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What Is Freethought Arizona?

Freethought Arizona is a blog for freethinkers in general and Arizona atheists, agnostics, skeptics, and secular humanists in particular. Here in Tucson, we have several active organizations supporting the freethought community. They include: Tucson Atheists, Skeptics of Tucson, and the Freethought Arizona meeting organization. The Freethought Arizona web site is www.freethoughtaz.org

In Phoenix, there are chapters of such national organizations as Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), the American Humanist Association, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU). Many freethinkers belong to more than one of these groups. Each organization occupies an important niche in support of nonbelievers and their philosophical, social, and political concerns. You can learn more about them and when they meet by going to their various websites.

FFRF and AU are the most politically active. They aggressively challenge in court government violations of the Constitutional Principle of Separation of Church & State. Freethought Arizona is more academically oriented and offers monthly programs and smaller discussion groups often focused on aspects of science, religion, skepticism and/or humanism. Tucson Atheists and Skeptics of Tucson engage in thought-provoking discussions, but are more social.

Many of these organizations are partners in the Secular Coalition for Arizona (SCA), a political organization whose primary goal is to keep religion out of government. For this reason, Secular Coalition for Arizona often finds itself in opposition to the policies advocated by the Center for Arizona Policy (CAP).

Generally, we freethinkers don’t care what others believe about the supernatural. We think of all religions as silly, often dangerous, superstitions. Individual religious beliefs are none of our business, until believers make it our business by trying to force their religious worldview and primitive morality on the rest of us through law and public policy. Then we care a lot. Thus, we have a natural antipathy toward the fundamentalist-dominated Arizona legislature and Governor Brewer.

Freethought has a long and illustrious history. Freethinkers are "free" because we are not locked in ideology, doctrine, or dogma. Freethinkers make lousy followers because we dare to question authority, tradition, revelation, and dogma. Instead, we believe that opinions, and especially laws and public policies, should be based on science, empirical evidence, verifiable experiences, independent historical accounts, and sound logic.