thinktoomuch.net

This post is largely in response to Johan Swarts’ post, Freethinking Maties: Atheists Anonymous. I made a poor translation in a comment on my previous post. Background: Freethought Many people consider “freethinker” to be a euphemism for “non-theist”. In particular, the Campus Freethought Alliance, as well as Maties Freethinking, defines “freethinking” as “free thought combined [...]

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UPDATE: Johan Swarts owns his quote, on his blog. His post is in Afrikaans: Freethinking Maties: Ateïste Anoniem. Do any English people want me to translate? Yesterday, Freethinking Maties aired a PBS documentary on Darwin and his life. Attendance was good (read: more than 20?). The evening ended with time pressure chasing us all out, [...]

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From the sound of it, South Africa has only very recently started teaching evolutionary theory in schools. I only recently started noticing how few people really know much about it. (Humans often assume that everyone knows what you know… agree or disagree?) Here is an opportunity to learn more about evolution: Greetings Freethinkers! Tuesday 12 [...]

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Here is an example of what science is about… Three weeks ago, I experienced what some might call a synchronicity (a concept introduced by Carl Jung). Wikipedia defines it as follows: Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events which occur in a meaningful manner, but which are causally unrelated. In order to be [...]

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Rudolph Basson writes (subject line also of his choosing): I haven’t had time to read through all your myriad posts on your blog or the emails you’ve sent us, but already a clear and thus far unanswered question is forming in my mind: What exactly is your beef with us? We have not threatened to [...]

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With a raving, excessively emotional comment below my Dear Freethinking Maties post, I announced that I am not interested in the Freethinking Maties Society if I am not considered welcome there. I renounce my membership, until such a time as they inform me that I am welcome to join. I am not interested in joining [...]

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There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

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A Freethinking Maties General Assembly took place last night. There were nine new faces (more than half of those attending), and the direction the discussion took pleased me tremendously. Below I share some thoughts about the society, and mention some other groups, including Stellenbosch Humanists.

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Hyperbolically described by some as the “Bible Belt of South Africa”, the university town of Stellenbosch has more than 30 churches. At least two of these (one of which is arguably the most “popular” church) are pentecostal, often proudly embracing the label “fundamentalist”, with significant anti-science teachings. In a country where Christianity is assumed, where [...]

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