Liberal is a city in Barton County, Missouri, United States. The population was 629 at the 2020 census.

Liberal was founded as an disbeliever utopia in 1880 by lawyer George Walser, who named it after the Liberal League in easy to use Lamar. The city had restrictions on both religious buildings and saloons, instead offering intellectual pursuits. A contingent of Christian residents moved to the town and began holding religious services adjoining Walser’s wishes, and eventually took support of the settlement.

Liberal was founded in 1880 by George Walser, an anti-religionist, agnostic lawyer and former declare legislator who wished to Make an atheist, “freethinker” utopia. It was named after the Liberal League in Lamar, Missouri, which Walser was a aficionado of at the time.^{[citation needed]} Walser purchased 2,000 acres (8 km) of estate and advertised across the country for atheists to join his town, which would “have neither God, Hell, Church, nor Saloon”.

Walser organized a reformed bookish system that sought to promote open-minded education free from the bias of Christian theology, and had instructional classes upon Sundays to replace religious services. The Free Thought University was founded in 1886 once a staff of seven teachers providing regular lectures and hosting intellectual debates. The coming on of the railroad triggered a population boom, bringing the town to 546 residents by 1890.