The University of Florida in Gainesville has made a compromise with an atheist group by agreeing to post secular quotes aside from a biblical quotation on an arch on a donated building.
In April, the atheist group Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) wrote a letter to the university complaining that a Bible quote on its arch to the Heavener School of Business is unconstitutional as it violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
"This inscription violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and cannot remain on university property," the correspondence read. "The verse inscribed on Heavener Hall is religious, preaches obedience to the Christian God, and must be removed."
The arch contains the verse Micah 6:8 which says, "He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
The Bible quote was provided by the building's donour and school's namesake, James W. Heavener.
In a statement, the university said it will add three more quotes as compromise.
These are: "To restrain our selfish[ness], and to indulge our benevolent affections, constitutes the perfection of human nature." Adam Smith, 1759 (The Theory of Moral Sentiments); "Wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else." Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics); and "My country is the world, and my religion is to do good." Thomas Paine, 1791 (The Rights of Man)."
"The school has no interest in advancing or burdening religion; its only interest is educational and relates to the quotes' core universal ethical principles," it said.
An explanatory plaque will be added to the arch, which reads: "The Ethical Portal to Heavener Hall:
"Ethics are fundamental to successful business education and enterprise. Scholars and students of ethics derive universal ethical principles from a wide range of sources, secular and religious, whether or not any particular scholar or student ascribes to religious beliefs.
"Three of the quotes on the four surfaces of this Ethical Portal are secular sources of universal ethical principles relevant to business, and one is a religious source.
"While the quote from a religious source has broader personal meaning to James W. Heavener, who provided the quote and after whom Heavener Hall and the Heavener School of Business are named—and while Thomas Paine did not ascribe to a personal deity and his quote derives from his belief in a natural order and the "exercise of reason"—the School is seeking only to encourage students to identify and explore the core universal ethical principles of justice, mercy and humility, being a citizen of the world, seeking to do good, and unselfishly serving the greater good."
The installation will be held in the next few weeks.
