I’ve belonged to Orlando Atheists & Freethinkers group for a little while now.  Previously, I was on like-minded Internet sites for several years.  One of the many things I find interesting is the acknowledged need for freethought educational resources for our children.  But I see very little conversations or requests for adult continuing education on the same subjects.  The religious communities hammer home the idea that their membership should grow in knowledge of dogma.  It should make equal sense that the “Reality Based Community” should grow in scientific literacy.

Other people’s kids accept strange concepts about life, afterlife, origins of life, and the world around them. How easy then should it be to educate our own kids about science and the real world, since we freethinkers have facts on our side.  This can only happen if we ourselves are armed with superior knowledge on these vital subjects.  More than facts, we should also be able to give children the ability to use critical thinking and evidence-based reasoning.  To do this we must be more than a little familiar with these concepts.

This desirable idea of constant self-education in reason is not just for the sake of the kiddies, but also for our own sake.  I was a victim of a multitude of false dogmas, concepts and ideas for many years.  I still am not immune to charlatans and scams.  Vigilance and self education is the best defense against all the varying attacks on our rights, rationalism, and wallets.  We may be immune to the purveyors of god(s), an immunity for most of us probably attained through reason, but how are we doing against spiritualists, alternative healers, advertisers, and political apologists?

Certain concepts like logical fallacies are still hard for me to keep in mind when presented with new or different arguments.  These really come in handy around political campaign season.   Trying to tell the difference between folklore/urban myths and actual sound practices is hard to do without a minimum of critical thinking skills.  If a person doesn’t understand the scientific method, proper testing or statistics, as well as the peer review process, it makes deciding between science and pseudo-science incredibly difficult.

We people of reason should see the advantages of the our worldview over those of the fantasy-based beliefs.  Simply knowing us will perhaps expose others to reason; when we engage with the uninitiated, it would be best to know what we are talking about.  If we do, this can only benefit our neighborhood, communities, country, and eventually and hopefully the world at large.  I like to suppose that we are at the beginning of a renaissance of rationalism, but it isn’t the first time.  In the later part of the 1800’s both reason and spirituality boomed; the likes of Mark Twain and Robert Ingersoll on the freethought side and those of the ilk of Mary White (founder of Seventh Day Adventism) and Joseph Smith (founder of Mormonism) on the religious side.  Eventually freethinkers lost and very well might lose again if we don’t learn all we can and expose others to this knowledge, even if it is just our own kids.

Recommended Resources:

James Randi Educational Foundation
Pharyngula – PZ Myers Science Blog
The Skeptics Guide Science Podcasts and Blogs
CSI – The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

Related Posts:

1. Bad Journalism, Not Vaccines, Kills Kids
2. The Skeptrack Experience at DragonCon – Part 2
3. The Skeptrack Experience at DragonCon – Part 1
4. Foundations of Freethought
5. Are Religion and Science Reconciling?

Tags | critical thinking, freethought, skepticism