Congressman Jamie Raskin’s Greeting to Attendees of the 2022 Thomas Paine Festival
The 2022 Friggatriskaidekaphobia Treatment Center’s Online International Educational Seminar
More Photos from the June 2022 Thomas Paine Festival
Fables by Herb Silverman
Racism, Religion, and Irrationality in Buffalo and Beyond by Norm R. Allen, Jr.
Announcing a New Freethought Society Committee!
Several Freethought Board Members React to the Anti-Choice Supreme Court Decision Submissions by, Margaret Downey, Glen Loev, Alan Gold, Victoria De la Torre, and Sally Flynn
Freethought Society Two-Month Calendar
Donation and Information Page
We hope that you will remain or become an active supporter of the great work FS is doing. Please donate to the general fund or select a project you want to help sponsor. All donations to FS are tax-deductible (EIN: 23-2738574).
If the Ezine inspires you to become more actively involved with FS, please provide us with your contact information, including your phone number and mailing address.
Special events are being planned in your area so don’t miss an opportunity to participate further. All personal information is confidential and will not be shared with other organizations.
Click here to see the May/June/July/August 2022 Freethought Society (FS) Ezine.
In the Ezine you will find the following:
The Thomas Paine Birthdate Celebration Brings Great Progress for the Statue Project!
Photos from the 2022 Thomas Paine Birthdate Celebration
House Bill 6720
Tracking House Bill 6720
Talking to Christian Fundamentalists
by Herb Silverman
Secular Student Alliance/Freethought Society Secular Student Scholarship Announcement
Well, Perhaps Chaplains Are for Atheists, Too
by Art Karloff
Truth or Consequences
by Vic Losick
How I Went from Advertising God to Leaving God
by John Follis
Freethought Society Two-Month Zoom Calendar
Donation and Information Page
We hope that you will remain or become an active supporter of the great work FS is doing. Please donate to the general fund or select a project you want to help sponsor. All donations to FS are tax-deductible!
If the Ezine inspires you to become more actively involved with FS, please provide us with your contact information, including your phone number and mailing address.
Special events are being planned in your area so don’t miss an opportunity to participate further. All personal information is confidential and will not be shared with other organizations.
The Freethought Society (FS) is pleased to present the very first Friggatriskaidekaphobia Treatment Center’s International Educational Seminar via Zoom on Friday, May 13, 2022. The event will be hosted by FS President Margaret Downey.
The event will start at 3:45 PM PDT/6:45 PM EDT with the introduction of comedian Ian Harris. His 15-minute standup routine will take a humorous look at superstitions and irrational beliefs that permeate American culture.
At 4:00 PM PDT/7:00 PM EDT social activist Babu Gogineni will tell us about superstitions that prevail in India. Be ready for shocking disclosures and unthinkable practices that are thought to have magical benefits strong enough to change the course of nature.
At 4:30 PM PDT/7:30 PM EDT FS board member Norm Allen will convey the many African superstitions he witnessed and dealt with throughout his 30-year career as the Founder and President of African Americans for Humanism. He will share with us the horror of witch hunts and the belief that using certain body parts of albinistic people can transmit magical powers.
The keynoted speaker is author Stuart Vyse. His presentation will start at 5:00 PM PDT/8:00 PM EDT. Vyse is an American psychologist, teacher, speaker and author who specializes in critical thinking and belief in superstitions. His book Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition won the William James Book Award of the American Psychological Association and was translated into Japanese, German, and Romanian.
For more details see the Meetup page created for this event at the below link: https://bit.ly/Frigga13th
On Saturday, April 30, 2022, the Freethought Society is pleased to host Seth Andrews at 11:45 AM PDT/2:45 PM EDT.
Andrews is a former evangelical and Christian broadcaster who now hosts The Thinking Atheist…one of the most popular online atheist communities in the world. The Thinking Atheist is not a person. It is an icon encouraging all to reject faith and pursue reason and evidence. Since its launch in 2010, The Thinking Atheist podcast has been downloaded over 50 million times.
Andrews has authored five books, including his latest offering, Christianity Made Me Talk Like an Idiot.”
With a mix of humor and heart, Andrews has spoken for audiences large and small in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia about his former faith, the promotion of science and skepticism, the importance of Humanism in this often crazy world, and why we should all pursue a personal relationship with reality.
The title of Andrews’ presentation is “I Sold My Soul on Twitter.” He will take a candid look at how tribalized, and often cruel, we can become — especially in the era of Covid and social media’s isolating algorithms. When is outrage appropriate, and when are we losing our way in a haze of unnecessary shouting, labeling, calling out, and condemning? Join Andrews for a journey toward re-humanizing ourselves and others in this often crazy world.
The Freethought Society and the American Ethical Union are pleased to host Chetan Ahimsa via Zoom on Thursday, March 10, 2022 at 6:45 PM EST/3:45 PM PST. Ahimsa is an actor from Kannada, India and a political/social activist.
The 15-minute pre-event chat social will highlight some of the films Ahimsa has appeared in.
Ahimsa is known for his efforts protesting against the Indian caste system. In June 2021, Ahimsa was arrested by Basavanagudi police who were following a complaint from the president of a little-known organization called “Yuva Vipra Vedike.” Read more at: bit.ly/3Ilf31P
Chetan Ahimsa
Ahimsa fights for equality, justice, rationality, and non-violence. He will tell us what motivates him to be a social activist.
Ahimsa credits his mother, Mangala Kumar, and his father, Amar Kumar (both doctors), for providing him with the willpower to continue his important activism work, but as a young adult Ahimsa studied the writings of Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy.
Revered as “Periyar,” Ramasamy was an Indian social activist and politician who started the Self-Respect Movement called Dravidar Kazhagam. He is known as the Father of the Dravidian, a social movement that advocates to eradicate the ills of the existing caste system including untouchability. Ahimsa will talk about Periyar’s importance in India’s rational thinking movement, the acceptance of atheism, and to himself personally.
