Freedom From Religion Foundation

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is an American atheist/humanist organization in Madison, Wisconsin. Its purpose is to promote "freethought," meaning a focus on science and logic rather than dogma and tradition. However, the Foundation downplays the achievements of religion in order to push this point.

The Foundation publishes a newspaper called Freethought Today, broadcasts Freethought Radio (also carried on Air America), engages in litigation (it has lost nearly double the number of cases it has won) and sponsors and hosts other activities to educate the public about atheism, humanism, and "freethought."

Misleading information on website

The "Our Purposes" page on the Freedom From Religion Foundation website contains several incorrect or misleading statements. The statements, along with rebuttals, follow.

"The history of Western civilization shows us that most social and moral progress has been brought about by persons free from religion."

• Actually, Western civilization is built upon the Judeo-Christian ethic and the accomplishments of ancient Greece and Rome. The great Greek philosophers (Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) all beleived in the existence of a supreme being, even Aristotle, who was a deist. Social and moral accomplishments have actually been made almost solely by religious people. The great scientists Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and Pasteur, were all devout Christians. The founders of America, especially George Washington, were either deist or Christian.

"In modern times the first to speak out for prison reform, for humane treatment of the mentally ill, for abolition of capital punishment, for women's right to vote, for death with dignity for the terminally ill, and for the right to choose contraception, sterilization and abortion have been freethinkers, just as they were the first to call for an end to slavery."

• The bolded "accompishments" are not accomplishments at all. In America, abolitionists and early feminists were largely Christian. The early feminists were pro-life. In Britain, the anti-slavery activists were mostly deist or Christian.

There is a reference to the religious right "...attacking our secular public schools."

• The public schools were not secular until 1963, when not the people but the Supreme Court banned school prayer. Since then, education quality has suffered, and fewer notable people have used the public school system.

"Our Constitution was very purposefully written to be a godless document, whose only references to religion are exclusionary."

• America was built upon the Mayflower Compact which began with the words "In the name of God, Amen," and the Declaration of Independence, which acknowledges God as the source of rights and freedom. The Constitution is not "godless" but secular, and its only reference to relgion is to say that the state shall not interfere with relgious practice.

"It [The Constitution] is vital to buttress the Jeffersonian "wall of separation between church and state" which has served our nation so well."

• The "Jeffersonian 'wall of separation between church and state'" is not in the US Constitution at all! In fact, it was written in a letter by Jefferson, and futhermore, Jefferson was the most anti-religious of all the Founding Fathers. A greater guiding principle is that expressed in George Washington's Farewell Address: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports."