north texas church of freethought type church founded 1994 dallas texas u.s. headquarters dallas texas key people tim gorski md pastoral director website www.churchoffreethought.org the north texas church of freethought ntcof was founded by tim gorski and mike and marilyn sullivan in 1994 as perhaps the first explicitly non theistic and non supernaturalistic religious organization in the usa . its aim has been to serve the psychosocial needs of atheists agnostics and other non religious people in the dallas fort worth area and to promote a rational and humanistic view of what have been traditionally religious issues and questions . 1 2 3 the first service was held at what was then the wilson world hotel in irving texas ; currently they are held at the comfort inn dfw airport north in irving texas . free childcare and sunday school classes have been an integral part of the ntcof s mission . 4 since march 2000 the houston church of freethought has pursued the same goals and provided the same services in that city . a northern california church of freethought was briefly in existence around 1999 but has since disbanded . 5 on may 18 2006 the texas state comptroller s office granted tax exempt status to the ntcof as a result of actions taken by americans united for separation of church and state which had previously secured tax exempt status for the ethical society of austin . 6 this status had been previously denied to the ntcof and other non traditional churches because they did not profess a belief in god or gods or a higher power . 7 because the ntcof characterizes itself as a church it has been the subject of mixed opinion by atheist groups ; for example an attempted donation to american atheists was once rejected 8 and paul kurtz founder of the council for secular humanism discouraged the ntcof founders when they approached him with their idea . 9 however the atheist alliance international in 2000 published a press release defending the ntcof against perceived media bias from a dallas area television news story . 10 the ntcof takes the position that churches are simply units of social organization intermediate between those of the family and the larger community that are based on deeply felt shared beliefs concerning matters of ultimate concern . 11 ntcof officiants have conducted marriages naming ceremonies and funerals remembrances . the ntcof filed an amicus curiae brief in 2004 for elk grove unified school district v. newdow supporting michael newdow s argument . dr. newdow has also founded a secular church the first atheist church of true science facts . 12 external links edit north texas church of freethought houston church of freethought dfw coalition of reason united coalition of reason references edit who said you have to believe to attend church 2000 07 13 . beliefnet.com . retrieved 2014 12 20 . embree stephanie 2014 08 08 . atheist churches provide a community for dallas nonbelievers . the dallas morning news dallasnews.com . retrieved 2014 12 20 . sanburn josh 2014 07 24 . atheist churches gain popularity even in the bible belt . time.com . retrieved 2014 12 20 . collier lorna 2000 10 22 . a solitary project some parents build a family without a religious foundation . chicago tribune health and family . reproduced online at lornacollier.com . retrieved 2015 01 10 . northern california church of freethought webpage archived . americans united helps texas church of freethought win tax exempt status press release 2006 05 26 . au.org . retrieved 2015 01 10 . http www.religionnewsblog.com 7303 texas official says unitarian church not a tax exempt religion http jscms.jrn.columbia.edu cns 2008 04 15 horowitz atheistchurches http nymag.com news features 46214 index1.html http www.atheistalliance.org library news 111900.php http jcs.oxfordjournals.org content 30 2 245 . extract http www.evolvefish.com newdow bio.htm retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title north texas church of freethought & oldid 737040692 categories freethought organizationsorganizations based in texasorganizations established in 1994skeptic organizations in the united states navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 31 august 2016 at 11 29 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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