings.” December has become the month of the “Christmas wars”: In some schools and public squares, Nativity scenes and Christmas carols are forbidden or replaced by non-religious displays and songs. By now, we are used to seeing movies, TV shows, novels, papers, magazines, websites, works of modern art and stage plays mock religion, especially Christian symbols and practices. The Catholic Church authorities are often portrayed as criminals involved...

Polls continue to slide for No on Prop 8 Equity for All, as reports leak out that the campaign’s management structure is in utter disarray. A series of orchestrated, factually false press statements have been issued alleging the sky will fall if Proposition 8 passes on Tuesday. “Clearly, this is nothing more than a floundering campaign grasping at straws to save its effort,” said Chip White, Protectmarriage.com – Yes on 8 campaign spokesman. “It’s quite sad because those who are hurt most are voters. We invited the No on Prop 8 campaign to debate Proposition 8 this weekend in a...

It is time to confront the unhappy fact about our country: There are now two Americas. Not a rich one and a poor one; economic status plays little role in this division. There is a Red one and a Blue one. For most of my life I have believed, in what I now regard as wishful thinking, that the Right and Left wings have essentially the same vision for America, that it's only about ways to get there in which the two sides differ. Right and Left share the same ends, I thought. That is not the case. For the...

Denver, Sep 25, 2008 / 05:33 pm (CNA).- The Democratic Party has been hijacked by elites hostile to religion, said Mark Stricherz, author of the book "Why Democrats are Blue" and a Democrat himself, during the Casey Lecture delivered on Tuesday at the Archdiocese of Denver. The Casey Series of Lectures was started by the Archdiocese of Denver in 2006 to promote Catholic thinking in political life, inspired by the life and political activism of the late Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey, a devout Catholic and a Democrat. Stricherz, who has focused his investigation on the historical transition that turned the...

The Fall of Secularism by Gerald J. Russello 9/10/08 Recently, the influential German philosopher Jürgen Habermas spoke of the emergence of a "post-secular" society. It had long been thought that as societies grew in technological and economic power, and as the risks of daily life that had been so common for generations faded beneath the safety of plentiful food, a social welfare system, and medical skill, the need for religion would fade. This was the so-called "secularization thesis," which held sway among anthropologists, sociologists, and political scientists for decades. However, as Habermas notes, this thesis has come under attack in...

Recently, it was reported that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama proclaimed that America was not a Christian nation. He stated that Christianity was just one of many religions that were prevalent in America today. Of course, Senator Obama’s proclamation was just one of many subtle and subversive attacks against Christianity that have surfaced in America recently. Secularists of all ideological beliefs are attempting to evict the God of Christianity out of America. Basically, they want America to become a godless nation, a nation without absolute moral truths and godly standards to follow.

It's often said that America was founded on "Judeo-Christian" values.

Rev. Barry Lynn is the self appointed watch dog who runs “Americans United for the Separation of Church and State”; a well funded 501 c3 exempt public policy and educational organization. I am well acquainted with Rev. Lynn. For years, while I served as the first Executive Director of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), in the 19990’s, a public interest law firm committed to an authentic view of religious freedom, we crossed paths quite a few times. He still regularly debates my friend, the Chief Counsel for the ACLJ, and noted Supreme Court Advocate, Jay Sekulow. I...

We are constantly reminded about the destructive consequences of religion -- intolerance, hatred, division, inquisitions, persecutions of "heretics," holy wars. Though far from the whole story, they are, nevertheless, true. There have been many awful consequences of religion. What one almost never hears described are the deleterious consequences of secularism -- the terrible developments that have accompanied the breakdown of traditional religion and belief in God. For every thousand students who learn about the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials, maybe two learn to associate Gulag, Auschwitz, The Cultural Revolution and the Cambodian genocide with secular regimes and ideologies....

For many liberal Catholics, July 25, 1968 was the day the music died. Pope Paul VI's encyclical Humanae Vitae, published 40 years ago today, reaffirmed Catholicism's absolute ban on birth control. Coming on the heels of the Second Vatican Council's unprecedented opening of the Church to modernity three years earlier, the Vatican's decision to stand by a doctrine that ever fewer Catholics were obeying would reverberate far beyond the bedroom. Progressives saw the encyclical as the ultimate proof that the Church was bound to remain out of touch with contemporary reality. Traditionalists, instead, can mark it as the beginning of...

SYDNEY, Australia (CNS) -- In what is often seen as one of the most intensely secular nations in the world, Australia received a wake-up call: the faith of the church on public display over the weeklong celebrations of World Youth Day. For young Catholics used to seeing a steady annual decline in figures such as Mass attendance -- now estimated at approximately 13 percent of Catholics nationally -- and feeling like the only young person in the local parish, the sight of an estimated 300,000 pilgrims from around the nation and overseas may well have provided a much-needed shot in...

Whither The Secular State?Brucelewis.com 20080714 A Christian registrar who refused to carry out gay 'weddings' won a landmark legal battle yesterday. Lillian Ladele, 47, was threatened with the sack [being fired], bullied and 'thrown before the lions' after asking to be excused from conducting civil partnerships for same-sex couples because of her religious beliefs. But yesterday a tribunal agreed that her faith had been ridden roughshod over by equalities-obsessed Islington Council, which had sought to 'trump one set of rights with another'. The groundbreaking decision could lead to firms facing 'conscience claims' from staff who say their own beliefs prevent...