One of the country's largest atheist organizations filed a lawsuit against a West Virginia school district for holding an optional Bible course, saying the program violates the First Amendment rights of students.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) sued the Mercer County Schools for implementing its "Bible in the Schools" class, an optional course that has been available since 1939. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, Bluefield Division, was done on behalf of a student's parent who was bringing up her child as an atheist.

The lawsuit said that the Bible course promotes one religion and violates the personal consciences of students who do not share or practice the Christian faith. "Forcing Jane Doe to choose between putting her child in a Bible study class or subjecting her child to the risk of ostracism by opting out of the program violates the rights of conscience of Jane and Jamie Doe and therefore their First Amendment rights," the lawsuit read.

The First Amendment prohibits Congress from filing laws that promote one religion over others and restricting a person from practicing his religion.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the school declined to give a statement, as they are still reviewing the details of the lawsuit, according to a report from The Christian Post. In 1939, the "Bible in Schools" started as a single course in Blue Field High School, which was eventually controlled by the Mercer County Board of Education in 1986.

The FFRF came out with a press release enumerating the points of contention in their lawsuit. The group called the Bible course an "equivalent of sectarian Sunday school instruction." They pointed out "Lesson 2" of the Bible course, which they say is promoting Creationism, wherein humans and dinosaurs were said to have co-existed. Another is "Lesson 6," which encourages students to obey the 10 Commandments.

The Pew Research Center came out with a Religious Landscape Study in 2014, which indicated that the number of American adults identifying themselves as atheists had doubled in recent years, rising to 3.1 percent in 2014 from 1.6 percent in 2007. The same study showed that about 32 percent of atheist respondents "look primarily to science for guidance on questions of right and wrong.