I've been working on these for almost a year now - just finished a small revision. Please comment, criticize, etc.
Why Form A Group?
For debate and discussion? Obviously, these will be our top activities. However, and not to diminish the value of face-to-face conversation, we can have great discussions over the internet. We could just maintain the message board and leave it at that.
I believe that the reason we seek out other like-minded individuals is not just to discuss, but to try to make a positive change. In order to do so, we need to identify our common goals, which, among freethinkers, can be a difficult task. I propose the following as our general goals:
I believe these four goals encompass many other smaller goals, and leave enough margin to include our individual areas of concern.
Broad-Based Recommendations For Action
Bearing the above goals in mind, what actions should we take to achieve them? Accepting that holding meetings and having discussions within the group are activities that contribute to each, here are some recommendations:
To provide for our members opportunities for discussion, education, fellowship, and activism.
To promote greater public understanding of science, reason, and critical thinking.
To promote greater public understanding of belief systems that exclude the supernatural.
To oppose efforts to undermine the secular nature of our government.
I don't see our group as the type that would participate in ostentatious protests or marches, so I tried to tailor these activities to appeal to members at varying levels of desired involvement.
Please note that I respectfully put all of these propositions up for discussion - I have no intention of unilaterally forcing these opinions on the group.
Why Form A Group?
For debate and discussion? Obviously, these will be our top activities. However, and not to diminish the value of face-to-face conversation, we can have great discussions over the internet. We could just maintain the message board and leave it at that.
I believe that the reason we seek out other like-minded individuals is not just to discuss, but to try to make a positive change. In order to do so, we need to identify our common goals, which, among freethinkers, can be a difficult task. I propose the following as our general goals:
- To provide for our members opportunities for discussion, education, fellowship, and activism. I believe Luke
mentioned how much some of our activities would resemble church activities - this isn't necessarily a bad thing. We could provide a soft landing place
for those who wish to leave the world of faith and religion.
- To promote greater public understanding of science, reason, and critical thinking. Regardless of personal and
religious beliefs, these are areas of concern for the future of our nation and planet. I think we agree that these key tools represent our best hope for the
meeting the challenges that face our future generations, and they have fallen into a state of relative neglect, particularly in the United States.
- To promote greater public understanding of belief systems that exclude the supernatural. I believe the average person simply doesn't understand what it means to be an atheist, agnostic, or otherwise irreligious person. While changing our public perception is a monumental task, hopefully our efforts will eventually lead to greater acceptance.
- To oppose efforts to undermine the secular nature of our government. By far our most difficult and polarizing goal, we hope to utilize successes in seeking our other three goals to make calm, reasoned, and rational arguments against such undermining efforts.
I believe these four goals encompass many other smaller goals, and leave enough margin to include our individual areas of concern.
Broad-Based Recommendations For Action
Bearing the above goals in mind, what actions should we take to achieve them? Accepting that holding meetings and having discussions within the group are activities that contribute to each, here are some recommendations:
To provide for our members opportunities for discussion, education, fellowship, and activism.
- Host educational events, including speakers and films
- Hold social events, separate from official meetings
To promote greater public understanding of science, reason, and critical thinking.
- Volunteer in educational efforts
- Contact local PBS station, recommend programming
- Hold fundraisers, make contributions to scientific institutions
- Lobby local school board to increase efforts in science
- Write position papers on the importance of critical thinking to future economic, ecological, political challenges, etc.
- Assist in the creation of a freethinker group on a local college campus, ideally IPFW or Indiana Tech
To promote greater public understanding of belief systems that exclude the supernatural.
- Volunteer in charitable efforts
- Identify those local groups that would be most friendly to our beliefs
- Coordinate activities with religious groups that accentuate our points of commonality
- Seek honest, open discussion with others who do not share our beliefs
- On an individual basis, conduct ourselves as upstanding, community-minded citizens
To oppose efforts to undermine the secular nature of our government.
- First and foremost, engage in the activities conducive to our first three goals
- Write letters to the editors of local papers
- Contact our representatives
I don't see our group as the type that would participate in ostentatious protests or marches, so I tried to tailor these activities to appeal to members at varying levels of desired involvement.
Please note that I respectfully put all of these propositions up for discussion - I have no intention of unilaterally forcing these opinions on the group.
