Atheist marker, stemming from settlement of Ten Commandments lawsuit, is called the first in U.S.

Atheists now have a monument, and place to rest, in Florida. And they say they intend to do likewise in every state.

American Atheists, a New Jersey-based organization that says it fights to separate government and religion, unveiled a monument Saturday of a bench next to a monument of the Ten Commandments at the courthouse in Starke, Fla. population 5,500, in the north-central part of the state between Gainesville and Jacksonville. It's believed to be the first public marker dedicated to atheism in the U.S., Morgan Watkins reports for The Gainesville Sun. (Sun photo by Matt Stamey: David Silverman, president of American Atheists, at the unveiling)

American Atheists "sued Bradford County in May 2012, soon after the Ten Commandments monument was erected in front of the courthouse, seeking the monument's removal," Watkins reports. "The Community Men's Fellowship, a Starke-based group that sponsored the religious monument when it was erected, refused the county's request that it remove the display and filed its own lawsuit. During court-ordered mediation, the groups settled on an agreement: The Ten Commandments monument could stay, but American Atheists would establish their own monument in kind."

The group announced that it "will erect up to 50 more monuments across the country in public places where religious structures like the Ten Commandments marker in Starke have been established," Watkins reports. "An anonymous donor has pledged up to $500,000 for this effort." (Read more)