Freethought and Fellowship

While a few freethinkers have the benefit of being raised in a secular home, that is not the case for many of us. We grow up in a church, get use to the fellowship of our church community, then realize the folly of it all and venture out into the world with increased knowledge yet less social support.

There have been numerous, mostly failed attempts, at creating atheist/secular/freethought churches both online and off. I can't speak to why most of these attempts have failed but have noticed a few big issues: 1) lack of true direction: you can't build an organization simply around lack of belief in something; it needs community building activities 2) Dictator-like leadership: you can't make freethinkers do anything they don't want to do 5) Preaching: skeptics don't want to be told what to believe at all. Share ideas, don't present them as fact.4)Uncreative: why is it necessary to have the word 'church' in the name?

As a step away from failed 'church' models I am pleased to introduce to you a new community model for freethinkers, the Fellowship of Freethought (aka FoFDallas). It is a young organization but is built by those who have learned from past experience with other models like those listed above. FoFDallas is member-owned, member-run, and open source and boasts a mission statement that most freethinkers would be proud to stand behind:

To create a positive impact on our shared world, our mission is to provide a community that values and promotes a freethinking life unencumbered by the biases of tradition, dogma, and authority and that encourages people to live a reason and evidence-based life characterized by close fellowship, ethical contemplation, critical thinking, community service, and the appreciation of scientific knowledge and understanding of the universe and our place in it.

I am very happy to say that I am one of the founding members of FoFDallas and look forward to our future as a community in Dallas and as an expanded community when others choose to start groups in their own areas. Freethinkers need fellowship; we just don't need the bs that typically comes with it!

You can learn more about Fellowship of Freethought by visiting http://fellowshipoffreethought.org I'll be posting further updates later as I expect you'll find this as interesting of a concept as many others in the Dallas area have already.

(Names of failed freethought church models have been left out so their feelings won't get hurt.)

Camp Quest Texas Fundraiser

What: Camp Quest Texas Fundraiser Dinner, Raffle, and Silent Auction

When: December 10, 2009 6pm to 9pm

Where: Al-Amir in Addison, TX

Cost (includes dinner): $25 adults; $15 (kids 12 and under)

Attendees can register at:

http://campquesttexas.org/register


Camp Quest Texas is a residential summer camp for the children of Freethinkers. We are dedicated to the promotion of critical thinking, the scientific method, ethics derived from human experience and the separation of church and state as protected by the US Constitution, in our children. Camp Quest Texas will provide our children with a place where they will feel welcome, safe and secure. Camp Quest Texas will reinforce the vales we all hold as dear. Camp Quest Texas needs your support to become a reality! Please RSVP today and be a part of the historic creation of Camp Quest Texas.


In addition to supporting Camp Quest Texas you will have the opportunity to participate in a silent auction (including Cowboys v Chargers tickets and a book autographed by Penn Jillette!) and ‘balloon raffle’ for other great services/events while enjoying authentic Mediterranean cuisine and being entertained by a belly dancer. A generous family style dinner prepared by Al-Amir’s chef is included in the cost of the event. Al-Amir will donate ten percent of all food and beverage sales from our benefit to Camp Quest Texas, so show your support the way a Freethinker would-with your heart and soul stomach!


Questions? Please contact campquest@churchoffreethought.org

#No God

Anyone who plays around on Twitter probably noticed today that #No God was the #1 trending topic for quite a few hours. It was there for a fluke reason but was a lot of fun to play with. Basically, a popular twitter theist tweeted "No God, No Peace; Know God Know Peace" Well between that getting RTd a few thousand times and other people tweeting things like "Oh no, my God I don't want to go to school today" #No God became a trending topic. Much to the dismay of the Christians and other theists, Atheists picked up on this and ran with it.

Surprise, surprise but some people started threatening to delete their Twitter accounts if #No God remained a trending topic. They also made sure to throw some mighty nasty insults at anyone using the #No God tag in any way that was not flattering to their personal (and very sensitive) worldview. Some of these insults were so bad that I won't repeat them here others were as lame as "RT: @djsynical: @HappyAtheist your face proves god has truly shunned you #mudduck//<---look, a true christian!".

Well, apparently, like a kid refusing to quit screaming if they don't get candy, these childish twits got their way and Twitter removed #No God from the trending topics well before activity had died down. It didn't slide down the TT list, it was manually removed by Twitter staff. While Twitter is a private company and can censor however much they like, if censorship becomes a Twitter trend I guarantee they will lose their growing fan base.

A Christian Atheist: Why we need Atheist Church

As I was browsing news articles on the Internet I came across the following headline Finding a community as an atheist in church.  This, of course, grabbed my attention.  I wondered what type of church and maybe if more people were trying to start churches like the North Texas Church of Freethought.  Needless to say, I was surprised to read that an atheist UT professor had decided to start attending a Christian church.

While I understand the need for community, I wonder why Jensen, that's his name, didn't look into the many atheist/free-thought groups that are operating quite strongly in many parts of Texas; including Austin where UT is located.  The article does not touch on if he tried atheist or free-thought communities prior to joining the Christian church; but does offer the following quote from Jensen:

I joined a Christian church to be part of that hope for the future, to struggle to make religion a force that can help usher into existence a world in which we can imagine living in peace with each other and in sustainable relation to the non-human world. Such a task requires a fearlessness and intelligence beyond what we have mustered to date, but it also requires a faith in our ability to achieve it.

That's why I am a Christian.

An atheist-Christian?  I can't help but find this odd at best and foolish at worst.  References to "deeper meaning" in the reference article lead me to think that Jensen was searching for a sort of atheist spirituality that simply doesn't exist and found that personal need filled by liberal Christianity.  But I don't want to discuss what it means to be a Christian here or if Jensen made a good decision.

What I do want to comment on is that this demonstrates a need to form stronger communities as free-thinkers so that we do not miss out on the social network and support provided by a religious church.  However, at the same time, when discussing attending free-thought groups with fellow non-believers many of them seem unsure about attending.  Many of these people are the same people who complain about not having anyone to talk to that isn't religious.  So, I'll end this blog by asking a few questions of my fellow non-believers.

What do you think about Jensen's calling himself a Christian while he is an atheist?  Is there something about spirituality that fills a need secular communities cannot fill?  Do you personally feel the need for community?  If so, how do you fill that need?

The Steak and the Cross

This originally appeared on the writer's blog An American in Taiwan as "The Steak and the Cross: Atheism and Vegetarianism are Closer Than You Think" on June 6, 2009. He posted it here because he a) believes it's pertinent, and b) is a total publicity whore. If you wish to link to it, please use this Trackback URI.

I'm not a vegetarian. I would probably starve. Just want to get that out of the way.

These days, social networks give everyone a soapbox and makes everyone a critic. I'm just as guilty as anybody. Thankfully, I don't get a lot of flak for my secular worldview, though I imagine some people see my anti-religious ranting or tweeting as offensive or unnecessary. My response to them is: it is no different from youth ministers or the very devout discussing how wonderful Jesus is or how blessed they feel or how they need to evangelize more. No difference. They just don't like it when I do it. Some people really don't like it.

A friend of mine decided, after two years of being a vegetarian, to fall off the wagon. He and his girlfriend went to a restaurant, watched the Cavs game and had fish.

Sounds fairly innocent, and it is. When he posted something about it on Facebook, he received a mixed response of cheers and questions about what took him so long. He described the feeling to me:

When you eat meat, nobody asks why. But, if you say you're a vegetarian, they immediately begin to question you: 'What are your motives? Do you feel bad for the animals? Do you not like meat? How can you not like meat?' That, or they try to corner you with inconsistencies: 'Well, I see you're wearing leather shoes, so you're obviously not vegetarian because you care about animals.' Then, when you tell people you've started eating meat again, it's like they welcome you back into society. You're one of "us" again. It's absolutely bizarre.

He wondered if I ever get that sort of thing about my worldview choice. Some of us get it more than others, I'm sure. Being in a very liberal college town, I'm surrounded by secular people. My wife is from Taiwan, where the population ratio of secular to religious is the even smaller than the inverse of what it is here. I'm definitely looking forward to that, when public policies are based on the wellbeing of the people, rather than the ideology of some religious nutjobs.

It got me to thinking, though, that atheists and vegetarians aren't really that different. Here, I'll show you:

Atheists are atheists because they believe that it's fully possible (and, many would contend, preferable) to have a great life without religion and still maintain high moral and ethical standards. In other words, you can still be good without God.

Vegetarians are vegetarians because they believe that it's fully possible (and, many would contend, preferable) to have a great diet without meat and still maintain high dietary and culinary standards. In other words, you can still eat without meat.

Now, I'm not going to say that I feel good that animals die so I can enjoy how they taste. I just don't feel bad enough that I'll stop. Can't remember which comedian said it, but I did not climb to the top of the food chain to be eating broccoli. Still, it's important to know, if you're eating meat, where it comes from and show it due respect.

Jamie Oliver did a show examining chickens, eggs and how they get from the farm to your plate. It's a very revealing look at modern chicken farming and the difference between battery and free range. Or, if you're a seafood kind of person, just watch the former Iron Chef Michiba Rokusaburo take apart an Angler fish (Monkfish, Goosefish, depending on where you are).

Delicious. I guess. I've never had it. I'd love to try it, though. That's one of the things I'm really looking forward to about living in Taiwan: best seafood around.

I'm sure at this point you're thinking, 'How is he going to tie this back into refuting a religious worldview?'

Well, atheists have looked at religion and deemed it disturbing, painful and unnecessary enough that they prefer to live without it, just as the vegetarians have done with meat. The big difference being that atheists do it because they care about human lives rather than animal lives.

Uh oh. Now I'll have PETA on my ass for putting people before animals. I'm not worried; I could probably take Ingrid. Probably.

I think people are more likely to give a vegetarian shit than an atheist because there's no clause in the social contract that says you must be tolerant of what people eat. Even at our wedding, we had three vegetarians out of 60 guests, and we devoted 1/6 of the menu to them. If you have a group of 60 people and 3 of them are avowed atheists (which is about the national average; if you throw non-religious, agnostic and Buddhist/etc in with that group, it'd be more like 12 or 13 out of 60), what are the chances that they'll be considered at all? Pretty slim, I'd say.

The steak and the cross: two sides to the same coin, it seems. Having said that, I think I'll have steak for dinner tonight. Pan seared. No wine.



If you would like to follow the anti-religious ranting or tweeting of this carnivorous writer, visit his blog and follow him on Twitter. He'll probably follow you back. He's nice like that. He may even buy you a steak.