Thanks again to our hosts! We must have had about 40 people in total (adults and kids) and it was a really nice way to just meet and talk with other Freethinkers. We did a little exercise to get to know each other better (I think most of us know very little about each other beyond some basics) where we each had to write down a 'little known fact about ourselves'. So what did I learn?

* One of our members is distantly related to Barack Obama (the Irish are related to everyone y'know!)

* A couple of the members are musically gifted

Neil Shubin is a highly respected professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Chicago. Your Inner Fish describes the discovery of the Tiktaalik 'transitional fossil' made a couple of years ago and also delves into the linkages between humans and our 'inner fish' ; linkages in our evolution that tie us to fish and right back to the earliest bacteria.

Finally got to watch the film on DVD a couple of days ago.

If you haven't seen it already - you need to!

This film has already been heavily reviewed so I pretty much thought I new what to expect. However, I really don't think that those reviews really did the film enough justice

The Free Thought - Free Kids had a really fun event today - a Science Matters party. THe subject was electricity and as usual in such events I think the adults learnt as much (or more!?) than the kids about electricity including such useful tidbits as:

1) If you hook a pickle up to the mains it will explode in a fiery ball (well, pretty much)

2) Flysticks are fun and it looks like magic

3) You can make an electromagnet with a battery, a nail, some wire and a peg

For the most part, people do not hear much from freethinkers.  It appears most freethinkers are quiet and do not spend much time telling others about their point of view.  Many would not even know what freethinkers are without accidental exposure to other freethinkers through rare freethinking publications such as the Freethinkers of Colorado Springs' Freethought Views "advertorial" in the Colorado Springs Independent.  That is how I discovered I was a freethinker.  Before that discovery, I just thought I was different - and alone.

It can be interesting trying to get things correctly done as a volunteer - especially if you grew up in the Twilight Zone and live under the direct effect of Murphys' Law and Stapp's Ironical Paradox, which states, "The universal aptitude of ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle."  In this context, not believing in miracles (except perhaps metaphorically with respect to unlikely events) means that it is important to extend credit for simply getting things done - even when 20/20 hindsight makes it crystal clear how a list of things might have been done better. 

So here we are in yet another new year having recently celebrated the winter solstice. 

The new year often brings "resolutions," personal promises to change something for our next elliptical circuit around our neighborhood main sequence star.  Therefore, if all goes well, this "blog" will experience (at least somewhat) regular entries, taking advantage of one of the resources available to (all) members the Freethinkers of Colorado Springs (FTCS) and in hopes of attracting readers, respondents and new opportunities. 

Professor Reiss are you a nutter?

Should geography classes ban globes of the earth out of respect for students who believe the world is flat?

Freethinkers of Colorado Springs

HumanLight 2008

Please do not forget to check this page before departing for last minute changes.

Last Sunday the FreeThought FreeKids group went on a visit to Denver museum of science and nature primarily to see the new dinosaur exhibition that has opened there.

We got lucky with the weather, not so much with the traffic as there were delays just north of the Springs which delayed a few of us. I think in total we had around 25-30 people show up in total.

Here are some of the highlights for me and my kids

 Well, the voice of the small people has spoken and overwhelmingly they have elected my oldest daughter (D1) to the role of Secretary. Yay!She beat out two challengers. No acceptance or other speeches unfortunately. She did offer me a brownie that she got from school today though; perhaps that was part of the reward for achieving office!

Today is an important election day. At least it's very important in the eyes of my 3 elementary school kids especially my oldest daughter. The school is taking an opportunity to use the presidential election to teach the kids about voting and democracy so the kids are having their own election for a series of "posts" in their school

The Free Thought Free Kids group got together this last Sunday in downtown Colorado Springs to have the kids create their own designs for a HumanLight holiday card or ornament. Unfortunately I couldn't be there with my family - I had to travel for work at short notice.

Heard we had a great turnout and also we had a special guest appearance. Stefanie, the founder of the kids group moved away from the Springs back in July but was visiting for the weekend. It was great that she could turn up and rekindle some friendships here.

For a first personal blog entry, perhaps an introduction and some blog objectives would be in order.