In 2013, a Christian group called “Community Men’s Fellowship” were given permission to erect a granite monument of the Ten Commandments, a set of religious and legal rules considered sacred by followers of Judaism and Christianity, in front of the Bradford County Courthouse. In response, the group American Atheists sued and won the right to erect their own monument to non-belief.
They erected a 1,500-pound bench and four-foot-tall obelisk engraved with quotes from Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and American Atheist founder Madalyn Murray O’Hair as well as a list of ten punishments for breaking the ten commandments found in the holy texts of both the Christian and Jewish faiths.
This monument is believed to be the first atheist monument on public land in the United States.
