Free Republic

In a twist that would have been unthinkable five decades ago, a man in Russia could go to jail for blogging that God does not exist.Ironically, Viktor Krasnov’s day in court was to be Tuesday, which was the 55th anniversary of the historic space flight of Cosmonaut Yuri Gargarin. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev later said in a speech that Gargarin found no evidence of God while orbiting Earth.Much has changed since 1961, but the change that concerns religious freedom advocates was prompted by a protest the feminist punk rock band known as Pussy Riot staged in a Russian Orthodox church four years ago. The group went...

A momentary chirp rocked the scientific world last week when a team of researchers announced they had detected signals from gravitational waves produced when two black holes, with masses 29 and 36 times the mass of the sun, collided over a billion light years away. Since then, scientists have been giddy over the news. “This detection is the beginning of a new era: The field of gravitational wave astronomy is now a reality,” Gabriela González, a Louisiana State University physics and astronomy professor, said in a statement. But why is this discovery such a big deal?

We are at the dawn of a new consciousness, a radically fresh approach to our life...Perhaps the best name for this new segment of historical experience is the Interspiritual Age." Wayne Teasdale, "The Mystic Heart" "At the outbreak of the modern era, the (gnostic) system of inverse biblical exegesis was once again activated." Ioan Couliano, "The Tree of Gnosis" The Gnostic system of inverse exegesis begins with evolution, which has persuaded people, "...to think of everything in nature as the fruit of a gradual growth rather than an original creation." Such inverse thinking means it is now impossible for educated...

Everyday Saints and Other Stories recounts how a student and his friends turned to religionIn my Catholic Books of the Year blog last week I forgot to mention Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea's long interview in the form of a book: God or Nothing, published by Ignatius. If any reader feels the Church has wandered off course in recent decades, this is the book to read: wise, authoritative, confidently Catholic. As we are now in the Year of Mercy, it is worth pointing out that, for Cardinal Sarah, the mercy of God cannot be separated from conversion; to receive divine...

More than 25 prominent rabbis from Israel and abroad recently issued a statement calling for a renewed look at Jesus, Christians and the New Testament faith. Quoting from their own sages, these outstanding Orthodox rabbis are not ashamed to exalt the name of Jesus, welcoming the carpenter from Nazareth back into the Jewish fold.

Song Lyrics: Pretty Presents, Under the Christmas tree, Busy Buyers, Belated in their shopping spree, Laughing Children, Awaiting the day with glee. When he comes, Will he find any vacancy? Luminous Lights, On every house and evergreen, The chill of nature, Painting a wintry scene, Santa's coming, With his whole reindeer team, Will hearts be blind, To who Mary and Joseph bring? There's a knock knock knocking this Christmas. Who is it at the door? Is it a pound pound pounding of wishes? A day later left on the floor. Christmas parties, With food and wine galore, Christmas cookies. Who...

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...

The Freedom from Religion Foundation, America's largest association of atheists and agnostics, began a campaign Monday to rid all hotel rooms of Bibles distributed by The Gideons International and replaced with copies of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species." The Gideons International is well known worldwide for their work with hotels but according to their website, they predominantly share Scriptures in schools and colleges, prisons and jails, hospitals, and medical offices. The group is also an association of Christian business and professional men and their wives dedicated to telling people about Jesus through sharing personally and by providing Bibles...

Let's think about this. My 15-year-old son and I were pulling out of his large public high school when we spotted a bumper sticker on the back of a student's vehicle: Apparently, this is a popular saying among "free-thinkers" (atheists, agnostics, secularists), and although "religious people are blind followers" is a standard platitude, I had not seen this particular incarnation before.  I started to laugh, but it was my son who nailed it: "Wow, that's so ridiculous, because I'm sure she goes along with whatever belief is popular right now." Bam! Good thinking, son! I would bet the farm that...

Why is the term "self-help" so often used in a derogatory manner in mainstream media? Writing in the opinion journal Aeon, journalist and social critic Elizabeth Svoboda recently sized up today’s self-help field and concluded that some cognitively based self-help books are effective – and well worth defending -- whereas New Age and positive-thinking books are the product of "woo-peddlers" who cheapen the field. I stand with the "woo peddlers." Svoboda's piece demonstrates two assumptions that make it difficult to intelligently discuss self-help therapeutics in much of today’s media. First, the author groups together two different kinds of books: metaphysical...

The American Center for Law and Justice said it plans to stand up to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which recently called for the removal of Gideon Bibles from state-run lodgings.The group noted that the latest battle began after FFRF Co-Presidents Annie Laurie Gaylor and her husband, Dan Barker, stayed at the Holmes Student Center Hotel in DeKalb, Illinois, and discovered a Gideon Bible placed in their hotel room. "No one is making any guest open the Bible. No one is making them read it. In fact, the university is not 'providing bibles;' it is allowing a Christian group to...

She worked for the Clinton administration, became a liberal pundit for the Daily Beast and a regular Democratic contributor to Fox News. On top of that, all her friends were agnostics or atheists. So when God pursued and won her reluctant heart, she was more surprised than anyone else. "If there was one thing in which I was completely secure, it was that I would never adhere to any religion-especially to evangelical Christianity, which I held in particular contempt," writes Kirsten Powers, in a first-person account of her conversion published in Christianity Today. The daughter of archeologist parents, she attended...

For quite some time now I have stated that the same arguments that have been used in support of consensual gay marriage can also be used in support of consensual polygamy. With that in mind, I am also one of the few who has argued for some time now (long before Kim Davis appeared on the scene) against the dangers of religious sectarianism (i.e. pre-Cromwell RC times in Europe and also Cromwell using God's authority to close down the theaters, etcetera) and that the citing of scriptures in opposition to gay marriage can lead to or at least open the...

In Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) and in his later works, he referred to several "vestiges" in human anatomy that were left over from the course of evolution. These vestigial organs, Darwin argued, are evidence of evolution and represent a function that was once necessary for survival, but over time that function became either diminished or nonexistent. (snip) The Human Appendix In plant-eating vertebrates, the appendix is much larger and its main function is to help digest a largely herbivorous diet. The human appendix is a small pouch attached to the large intestine where it joins the...

 About anything. At all. If you don't know this one, first thing, you're "majoring in the minors", getting a Ph.D. in ABC. God doesn't want to take you down, He wants to love you into abundant life. He isn't like other "authorities" who can only build themselves up by tearing you down. He isn't merely supremely good, He is goodness itself. All goodness, truth, beauty, love, happiness, merely "consist" in participation in Him, in the fact that He IS those things in Himself, to an unlimited, infinite degree. Don't want to waste your time? Understand that first, that there's a God-shaped hole in your heart...

With the recent SCOTUS decision, homosexuality is a hotter topic than ever before. It seems that everyone is talking about it right now. Well, in a recent Big Think video, Bill Nye “the Science Guy” was asked about homosexual behavior in an evolutionary worldview: “If the purpose of a species is to reproduce and survive how would it make sense evolutionarily for humans to have same-sex preferences? Are humans the only ones who practice homosexuality? And if this is so, does this mean that homosexuality is the product of humans personal whim as opposed to instinct?”Bill Nye basically answered this...

... Findings from PRRI's American Values Atlas, which draws on 40,000 interviews among a random sample of Americans, provides the most in-depth portrait to date of attitudes on same-sex marriage by religious affiliation. ... All Americans [percentages]... Strongly Favor 25 Favor 29 Oppose 18 Strongly Oppose 20 White Evangelical Protestant [Baptist, Methodist, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Church of Christ]... Strongly Favor 10 Favor 18 Oppose 27 Strongly Oppose 39 White Mainline Protestant [Baptist, Methodist, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Church of Christ]... Strongly Favor 28 Favor 34 Oppose 16 Strongly Oppose 14 ...

Updated Wednesday with attorney's comments. ST. LOUIS • A group of Satan worshippers are suing Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and Attorney General Chris Koster, taking issue with state abortion restrictions they say violate their religious beliefs. The suit also says the law violates the establishment clause, intended to prohibit governmental endorsement of religion. The suit was filed Tuesday in federal court in St. Louis on behalf of The Satanic Temple and a woman identified as Mary Doe, who lives in Missouri. It says that she is a member of The Satanic Temple, which is “an association of politically aware Satanists,...

For those who don't have much familiarity with the dispute between Protestants and Catholics over the doctrine of the papacy, I want to post two introductory articles on the subject today and tomorrow. The first article, this one, will be about the Biblical evidence, and tomorrow's article will be about the early post-Biblical evidence. Roman Catholicism claims the papacy as its foundation. According to the Catholic Church, the doctrine of the papacy was understood and universally accepted as early as the time of Peter: "At open variance with this clear doctrine of Holy Scripture as it has been ever understood...

Was The Papacy Established By Christ? (Part 2) Because neither the apostolic nor the earliest post-apostolic Christians refer to a jurisdictional primacy of the bishop of Rome, Catholics often cite references to any type of primacy of the Roman church. But a non-jurisdictional primacy of the Roman church doesn't prove a jurisdictional primacy of the Roman bishop. Even Peter himself isn't referred to as having papal authority among the early post-apostolic sources. Terence Smith explains: "there is an astonishing lack of reference to Peter among ecclesiastical authors of the first half of the second century. He is barely mentioned...