The Freedom From Religion Foundation and The Center for Inquiry have teamed up to create a unique competition for current and aspiring television writers and directors, the No God But Funny Contest. The contest will award $15,000 to those crafting the winning sitcom script and $25,000 to producers of the winning webisode that takes the "ass" out of atheists.
James Underdown, executive director of the Center for Inquiry Los Angeles notes "of the few atheist characters on TV, virtually all are unlikeable. You know TV would be in big trouble if any other group were so unfavorably portrayed. We happen to know lots of godless folks who are great fun to be around. So we are challenging writers to develop funny, fun and well-adjusted atheist characters."
The contest, that is taking entries until May 15, accepts 20-25 page teleplays with outlines for the remaining 11 episodes of the season, or an original and never broadcast anywhere digital episode for broadcast on the web of between 3-15 minutes in length, also with outlines for the remaining 11 episodes of the season.
The contest judges are a group of experienced Hollywood writers and comedians who have worked extensively in television including veteran stand-up comedian and actor Paul Provenza, who was the host of Showtime's The Green Room; game show super producer Jonathan Goodson; noted magician Max Maven; Comedy Central/Adult Swim/Funny or Die regular Rich Fulcher; thinking man's comic Steve Hill; and longtime comedy agent, television development executive and live comedy event producer Barbara Romen.
Dan Barker, a co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation notes that entries must "reflect a positive view of atheism, and we expect that at least one story line per episode/webisode out of the typical 3 story lines will be about the atheist character's life. All sitcoms deal with friends, family and work. Submissions can touch on topics like what to say when someone sneezes, atheist writers who hate the idea of submitting something called a 'bible' for the TV show, how to respond when someone wishes you a 'blessed' day, how to handle 'the holidays' – the malls, the inescapable holiday music, fake trees, the workplace, gifts, parties, family traditions, greeting cards, the 'war,' new traditions like 'festivus' with its airing of grievances and feats of strength, etc. Also, what happens when you get sworn in for jury duty or in court as a witness, 'prayers' in legal complaints, AA or other 12 step programs referring to a 'higher power,' events like weddings, funerals, baptisms, etc., filling out applications that ask about religion, etc."
Writers and producers do not have to be atheists to enter. All the characters in the script or webisode do not need to be atheist. For further info about the contest, including contest rules, and to enter please visit http://www.nogodbutfunny.com/.
Center for Inquiry:
The mission of the Center for Inquiry is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. To oppose and supplant the mythological narratives of the past, and the dogmas of the present, the world needs an institution devoted to promoting science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. The Center for Inquiry is that institution.
About the Freedom from Religion Foundation:
The Foundation works as an umbrella for those who are free from religion and are committed to the cherished principle of separation of state and church. The purposes of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., as stated in its bylaws, are to promote the constitutional principle of separation of state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
For press information please contact Susan von Seggern at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 213-840-0077.
1. What is RFRA?
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act is a law that allows religious people, businesses, and/or corporations to violate generally applicable laws by claiming that the laws conflict with their religious beliefs. The federal version is written: "Government may substantially burden a person's exercise of religion only if it demonstrates that application of the burden to the person— (1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and (2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest." Many states have RFRAs too, but those three concepts—burden, compelling governmental interest, and least restrictive means—appear in every single RFRA.
The nation's largest association of atheists and agnostics and its Chicago chapter are placing a patriotic red-white-and-blue secular display to counter a large Catholic Easter display at Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago for the second Easter in a row.
Two colorful 8-foot banners on a 12-foot structure promoting the secular views of founding fathers will be placed by Saturday in Daley Plaza by the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation and its FFRF Metropolitan Chicago chapter.
One banner reads: "In Reason We Trust," and pictures Thomas Jefferson, displaying his famous advice to a nephew, "Question with boldness even the existence of a god." The other side proclaims, "Keep State & Religion Separate," and pictures President John Adams, who signed the Treaty of Tripoli, which assured ". . . the government of the United States is not in any sense, founded on the Christian religion. . ."
The FFRF display is designed to counter what is believed to be days of round-the-clock prayer and evangelism in Daley Plaza by the Thomas More Society, a Catholic group, which has evangelized in the plaza every Easter since 2011. The group's aim, through its "Divine Mercy Project," is to seek the "conversion of Chicago, America and the Whole World."
The Catholic society is expected to place a 10-foot-tall painting of Jesus, which it claims was miraculously inspired, with the statement "Jesus, I trust in you." The painting is accompanied by a 14-foot cross on the public plaza. In past years, Catholic supporters have also held 24-hour prayer vigils, distributed thousands of prayer cards and hosted anti-abortion rallies in front of the Jesus painting.
Rather than place such displays on church grounds, the Thomas More Society explicitly seeks to take over public property for its purposes, claiming that at Daley Plaza it encounters "militants, feminists, Satanists, radical Muslims, just about everybody."
FFRF additionally has two smaller posters affixed to each side of its display, explaining its purpose, written by Tom Cara, Chicago chapter director: "Not looking to convert? Neither are we," protesting use of government property to endorse the beliefs of a specific religious group. Another poster questions the "divine mercy" of the bible upon which Catholicism is predicated.
FFRF thanks FFRF Staff Attorneys Patrick Elliott, Andrew Seidel and Sam Grover for fashioning the display, and Tom Cara and other volunteers with its active Chicago chapter.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a leading opponent of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, is taking its "Repeal RFRA" campaign to the readers of The New York Times. Its quarter-page advocacy ad, headlined "No hate in any state — or in these United States" is expected to appear in Sunday's Times in the front news section.
The ad points out, "The problem isn't just in Indiana," referring to the national furor erupting over Indiana's RFRA. FFRF points out twenty-some states have passed RFRA, as well as Congress in 1993. View high resolution ad here.
"The Religious Freedom Restoration Act grants religionists an uncivil right — the liberty to break laws, including civil rights protections, they claim offend their religious faith," FFRF's ad asserts.
FFRF notes, "The federal RFRA brought us the Supreme Court's infamous Hobby Lobby ruling last year, setting women's contraceptive rights back half a century." The state/church watchdog, with more than 22,000 members nationwide, warns: "There will be more uncivil rulings like this until RFRA is repealed."
FFRF placed a full-page ad protesting the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling last year, which upheld employee discrimination against women based on the federal RFRA. FFRF's ad urged that it is time to repeal RFRA, and castigated the "all-male, all-Roman Catholic" Supreme Court majority for placing "religious wrongs over women's rights."
"Don't be fooled that Indiana and Arkansas changes to their RFRA laws, to more closely model the federal RFRA, alleviate the problem. The problem is the federal RFRA. The time is ripe. Secularists and those who treasure true religious liberty must now urge Congress, and other RFRA states, to repeal this dangerous law privileging faith over civil rights," said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.
The ad takes readers to a webpage informing citizens of ways to lobby against RFRA, and background material.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has produced two 30-second TV commercials to air in Madison, Eau Claire-La Crosse and a few other Wisconsin markets, raising the alarm on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's unprecedented bid to expand vouchers to send children to religious schools at public expense.
"We have a sense of urgency to inform the public about the disastrous consequences, if Walker's voucher expansion is adopted," said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. "His reckless scheme would defund and ultimately destroy our public schools."
Walker's budget bill would, if enacted, permit half of the students in Madison to move to private, mostly religious schools at taxpayer expense.
"We must end Wisconsin's failed voucher experiment, not expand it," Gaylor said, pointing to major abuses.
The first spot explains:
Our public schools are under attack by Governor Walker. He wants to take money from our public schools and use it to support someone else's religion. Your tax dollars shouldn't fund religiously-segregated schools. Nearly half of our state's students would be eligible for vouchers under Walker's scheme. Vouchers are bad for children and bad for education. Help us stop Walker's brazen attack on our public schools.
A second, more dramatic ad, says:
There is no such source and cause of strife, quarrel, fights, malignant opposition, persecution, and war, and all evil in the state, as religion. Let it once enter our civil affairs, our government would soon be destroyed. Let it once enter our common schools, they would be destroyed. [quoting a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision]
Stop Governor Walker's disastrous proposal to expand vouchers for religiously-segregated schools.
The TV commercials begin airing next Monday, April 6 and will run on the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. news broadcasts for two weeks on WISC-TV 3000, the Madison-area CBS affiliate. They'll also air in La Crosse-Eau Claire and some other Wisconsin markets. FFRF is also airing the ads locally during CBS Sunday Morning and a few other news programs over the next two weeks.
The ad takes viewers to a splash page, ffrf.org/stopvouchers, which not only encourages them to contact legislators, but provides background and anti-voucher FAQs. FFRF notes that Walker's recently expanded statewide voucher system has resulted in a system where 100% of the state-funded schools are Christian, and 73% of students attend Roman Catholic schools.
FFRF, a national state/church watchdog based in Madison, Wis., has 22,000 nonreligious members nationwide, including more than 1,300 in Wisconsin.
FFRF will post the billboard message below in a Madison downtown location in mid-April.
Read WISC-TV Madison ad schedule here. Read Eau Claire WKBT-TV schedule here.
What is the current Wisconsin voucher system like?
A Freedom From Religion Foundation “In Reason We Trust” sign was stolen March 28 from the first floor Capitol rotunda in Madison, Wis. The sign features Thomas Jefferson with his thought-provoking quote, “Question with boldness even the existence of a god. . .”
FFRF Staff Attorney Sam Grover and Legal Intern Ryan Jayne filed the permit application on March 9. The sign was put up in the Capitol to counter Eastertime religious displays.
After contacting authorities, FFRF was given access to the security footage. On Sat., March 28, at 1:13 p.m., three suspects were recorded removing the 20x30 inch sign, along with the easel it was propped on.
The suspects are two males and a female, all Caucasian. Footage reveals one male suspect struggling to remove the tape securing the sign to the easel. The additional suspects joined shortly after, and posed to take multiple “selfies” on a cellphone camera. The thief left via the Wisconsin Avenue exit and the others exited via the West Washington exit.
The thieves will be chagrined to learn that the wooden easel wasn’t FFRF property. The stolen easel was a rental from the Capitol Police Department.
This theft is considered a Class A misdemeanor, with a fine up to $10,000 or imprisonment for up to 9 months. 939.51(3)(a) (a).
FFRF is offering a total of $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the thief.
If you have any information pertaining to this theft, please contact FFRF.
FFRF is a national state/church watchdog with more than 22,000 members, including over 1,300 in Wisconsin.
Dan Barker's newest book, debuting today, Life Driven Purpose: How an Atheist Finds Meaning, challenges the Rev. Rick Warren. Rev. Rick Warren's best-selling Christian book, Purpose Driven Life, begins with the sentence, "It's not about you." God planned your life before you were born, Warren preaches. "You don't get to choose your purpose."
Barker, a former minister who is co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, turns Warren's sad world view right-side up in his new book, released by Pitchstone Publishing, "It is about you," Dan's book begins. "When it comes to purpose, it is about you and no one else."
Life Driven Purpose, with an eloquent and moving foreword by philosopher Daniel C. Dennett (author of Breaking the Spell and an honorary director of FFRF), is the first book by an atheist aimed at the "inspirational/motivational" bookshelves. "We atheists are truly IN-spired," Dan says, "while believers are OUT-spired. They desperately seek their marching orders from somewhere outside themselves—a king, commander, lord, or slave master—while we nonbelievers find and create purpose and meaning within ourselves."
Inner-directed purpose is the only true purpose, Dan writes. "Asking, 'If there is no God, what is the purpose of life?' is like asking, 'If there is no master, whose slave will I be?'"
Chapter 1, "The Good News," softly mimics the "inspirational" style of psycho-faith authors like Rick Warren and Joel Osteen, but comes to a novel conclusion: the truly good news is that there is no purpose of life. There is purpose in life. Nonbelievers have lived, and are living, immensely meaningful lives as they work to solve problems and meet the challenges that confront us in the real world.
The rest of the book returns to Dan's familiar writing style. Chapter 2, "Mere Morality," reverses C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity and offers a superior naturalistic moral philosophy in its place. Chapter 3, "Religious Color Blindness," is a creative attempt to explain the polarized mind of a fundamentalist believer. You'll have to read it to discover how Annie Laurie's misplaced hat sheds light on religious belief. Chapter 4, "Much Ado About," is Dan's thoughtful answer to the question, "Can something come from nothing?"
The warm final chapter, "Life Is Life," circles back to meaning. Recounting personal stories from Dan's family, the chapter replaces the elusive "meaning of life" with the very real "meaning in life."
Life Driven Purpose flips almost every single religious precept on its head. You can see the real world much better, Dan says, if you are looking through the right end of the telescope. "A supernatural additive pollutes what is pure and precious in our species," Dan writes. "We atheists simply refuse to be cheated of the good life."
Richard Dawkins, who helped with the editing, calls Life Driven Purpose "a lovely book!"
If you order the book from FFRF, it benefits FFRF. Dan contributed his royalties to FFRF's stock of books. You can order the book for $20 postpaid via U.S. mail, FFRF Shop, PO Box 750, Madison WI 53701, or online at ffrf.org/shop, where online prices vary slightly due to custom shipping.
In the face of the cascade of state laws being adopted letting religionists discriminate, the Freedom From Religion Foundation is delighted to announce some good news: that the Common Council in Madison, Wis., last night adopted a first in the nation amendment to make "nonreligion" a protected class. This extends the same protections to "nonreligion" as "religion," sexual orientation and a host of other classes under Madison's Equal Opportunity Ordinance.
The historic ordinance was proposed by outgoing Ald. Anita Weier, formerly a reporter at the Capital Times, who found nine cosponsors after her amendment had an initially rocky reception by some subcommittees. Following testimony last night, two alderpersons on the 20-member council enthusiastically asked to be added as sponsors. The amendment was adopted by voice vote without objection.
"We encourage freethought activists — including the increasing number of local public officials who are atheists or agnostics — to work to introduce and replicate this protection at their city, county or even state levels," said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.
FFRF's Attorneys Patrick Elliott and Andrew Seidel testified last night, giving concrete examples of discrimination. Patrick noted festivals that give free entrance to those who attend church in Wisconsin, and told the Council how one of FFRF's plaintiffs in a lawsuit lost her job when her atheism became known. Andrew gave personal testimony and also noted that nonbelievers have been rejected as volunteers at soup kitchens, that several state constitutions forbid atheists to hold public office. (Read their effective formal testimony here, which changed minds when previously delivered at the committee level.) Chris Calvey, former director of Atheists, Humanists and Agnostics (AHA!), a University of Wisconsin campus group, noted that although AHA! is one of the largest, healthiest, best-endowed and active secular campus groups in the country, many former leaders and board members are afraid to include their volunteer work with AHA! on their resumes, concerned it could hurt employment options. Annie Laurie Gaylor's testimony about the symbolic value of protecting nonreligious as a class can be found at the end of this release.
The nonreligious are constantly on the offensive at the local governmental level, dealing with government prayer after the Greece fallout, and a campaign to plant "In God We Trust" seals in city and county chambers.
Campaigning to include atheists and other nonreligious as a protected class gives freethinkers a positive and proactive organizing tool to counter the endemic stigmatization of nonbelievers, and pressure to unite church and state.
Testimony by Annie Laurie Gaylor
Before Madison Common Council, March 31, 2015
FFRF Co-President
I'm speaking here as an individual, but can't resist pointing out the Freedom From Religion Foundation got its start here in these chambers not quite 40 years ago, back in 1976, when my mother, Anne Gaylor, and I came before this body to discuss a city state/church violation. The common council was kind enough to agree with our thoughts at that time, and the rest, as they say is history.
I'm here to encourage you to make more history tonight with Anita Weier's first of its kind proposal to explicitly include the nonreligious among the Equal Opportunity Ordinance's protected classes.
Speaking of history, back in the 1970s, another Anita, a very different Anita, Anita Bryant, got her start going before the Dade County, Fla. Board seeking something that was not nice, as Anita Weier's amendment is, seeking not to extend rights and protections, but to take them away. Bryant's ordinance unfortunately led to a national movement to take away rights from gays.
Aside from the practical applications, this amendment has great symbolic meaning. It's my hope that the adoption of this historic ordinance will seed other such ordinances to protect rights — nonreligious rights — around the country. This would be something the Madison common council could be very proud of.
This protection is much needed. In 2006, a longitudinal study was released by the University of Minnesota, called "Atheists as 'Other': Moral Boundaries and Cultural Membership in American Society."
The study found that atheists are less likely to be accepted, publicly and privately, than any others from a long list of ethnic, religious, and other minority groups including: Muslims, gays, recent immigrants, conservative Christians, Hispanics, Jews, Asian Americans, African Americans. The researchers found that all these groups had made significant gains in social acceptance since the 1960s — except one group — you guessed it, atheists. We're at the bottom of the totem poll when it comes to social acceptance. We're the people you would last like your children to marry – we "least share your vision of America."
Polls consistently show that more Americans would not vote for an atheist for president or vice president than for any other reason.
The stigmatization of nonbelievers is reflected in FFRF's constant litany of hate phone calls and crank email, often threatening, telling us that if we're atheists or nonreligious, we don't even deserve to live in the United States.
This ordinance would go a long way toward social acceptance of the nonreligious, and we'd be very grateful if you would include nonreligion as a protected class.
Statement by Annie Laurie Gaylor
FFRF Co-President
Freedom From Religion Foundation
When my mother-in-law Pat Barker's eyes were opened to religion after a lifetime of devout fundamentalist belief, she poignantly told my husband, Dan: "I'm so glad I don't have to hate anymore."
"You don't have to hate anymore" could be the slogan of the movement known by the hashtag #boycottindiana.
No one should hate in the name of religion. But certainly no one should be allowed to legally discriminate in the name of their god. Bigotry is not divine. No state should pass a law, like Indiana did last week, which grants religious citizens and corporations license to break laws they feel go against their religion, such as anti-discrimination laws protecting gays.
Indiana passed a state version of the federal law, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, that brought us the Supreme Court's infamous Hobby Lobby ruling last year, setting women's contraceptive rights back half a century. In that ruling, the right-wing, male, Catholic bloc on our Supreme Court ruled that corporations have "religious rights" that can be "offended" if employees don't follow their boss's religion, and that supersede the rights of women. The court decreed that as long as RFRA is a Congressional law, Hobby Lobby doesn't have to follow Obamacare's contraceptive mandate.
Clearly, it's time for Congress to overturn the federal RFRA, which has seeded state RFRAs in about a fifth of our states. If it's not in your state yet, watch out — it's coming soon.
Thanks to corporations that are more caring than Hobby Lobby, Indiana has become the focus of national consciousness raising and consternation. The NCAA released a statement: "We are especially concerned about how this legislation could affect our student-athletes and employees. We will work diligently to assure student-athletes competing in, and visitors attending, next week's Men's Final Four In Indianapolis are not impacted negatively by this bill."
Organizations such as gaming convention Gen Con and $4 billion software company Salesforce are already threatening to move operations out of Indiana.
Every hour, it seems, another city or state joins the boycott, including the mayors of Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, the governors of Connecticut and Washington. Celebrities such as George Takei and Audra McDonald have decried the law.
Tim Cook, the head of Apple, noted "something very dangerous [is] happening in states across the country . . . A wave of legislation . . . [to] allow people to discriminate against their neighbors . . . America's business community recognized a long time ago that discrimination, in all its forms, is bad for business. "
FFRF knows that these laws are bad for business, women, LGBT rights, and true religious liberty.
It's heartening to see the public concern over passage of the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act. But we also need to channel that concern against the 18 other state RFRAs (Arkansas is poised to pass its version this week), and the granddaddy that inspired them at the federal level.
FFRF with several children's advocacy groups submitted the only amicus brief in the Hobby Lobby case (written for us by Marci Hamilton) asking the Supreme Court to overturn the federal RFRA.
It's time to repeal the federal RFRA. Let's have no hate in my state — or in these United States.
1. Go to www.ffrf.org. Click on Login in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
2. Click Create a User Account (Members Only) on the pop-up window that appears.
3. Fill out the form. Use the email that we have on file for you (the email where you normally receive mail from FFRF). If you need to change your email with us, you can do it after you create your user account.
4. Once you click submit, you will receive an email prompting you to activate your account. Click on the link in the email.
5. Sign in using your email address and the password you created in step 3. If you have signed in successfully, you will see Hi (Your Name) in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Click on My Membership to make any changes to your user account or to update your address, sign up for free mailing lists, or renew your membership.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national state/church watchdog, has sent letters to five more public universities that inappropriately employ religious leaders for their basketball teams. The letters follow yesterday's letter and records request to Wichita State University. WSU informed FFRF today that it was investigating the chaplaincy.
Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino has allegedly established his friend, Father Ed Bradley, as the basketball team's "unofficial chaplain." Bradley reportedly travels with the team, sits with coaching staff on the team's bench, and leads the team in prayer before games, at halftime, after games, and while the team travels.
Many university chaplains, including WSU's Steve Dickie, are associated with Nations of Coaches, a religious organization that provides "character coaches" and chaplains to basketball programs. The group's logo is a whistle with a cross on it, and bible verses abound on its website. "Nations of Coaches exists to impact coaches and all whom they influence for the glory of God," says the group's application.
The University of Maryland employs pastor Donnell Jones as a team chaplain, and Oklahoma University lists Scott Thompson as its "Character Coach." Both men are associated with Nations of Coaches.
In addition, the University of Virginia employs Brad Soucie as Director of Player Development. Soucie and Assistant Head Coach McKay have been together since their time at Liberty University, an evangelical Christian school founded by Jerry Falwell. Soucie recently spoke at a church about the "significance of men finding their identity in Jesus instead of success, work, or any other source."
Kansas University also has a chaplain, Wayne Simien. Simien quit the NBA to pursue a "passion . . . for Christian ministry and youth athletics," and has said his goal is "to impact the lives through sports and with the message of Jesus Christ."
"Public school athletic teams cannot appoint or employ a chaplain, seek out a spiritual leader for the team, or agree to have a volunteer team chaplain because public schools may not advance or promote religion," Seidel told the universities.
FFRF Co-President Dan Barker noted that giving these chaplains secular titles compounds the violation by blurring the line between a legitimate position and an abuse of that position to "[help] basketball players learn how to love God," as Wichita State chaplain Steve Dickie put it.
One in three Americans under the age of 30 identifies as nonreligious, FFRF points out, making it very likely these chaplains are imposing their religion on students who are not religious and just want to play basketball. "Abolishing the team chaplaincy will not alter student athletes' ability to pray, but it will prevent some student athletes from feeling coerced into participating in prayers to a deity they may not believe in," wrote Seidel.
FFRF also requested financial records and policies relating to religion in athletics from all of the colleges.
Three of the schools, Wichita State, Louisville, and Oklahoma, are still alive in the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16. Given that both teams have religious guidance, FFRF is unable to understand how God decided Wichita State would beat Kansas University in the teams' Round of 32 matchup last weekend.
FFRF had been trying to obtain a response from Portland State University in Oregon about its hotel bibles since its original letter of complaint in February 2014. "If guests want to read this religious text during their stay, they should do what everyone else does, travel with the book they want to read. The state need not, and cannot, provide religious literature to citizens," said Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel.
With help from FFRF's Portland chapter and the PSU Secular Student Alliance, FFRF was able to confirm that the bibles had been removed from rooms, despite the university's unwillingness to admit it had taken action.