A Bill of Rights for Unbelievers

The freedoms of thought and expression count as our most fundamental and cherished rights and promote both individual welfare and the common good in a democratic state. Historically, however, unbelievers such as secular humanists, atheists, agnostics, rationalists, and freethinkers have faced prejudice, intolerance, and discrimination for their opinions and discoveries.

In the firm conviction that the principal of church-state separation guarantees the equal rights of the religious and non-religious, we the Campus Freethought Alliance, on this 12th Day of July, 1998, hereby present the following Bill of Rights for Unbelievers.

Unbelievers shall have the right to:

1. Think freely and autonomously, express their views forthrightly, and debate or criticize any and all ideas without fear of censure, recrimination, or public ostracism.
2. Be free from discrimination and persecution in the workplace, business transactions, and public accommodations.
3. Exercise freedom of conscience in any situation where the same right would be extended to believers on religious grounds alone.
4. Hold any public office, in accordance with the constitutional principal that there shall be no religious test for such office.
5. Abstain from religious oaths and pledges, including pledges of allegiance, oaths of office, and oaths administered in a court of law, until such time as these are secularized or replaced by non-discriminatory affirmations.
6. Empower members of their community to perform legally binding ceremonies, such as marriage.
7. Raise and nurture their children in a secular environment, and not be disadvantaged in adoption or custody proceedings because of their unbelief.
8. Conduct business and commerce on any day of their choosing, without interference from laws or regulations recognizing religious days of prayer, rest, or celebration.
9. Enjoy freedom from taxation supporting the government employment of clergy, and access to secular counseling equivalent to that provided by chaplains.
10. Declare conscientious objection to serving in the armed forces under any circumstance in which the religious may do so.
11. Live as citizens of a democracy free from religious language and imagery in currency, public schools and buildings, and government documents and business.