The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 43RAISING AND SUPPORTING CHILDREN ON THEIR PATH TO BECOMING UNIQUE INDIVIDUALSHow’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.These days, the average parent tends to feel unfairly judged, like they are constantly under a microscope. This is understandable, given how much more we know now, psychologically speaking, about the significance and impact of a person’s early childhood. But how much of that early childhood is actually influenced by parents, and how much of it is determined by genetics, friends, and other factors completely outside a parent’s control? Are we being too hard on parents? And what does it even mean to be a “responsible parent” in the first place?Sage, Sam, Cristina, Charlotte, Dallas, and others join me in this episode to discuss this sensitive topic. Ironically, several children and other distracting noises were in the background as we held our online meeting. I’ve done what I could to edit most of that out, but I wanted to let you know that listening to this episode will be a bit more turbulent than usual. Nevertheless, I’m sure you’ll agree that the honesty, experience, and advice shared about raising children is well worth the listen!ABOUT OUR ORGANIZATIONThis program is brought to you by the Free Thought Forum.Our members come together from various belief systems and backgrounds to share their perspectives, hear new ideas, develop positive friendships, volunteer, and learn more about science, philosophy, and life skills. Every meeting is a celebration of free speech, civil discussion, and the free exchange of ideas. We want to ensure that as many people as possible have the opportunity to speak their mind and have their ideas contested and reviewed among peers in an inclusive and supportive community. So we are now authorizing the creation of new chapters around the world!If you would like to start a new chapter in your community, find official events near you, participate in our online meetings, or support our programs with a donation, please visit freethoughtforum.org for more information.LISTENING OPTIONSSubscribe for a fresh new point of view on freethought, philosophy, politics, religion, atheism, science, logic, reason, rationality, healthy habits, life skills, social issues, morality, current events, and more!Youtube ChannelOur Google PodcastApple Podcast on iTunesApple News ChannelOur Social MediaTHE CONVERSATION CONTINUESIf you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our organization and our podcast. Thank you!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? What feedback or ideas do you have for this program or for the Free Thought Forum? Feel free to share your perspective.___Written and Directed by Nicholas Burk © 2021 Free Thought Forum

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 43RAISING AND SUPPORTING CHILDREN ON THEIR PATH TO BECOMING UNIQUE INDIVIDUALSHow’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.These days, the average parent tends to feel unfairly judged, like they are constantly under a microscope. This is understandable, given how much more we know now, psychologically speaking, about the significance and impact of a person’s early childhood. But how much of that early childhood is actually influenced by parents, and how much of it is determined by genetics, friends, and other factors completely outside a parent’s control? Are we being too hard on parents? And what does it even mean to be a “responsible parent” in the first place?Sage, Sam, Cristina, Charlotte, Dallas, and others join me in this episode to discuss this sensitive topic. Ironically, several children and other distracting noises were in the background as we held our online meeting. I’ve done what I could to edit most of that out, but I wanted to let you know that listening to this episode will be a bit more turbulent than usual. Nevertheless, I’m sure you’ll agree that the honesty, experience, and advice shared about raising children is well worth the listen!ABOUT OUR ORGANIZATIONThis program is brought to you by the Free Thought Forum.Our members come together from various belief systems and backgrounds to share their perspectives, hear new ideas, develop positive friendships, volunteer, and learn more about science, philosophy, and life skills. Every meeting is a celebration of free speech, civil discussion, and the free exchange of ideas. We want to ensure that as many people as possible have the opportunity to speak their mind and have their ideas contested and reviewed among peers in an inclusive and supportive community. So we are now authorizing the creation of new chapters around the world!If you would like to start a new chapter in your community, find official events near you, participate in our online meetings, or support our programs with a donation, please visit <a href="https://www.freethoughtforum.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a> for more information.LISTENING OPTIONSSubscribe for a fresh new point of view on freethought, philosophy, politics, religion, atheism, science, logic, reason, rationality, healthy habits, life skills, social issues, morality, current events, and more!<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWHff_1beWWkcaZuOAnKdw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Youtube Channel</a><a href="https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJlZXRob3VnaHRmb3J1bS5vcmcvYmxvZz9mb3JtYXQ9UlNT&amp;ved=0CAQQrrcFahcKEwjIk7ul3YHoAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQBQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Our Google Podcast</a><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fresh-perspective/id1465350941" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcast on iTunes</a><a href="https://apple.news/TG5HkRXbXQKS5aZdYv_4_bQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Apple News Channel</a><a href="https://bat-primrose-a2sr.squarespace.com/social-media" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Our Social Media</a>THE CONVERSATION CONTINUESIf you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our organization and our podcast. Thank you!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? What feedback or ideas do you have for this program or for the Free Thought Forum? Feel free to share your perspective.___Written and Directed by Nicholas Burk © 2021 Free Thought Forum

Responsible Parenting

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 41INTRODUCTIONHow’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to Episode 41 of the Fresh Perspective Podcast.By the end of your life, your feet will have passed through about one second of time more than your head. Likewise, if you work on the top floor of a skyscraper, you will age slightly slower than your twin who works on the ground floor. This isn’t all just theoretical math and equations, mind you, it’s a real and measurable consequence of the curved and warped fabric of the cosmos that links gravity, space, and time.In this episode, I’m joined by Connie, Sam, Alice, Walter, and Sage in an exploration of the science of TIME. In our conversation, we consider how humans experience the flow of time, the speed of light, the possibilities of time travel, the so-called “Twin Paradox,” the illusion of a force of gravity, entropy, and what happens when we stretch Einstein’s laws of relativity to their breaking point. Like our last episode on how we can reduce stress by simplifying our lives, the following is a recording of the first half of a live online meeting of the Free Thought Forum. None of us involved are professional physicists or experts on the subject, but we nevertheless see the value in talking about things at the edge of our comprehension. It’s an educational exercise and one that I’m happy to share with those of you listening in the future.ABOUT OUR ORGANIZATIONThis program is brought to you by your local Free Thought Forum.Our members come together from various belief systems and backgrounds to share their perspectives, hear new ideas, develop positive friendships, volunteer, and learn more about science, philosophy, and life skills. Every meeting is a celebration of free speech, civil discussion, and the free exchange of ideas. We want to ensure that as many people as possible have the opportunity to speak their mind and have their ideas contested and reviewed among peers in an inclusive and supportive community. So we are now authorizing the creation of new chapters around the world!If you would like to start a new chapter in your community, find official events near you, participate in our online meetings, or support our programs with a donation, please visit freethoughtforum.org for more information.LISTENING OPTIONSSubscribe for a fresh new point of view on freethought, philosophy, politics, religion, atheism, science, logic, reason, rationality, healthy habits, life skills, social issues, morality, current events, and more!Youtube ChannelOur Google PodcastApple Podcast on iTunesApple News ChannelOur Social MediaTHE CONVERSATION CONTINUESIf you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our organization and our podcast. Thank you!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? What feedback or ideas do you have for this program or for the Free Thought Forum? Feel free to share your perspective.___Written and Directed by Nicholas Burk © 2021 Free Thought Forum

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 41INTRODUCTIONHow’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to Episode 41 of the Fresh Perspective Podcast.By the end of your life, your feet will have passed through about one second of time more than your head. Likewise, if you work on the top floor of a skyscraper, you will age slightly slower than your twin who works on the ground floor. This isn’t all just theoretical math and equations, mind you, it’s a real and measurable consequence of the curved and warped fabric of the cosmos that links gravity, space, and time.In this episode, I’m joined by Connie, Sam, Alice, Walter, and Sage in an exploration of the science of TIME. In our conversation, we consider how humans experience the flow of time, the speed of light, the possibilities of time travel, the so-called “Twin Paradox,” the illusion of a force of gravity, entropy, and what happens when we stretch Einstein’s laws of relativity to their breaking point. Like our last episode on how we can reduce stress by simplifying our lives, the following is a recording of the first half of a live online meeting of the Free Thought Forum. None of us involved are professional physicists or experts on the subject, but we nevertheless see the value in talking about things at the edge of our comprehension. It’s an educational exercise and one that I’m happy to share with those of you listening in the future.ABOUT OUR ORGANIZATIONThis program is brought to you by your local Free Thought Forum.Our members come together from various belief systems and backgrounds to share their perspectives, hear new ideas, develop positive friendships, volunteer, and learn more about science, philosophy, and life skills. Every meeting is a celebration of free speech, civil discussion, and the free exchange of ideas. We want to ensure that as many people as possible have the opportunity to speak their mind and have their ideas contested and reviewed among peers in an inclusive and supportive community. So we are now authorizing the creation of new chapters around the world!If you would like to start a new chapter in your community, find official events near you, participate in our online meetings, or support our programs with a donation, please visit <a href="https://www.freethoughtforum.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a> for more information.LISTENING OPTIONSSubscribe for a fresh new point of view on freethought, philosophy, politics, religion, atheism, science, logic, reason, rationality, healthy habits, life skills, social issues, morality, current events, and more!<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWHff_1beWWkcaZuOAnKdw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Youtube Channel</a><a href="https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJlZXRob3VnaHRmb3J1bS5vcmcvYmxvZz9mb3JtYXQ9UlNT&amp;ved=0CAQQrrcFahcKEwjIk7ul3YHoAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQBQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Our Google Podcast</a><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fresh-perspective/id1465350941" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcast on iTunes</a><a href="https://apple.news/TG5HkRXbXQKS5aZdYv_4_bQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Apple News Channel</a><a href="https://bat-primrose-a2sr.squarespace.com/social-media" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Our Social Media</a>THE CONVERSATION CONTINUESIf you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our organization and our podcast. Thank you!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? What feedback or ideas do you have for this program or for the Free Thought Forum? Feel free to share your perspective.___Written and Directed by Nicholas Burk © 2021 Free Thought Forum

The Science of Time

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 40IntroductionHow’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to Episode 40 of the Fresh Perspective Podcast.Chronic stress is a big problem in our modern world. It can sap our energy, positivity, focus, patience, and motivation. It can lead to procrastination and depression as it negatively impacts almost every aspect of our lives. Sometimes, we can do something about the things that stress us out. Other times, however, we can’t. So how can we deal with the corrosive anxiety that can loom over us, day after day? Well, we can start by taking back some control by better organizing our lives, planning out our days, cleaning our living spaces, and by using the practical knowledge gained through the science of human psychology!Sage, Cristina, Sam, and Jacob have returned to help me explore this week’s topic. Our last conversation on John Stewart Mill’s Utilitarianism went so well that we’ve opted to record another one of our public online meetings. I am happy to say that we were also joined by our new friends Alice, Walter, and Irene who stopped by to give one of our meetings a try! I was impressed by the breadth and depth of the advice shared in this discussion and I’m sure you will be too. Many insights and experiences were also shared with stunning honesty, something I find refreshing and fitting in a discussion on such important issues. About Our OrganizationThis program is brought to you by your local Free Thought Forum.Our members come together from various belief systems and backgrounds to share their perspectives, hear new ideas, develop positive friendships, volunteer, and learn more about science, philosophy, and life skills. Every meeting is a celebration of free speech, civil discussion, and the free exchange of ideas. We want to ensure that as many people as possible have the opportunity to speak their mind and have their ideas contested and reviewed among peers in an inclusive and supportive community. So we are now authorizing the creation of new chapters around the world!If you would like to start a new chapter in your community, find official events near you, participate in our online meetings, or support our programs with a donation, please visit freethoughtforum.org for more information.Listening OptionsSubscribe for a fresh new point of view on freethought, philosophy, politics, religion, atheism, science, logic, reason, rationality, healthy habits, life skills, social issues, morality, current events, and more!Youtube ChannelOur Google PodcastApple Podcast on iTunesApple News ChannelOur Social MediaThe Conversation ContinuesIf you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our organization and our podcast. Thank you!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? What feedback or ideas do you have for this program or for the Free Thought Forum? Feel free to share your perspective.___Written and Directed by Nicholas Burk © 2021 Free Thought Forum

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 40IntroductionHow’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to Episode 40 of the Fresh Perspective Podcast.Chronic stress is a big problem in our modern world. It can sap our energy, positivity, focus, patience, and motivation. It can lead to procrastination and depression as it negatively impacts almost every aspect of our lives. Sometimes, we can do something about the things that stress us out. Other times, however, we can’t. So how can we deal with the corrosive anxiety that can loom over us, day after day? Well, we can start by taking back some control by better organizing our lives, planning out our days, cleaning our living spaces, and by using the practical knowledge gained through the science of human psychology!Sage, Cristina, Sam, and Jacob have returned to help me explore this week’s topic. Our last conversation on John Stewart Mill’s Utilitarianism went so well that we’ve opted to record another one of our public online meetings. I am happy to say that we were also joined by our new friends Alice, Walter, and Irene who stopped by to give one of our meetings a try! I was impressed by the breadth and depth of the advice shared in this discussion and I’m sure you will be too. Many insights and experiences were also shared with stunning honesty, something I find refreshing and fitting in a discussion on such important issues. About Our OrganizationThis program is brought to you by your local Free Thought Forum.Our members come together from various belief systems and backgrounds to share their perspectives, hear new ideas, develop positive friendships, volunteer, and learn more about science, philosophy, and life skills. Every meeting is a celebration of free speech, civil discussion, and the free exchange of ideas. We want to ensure that as many people as possible have the opportunity to speak their mind and have their ideas contested and reviewed among peers in an inclusive and supportive community. So we are now authorizing the creation of new chapters around the world!If you would like to start a new chapter in your community, find official events near you, participate in our online meetings, or support our programs with a donation, please visit <a href="https://www.freethoughtforum.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a> for more information.Listening OptionsSubscribe for a fresh new point of view on freethought, philosophy, politics, religion, atheism, science, logic, reason, rationality, healthy habits, life skills, social issues, morality, current events, and more!<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWHff_1beWWkcaZuOAnKdw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Youtube Channel</a><a href="https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJlZXRob3VnaHRmb3J1bS5vcmcvYmxvZz9mb3JtYXQ9UlNT&amp;ved=0CAQQrrcFahcKEwjIk7ul3YHoAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQBQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Our Google Podcast</a><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fresh-perspective/id1465350941" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcast on iTunes</a><a href="https://apple.news/TG5HkRXbXQKS5aZdYv_4_bQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Apple News Channel</a><a href="/social-media" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Our Social Media</a>The Conversation ContinuesIf you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our organization and our podcast. Thank you!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? What feedback or ideas do you have for this program or for the Free Thought Forum? Feel free to share your perspective.___Written and Directed by Nicholas Burk © 2021 Free Thought Forum

Organizing Your Life

John Stuart Mill

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 39IntroductionHow’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to Episode 39 of the Fresh Perspective Podcast.We’ve all heard of Aristotle and Kant, but are you familiar with Jeremy Bentham, John Stewart Mill, or Harriet Taylor Mill? If you’ve ever waved a rainbow flag at a pride parade, attended a Libertarian conference, or listened to an American rant about free speech, then you already have some sense of the powerful influence of Utilitarianism, an approach to ethics popularized by these great philosophers. They asked questions like, “Do the results of our choices matter more than our intent?” “When is it permissible for a government to force a citizen to do something?” and “Should maximizing individual liberty, happiness, and well-being be the primary objective of our society?”Cristina, Sage, Sam, Ian, and others have joined me to discuss these fascinating topics.  After several months, you’ve all finally talked me into recording the first half of our weekly online meetings. So I gave it a try! The recording began, with the permission of all involved, just after our announcements and ended a few minutes into the 2nd half of the meeting. Since this is our first attempt at capturing a typical weekly discussion, the audio quality isn’t ideal. Technical hiccups and user error notwithstanding, I was impressed with the quality of the comments and perspectives shared (and I hope you will be too), especially as we consider how relevant these ideas still are!About Our OrganizationThis program is brought to you by your local Free Thought Forum.Our members come together from various belief systems and backgrounds to share their perspectives, hear new ideas, develop positive friendships, volunteer, and learn more about science, philosophy, and life skills. Every meeting is a celebration of free speech, civil discussion, and the free exchange of ideas. We want to ensure that as many people as possible have the opportunity to speak their mind and have their ideas contested and reviewed among peers in an inclusive and supportive community. So we are now authorizing the creation of new chapters around the world!If you would like to start a new chapter in your community, find official events near you, participate in our online meetings, or support our programs with a donation, please visit freethoughtforum.org for more information.Listening OptionsSubscribe for a fresh new point of view on freethought, philosophy, politics, religion, atheism, science, logic, reason, rationality, healthy habits, life skills, social issues, morality, current events, and more!Youtube ChannelOur Google PodcastApple Podcast on iTunesApple News ChannelOur Social MediaThe Conversation ContinuesIf you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our organization and our podcast. Thank you!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? What feedback or ideas do you have for this program or for the Free Thought Forum? Feel free to share your perspective.___Written and Directed by Nicholas Burk © 2021 Free Thought Forum

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 39IntroductionHow’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to Episode 39 of the Fresh Perspective Podcast.We’ve all heard of Aristotle and Kant, but are you familiar with Jeremy Bentham, John Stewart Mill, or Harriet Taylor Mill? If you’ve ever waved a rainbow flag at a pride parade, attended a Libertarian conference, or listened to an American rant about free speech, then you already have some sense of the powerful influence of Utilitarianism, an approach to ethics popularized by these great philosophers. They asked questions like, “Do the results of our choices matter more than our intent?” “When is it permissible for a government to force a citizen to do something?” and “Should maximizing individual liberty, happiness, and well-being be the primary objective of our society?”Cristina, Sage, Sam, Ian, and others have joined me to discuss these fascinating topics. After several months, you’ve all finally talked me into recording the first half of our weekly online meetings. So I gave it a try! The recording began, with the permission of all involved, just after our announcements and ended a few minutes into the 2nd half of the meeting. Since this is our first attempt at capturing a typical weekly discussion, the audio quality isn’t ideal. Technical hiccups and user error notwithstanding, I was impressed with the quality of the comments and perspectives shared (and I hope you will be too), especially as we consider how relevant these ideas still are!About Our OrganizationThis program is brought to you by your local Free Thought Forum.Our members come together from various belief systems and backgrounds to share their perspectives, hear new ideas, develop positive friendships, volunteer, and learn more about science, philosophy, and life skills. Every meeting is a celebration of free speech, civil discussion, and the free exchange of ideas. We want to ensure that as many people as possible have the opportunity to speak their mind and have their ideas contested and reviewed among peers in an inclusive and supportive community. So we are now authorizing the creation of new chapters around the world!If you would like to start a new chapter in your community, find official events near you, participate in our online meetings, or support our programs with a donation, please visit <a href="https://www.freethoughtforum.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a> for more information.Listening OptionsSubscribe for a fresh new point of view on freethought, philosophy, politics, religion, atheism, science, logic, reason, rationality, healthy habits, life skills, social issues, morality, current events, and more!<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYWHff_1beWWkcaZuOAnKdw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Youtube Channel</a><a href="https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJlZXRob3VnaHRmb3J1bS5vcmcvYmxvZz9mb3JtYXQ9UlNT&amp;ved=0CAQQrrcFahcKEwjIk7ul3YHoAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQBQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Our Google Podcast</a><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fresh-perspective/id1465350941" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcast on iTunes</a><a href="https://apple.news/TG5HkRXbXQKS5aZdYv_4_bQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Apple News Channel</a><a href="/social-media" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Our Social Media</a>The Conversation ContinuesIf you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our organization and our podcast. Thank you!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? What feedback or ideas do you have for this program or for the Free Thought Forum? Feel free to share your perspective.___Written and Directed by Nicholas Burk © 2021 Free Thought Forum

John Stuart Mill & Utilitarianism

How to Act with Courage

Great Ideas from Stoicism

How Bad is the COVID-19 Pandemic?

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 35How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to Episode 35 of the Fresh Perspective Podcast.Volunteering in your community is a great way to meet awesome people, gain some perspective from those who may be less fortunate, make a positive difference, and even help to further the frontier of science. It looks great on your resume when you are between jobs and makes for some memorable dates, family activities, and forum events. However, not all volunteers help as much as they think! Are you contributing in a meaningful way? How can you ensure that you are serving where your skills are needed the most? How can you avoid burnout?To answer all these questions and more, the Free Thought Forum has put together this “Elite Volunteer Training,” a set of seven guidelines that you can use in your community, workplace, teams, and anywhere else some common sense professionalism is needed.This program is brought to you by your Local Free Thought Forum.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal background, religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate in these open and civil discussions every week.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, or to join in this week’s Online Group Meeting, please visit: FreeThoughtForum.orgHello volunteers! Donating your time and skills enables you to actively improve your community, help those in need, and support a worthy cause. On a more personal note, volunteering may also help to improve one’s character, emotional health, professional skills, and work ethic.I’ve been amazed by how much I’ve come across community service and volunteerism in my studies of effective treatments for things like depression and anxiety. I feel like I can’t emphasize enough the positive health effects of setting your day-to-day concerns aside and unselfishly dedicating some of your time to a higher cause. To me, volunteering is a lot like fasting. It allows us to take a break from worrying so much about ourselves.When we think about why people volunteer, we may lean a bit cynical. After all, who is going to work hard unless they are fairly compensated? This is all just unpaid labor, right? This kind of approach to volunteerism seems backward to me. I am reminded of small communities such as the Amish who are famous for teaming together to build a barn or a home in just a few hours. I’ve had the opportunity to serve with volunteer emergency response teams, actively preparing for a flood or searching for missing people. I’ve also participated with unpaid actors, directors, dancers, lighting crews, sound technicians, set designers, and singers who pour weeks and months of intense free labor into a performance.When we are passionate about something, and especially when we belong to a team of people doing something worthwhile, don’t we work just as hard, if not harder, then we do when working for money? I think that realization gets to the heart of why we volunteer. It is more than that rush of dopamine we feel when we are acting altruistically. It is more than an inexpensive treatment for our emotional health issues. It is a celebration of what matters most to us, such as our community, humanity, or art. In my opinion, it is a call back to our evolutionary roots. When our ancestors were all hunters and gatherers, they probably worked hard as teams every single day for the benefit of the common good. This full-time labor helped them survive and thrive, long before personal property or wages came to define our place in society.Yet, even if our hearts are in the right place and even when we volunteer for all the right reasons, that doesn’t mean we are helping. What are the actual results of our participation? Are we, indeed, contributing in a helpful or meaningful way? If you spend time with other volunteers, you may have already noticed that some of us can be more trouble than we’re worth. Even here in Utah County, I’ve noticed an increasing number of nonprofits and civil services screening and interviewing their volunteers ahead of time. It is getting to the point where “don’t call us, we’ll call you” has become a standard response to those who wish to donate some of their time and skills where they’re needed.That leads us to the main purpose of this episode, to list some dos and don’ts that will help you be a better volunteer, team member, or employee. When we first collected this advice from experienced volunteers, coordinators, and employers, we couldn’t help but notice a great deal of overlap with general professionalism and self-management skills.) So before jumping into your next volunteer project, the first week at a new job, or something similar, please take a moment to consider the following guidelines:1. Call Ahead of TimeSchedule each volunteer project at least two weeks in advance. Be specific about how many fellow volunteers you’ll bring and how long you’ll be able to serve. On the day before the event, a member of your group should call again to reaffirm that you still plan on coming to help. For your safety, be sure to also let your family and friends know of your plans.This may seem like over-communication, but calling ahead of time is a great way to establish a relationship of trust with whomever you are working. Your job, as an employee or volunteer, is to be predictable and dependable. If you are where you say you’ll be, when you say you’ll be there, then those who are in charge will have more reasons to believe that you can be trusted with the important tasks at hand. It is also important to note that volunteer coordinators and supervisors may have to rework their schedule and invest some prep work to accommodate you, so the least you can do is assure them that all those preparations won’t go to waste.2. Come Ready to WorkOn the day of the event, arrive about ten minutes early. Remember to dress right for the occasion. Do you need a coat, jeans, work boots, or gloves? Should you bring lunch, a shovel, or a flash drive? Come ready for any foreseeable task that you may be asked to perform. For your health and safety, it is usually a good idea to bring your fully-charged phone and a water bottle.The organization you’re serving may have volunteer shirts or hats for you. If you are volunteering with the Free Thought Forum, be sure to also snap on our official volunteer badge that can be ordered through our online store. Whatever the case, boldly announcing that you are here to volunteer through what you’re wearing is a great way to guarantee that you will be put to good use rather than being lost in a crowd.3. Help Precisely As AskedA great volunteer shows that they are just as serious about volunteer work as they are about paid work. They never try to simply “look busy,” nor do they stand around with their hands in their pockets.Stay engaged and make every volunteered minute count. Depending on the activity, casually chatting with others or texting could be extremely unprofessional. Follow the directions you are given as exactly as possible and ask questions if you are unsure about what to do. This can also help prevent burnout over many different projects. Over-performing or under-performing often causes more harm than good! (For instance, if you are helping to lift more than you can safely carry, then you may become a liability risk.) Once you finish a task, report right-away to your volunteer coordinator or supervisor for your next task. Stick to the plan, take breaks as directed, and leave only at the pre-determined time.4. Adopt Your Volunteer Coordinator’s PerspectiveHow quickly should you perform your duties? How committed should you be to the task at hand? When in doubt, do your best to match the earnestness, commitment, seriousness, and vision of your volunteer coordinator or supervisor. When we try to put ourselves in the shoes of those in charge, we may gain a better perspective on how the whole operation could run more smoothly.5. Be Positive and FriendlyDon’t forget to smile! Sometimes, a volunteer coordinator or supervisor is in charge of dozens of people, so a little patience, politeness, and friendliness can go a long way. Things like general negativity and gossip can spread like wildfire and quickly undermine the morale of the entire operation. Make sure constructive criticism goes where it will do the most good for everyone involved. A good goal is to develop a reputation as someone with an uplifting effect on others.6. Report on what you Do WellIn the competitive scramble for promotions and recognition, it is up to you to be your own cheerleader. In the workplace, it is unreasonable to hope that someone else will notice you excelling at one task or another. Whatever your reservations about what feels like bragging or boasting, reporting your best accomplishments can lead to you being placed where you can do the most good in the future. When we look at the big picture, it is our responsibility to bring our skills and strengths to the attention of those in charge.7. Ask for Additional Training and FeedbackYou’ll know if you are a great volunteer if you are invited back to help again. Before you go, report on what you did well and ask about what you can do better. Your goal should always be to enthusiastically increase your skills and usefulness!If you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our group and our podcast. Thank you!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? What feedback or ideas do you have for this program or our organization? Feel free to share your perspective.A Special Shout-Out goes to Penny Davis, Dale Thurber Ph.D., and Brooke Freeman!Your monthly support makes this all possible. To check out our awesome donor rewards starting at one dollar per month, please visit freethoughtforum.org/donate.___Written By Nicholas Burk, Executive Board Member © 2020 Free Thought Initiative

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 35How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to Episode 35 of the Fresh Perspective Podcast.Volunteering in your community is a great way to meet awesome people, gain some perspective from those who may be less fortunate, make a positive difference, and even help to further the frontier of science. It looks great on your resume when you are between jobs and makes for some memorable dates, family activities, and forum events. However, not all volunteers help as much as they think! Are you contributing in a meaningful way? How can you ensure that you are serving where your skills are needed the most? How can you avoid burnout?To answer all these questions and more, the Free Thought Forum has put together this “Elite Volunteer Training,” a set of seven guidelines that you can use in your community, workplace, teams, and anywhere else some common sense professionalism is needed.This program is brought to you by your Local Free Thought Forum. We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal background, religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate in these open and civil discussions every week.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, or to join in this week’s Online Group Meeting, please visit: <a href="http://FreeThoughtForum.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">FreeThoughtForum.org</a>Hello volunteers! Donating your time and skills enables you to actively improve your community, help those in need, and support a worthy cause. On a more personal note, volunteering may also help to improve one’s character, emotional health, professional skills, and work ethic.I’ve been amazed by how much I’ve come across community service and volunteerism in my studies of effective treatments for things like depression and anxiety. I feel like I can’t emphasize enough the positive health effects of setting your day-to-day concerns aside and unselfishly dedicating some of your time to a higher cause. To me, volunteering is a lot like fasting. It allows us to take a break from worrying so much about ourselves.When we think about why people volunteer, we may lean a bit cynical. After all, who is going to work hard unless they are fairly compensated? This is all just unpaid labor, right? This kind of approach to volunteerism seems backward to me. I am reminded of small communities such as the Amish who are famous for teaming together to build a barn or a home in just a few hours. I’ve had the opportunity to serve with volunteer emergency response teams, actively preparing for a flood or searching for missing people. I’ve also participated with unpaid actors, directors, dancers, lighting crews, sound technicians, set designers, and singers who pour weeks and months of intense free labor into a performance.When we are passionate about something, and especially when we belong to a team of people doing something worthwhile, don’t we work just as hard, if not harder, then we do when working for money? I think that realization gets to the heart of why we volunteer. It is more than that rush of dopamine we feel when we are acting altruistically. It is more than an inexpensive treatment for our emotional health issues. It is a celebration of what matters most to us, such as our community, humanity, or art. In my opinion, it is a call back to our evolutionary roots. When our ancestors were all hunters and gatherers, they probably worked hard as teams every single day for the benefit of the common good. This full-time labor helped them survive and thrive, long before personal property or wages came to define our place in society.Yet, even if our hearts are in the right place and even when we volunteer for all the right reasons, that doesn’t mean we are helping. What are the actual results of our participation? Are we, indeed, contributing in a helpful or meaningful way? If you spend time with other volunteers, you may have already noticed that some of us can be more trouble than we’re worth. Even here in Utah County, I’ve noticed an increasing number of nonprofits and civil services screening and interviewing their volunteers ahead of time. It is getting to the point where “don’t call us, we’ll call you” has become a standard response to those who wish to donate some of their time and skills where they’re needed.That leads us to the main purpose of this episode, to list some dos and don’ts that will help you be a better volunteer, team member, or employee. When we first collected this advice from experienced volunteers, coordinators, and employers, we couldn’t help but notice a great deal of overlap with general professionalism and self-management skills.) So before jumping into your next volunteer project, the first week at a new job, or something similar, please take a moment to consider the following guidelines:1. Call Ahead of TimeSchedule each volunteer project at least two weeks in advance. Be specific about how many fellow volunteers you’ll bring and how long you’ll be able to serve. On the day before the event, a member of your group should call again to reaffirm that you still plan on coming to help. For your safety, be sure to also let your family and friends know of your plans.This may seem like over-communication, but calling ahead of time is a great way to establish a relationship of trust with whomever you are working. Your job, as an employee or volunteer, is to be predictable and dependable. If you are where you say you’ll be, when you say you’ll be there, then those who are in charge will have more reasons to believe that you can be trusted with the important tasks at hand. It is also important to note that volunteer coordinators and supervisors may have to rework their schedule and invest some prep work to accommodate you, so the least you can do is assure them that all those preparations won’t go to waste.2. Come Ready to WorkOn the day of the event, arrive about ten minutes early. Remember to dress right for the occasion. Do you need a coat, jeans, work boots, or gloves? Should you bring lunch, a shovel, or a flash drive? Come ready for any foreseeable task that you may be asked to perform. For your health and safety, it is usually a good idea to bring your fully-charged phone and a water bottle.The organization you’re serving may have volunteer shirts or hats for you. If you are volunteering with the Free Thought Forum, be sure to also snap on our official volunteer badge that can be ordered through our online store. Whatever the case, boldly announcing that you are here to volunteer through what you’re wearing is a great way to guarantee that you will be put to good use rather than being lost in a crowd.3. Help Precisely As AskedA great volunteer shows that they are just as serious about volunteer work as they are about paid work. They never try to simply “look busy,” nor do they stand around with their hands in their pockets. Stay engaged and make every volunteered minute count. Depending on the activity, casually chatting with others or texting could be extremely unprofessional. Follow the directions you are given as exactly as possible and ask questions if you are unsure about what to do. This can also help prevent burnout over many different projects. Over-performing or under-performing often causes more harm than good! (For instance, if you are helping to lift more than you can safely carry, then you may become a liability risk.) Once you finish a task, report right-away to your volunteer coordinator or supervisor for your next task. Stick to the plan, take breaks as directed, and leave only at the pre-determined time.4. Adopt Your Volunteer Coordinator’s PerspectiveHow quickly should you perform your duties? How committed should you be to the task at hand? When in doubt, do your best to match the earnestness, commitment, seriousness, and vision of your volunteer coordinator or supervisor. When we try to put ourselves in the shoes of those in charge, we may gain a better perspective on how the whole operation could run more smoothly.5. Be Positive and FriendlyDon’t forget to smile! Sometimes, a volunteer coordinator or supervisor is in charge of dozens of people, so a little patience, politeness, and friendliness can go a long way. Things like general negativity and gossip can spread like wildfire and quickly undermine the morale of the entire operation. Make sure constructive criticism goes where it will do the most good for everyone involved. A good goal is to develop a reputation as someone with an uplifting effect on others.6. Report on what you Do WellIn the competitive scramble for promotions and recognition, it is up to you to be your own cheerleader. In the workplace, it is unreasonable to hope that someone else will notice you excelling at one task or another. Whatever your reservations about what feels like bragging or boasting, reporting your best accomplishments can lead to you being placed where you can do the most good in the future. When we look at the big picture, it is our responsibility to bring our skills and strengths to the attention of those in charge.7. Ask for Additional Training and FeedbackYou’ll know if you are a great volunteer if you are invited back to help again. Before you go, report on what you did well and ask about what you can do better. Your goal should always be to enthusiastically increase your skills and usefulness! If you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our group and our podcast. Thank you!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? What feedback or ideas do you have for this program or our organization? Feel free to share your perspective.A Special Shout-Out goes to Penny Davis, Dale Thurber Ph.D., and Brooke Freeman!Your monthly support makes this all possible. To check out our awesome donor rewards starting at one dollar per month, please visit <a href="https://bat-primrose-a2sr.squarespace.com/donate" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org/donate</a>.___Written By Nicholas Burk, Executive Board Member © 2020 Free Thought Initiative

How to Be a Great Volunteer

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 34How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.I am pleased to announce that the first internet-based Free Thought Forum has been created! It is now in operation, meeting 100% online each week, giving freethinkers from around the world the chance to participate. The best part is that all of you listening right now (and in the future) are invited to join us!It is 100% free and you may even have a chance to chat with me and other members of our Executive Board at the next meeting! But how can our in-person meetings translate to a purely digital space? What additional challenges can be expected? And how can you get involved? In this quick episode, I will answer all that, and more!This program is brought to you by the contributing members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal background, religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions each week.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to support this program through monthly donations, please visit freethoughtforum.org. While you’re there, be sure to check out our online store – now with freethought t-shirts, mugs, and other smart-looking swag!Our new Online Group represents an experiment. But, to be honest, so does everything about the Free Thought Initiative. Can we really have meetings where people can say whatever they need to say without fear of judgment or being thrown out? Can we really bring strangers from every belief and background together and have a meaningful, civil, and productive conversation without it spinning into chaos?At the time of this recording, our organization has about eight months of practical experience hosting over 50 public discussions, two festivals, and dozens of volunteer projects. Our programs and procedures have been well-tested and we have been prodded to tweak and improve them a great deal, thanks to the feedback from our guests, members, and listeners like you. What started out as a bold social test has now grown into a force for good in our communities and we are ready, once again, to expand.Before I jump into more information about our online meetings, I wanted to say that it has been a busy month, but our recent work has certainly paid off! Major improvements have been made to our organization, our website, and our content. (Further details of these improvements can be found in our monthly newsletter so feel free to sign up for it if you haven’t already.)I should also add as a side-note that our regular upload schedule (of about one episode per week) will continue to be disrupted a bit as the executive board focuses more of our time and resources on filing for our Nonprofit Status and Tax-exemption. We are seeking expert advice and doing what we can to get it all right the first time. Actually, if you happen to have experience with this kind of paperwork, we would love to hear your suggestions. After all that is completed, we will go back to our regular upload schedule. As a show of our gratitude for your patience and flexibility, we have some really great episodes coming in the near future!And now back to the exciting news at hand. If you would like to give our first Online Group a try, all of the information about its upcoming meetings can be found on its official webpage:https://www.freethoughtforum.org/online-group(I’ll be sure to add a link to it in the description below.) You may also find this page by visiting our website and by clicking on the “Groups and Events” link at the top. This will bring you to a list of all of our local groups in operation, including one that may be meeting near you! Select the “Online Group” option to access its page, complete with an events calendar and instructions on how to participate. At the time of this recording, we are hosting these events on our Discord server for a couple of hours on Sunday evenings. However, any of those details may change in the future so keep an eye on that official page. (Ideally, each Free Thought Forum has between five and fifteen regular freethinkers. If our online membership grows beyond that, then we may split the group into multiple groups. Whatever the case, it will be plainly stated on that page.)Once you’ve made it to our meeting, be sure to listen to its voice channel. While some of you may want to participate with your microphone, others may prefer to simply listen along as they type in the group’s text-based chat room. The Online Group will function much like our in-person groups. First-time visitors will be asked to fill out a Welcome Form (now a link to a digital form) and also be sent a link to a digital version of our guest pamphlet, summarizing our organization’s mission, the meeting’s schedule, rules, and so forth. A PDF file of the week’s discussion primer is shared much like how a printed copy would be shared. We will keep our opening and closing statements, the mid-way break, and so forth.Our Online Group will also host digital service projects! Members may be asked to download certain service apps, write and send encouraging messages, fill out surveys for a scientific study, donate some of their computer’s processing power to SETI or similar causes, and more!Pretty soon we will release an episode about our Harmony Festival, one of our four new secular annual celebrations centered on each of the four cardinal virtues of classical philosophy. Will such festivals also be celebrated online? Absolutely! Our board members and group leaders are a creative bunch, eager to translate everything awesome about our organization into their cyber equivalents. That eagerness, actually, is something they’ve had for some time.Even back in March of 2019 when our first experimental Free Thought Forum first assembled, our members have asked us to consider forming an online-only group that would meet weekly for open and civil discussions on digital platforms like Skype, Discord, or WhatsApp. I have to admit that I was, at first, hesitant to the idea. After all, we have had so many positive experiences talking face-to-face with whoever visited our meetings in Springville or Draper, Utah. All kinds of people came to meet others, share ideas, network, engage with multiple points-of-view, develop their critical thinking skills, learn, find friends, build a community, and more.Our venues of coffee shops and public parks were ideal for open discussion. Seeing friendly people face-to-face helped to ease the concerns of our first-time-visitors and allowed them to really open-up with their ideas. In addition, bringing food, snacks, and other items to share also helped to break-the-ice. Our in-person community service options are also abundant and it is satisfying to see the impact you’ve been able to make with your own hands.So far so good, but many of you remained persistent, and continued to ask about the possibility of meeting online. Over time, I became aware of the following five strong arguments to host digital meetings. Are there others I’ve missed? If so, be sure to add them with your comments!1. FUNCTIONAL SIMILARITYAlmost everything done in a physical meeting can be done in a virtual one. Therefore, and from what we have tested thus far, it is reasonable to conclude that many of our practices and procedures in place for our physical meetings can be carried over. From a cynical perspective, I could say that online anonymity may bring out the worst in people. It is certainly true that many of us may behave worse as an avatar then we would as a person in public. Should our online discussions be subject to the assault of the overtly disruptive, we already have procedures in place to re-route the situation. Many of these procedures stem from our (recently updated) Five Rules of Civil Discourse:Be respectful of each other’s time by making your comments reasonably concise and by refraining from interruption.Focus your comments on ideas, not people.Recognize the authority of the appointed moderator.Allow for amicable disagreement and a diversity of opinions. (Your aim should not be to debate, convince, convert, or “win” the discussion.)Be prepared to explain the reasoning behind your ideas, if asked.By participating at our events, all involved agree to abide by those rules. If you are not able or willing to follow these rules, then you are welcome to share your ideas outside of our meetings such as in the comment sections of our social media pages. Our moderators are trained in de-escalation techniques and in other relevant skills. Should all our precautions and procedures fail, in the worst-case scenario, it is far easier to remove a would-be saboteur from a digital space than it is to remove them from a coffee shop or park. But that is the nuclear option. We would much rather give someone a chance to rant. Even if what they say is extremely unpopular or offensive, they are still welcome to participate as long as they are following our five rules. But if that rant repeatedly impedes on another guest’s ability to say what they need to say, then that is a problem. The good news is that we already have a solution to it. But here is the deal, while we prepare for the worst, we still hope for the best. Our in-person discussions have been the epitome of civility. Once guests understand that we really want to hear what they have to say, it tends to bring out the best in them. I have found that it is only when we try to control the narrative that the rebellious side of people comes out.This is all to say that I have no doubt that many of the challenges we have overcome in person can likewise be overcome in cyberspace. As our organization continually improves, we have every reason to believe that our meetings will continue to be the ideal places for these types of discussions, no matter how or where they are held.2. ANONYMITYJust as anonymity can be seen as an obstacle, it is also important to consider that people tend to feel more comfortable sharing their true thoughts and opinions online. When we say that we want open and unfettered discussions, we really mean it. Anonymity can also be a force for great good, especially when we find ourselves unable to say what we need to say in our day-to-day lives. For example, if you happen to be someone who belongs to a community that discourages or criminalizes freethinking, free speech, and free assembly, then participating in our online group under the protection of anonymity may be your best option.Those who visit our in-person meetings are seen in public with others who may have dramatically different political, religious, and philosophical opinions. For some, such a bold action can be socially detrimental as one’s family life is disrupted, employment is threatened, or one’s standing with a church is called into question. If this describes you, I hope you are able to take a break from that situation in a healthy way. Furthermore, I hope that our online meetings can give you that place where you can really say what is on your mind.3. ACCESSIBILITYWhile many of us are physically able to stand, walk, drive, and get ourselves to a coffee shop or park, some of us can’t. Some of us are hindered by psychological conditions and anxieties that restrict us to our homes. Those with dire health conditions or advanced age should also be considered. Our meetings are for everyone. Literally everyone who is able and willing to follow our Five Rules for Civil Discourse is invited. If online meetings allow more people to join, then hosting them is already a major part of our mission!4. OVERCOMING DISTANCEMost of you listening are nowhere near a physical Free Thought Forum. Our first two groups are in Utah, and even though we are growing quickly, it may take a lifetime before a local group holds its first meeting in your neighborhood. Of course, if you would like to accelerate that process, why not volunteer to become a Group Leader? Everything you need to start and run your group is on our website, and the board is happy to help you with each step along the way. With that said, we still want to bring our discussions on science, healthy living, and moral philosophy to as many people as possible. If you are miles away from where we meet, or if you are traveling, feel free to join us online!5. CONVENIENCEThe fact that I can invite all of you listening through iTunes, YouTube, Bitchute, our Blog, and elsewhere, to meet on an app at a certain time where our voices and text can be instantly made available to one another is a marvel of modern science and technology. To put this in context, when I was young, I would connect cans to the end of a string to chat with my friends because our family members were using the house phones. I wrote physical notes to my crush in Jr. High because there was no time in the day when we could chat in person. I even folded those notes in awesome ways that made them lock into themselves – it was a ton of fun. I sent my first text as an adult, so you bet that participating in online meetings blows my mind! This technology is convenient, awesome, and provides a great platform that connects us. If some of you simply prefer online conversations to face-to-face interaction, I can’t blame you at all. You are welcome to join us too!If you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our group and our podcast. Thank you!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? What feedback or ideas do you have for this program or our organization? Feel free to share your perspective.A Special Shout-Out goes to Dale Thurber Ph.D., Shayne Wissler, Lance Freeman, and Brooke!Your monthly support makes this all possible. To check out our awesome donor rewards starting at one dollar per month, please visit: freethoughtforum.org/donate.___Written By Nicholas Burk, Executive Board Member © 2019 Free Thought Initiative

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 34How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.I am pleased to announce that the first internet-based Free Thought Forum has been created! It is now in operation, meeting 100% online each week, giving freethinkers from around the world the chance to participate. The best part is that all of you listening right now (and in the future) are invited to join us!It is 100% free and you may even have a chance to chat with me and other members of our Executive Board at the next meeting! But how can our in-person meetings translate to a purely digital space? What additional challenges can be expected? And how can you get involved? In this quick episode, I will answer all that, and more!This program is brought to you by the contributing members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal background, religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions each week.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to support this program through monthly donations, please visit <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a>. While you’re there, be sure to check out our online store – now with freethought t-shirts, mugs, and other smart-looking swag!Our new Online Group represents an experiment. But, to be honest, so does everything about the Free Thought Initiative. Can we really have meetings where people can say whatever they need to say without fear of judgment or being thrown out? Can we really bring strangers from every belief and background together and have a meaningful, civil, and productive conversation without it spinning into chaos?At the time of this recording, our organization has about eight months of practical experience hosting over 50 public discussions, two festivals, and dozens of volunteer projects. Our programs and procedures have been well-tested and we have been prodded to tweak and improve them a great deal, thanks to the feedback from our guests, members, and listeners like you. What started out as a bold social test has now grown into a force for good in our communities and we are ready, once again, to expand.Before I jump into more information about our online meetings, I wanted to say that it has been a busy month, but our recent work has certainly paid off! Major improvements have been made to our organization, our website, and our content. (Further details of these improvements can be found in our monthly newsletter so feel free to sign up for it if you haven’t already.)I should also add as a side-note that our regular upload schedule (of about one episode per week) will continue to be disrupted a bit as the executive board focuses more of our time and resources on filing for our Nonprofit Status and Tax-exemption. We are seeking expert advice and doing what we can to get it all right the first time. Actually, if you happen to have experience with this kind of paperwork, we would love to hear your suggestions. After all that is completed, we will go back to our regular upload schedule. As a show of our gratitude for your patience and flexibility, we have some really great episodes coming in the near future!And now back to the exciting news at hand. If you would like to give our first Online Group a try, all of the information about its upcoming meetings can be found on its official webpage:<a href="https://www.freethoughtforum.org/online-group" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.freethoughtforum.org/online-group</a>(I’ll be sure to add a link to it in the description below.) You may also find this page by visiting our website and by clicking on the “Groups and Events” link at the top. This will bring you to a list of all of our local groups in operation, including one that may be meeting near you! Select the “Online Group” option to access its page, complete with an events calendar and instructions on how to participate. At the time of this recording, we are hosting these events on our Discord server for a couple of hours on Sunday evenings. However, any of those details may change in the future so keep an eye on that official page. (Ideally, each Free Thought Forum has between five and fifteen regular freethinkers. If our online membership grows beyond that, then we may split the group into multiple groups. Whatever the case, it will be plainly stated on that page.)Once you’ve made it to our meeting, be sure to listen to its voice channel. While some of you may want to participate with your microphone, others may prefer to simply listen along as they type in the group’s text-based chat room. The Online Group will function much like our in-person groups. First-time visitors will be asked to fill out a Welcome Form (now a link to a digital form) and also be sent a link to a digital version of our guest pamphlet, summarizing our organization’s mission, the meeting’s schedule, rules, and so forth. A PDF file of the week’s discussion primer is shared much like how a printed copy would be shared. We will keep our opening and closing statements, the mid-way break, and so forth.Our Online Group will also host digital service projects! Members may be asked to download certain service apps, write and send encouraging messages, fill out surveys for a scientific study, donate some of their computer’s processing power to SETI or similar causes, and more!Pretty soon we will release an episode about our Harmony Festival, one of our four new secular annual celebrations centered on each of the four cardinal virtues of classical philosophy. Will such festivals also be celebrated online? Absolutely! Our board members and group leaders are a creative bunch, eager to translate everything awesome about our organization into their cyber equivalents. That eagerness, actually, is something they’ve had for some time.Even back in March of 2019 when our first experimental Free Thought Forum first assembled, our members have asked us to consider forming an online-only group that would meet weekly for open and civil discussions on digital platforms like Skype, Discord, or WhatsApp. I have to admit that I was, at first, hesitant to the idea. After all, we have had so many positive experiences talking face-to-face with whoever visited our meetings in Springville or Draper, Utah. All kinds of people came to meet others, share ideas, network, engage with multiple points-of-view, develop their critical thinking skills, learn, find friends, build a community, and more.Our venues of coffee shops and public parks were ideal for open discussion. Seeing friendly people face-to-face helped to ease the concerns of our first-time-visitors and allowed them to really open-up with their ideas. In addition, bringing food, snacks, and other items to share also helped to break-the-ice. Our in-person community service options are also abundant and it is satisfying to see the impact you’ve been able to make with your own hands.So far so good, but many of you remained persistent, and continued to ask about the possibility of meeting online. Over time, I became aware of the following five strong arguments to host digital meetings. Are there others I’ve missed? If so, be sure to add them with your comments!1. FUNCTIONAL SIMILARITYAlmost everything done in a physical meeting can be done in a virtual one. Therefore, and from what we have tested thus far, it is reasonable to conclude that many of our practices and procedures in place for our physical meetings can be carried over. From a cynical perspective, I could say that online anonymity may bring out the worst in people. It is certainly true that many of us may behave worse as an avatar then we would as a person in public. Should our online discussions be subject to the assault of the overtly disruptive, we already have procedures in place to re-route the situation. Many of these procedures stem from our (recently updated) Five Rules of Civil Discourse:Be respectful of each other’s time by making your comments reasonably concise and by refraining from interruption.Focus your comments on ideas, not people.Recognize the authority of the appointed moderator.Allow for amicable disagreement and a diversity of opinions. (Your aim should not be to debate, convince, convert, or “win” the discussion.)Be prepared to explain the reasoning behind your ideas, if asked.By participating at our events, all involved agree to abide by those rules. If you are not able or willing to follow these rules, then you are welcome to share your ideas outside of our meetings such as in the comment sections of our social media pages. Our moderators are trained in de-escalation techniques and in other relevant skills. Should all our precautions and procedures fail, in the worst-case scenario, it is far easier to remove a would-be saboteur from a digital space than it is to remove them from a coffee shop or park. But that is the nuclear option. We would much rather give someone a chance to rant. Even if what they say is extremely unpopular or offensive, they are still welcome to participate as long as they are following our five rules. But if that rant repeatedly impedes on another guest’s ability to say what they need to say, then that is a problem. The good news is that we already have a solution to it. But here is the deal, while we prepare for the worst, we still hope for the best. Our in-person discussions have been the epitome of civility. Once guests understand that we really want to hear what they have to say, it tends to bring out the best in them. I have found that it is only when we try to control the narrative that the rebellious side of people comes out.This is all to say that I have no doubt that many of the challenges we have overcome in person can likewise be overcome in cyberspace. As our organization continually improves, we have every reason to believe that our meetings will continue to be the ideal places for these types of discussions, no matter how or where they are held.2. ANONYMITYJust as anonymity can be seen as an obstacle, it is also important to consider that people tend to feel more comfortable sharing their true thoughts and opinions online. When we say that we want open and unfettered discussions, we really mean it. Anonymity can also be a force for great good, especially when we find ourselves unable to say what we need to say in our day-to-day lives. For example, if you happen to be someone who belongs to a community that discourages or criminalizes freethinking, free speech, and free assembly, then participating in our online group under the protection of anonymity may be your best option.Those who visit our in-person meetings are seen in public with others who may have dramatically different political, religious, and philosophical opinions. For some, such a bold action can be socially detrimental as one’s family life is disrupted, employment is threatened, or one’s standing with a church is called into question. If this describes you, I hope you are able to take a break from that situation in a healthy way. Furthermore, I hope that our online meetings can give you that place where you can really say what is on your mind.3. ACCESSIBILITYWhile many of us are physically able to stand, walk, drive, and get ourselves to a coffee shop or park, some of us can’t. Some of us are hindered by psychological conditions and anxieties that restrict us to our homes. Those with dire health conditions or advanced age should also be considered. Our meetings are for everyone. Literally everyone who is able and willing to follow our Five Rules for Civil Discourse is invited. If online meetings allow more people to join, then hosting them is already a major part of our mission!4. OVERCOMING DISTANCEMost of you listening are nowhere near a physical Free Thought Forum. Our first two groups are in Utah, and even though we are growing quickly, it may take a lifetime before a local group holds its first meeting in your neighborhood. Of course, if you would like to accelerate that process, why not volunteer to become a Group Leader? Everything you need to start and run your group is on our website, and the board is happy to help you with each step along the way. With that said, we still want to bring our discussions on science, healthy living, and moral philosophy to as many people as possible. If you are miles away from where we meet, or if you are traveling, feel free to join us online!5. CONVENIENCEThe fact that I can invite all of you listening through iTunes, YouTube, Bitchute, our Blog, and elsewhere, to meet on an app at a certain time where our voices and text can be instantly made available to one another is a marvel of modern science and technology. To put this in context, when I was young, I would connect cans to the end of a string to chat with my friends because our family members were using the house phones. I wrote physical notes to my crush in Jr. High because there was no time in the day when we could chat in person. I even folded those notes in awesome ways that made them lock into themselves – it was a ton of fun. I sent my first text as an adult, so you bet that participating in online meetings blows my mind! This technology is convenient, awesome, and provides a great platform that connects us. If some of you simply prefer online conversations to face-to-face interaction, I can’t blame you at all. You are welcome to join us too!If you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our group and our podcast. Thank you!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? What feedback or ideas do you have for this program or our organization? Feel free to share your perspective.A Special Shout-Out goes to Dale Thurber Ph.D., Shayne Wissler, Lance Freeman, and Brooke!Your monthly support makes this all possible. To check out our awesome donor rewards starting at one dollar per month, please visit: <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org/donate" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org/donate</a>.___Written By Nicholas Burk, Executive Board Member © 2019 Free Thought Initiative

Check out our Online Meetings!

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 33How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.We are, each of us, bombarded every day by the nonsensical claims of advertisers, alternative-medicine gurus, the news media, conspiracy theorists, cult leaders, politicians, and so on. What can we do to sense nonsense before it gets past our defenses? Can we improve our individual powers of nonsense detection? In this episode, we will go over a few things you can do to tune, sharpen, and develop your personal nonsense detection kit, a set of critical thinking skills that allow you to better recognize fraud, woo-woo, BS, baloney, and pseudoscience for what they all really are.This program is brought to you by the contributing members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal background, religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions each week.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to support this program through monthly donations, please visit freethoughtforum.org. While you’re there, be sure to check out our online store – now with freethought t-shirts, mugs, and other smart-looking swag!Open-mindedness is an important virtue for a Freethinker. If you are not open to new ideas, then you may be trapped by your own false presuppositions or foolish beliefs. A close-minded person may be unable to see the flaws in their current philosophy or accept better answers as they come along.On the other hand, skepticism is also an important virtue for a Freethinker. If we carry a predominately credulous perspective and are all-too-eager to believe everything we hear, then we make ourselves fools and easy prey to those who would take advantage of our gullibility. We would soon find ourselves holding tightly to flawed ideas that betray our ignorance, stupidity, or illogic to the world.The real trick is finding the proper balance between open-mindedness and skepticism. This is an ongoing quest for the Freethinker, Skeptic, Rationalist, or Truth-Seeker. The good news is that you have tools that can aid you in this quest. A legendary hero may be given a magic sword or special armor. Likewise, your inventory will hopefully house a number of tools such as a stack of good books, an understanding of logical fallacies, solid scientific literacy, a group of friends with whom you can freely discuss any and all important issues, and what I like to call a fully-functioning Personal Nonsense Detector.A nonsense detector can be compared to an EMF meter or metal detector. If it is working, a metal detector will alert you to when something metallic is nearby, even when it is out-of-sight. If it is not working, then it may fail to alert you or alert you randomly and waste your time.Everyone has a so-called “Nonsense Detector.” It is that line we have. When a claim crosses that line, something like an alarm sounds in our minds and we respond with doubt and distrust. The idea begins to “smell fishy.” It is the skill that allows us to sense when someone is likely lying or spreading an ignorant position. It saves us from falling for a scam and stops us from believing in something nonsensical. However, just because we all have one, doesn’t mean that it is calibrated correctly. In other words, our personal sense of skepticism may be engaged at incorrect times, blocking our minds from important information that is factually accurate and consistent with reality.Therefore, reality should be the goal. Reality should be our baseline, the reset-point to which all detectors should be configured. A well-functioning nonsense detector will cause someone to raise suspicion when something is not realistic. A poorly-functioning nonsense detector will cause you to be suspicious in error, much like when your body develops an intense allergy to things that are perfectly harmless. Perhaps the first sign that your detector is faulty is that you have to constantly make excuses (and engage in special pleading) for why your beliefs don’t match experienced reality. At that moment when you feel like you have to be dishonest, pause, and ask yourself why you feel compelled to stretch the truth, cover, or compensate for someone or something else.The following five suggestions on how to develop and improve your personal nonsense detector represent some general principals in science and in formal logic. This list is also inspired by similar ones proposed by Carl Sagan, Michael Shermer, Penn Jillette, and others. These suggestions can also be thought of as five tests, challenges, or gateways passable by only the best of ideas!1. CONSIDER HOW BADLY YOU WANT THE IDEA TO BE TRUEThere is a critical natural flaw in human thinking. No matter what we are trying to learn, we always have at least a little hope that the truth will end up being exactly what we want it to be. We really want the doctor to tell us that we are perfectly healthy. We really want people to see us as successful, clever, or beautiful. We really want our plans to work, and we really want the last gallon in our car to last for a few more miles.There is nothing wrong, per se, with strong desire. Sometimes it is a good thing like when we need the motivation to push ourselves or to take on challenges. However, when we are trying to find out what is real, our wants act like a wrench in the machine. It is like giving ourselves blinders or shooting ourselves in the foot. This is one way to understand the distracting and disruptive effects of “bias.”Bias is a real problem. When we deeply want, hope for, or need one idea to be right, above all others, we are showing a form of cognitive bias. This can lead us to show favoritism to one idea, even in the face of evidence against it. Our deep wants and desires change the way we look at things and change the way we try to find answers. It corrupts our experiments and blurs our ability to see reality as it really is.So here is a reality check: The act of wanting something to be true itself doesn’t affect how true the thing actually is. Just because you may really want the girl in your English class to have a crush on you, for example, that doesn’t mean that she does! Reality doesn’t care about what we want. You can wish something as hard as you like, but that does not make it true.This kind of desire (to be right or to have one’s beliefs confirmed) represents a kind of “default factory setting,” in the human mind. It is something that we have to learn to put aside. We need to be comfortable with learning and believing in reality, as it is, warts and all. Now, this may lead to the acceptance of facts that are not pleasant, impressive, or intuitive, but that is ok. We can’t always get the kind of answers we like and we should be totally fine with that. A good scientist will accept the results of a properly structured experiment, even if the results are unpleasant, disappointing, boring, frustrating, or counter-intuitive.So the next time you find yourself desperately wanting something to be true, recognize that as a sign to tread carefully. When you hear someone pandering to your passions, prejudices, or desires, that should also send up a mental red flag. Scammers will try to flatter you and trick you into thinking that they are on your side. That pandering sounds something like this: “Would you like to quit your job, spend more time with your kids, and make a million dollars from home?” “Are you tired of spending so much money and time on this or that?” “Welcome enlightened one! For you are one of the few people smart enough to have found our brotherhood who knows the real truth about the conspiracy!” “What do they know about it anyway? Don’t listen to the so-called experts. You know, you were right all along!”Rather than let ourselves be led by comfortable-sounding falsehoods, we should try to be open to all possibilities, even those we don’t necessarily like or want, especially when they don’t support our present views.2. WHAT ARE THE BEST ARGUMENTS AGAINST IT?If you are convinced that an idea doesn’t only have merit because of your personal desires, then it is time to see how well it measures up to the most rigorous scrutiny. Has anyone tried to disprove the idea? If so, what was their strongest argument? We shouldn’t just turn to the weak caricatures of the counter-argument. We need to give sincere consideration to the best case presented by the opposition. One way to do this is to go to the source of the counter-argument, rather than relying on a second-hand or third-hand version.Now that you have looked at all sides of the debate, it can also be telling to consider how the original claimant responded to the refutation. Were all naysayers smeared and branded as heretics, or was their rebuttal considered seriously? Whatever the case, it is a good sign if your idea comes from a source that allows for things like peer review, disagreement, debate, and open discussion.To get to the true nature of reality, we must often rely on more than just one mind. Ideas should be sent out to be tested in an intellectual gladiatorial arena, stripped of all external protections. It must be allowed to rise or fall based on its own merits. You can think of it this way: Answers to important questions are like players on two dodgeball teams. They all must be submitted to the most brutal game of testing, of arguments and counter-arguments. The last idea standing, the one that outlasts its rivals, is then declared the winner until a more capable challenger comes along.We can’t just ignore what the “other side” says. We shouldn’t only surround ourselves with yes-men, lest we find ourselves in the same place as the emperor with no clothes. We must be able to entertain more than one hypothesis, let each one be challenged, and be willing to drop good ideas for better ideas.3. DOES THE IDEA SHOW SIGNS OF LOGICAL FALLACIES?A good idea will be coherent and internally consistent. If there are several steps to an argument, each step must be valid, work on its own, or “support its own weight.” But here is the problem. At first, all ideas may look like they meet these high standards. They all have a claim to fame. So, much like the judges in a competitive talent show, we can ask each contestant to show us what makes them so special.The great majority of ideas out there claim to be more reasonable and logical than they really are. But you can develop the skills needed to accurately spot and dismiss the pretenders. With practice, it can be like catching those participants in a talent show who did not actually dedicate enough time and effort in preparation for their performance. They are elevated and popularized mostly by pretense. These pretenses that make ideas sound more palatable, harmless, rational, scientific, reasonable, or more logical than they actually are called, “logical fallacies.”If you have been listening to this podcast for a while, then you already know that we have a few episodes completely dedicated to common logical fallacies, explored one-by-one. They are some of our most popular podcasts, so if you haven’t yet given them a listen, I’d highly recommend it!4. OCCAM'S RAZORHere is a general rule in logic and philosophy: If two explanations seem equally valid, then the simpler one is usually correct. Look for the explanation that has the fewest steps and makes the fewest assumptions. It is not a perfect or fool-proof rule, but it is a very good test through which you should send any important idea. It is known as Occam’s Razor, named after a Franciscan friar who said something like, “more things should not be used than are necessary.”The concept that, with all things being equal, the one of two explanations that uses fewer steps is preferred, makes sense to me. When we lie, for example, we tend to add unnecessary steps and complications to what would otherwise be a straight-forward retelling of plain reality. Fraudsters usually claim that their ideas are exceptions to the norm that deserve special treatment. Anyone can make a convoluted word salad to make any idea sound impressive, but all it takes is a critical look below the surface to see the, often simpler, truth.Did a man in a black hat really jump through the window, steal the cookie, and run off laughing? Or did your four-year-old simply make up a story after they stole from the cookie jar? Are you really being contacted by a Nigerian Prince, or did a scammer just send you some spam?Connected to this preference for simplicity, in my mind, is a preference for normality. We would do well to ask, “does this idea fit with how the world usually works?” While surprising and rare things do happen, they are surprising and rare for a reason. We can be all-too-willing to accept something that is out-of-the-ordinary. While we may be easy to convince, hopefully, we all know others who generally skeptical and are hard to convince. Therefore, especially for young people, it helps to wonder, “well, what would my parents think?” or “What might my teacher say, if they were here?” before believing, doing, or buying something suspicious.When faced with something that is not normal, or seems unnecessarily overcomplicated, I think that an appropriate response is to start asking questions. Even if they are dumb questions, or “kill the mood” ask them anyway until you are satisfied. Ask as many questions as you want. When a scam artist or fraud is trying to pull a fast one on you, forcing everyone to slow down and address your questions is a great way to protect yourself. Before you agree to anything, especially if it strikes you as odd or complicated, you owe it to yourself to demand that it is properly explained. You owe it to yourself to only go along with what you can understand.5. DOES THE IDEA FOLLOW THE RULES OF SCIENCE?With all this talk about developing your nonsense detection skills, we haven’t yet tried to look at how these important concepts are utilized on a larger scale. How can a community, country, or humanity itself be protected from bad ideas? Well, Humanity does actually have a powerful nonsense detector called MODERN SCIENCE! This is science at its best! This is one of its most important jobs.When we think of science, we may think it is just a list of strict academic rules that people in a lab must follow. But scientific thinking is something you can implement in everyday life. It is a process that filters-out nonsense and falsehoods, leaving only the best answers behind. We can use this process to make wiser choices about how we handle our money, get a more accurate picture of the nature of our interpersonal relationships, see political arguments and advertisements in a more clear light, live healthier, and more.Here are some questions you can use to think more like a scientist: Can the idea be quantified, tested, and proven wrong by anyone? How reliable are its sources? Does it actually follow where the preponderance of evidence actually points? Is it the best answer we have so far with the most explanatory and predictive power?The more of these kinds of tests an idea can survive, the more likely it is to be true.If you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our group and our podcast. Thank you!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? What feedback or ideas do you have for this program or our organization? Feel free to share your perspective.A Special Shout-Out goes to Shayne Wissler, Lance Freeman, and Brooke!Your monthly support makes this all possible. To check out our awesome donor rewards starting at one dollar per month, please visit: freethoughtforum.org/donate.___Written By Nicholas Burk, Executive Board Member © 2019 Free Thought Initiative

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 33How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.We are, each of us, bombarded every day by the nonsensical claims of advertisers, alternative-medicine gurus, the news media, conspiracy theorists, cult leaders, politicians, and so on. What can we do to sense nonsense before it gets past our defenses? Can we improve our individual powers of nonsense detection? In this episode, we will go over a few things you can do to tune, sharpen, and develop your personal nonsense detection kit, a set of critical thinking skills that allow you to better recognize fraud, woo-woo, BS, baloney, and pseudoscience for what they all really are.This program is brought to you by the contributing members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal background, religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions each week.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to support this program through monthly donations, please visit <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a>. While you’re there, be sure to check out our online store – now with freethought t-shirts, mugs, and other smart-looking swag!Open-mindedness is an important virtue for a Freethinker. If you are not open to new ideas, then you may be trapped by your own false presuppositions or foolish beliefs. A close-minded person may be unable to see the flaws in their current philosophy or accept better answers as they come along.On the other hand, skepticism is also an important virtue for a Freethinker. If we carry a predominately credulous perspective and are all-too-eager to believe everything we hear, then we make ourselves fools and easy prey to those who would take advantage of our gullibility. We would soon find ourselves holding tightly to flawed ideas that betray our ignorance, stupidity, or illogic to the world.The real trick is finding the proper balance between open-mindedness and skepticism. This is an ongoing quest for the Freethinker, Skeptic, Rationalist, or Truth-Seeker. The good news is that you have tools that can aid you in this quest. A legendary hero may be given a magic sword or special armor. Likewise, your inventory will hopefully house a number of tools such as a stack of good books, an understanding of logical fallacies, solid scientific literacy, a group of friends with whom you can freely discuss any and all important issues, and what I like to call a fully-functioning Personal Nonsense Detector.A nonsense detector can be compared to an EMF meter or metal detector. If it is working, a metal detector will alert you to when something metallic is nearby, even when it is out-of-sight. If it is not working, then it may fail to alert you or alert you randomly and waste your time.Everyone has a so-called “Nonsense Detector.” It is that line we have. When a claim crosses that line, something like an alarm sounds in our minds and we respond with doubt and distrust. The idea begins to “smell fishy.” It is the skill that allows us to sense when someone is likely lying or spreading an ignorant position. It saves us from falling for a scam and stops us from believing in something nonsensical. However, just because we all have one, doesn’t mean that it is calibrated correctly. In other words, our personal sense of skepticism may be engaged at incorrect times, blocking our minds from important information that is factually accurate and consistent with reality.Therefore, reality should be the goal. Reality should be our baseline, the reset-point to which all detectors should be configured. A well-functioning nonsense detector will cause someone to raise suspicion when something is not realistic. A poorly-functioning nonsense detector will cause you to be suspicious in error, much like when your body develops an intense allergy to things that are perfectly harmless. Perhaps the first sign that your detector is faulty is that you have to constantly make excuses (and engage in special pleading) for why your beliefs don’t match experienced reality. At that moment when you feel like you have to be dishonest, pause, and ask yourself why you feel compelled to stretch the truth, cover, or compensate for someone or something else.The following five suggestions on how to develop and improve your personal nonsense detector represent some general principals in science and in formal logic. This list is also inspired by similar ones proposed by Carl Sagan, Michael Shermer, Penn Jillette, and others. These suggestions can also be thought of as five tests, challenges, or gateways passable by only the best of ideas!1. CONSIDER HOW BADLY YOU WANT THE IDEA TO BE TRUEThere is a critical natural flaw in human thinking. No matter what we are trying to learn, we always have at least a little hope that the truth will end up being exactly what we want it to be. We really want the doctor to tell us that we are perfectly healthy. We really want people to see us as successful, clever, or beautiful. We really want our plans to work, and we really want the last gallon in our car to last for a few more miles.There is nothing wrong, per se, with strong desire. Sometimes it is a good thing like when we need the motivation to push ourselves or to take on challenges. However, when we are trying to find out what is real, our wants act like a wrench in the machine. It is like giving ourselves blinders or shooting ourselves in the foot. This is one way to understand the distracting and disruptive effects of “bias.”Bias is a real problem. When we deeply want, hope for, or need one idea to be right, above all others, we are showing a form of cognitive bias. This can lead us to show favoritism to one idea, even in the face of evidence against it. Our deep wants and desires change the way we look at things and change the way we try to find answers. It corrupts our experiments and blurs our ability to see reality as it really is.So here is a reality check: The act of wanting something to be true itself doesn’t affect how true the thing actually is. Just because you may really want the girl in your English class to have a crush on you, for example, that doesn’t mean that she does! Reality doesn’t care about what we want. You can wish something as hard as you like, but that does not make it true.This kind of desire (to be right or to have one’s beliefs confirmed) represents a kind of “default factory setting,” in the human mind. It is something that we have to learn to put aside. We need to be comfortable with learning and believing in reality, as it is, warts and all. Now, this may lead to the acceptance of facts that are not pleasant, impressive, or intuitive, but that is ok. We can’t always get the kind of answers we like and we should be totally fine with that. A good scientist will accept the results of a properly structured experiment, even if the results are unpleasant, disappointing, boring, frustrating, or counter-intuitive.So the next time you find yourself desperately wanting something to be true, recognize that as a sign to tread carefully. When you hear someone pandering to your passions, prejudices, or desires, that should also send up a mental red flag. Scammers will try to flatter you and trick you into thinking that they are on your side. That pandering sounds something like this: “Would you like to quit your job, spend more time with your kids, and make a million dollars from home?” “Are you tired of spending so much money and time on this or that?” “Welcome enlightened one! For you are one of the few people smart enough to have found our brotherhood who knows the real truth about the conspiracy!” “What do they know about it anyway? Don’t listen to the so-called experts. You know, you were right all along!”Rather than let ourselves be led by comfortable-sounding falsehoods, we should try to be open to all possibilities, even those we don’t necessarily like or want, especially when they don’t support our present views.2. WHAT ARE THE BEST ARGUMENTS AGAINST IT?If you are convinced that an idea doesn’t only have merit because of your personal desires, then it is time to see how well it measures up to the most rigorous scrutiny. Has anyone tried to disprove the idea? If so, what was their strongest argument? We shouldn’t just turn to the weak caricatures of the counter-argument. We need to give sincere consideration to the best case presented by the opposition. One way to do this is to go to the source of the counter-argument, rather than relying on a second-hand or third-hand version.Now that you have looked at all sides of the debate, it can also be telling to consider how the original claimant responded to the refutation. Were all naysayers smeared and branded as heretics, or was their rebuttal considered seriously? Whatever the case, it is a good sign if your idea comes from a source that allows for things like peer review, disagreement, debate, and open discussion.To get to the true nature of reality, we must often rely on more than just one mind. Ideas should be sent out to be tested in an intellectual gladiatorial arena, stripped of all external protections. It must be allowed to rise or fall based on its own merits. You can think of it this way: Answers to important questions are like players on two dodgeball teams. They all must be submitted to the most brutal game of testing, of arguments and counter-arguments. The last idea standing, the one that outlasts its rivals, is then declared the winner until a more capable challenger comes along.We can’t just ignore what the “other side” says. We shouldn’t only surround ourselves with yes-men, lest we find ourselves in the same place as the emperor with no clothes. We must be able to entertain more than one hypothesis, let each one be challenged, and be willing to drop good ideas for better ideas.3. DOES THE IDEA SHOW SIGNS OF LOGICAL FALLACIES?A good idea will be coherent and internally consistent. If there are several steps to an argument, each step must be valid, work on its own, or “support its own weight.” But here is the problem. At first, all ideas may look like they meet these high standards. They all have a claim to fame. So, much like the judges in a competitive talent show, we can ask each contestant to show us what makes them so special.The great majority of ideas out there claim to be more reasonable and logical than they really are. But you can develop the skills needed to accurately spot and dismiss the pretenders. With practice, it can be like catching those participants in a talent show who did not actually dedicate enough time and effort in preparation for their performance. They are elevated and popularized mostly by pretense. These pretenses that make ideas sound more palatable, harmless, rational, scientific, reasonable, or more logical than they actually are called, “logical fallacies.”If you have been listening to this podcast for a while, then you already know that we have a few episodes completely dedicated to common logical fallacies, explored one-by-one. They are some of our most popular podcasts, so if you haven’t yet given them a listen, I’d highly recommend it!4. OCCAM'S RAZORHere is a general rule in logic and philosophy: If two explanations seem equally valid, then the simpler one is usually correct. Look for the explanation that has the fewest steps and makes the fewest assumptions. It is not a perfect or fool-proof rule, but it is a very good test through which you should send any important idea. It is known as Occam’s Razor, named after a Franciscan friar who said something like, “more things should not be used than are necessary.”The concept that, with all things being equal, the one of two explanations that uses fewer steps is preferred, makes sense to me. When we lie, for example, we tend to add unnecessary steps and complications to what would otherwise be a straight-forward retelling of plain reality. Fraudsters usually claim that their ideas are exceptions to the norm that deserve special treatment. Anyone can make a convoluted word salad to make any idea sound impressive, but all it takes is a critical look below the surface to see the, often simpler, truth.Did a man in a black hat really jump through the window, steal the cookie, and run off laughing? Or did your four-year-old simply make up a story after they stole from the cookie jar? Are you really being contacted by a Nigerian Prince, or did a scammer just send you some spam?Connected to this preference for simplicity, in my mind, is a preference for normality. We would do well to ask, “does this idea fit with how the world usually works?” While surprising and rare things do happen, they are surprising and rare for a reason. We can be all-too-willing to accept something that is out-of-the-ordinary. While we may be easy to convince, hopefully, we all know others who generally skeptical and are hard to convince. Therefore, especially for young people, it helps to wonder, “well, what would my parents think?” or “What might my teacher say, if they were here?” before believing, doing, or buying something suspicious.When faced with something that is not normal, or seems unnecessarily overcomplicated, I think that an appropriate response is to start asking questions. Even if they are dumb questions, or “kill the mood” ask them anyway until you are satisfied. Ask as many questions as you want. When a scam artist or fraud is trying to pull a fast one on you, forcing everyone to slow down and address your questions is a great way to protect yourself. Before you agree to anything, especially if it strikes you as odd or complicated, you owe it to yourself to demand that it is properly explained. You owe it to yourself to only go along with what you can understand.5. DOES THE IDEA FOLLOW THE RULES OF SCIENCE?With all this talk about developing your nonsense detection skills, we haven’t yet tried to look at how these important concepts are utilized on a larger scale. How can a community, country, or humanity itself be protected from bad ideas? Well, Humanity does actually have a powerful nonsense detector called MODERN SCIENCE! This is science at its best! This is one of its most important jobs.When we think of science, we may think it is just a list of strict academic rules that people in a lab must follow. But scientific thinking is something you can implement in everyday life. It is a process that filters-out nonsense and falsehoods, leaving only the best answers behind. We can use this process to make wiser choices about how we handle our money, get a more accurate picture of the nature of our interpersonal relationships, see political arguments and advertisements in a more clear light, live healthier, and more.Here are some questions you can use to think more like a scientist: Can the idea be quantified, tested, and proven wrong by anyone? How reliable are its sources? Does it actually follow where the preponderance of evidence actually points? Is it the best answer we have so far with the most explanatory and predictive power?The more of these kinds of tests an idea can survive, the more likely it is to be true.If you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our group and our podcast. Thank you!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? What feedback or ideas do you have for this program or our organization? Feel free to share your perspective.A Special Shout-Out goes to Shayne Wissler, Lance Freeman, and Brooke!Your monthly support makes this all possible. To check out our awesome donor rewards starting at one dollar per month, please visit: <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org/donate" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org/donate</a>.___Written By Nicholas Burk, Executive Board Member © 2019 Free Thought Initiative

Developing Your Nonsense Detector

Come join the conversation about freethought, philosophy, politics, religion, atheism, science, logic, reason, rationality, social issues, morality, current events, and more!

The Fresh Perspective

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 5How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.In this episode, we will go back in time, as far as physically possible, and perhaps, even further. What happened before the big bang, before the first moment of our universe as we know it? Strap in for a thought experiment built of cosmology, mind-bending physics, and imagination.This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit freethoughtforum.org.We are surrounded by stuff. Look around you. Consider for a moment that your books, car, the trees outside. Everything is mostly made of empty space. Everything around us, (at least everything that belongs to the same family of matter as we do) is made of atoms. There is mostly empty space between those atoms. Inside the atom is no different. If an atom was enlarged to the size of a football stadium, its electrons would be wiggling and buzzing around the top row of bleachers, while the nucleus would be about the size of a small marble on the 50-yard line.Now that is a lot of empty space! I like to imagine what the universe would be like without all that. What if you could take all the “empty space” out from between all objects and between all molecules in the universe? What if you continued on to remove the voids between the nuclei of atoms and their electrons? What would the ending result be if you took all the matter and energy left and collected it down into a single place?I think you already know the answer to that question. The answer lies in one of the most wild and counterintuitive theories in science: THE BIG BANG!13.8 billion years ago, EVERYTHING (All kinds of matter, all kinds of energy, all of the laws of nature) was once condensed into a single point smaller than an atom. This is known as the “Initial Singularity.” As far as we know, there was nothing outside it and nothing beside it.This is where we start.13.8 BILLION years ago, our universe began. But can we tick the seconds back even further to catch a glimpse of what started it all?Do you know the answer?There is fascinating research going into ideas like the multi-verse, multi-dimensional membranes, or of quantum fluctuations that could have spawned something out of what we call “nothing,” but these are hypotheses and theories outside of the big bang theory itself. People far smarter than me will have to tell you about all of those kinds of things.What happened at or before the big bang?The truth is that no one really knows. Our current theories, models, and even our current understanding of the laws of nature break down at this point. In fact, the term “Big Bang” is more of a placeholder for what happened before the INFLATION of the universe.Nevertheless, I will do my best to give an accurate answer based on the most well-established and widely accepted aspects of the big bang theory. Doing so will, with any luck, allow us to conceptualize this hypothetical time before time.For our purposes today, I am referring to the big bang as the initial instance when time equaled zero (T=0), or when, as far as we can tell, no time had yet passed.All of our best information of this snap-shot of history lives only in the minds of theoretical physicists. Yet what happened a split second AFTER this moment is actually pretty well understood. Physicists of many kinds can give us hard scientific answers based on empirical evidence and testing (some of which is done in the large hadron collider in Switzerland). They have a pretty good idea of what happened at 10-6 seconds after the big bang. In other words, if you want to know what happened 0.00001 seconds after the big bang – scientists can give you good answers!But for many science enthusiasts, what humanity knows is great, but it is nothing compared to what is just beyond that knowledge. When we reverse time back from when our universe was only 10-6 seconds old, theoretical physicists and cosmologists predict that so many weird things begin to happen.Things get insanely hot, particles lose their mass, the forces of nature such as gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear forces all fuse together into some kind of super force. The universe shrinks to 10-78 TIMES its size leaving it only about the size of a soccer ball, to the size of an atom, to something even smaller still.And then, we stop.We are a microscopic singularity of intense heat, but it is dark. It is so dense that photons simply cannot escape from the insanely hot and dense contents of that singularity.When T=0, or at the exact moment when no time yet has passed, we hit a brick wall.As far as scientists can tell, time itself began to flow in tandem with the birth of our universe. In other words, there is no such thing as time before our universe. It is like flipping a book back to the cover, or rewinding a VHS tape until it stops. As far as we can tell, time didn’t even exist before the big bang!It isn’t like we can step outside of the universe to take a look at that small point that started it all. Our universe is everything, and you can’t step outside of everything. Thanks to Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, we now understand that time is a dimension in space. As “space-time,” the fabric of the cosmos existed at the big bang, but not necessarily before. Time emerged at that point, flowing in one direction: to the future.I would like to say that time for the universe started ticking at one second per second. But it doesn’t work that way. Massive objects that warp space, such as stars, black holes, and planets – also warp time. You may recall that time is relative, so even back at the beginning, we can’t say that it was flowing at some steady rate like how we experience it in day-to-day life.Based on what we know from the big bang theory, any attempt to discover a cause or catalyst for the birth of the universe is a nonsensical question, much like asking, “What is further North than the North Pole?” or “How long can a fish hold its breath?”What happened before the big bang? The answer, is that there was no “before the big bang.” Notwithstanding, it is sometimes fun to ask nonsensical questions. If, for no other reason, than to stretch our minds a little, and visit realms of thought far beyond what we otherwise would.That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 5How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.In this episode, we will go back in time, as far as physically possible, and perhaps, even further. What happened before the big bang, before the first moment of our universe as we know it? Strap in for a thought experiment built of cosmology, mind-bending physics, and imagination.This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a>.We are surrounded by stuff. Look around you. Consider for a moment that your books, car, the trees outside. Everything is mostly made of empty space. Everything around us, (at least everything that belongs to the same family of matter as we do) is made of atoms. There is mostly empty space between those atoms. Inside the atom is no different. If an atom was enlarged to the size of a football stadium, its electrons would be wiggling and buzzing around the top row of bleachers, while the nucleus would be about the size of a small marble on the 50-yard line.Now that is a lot of empty space! I like to imagine what the universe would be like without all that. What if you could take all the “empty space” out from between all objects and between all molecules in the universe? What if you continued on to remove the voids between the nuclei of atoms and their electrons? What would the ending result be if you took all the matter and energy left and collected it down into a single place?I think you already know the answer to that question. The answer lies in one of the most wild and counterintuitive theories in science: THE BIG BANG!13.8 billion years ago, EVERYTHING (All kinds of matter, all kinds of energy, all of the laws of nature) was once condensed into a single point smaller than an atom. This is known as the “Initial Singularity.” As far as we know, there was nothing outside it and nothing beside it.This is where we start.13.8 BILLION years ago, our universe began. But can we tick the seconds back even further to catch a glimpse of what started it all?Do you know the answer?There is fascinating research going into ideas like the multi-verse, multi-dimensional membranes, or of quantum fluctuations that could have spawned something out of what we call “nothing,” but these are hypotheses and theories outside of the big bang theory itself. People far smarter than me will have to tell you about all of those kinds of things.What happened at or before the big bang?The truth is that no one really knows. Our current theories, models, and even our current understanding of the laws of nature break down at this point. In fact, the term “Big Bang” is more of a placeholder for what happened before the INFLATION of the universe.Nevertheless, I will do my best to give an accurate answer based on the most well-established and widely accepted aspects of the big bang theory. Doing so will, with any luck, allow us to conceptualize this hypothetical time before time.For our purposes today, I am referring to the big bang as the initial instance when time equaled zero (T=0), or when, as far as we can tell, no time had yet passed.All of our best information of this snap-shot of history lives only in the minds of theoretical physicists. Yet what happened a split second AFTER this moment is actually pretty well understood. Physicists of many kinds can give us hard scientific answers based on empirical evidence and testing (some of which is done in the large hadron collider in Switzerland). They have a pretty good idea of what happened at 10-6 seconds after the big bang. In other words, if you want to know what happened 0.00001 seconds after the big bang – scientists can give you good answers!But for many science enthusiasts, what humanity knows is great, but it is nothing compared to what is just beyond that knowledge. When we reverse time back from when our universe was only 10-6 seconds old, theoretical physicists and cosmologists predict that so many weird things begin to happen.Things get insanely hot, particles lose their mass, the forces of nature such as gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear forces all fuse together into some kind of super force. The universe shrinks to 10-78 TIMES its size leaving it only about the size of a soccer ball, to the size of an atom, to something even smaller still.And then, we stop.We are a microscopic singularity of intense heat, but it is dark. It is so dense that photons simply cannot escape from the insanely hot and dense contents of that singularity.When T=0, or at the exact moment when no time yet has passed, we hit a brick wall.As far as scientists can tell, time itself began to flow in tandem with the birth of our universe. In other words, there is no such thing as time before our universe. It is like flipping a book back to the cover, or rewinding a VHS tape until it stops. As far as we can tell, time didn’t even exist before the big bang!It isn’t like we can step outside of the universe to take a look at that small point that started it all. Our universe is everything, and you can’t step outside of everything. Thanks to Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, we now understand that time is a dimension in space. As “space-time,” the fabric of the cosmos existed at the big bang, but not necessarily before. Time emerged at that point, flowing in one direction: to the future.I would like to say that time for the universe started ticking at one second per second. But it doesn’t work that way. Massive objects that warp space, such as stars, black holes, and planets – also warp time. You may recall that time is relative, so even back at the beginning, we can’t say that it was flowing at some steady rate like how we experience it in day-to-day life.Based on what we know from the big bang theory, any attempt to discover a cause or catalyst for the birth of the universe is a nonsensical question, much like asking, “What is further North than the North Pole?” or “How long can a fish hold its breath?”What happened before the big bang? The answer, is that there was no “before the big bang.” Notwithstanding, it is sometimes fun to ask nonsensical questions. If, for no other reason, than to stretch our minds a little, and visit realms of thought far beyond what we otherwise would.That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!

What Happened Before the Big Bang?

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 3How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.This episode is the first in series we call: “50 Habits For Maximizing Personal Health and Wellbeing.” In this series, we will get to the bottom of what experts actually recommend when it comes to those small-yet-impactful health choices we make, day to day. This advice will be for the average person, so those who want to become athletes or have serious health conditions will need to adjust their application of this list accordingly. Today, we will discuss the first five habits you can adopt for better physical health.This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit freethoughtforum.orgWhy not start off with an introduction to the 50-Healthy-Habits program itself?Whether your goal is to become a better person, improve the world, or do something in between, a sound first step is to get your own personal health in order. Adopting healthy habits to improve your own personal wellbeing not only helps you avoid several forms of pain and suffering in the short term and in the long term, but it also frees you up to be a force for good in the lives of others.The real question is, where do we begin?We live in an age flooded with both good and bad advice. Sometimes, online health advice is sound, but it is not targeted toward the average person. Whether this advice comes from social media shares, self-appointed health gurus (peddling their own so-called “remedies,” to the gullible), or even articles with reputable sources, it is no wonder that the average person can feel a bit disoriented and overwhelmed. When considering the various health issues that plague our society, how can we afford this much confusion? How can someone sort the good advice from the bad?“Healthy Living” is one of the key values held and promoted by the Free Thought Initiative. It is a topic that deserves serious consideration, given that it addresses three of the six social issues each Free Thought Forum exists to combat: “Isolation &amp; Depression,” “Misinformation &amp; Anti-Intellectualism,” and “Overindulgence &amp; Addiction.” To this end, the “50 Healthy Habits Program” was first launched in April of 2019. The objective of this program is to list simple and universally applicable personal habits that have been tested and supported by scientific evidence. These habits will be made available on our website (freethoughtforum.org) one section at a time and will be regularly updated as new and better information is brought to the attention of our executive board.As this program is developed, your feedback, suggestions, and links to relevant research articles all play an indispensable role. Thank you for your consideration of the following, and for your participation in this ambitious undertaking!If you would like an updated version of this list, or to dig even deeper into our referenced sources to the studies and articles on which this advice is based, visit: freethoughtforum.org/blog/50-habitsAnd now, onto the first five habits!1. GET ABOUT 8 FULL HOURS OF SLEEP EACH NIGHTEight hours of sleep each night is what is generally recommended for adults. However, everyone has slightly different needs depending on one’s age, body size, activity levels, diet, and so forth. Therefore, it is important to remember that your mind and body requires a certain amount of sleep, an amount that must be met regularly. Getting enough sleep has been shown to improve (among other things) one’s immune system, brain function, memory, mood, eating habits, and overall life expectancy. In fact, losing just a half hour of what is personally needed on a regular basis can have dramatic consequences. For those struggling to regularly get a full night’s sleep, here are a few suggestions that may help:Leave a fan on in your bedroom while you sleep. (This can promote air flow, cool the body, and produce calming white noise.)Ensure that all light sources are turned-off or covered.Refrain from looking at a phone, computer, or other bright screens before sleeping.Deeply stretch your muscles before climbing into bed.Set and strive to keep a regular sleeping schedule.Engage in meditative exercises in bed, such as counting your breaths.Allow your body about four hours to digest your last meal before sleeping.Make a to-do list of things to think about in the morning, allowing yourself to relax afterward.Ensure that your blankets, pillowcases, and sheets are laundered on at least a weekly basis.Consider bathing at the end of the day and allow time for your hair to dry before retiring for the night.Consider increasing your physical activity and/or reducing caloric intake in order to prevent surplus energy at the end of the day.2. DRINK ONE GLASS OF CLEAR WATER WITH EVERY MEALTo maintain healthy body function, the average adult needs to drink a minimum of about 6 cups of clear water directly, in addition to the water gained through food consumption. Recent studies suggest that a large portion of our population may be chronically dehydrated. To combat this, it is recommended that every adult should consume at least two cups (one glass) of plain drinking water three times a day. For those who drink coffee or alcohol, engage in vigorous physical activity, are exposed to sunlight, or are affected by other similar factors, increased water consumption is essential. In addition, replacing sweet drinks, sodas, juices, and other beverages with clear, clean, and unflavored drinking water has been proven to make a significant difference in overall caloric consumption. Therefore, filling one’s stomach in part with water (in place of other drinks) can be a powerful tool in fighting obesity.3. FILL ½ OF EACH MEAL WITH A VARIETY OF VEGETABLESVegetables are some of the most nutrient-dense low-calorie foods we consume. In addition to the dietary fiber they provide (critical for our indispensable gut bacteria), vegetables have also been shown to reduce the risk for heart disease, stroke, and even several types of cancer! When replacing more energy-dense foods, vegetables can also positively influence healthy body weight. (In part, this is because we often feel “full” or satiated based upon the volume in our stomachs, rather than the energy levels of our food.)Despite all this, less than 14% of Americans include the recommended amount of vegetables in their diet! Federal Recommended vegetable consumption is about four cups per day, which can easily fill half of the volume of three average adult-sized meals. In fact, the National Institute of Health flat out recommends that “Half of your plate should contain green vegetables.”Given these governmental recommendations, the various nutrient benefits from vegetables, and their capacity to help us feel “full,” the Free Thought Initiative encourages all members to scale their meals according to their needs while also ensuring that 50% of their meals’ food consists of a variety of vegetables, especially raw vegetables, allium vegetables, carrots, green vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, and tomatoes.4. AVOID FOODS WITH ADDED SALT, SUGAR, AND/OR FATFour of the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States are associated with diets that are too high in sodium, calories, cholesterol, fat, and saturated fat. Eating these types of foods can lead to coronary heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, osteoporosis and a number of other disorders and conditions. As a general rule, the less-processed a food is, the better. This is not to say that raw food is preferable to food with minimal cleaning and processing. Rather, it is important to remember that heavily processed foods tend to lose much of their nutrients and are often packaged with added salt, sugar, and/or fat. Therefore, it is recommended that one’s diet consists largely of minimally-processed foods, while the consumption of foods high in salt, sugar, and/or fat content is dramatically reduced or completely avoided.5. VIGOROUSLY EXERCISE FOR AT LEAST 30 MIN. DAILYStudies have shown that even a few minutes of exercise a day yield intense health benefits in men, women, children, and even in those with a high risk of cardiovascular disease. Those who engage in vigorous leisure-time exercise (such as jogging, weight-lifting, or playing high-intensity sports) for at least 30 minutes, six days a week, (or at least 180 minutes of total exercise a week) have been shown to have an 18% reduced risk of all-cause mortality and had a 3 year longer life expectancy than those who do not engage in any such exercise. Despite the clear health advantages to regular intense physical activity, less than 10% of Americans meet the minimum recommended amount of exercise.The recommended 30 minutes a day does not include any warm-up, stretching, or cool-down time. Such additional activity is conventionally recommended, however scientific studies on the short-term benefits of warm-ups and cool-downs are inconclusive.That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 3How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.This episode is the first in series we call: “50 Habits For Maximizing Personal Health and Wellbeing.” In this series, we will get to the bottom of what experts actually recommend when it comes to those small-yet-impactful health choices we make, day to day. This advice will be for the average person, so those who want to become athletes or have serious health conditions will need to adjust their application of this list accordingly. Today, we will discuss the first five habits you can adopt for better physical health.This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a>Why not start off with an introduction to the 50-Healthy-Habits program itself?Whether your goal is to become a better person, improve the world, or do something in between, a sound first step is to get your own personal health in order. Adopting healthy habits to improve your own personal wellbeing not only helps you avoid several forms of pain and suffering in the short term and in the long term, but it also frees you up to be a force for good in the lives of others.The real question is, where do we begin?We live in an age flooded with both good and bad advice. Sometimes, online health advice is sound, but it is not targeted toward the average person. Whether this advice comes from social media shares, self-appointed health gurus (peddling their own so-called “remedies,” to the gullible), or even articles with reputable sources, it is no wonder that the average person can feel a bit disoriented and overwhelmed. When considering the various health issues that plague our society, how can we afford this much confusion? How can someone sort the good advice from the bad?“Healthy Living” is one of the key values held and promoted by the Free Thought Initiative. It is a topic that deserves serious consideration, given that it addresses three of the six social issues each Free Thought Forum exists to combat: “Isolation &amp; Depression,” “Misinformation &amp; Anti-Intellectualism,” and “Overindulgence &amp; Addiction.” To this end, the “50 Healthy Habits Program” was first launched in April of 2019. The objective of this program is to list simple and universally applicable personal habits that have been tested and supported by scientific evidence. These habits will be made available on our website (<a href="http://freethoughtforum.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a>) one section at a time and will be regularly updated as new and better information is brought to the attention of our executive board.As this program is developed, your feedback, suggestions, and links to relevant research articles all play an indispensable role. Thank you for your consideration of the following, and for your participation in this ambitious undertaking!If you would like an updated version of this list, or to dig even deeper into our referenced sources to the studies and articles on which this advice is based, visit: <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org/blog/50-habits" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org/blog/50-habits</a>And now, onto the first five habits!1. GET ABOUT 8 FULL HOURS OF SLEEP EACH NIGHTEight hours of sleep each night is what is generally recommended for adults. However, everyone has slightly different needs depending on one’s age, body size, activity levels, diet, and so forth. Therefore, it is important to remember that your mind and body requires a certain amount of sleep, an amount that must be met regularly. Getting enough sleep has been shown to improve (among other things) one’s immune system, brain function, memory, mood, eating habits, and overall life expectancy. In fact, losing just a half hour of what is personally needed on a regular basis can have dramatic consequences. For those struggling to regularly get a full night’s sleep, here are a few suggestions that may help:Leave a fan on in your bedroom while you sleep. (This can promote air flow, cool the body, and produce calming white noise.)Ensure that all light sources are turned-off or covered.Refrain from looking at a phone, computer, or other bright screens before sleeping.Deeply stretch your muscles before climbing into bed.Set and strive to keep a regular sleeping schedule.Engage in meditative exercises in bed, such as counting your breaths.Allow your body about four hours to digest your last meal before sleeping.Make a to-do list of things to think about in the morning, allowing yourself to relax afterward.Ensure that your blankets, pillowcases, and sheets are laundered on at least a weekly basis.Consider bathing at the end of the day and allow time for your hair to dry before retiring for the night.Consider increasing your physical activity and/or reducing caloric intake in order to prevent surplus energy at the end of the day.2. DRINK ONE GLASS OF CLEAR WATER WITH EVERY MEALTo maintain healthy body function, the average adult needs to drink a minimum of about 6 cups of clear water directly, in addition to the water gained through food consumption. Recent studies suggest that a large portion of our population may be chronically dehydrated. To combat this, it is recommended that every adult should consume at least two cups (one glass) of plain drinking water three times a day. For those who drink coffee or alcohol, engage in vigorous physical activity, are exposed to sunlight, or are affected by other similar factors, increased water consumption is essential. In addition, replacing sweet drinks, sodas, juices, and other beverages with clear, clean, and unflavored drinking water has been proven to make a significant difference in overall caloric consumption. Therefore, filling one’s stomach in part with water (in place of other drinks) can be a powerful tool in fighting obesity.3. FILL ½ OF EACH MEAL WITH A VARIETY OF VEGETABLESVegetables are some of the most nutrient-dense low-calorie foods we consume. In addition to the dietary fiber they provide (critical for our indispensable gut bacteria), vegetables have also been shown to reduce the risk for heart disease, stroke, and even several types of cancer! When replacing more energy-dense foods, vegetables can also positively influence healthy body weight. (In part, this is because we often feel “full” or satiated based upon the volume in our stomachs, rather than the energy levels of our food.)Despite all this, less than 14% of Americans include the recommended amount of vegetables in their diet! Federal Recommended vegetable consumption is about four cups per day, which can easily fill half of the volume of three average adult-sized meals. In fact, the National Institute of Health flat out recommends that “Half of your plate should contain green vegetables.”Given these governmental recommendations, the various nutrient benefits from vegetables, and their capacity to help us feel “full,” the Free Thought Initiative encourages all members to scale their meals according to their needs while also ensuring that 50% of their meals’ food consists of a variety of vegetables, especially raw vegetables, allium vegetables, carrots, green vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, and tomatoes.4. AVOID FOODS WITH ADDED SALT, SUGAR, AND/OR FATFour of the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States are associated with diets that are too high in sodium, calories, cholesterol, fat, and saturated fat. Eating these types of foods can lead to coronary heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, osteoporosis and a number of other disorders and conditions. As a general rule, the less-processed a food is, the better. This is not to say that raw food is preferable to food with minimal cleaning and processing. Rather, it is important to remember that heavily processed foods tend to lose much of their nutrients and are often packaged with added salt, sugar, and/or fat. Therefore, it is recommended that one’s diet consists largely of minimally-processed foods, while the consumption of foods high in salt, sugar, and/or fat content is dramatically reduced or completely avoided.5. VIGOROUSLY EXERCISE FOR AT LEAST 30 MIN. DAILYStudies have shown that even a few minutes of exercise a day yield intense health benefits in men, women, children, and even in those with a high risk of cardiovascular disease. Those who engage in vigorous leisure-time exercise (such as jogging, weight-lifting, or playing high-intensity sports) for at least 30 minutes, six days a week, (or at least 180 minutes of total exercise a week) have been shown to have an 18% reduced risk of all-cause mortality and had a 3 year longer life expectancy than those who do not engage in any such exercise. Despite the clear health advantages to regular intense physical activity, less than 10% of Americans meet the minimum recommended amount of exercise.The recommended 30 minutes a day does not include any warm-up, stretching, or cool-down time. Such additional activity is conventionally recommended, however scientific studies on the short-term benefits of warm-ups and cool-downs are inconclusive.That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!

5 Healthy Habits for Better Physical Health

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 32How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.This episode is the third part of the series I like to call: “50 Habits For Maximizing Personal Health and Wellbeing.” In this series, we get to the bottom of what the experts actually recommend for the average person to be well, free from the noise of trendy health gurus, alternative medicine peddlers, and your eccentric uncle.Today, we are shifting focus from the body to the mind. Stay tuned as we consider 5 habits for a healthy mind – simple choices you can make to improve your cognition, brain function, memory, and overall mental health.This program is brought to you by the contributing members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal background, religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions each week.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to support this program through monthly donations, please visit freethoughtforum.org. While you’re there, be sure to check out our online store – now with freethought t-shirts, mugs, and other smart-looking swag!In conversations about health, or any aspect of reality for that matter, it is important to remain as grounded and objective as possible. I will do my best to keep that in mind so that you can walk away with useful facts and not just a pile of opinions. My goals have been to start with a clean slate on any given subject, look into reputable sources, see what they say, and then build these lists from there. For every podcast released by the Free Thought Forum, a companion blog post is also created featuring a complete transcript of each episode. If you would like to take a look at my sources for the claims made here, you need only take a look at this episode’s corresponding blog post on our website.Your mind is your most valuable tool and one that should be kept sharp! Most of the time, we don’t like to consider how common it is for our brains to deteriorate as we age or as we submit them to abuse. When it comes to the gray matter between our ears, I figure that it is always better to be safe than sorry, and that starts with a good idea of what it takes to maintain one’s mental health.For our purposes, the general topic of “Mental Health” is divided into “Cognitive Health” (dealing with learning, memory, and general brain function) and “Emotional Health” (dealing with mood, stress, and so forth). I think this helps our conversation focus more on the brain and less on emotional disorders that deserve their own episodes.Now that we are in the right headspace, the time has come to explore five things you can do to allow your brain to function at its best!1. MAINTAIN YOUR PHYSICAL HEALTH THROUGH SUFFICIENT EXERCISE, SLEEP, &amp; NUTRITIONAlright, I have a confession to make. After talking about physical health and hygiene so much in past episodes, I said that we would move on to the mind. But some 80% of the relevant literature I’ve found on the behaviors that promote good brain function and cognitive health circle back to those things we have been talking about all along like exercise, proper diet, and getting plenty of sleep!The thing is, the separation between the mind and body is a completely arbitrary one. There really isn’t a place where your physical body ends and your brain begins. It is all connected, and that connection is something that seems to grow ever more significate as our research into neurology, psychology, and other related sciences continues to expand. In short, if you want to keep your brain well, you must also maintain your physical health.Your mental health, at any age, is strongly influenced by your physical wellbeing. Avoiding a sedentary lifestyle, exercising at least 30 minutes a day, drinking a glass of water with each meal, ensuring that half of each meal is comprised of diversified vegetables, getting about eight hours of sleep each night, and other such habits (explored in greater detail in “Part 1” of this series) have all been shown to protect against dementia and improve brain function such as executive control function, processing speed, synaptic plasticity, learning, memory, and other attentional processes.2. LEARN NEW SKILLS AND SOLVE CHALLENGING PUZZLESYour brain is a lot like your muscles in that it tends to be only strong enough to solve the problems with which it is presented. If you don’t happen to find yourself solving intense cognitive problems on a near-daily basis, then you would do well to take some time on most days to learn a new skill such as a language, dance, sport, or creative hobby. It also helps to play challenging word games like crossword puzzles, math games like Sudoku, and even difficult video games!Of course, not all games are created equal. The one you played for 5 hours last Friday probably didn’t weigh too heavily on your cognitive load. If a game is getting easy, you need to move onto a greater challenge. The novelty of the task at hand is a big part of its positive impact on your mind. So switch the difficulty setting to “Hard,” or give a new game a try with completely different core mechanics.3. DAILY BOOK READINGIf you know about my background teaching elementary students, you probably saw this coming from a mile away. This healthy habit is related to the last one, but the studies on how it affects your cognition really caught my attention and I feel that giving it its own place on this list is justified.Leisurely daily book reading has been shown to improve one’s academic performance, brain interconnectivity, vocabulary, overall intelligence, and more. Among the elderly, daily reading has even been shown to increase one’s lifespan!But there is a catch: Not all kinds of reading lead to the same benefits. When we read from computers, smartphones, tablets, or other screens, we typically engage less of our brains, show less focus, and remember less of what we read. Therefore, reading is best done with physical books. (In case you were wondering, fewer benefits have been found with magazines or newspapers.)You may be thinking, “But what about listening to podcasts?” I suspect that listening to a podcast is better for your brain than listening to something less mentally engaging, like pop music. But maintaining a coherent narrative in your mind, doing the mental work to translate words from a page, the focus required to make sense out of abstraction, etc. all lead to a much better mental workout than simply listening to something like your favorite radio personality. But, to be fair, I can be totally wrong about that. We know at least that book reading really goes a long way, so until I find out otherwise, I am perfectly comfortable asserting that we would do well to stick with the printed page for at least a few minutes every day.As a side note: If you are in need of something mentally stimulating to read that also happens to encourage freethought, feel free to visit the Recommended Reading List on our website! I’ve recently added a couple of volumes to it and I’m pretty proud of the collection we have so far.4. ABSTAIN FROM OR REDUCE DRUG AND ALCOHOL USAGEWhen teens or young adults are first convinced to try things like weed, vaping, smoking, or alcohol, they tend not to be aware of the real effects these things have on the brain. Now, do they cause holes to form in your brain like what I was told when I was a teenager? No, but the effect they have isn’t “zero” either. When talking about mental health, we need to be honest with ourselves and with the facts. If we end up sounding like your grandparents or like stoners, that shouldn’t matter. The truth is what matters most. So here is the truth: These substances are powerful, and that power should be respected.So that we don’t get lost in the weeds of this massive topic, I will give some statistics and move on. If you would like me to wrestle in greater depth with the mental effects of specific or general drug and alcohol use in the future, let me know!Compared to those who don’t use drugs or alcohol, long-term daily marijuana users have poorer learning, memory, and slower reaction times on some tasks later in life. Long-term tobacco users also have been shown to have overall worse mental health and a 20% increased risk for cognitive impairment later in life. Those who drink alcohol (at least weekly) have a 17% increased risk for cognitive impairment in late adulthood, a risk that rises sharply with additional alcohol consumption.5. TAKE A DAY OFFWe would also do well to occasionally give our minds time to rest. Overworking and mental fatigue is directly linked to various mental and emotional disorders. Therefore, it is important to dedicate something like an entire day each week to less-mentally-taxing tasks.With that said, I’m not sure that starring at the TV, computer, or phone is considered a good break for your brain. I’m also not talking about sleep in this case. But there are people who tax their minds past their limits and I’ve seen the kind of devastating crashes that come as a result. If you don’t take enough breaks, your body tends to force you to take breaks, and that is a hard thing to watch. Your mental faculties need some time, every so often, to recover. So what things can you do to give your brain some much-deserved time off? I imagine that simple tasks like doing the dishes, gardening, or going for a walk all fall in this category. Perhaps even giving yourself some silence can help.I’ll wrap up this episode on that note. I suppose that I speak for many of us when I say that we may be addicted to distraction. Ask yourself, when was the last time you listened to silence, or the white noise of the wind or city around you? Intentional periodic disconnection from the endless deluge of information made possible by the internet could yield impressive results. Maybe getting some peace and quiet is also worth thinking about when were are thinking about cognitive health.If you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our group and our podcast. Thank you!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? What feedback or ideas do you have for this program or our organization? Feel free to share your perspective.A Special Shout-Out goes to Shayne Wissler, Lance Freeman, and Brooke!Your monthly support makes this all possible. To check out our awesome donor rewards starting at one dollar per month, please visit: freethoughtforum.org/donate.SOURCESVaynman, Shoshanna, and Fernando Gomez‐Pinilla. "Revenge of the “sit”: how lifestyle impacts neuronal and cognitive health through molecular systems that interface energy metabolism with neuronal plasticity." Journal of neuroscience research 84.4 (2006): 699-715.Voss, Michelle W., et al. "Revenge of the “sit” II: does lifestyle impact neuronal and cognitive health through distinct mechanisms associated with sedentary behavior and physical activity?." Mental Health and Physical Activity 7.1 (2014): 9-24.Lee, Yunhwan, et al. "Systematic review of health behavioral risks and cognitive health in older adults." International psychogeriatrics 22.2 (2010): 174-187.Hillman, Charles H., et al. "Physical activity and executive control: implications for increased cognitive health during older adulthood." Research quarterly for exercise and sport 75.2 (2004): 176-185.Small, Gary W., et al. "Effects of a 14-day healthy longevity lifestyle program on cognition and brain function." The American journal of geriatric psychiatry 14.6 (2006): 538-545.Walker, Matthew P., et al. "Cognitive flexibility across the sleep–wake cycle: REM-sleep enhancement of anagram problem solving." Cognitive Brain Research 14.3 (2002): 317-324.Allaire, Jason C., et al. "Successful aging through digital games: Socioemotional differences between older adult gamers and non-gamers." Computers in Human Behavior 29.4 (2013): 1302-1306.Mahncke, Henry W., et al. "Memory enhancement in healthy older adults using a brain plasticity-based training program: a randomized, controlled study." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103.33 (2006): 12523-12528.Ferreira, Nicola, et al. "Associations between cognitively stimulating leisure activities, cognitive function and age‐related cognitive decline." International journal of geriatric psychiatry 30.4 (2015): 422-430.Davis, Philip, et al. "Reading: Brain, Mind and Body." Reading and Mental Health. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019. 293-320.Duff, Dawna, J. Bruce Tomblin, and Hugh Catts. "The influence of reading on vocabulary growth: A case for a Matthew effect." Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 58.3 (2015): 853-864.Ritchie, Stuart J., Timothy C. Bates, and Robert Plomin. "Does learning to read improve intelligence? A longitudinal multivariate analysis in identical twins from age 7 to 16." Child development 86.1 (2015): 23-36.Bavishi, Avni, Martin D. Slade, and Becca R. Levy. "A chapter a day: Association of book reading with longevity." Social Science &amp; Medicine 164 (2016): 44-48.Jabr, Ferris. "The reading brain in the digital age: The science of paper versus screens." Scientific American 11.5 (2013).Hall, Wayne, and Michael Lynskey. "Long-term marijuana use and cognitive impairment in middle age." JAMA internal medicine 176.3 (2016): 362-363.Lovell, M. E., et al. "Cognitive, physical, and mental health outcomes between long-term cannabis and tobacco users." Addictive behaviors 79 (2018): 178-188.Wu, Jing, et al. "Relation of cigarette smoking and alcohol drinking in midlife with risk of cognitive impairment in late life: the Singapore Chinese Health Study." Age and ageing 48.1 (2018): 101-107.Welch, Killian. "11 Cognitive and behavioural effects of chronic alcohol excess." (2017): A6-A6.Kuroda, Sachiko, and Isamu Yamamoto. "Why do people overwork at the risk of impairing mental health?." Journal of Happiness Studies 20.5 (2019): 1519-1538.Prasad, Bhairav, and Charu Thakur. "Chronic Overworking: Cause Extremely Negative Impact on Health and Quality of Life." Int. J. Adv. Microbiol. Health. Res 3.1 (2019): 11-15.___Written By Nicholas Burk, Executive Board Member © 2019 Free Thought Initiative

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 32How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.This episode is the third part of the series I like to call: “50 Habits For Maximizing Personal Health and Wellbeing.” In this series, we get to the bottom of what the experts actually recommend for the average person to be well, free from the noise of trendy health gurus, alternative medicine peddlers, and your eccentric uncle.Today, we are shifting focus from the body to the mind. Stay tuned as we consider 5 habits for a healthy mind – simple choices you can make to improve your cognition, brain function, memory, and overall mental health.This program is brought to you by the contributing members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal background, religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions each week.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to support this program through monthly donations, please visit <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a>. While you’re there, be sure to check out our online store – now with freethought t-shirts, mugs, and other smart-looking swag!In conversations about health, or any aspect of reality for that matter, it is important to remain as grounded and objective as possible. I will do my best to keep that in mind so that you can walk away with useful facts and not just a pile of opinions. My goals have been to start with a clean slate on any given subject, look into reputable sources, see what they say, and then build these lists from there. For every podcast released by the Free Thought Forum, a companion blog post is also created featuring a complete transcript of each episode. If you would like to take a look at my sources for the claims made here, you need only take a look at this episode’s corresponding blog post on our website.Your mind is your most valuable tool and one that should be kept sharp! Most of the time, we don’t like to consider how common it is for our brains to deteriorate as we age or as we submit them to abuse. When it comes to the gray matter between our ears, I figure that it is always better to be safe than sorry, and that starts with a good idea of what it takes to maintain one’s mental health.For our purposes, the general topic of “Mental Health” is divided into “Cognitive Health” (dealing with learning, memory, and general brain function) and “Emotional Health” (dealing with mood, stress, and so forth). I think this helps our conversation focus more on the brain and less on emotional disorders that deserve their own episodes.Now that we are in the right headspace, the time has come to explore five things you can do to allow your brain to function at its best!1. MAINTAIN YOUR PHYSICAL HEALTH THROUGH SUFFICIENT EXERCISE, SLEEP, &amp; NUTRITIONAlright, I have a confession to make. After talking about physical health and hygiene so much in past episodes, I said that we would move on to the mind. But some 80% of the relevant literature I’ve found on the behaviors that promote good brain function and cognitive health circle back to those things we have been talking about all along like exercise, proper diet, and getting plenty of sleep!The thing is, the separation between the mind and body is a completely arbitrary one. There really isn’t a place where your physical body ends and your brain begins. It is all connected, and that connection is something that seems to grow ever more significate as our research into neurology, psychology, and other related sciences continues to expand. In short, if you want to keep your brain well, you must also maintain your physical health.Your mental health, at any age, is strongly influenced by your physical wellbeing. Avoiding a sedentary lifestyle, exercising at least 30 minutes a day, drinking a glass of water with each meal, ensuring that half of each meal is comprised of diversified vegetables, getting about eight hours of sleep each night, and other such habits (explored in greater detail in “Part 1” of this series) have all been shown to protect against dementia and improve brain function such as executive control function, processing speed, synaptic plasticity, learning, memory, and other attentional processes.2. LEARN NEW SKILLS AND SOLVE CHALLENGING PUZZLESYour brain is a lot like your muscles in that it tends to be only strong enough to solve the problems with which it is presented. If you don’t happen to find yourself solving intense cognitive problems on a near-daily basis, then you would do well to take some time on most days to learn a new skill such as a language, dance, sport, or creative hobby. It also helps to play challenging word games like crossword puzzles, math games like Sudoku, and even difficult video games!Of course, not all games are created equal. The one you played for 5 hours last Friday probably didn’t weigh too heavily on your cognitive load. If a game is getting easy, you need to move onto a greater challenge. The novelty of the task at hand is a big part of its positive impact on your mind. So switch the difficulty setting to “Hard,” or give a new game a try with completely different core mechanics.3. DAILY BOOK READINGIf you know about my background teaching elementary students, you probably saw this coming from a mile away. This healthy habit is related to the last one, but the studies on how it affects your cognition really caught my attention and I feel that giving it its own place on this list is justified.Leisurely daily book reading has been shown to improve one’s academic performance, brain interconnectivity, vocabulary, overall intelligence, and more. Among the elderly, daily reading has even been shown to increase one’s lifespan!But there is a catch: Not all kinds of reading lead to the same benefits. When we read from computers, smartphones, tablets, or other screens, we typically engage less of our brains, show less focus, and remember less of what we read. Therefore, reading is best done with physical books. (In case you were wondering, fewer benefits have been found with magazines or newspapers.)You may be thinking, “But what about listening to podcasts?” I suspect that listening to a podcast is better for your brain than listening to something less mentally engaging, like pop music. But maintaining a coherent narrative in your mind, doing the mental work to translate words from a page, the focus required to make sense out of abstraction, etc. all lead to a much better mental workout than simply listening to something like your favorite radio personality. But, to be fair, I can be totally wrong about that. We know at least that book reading really goes a long way, so until I find out otherwise, I am perfectly comfortable asserting that we would do well to stick with the printed page for at least a few minutes every day.As a side note: If you are in need of something mentally stimulating to read that also happens to encourage freethought, feel free to visit the Recommended Reading List on our website! I’ve recently added a couple of volumes to it and I’m pretty proud of the collection we have so far.4. ABSTAIN FROM OR REDUCE DRUG AND ALCOHOL USAGEWhen teens or young adults are first convinced to try things like weed, vaping, smoking, or alcohol, they tend not to be aware of the real effects these things have on the brain. Now, do they cause holes to form in your brain like what I was told when I was a teenager? No, but the effect they have isn’t “zero” either. When talking about mental health, we need to be honest with ourselves and with the facts. If we end up sounding like your grandparents or like stoners, that shouldn’t matter. The truth is what matters most. So here is the truth: These substances are powerful, and that power should be respected.So that we don’t get lost in the weeds of this massive topic, I will give some statistics and move on. If you would like me to wrestle in greater depth with the mental effects of specific or general drug and alcohol use in the future, let me know!Compared to those who don’t use drugs or alcohol, long-term daily marijuana users have poorer learning, memory, and slower reaction times on some tasks later in life. Long-term tobacco users also have been shown to have overall worse mental health and a 20% increased risk for cognitive impairment later in life. Those who drink alcohol (at least weekly) have a 17% increased risk for cognitive impairment in late adulthood, a risk that rises sharply with additional alcohol consumption.5. TAKE A DAY OFFWe would also do well to occasionally give our minds time to rest. Overworking and mental fatigue is directly linked to various mental and emotional disorders. Therefore, it is important to dedicate something like an entire day each week to less-mentally-taxing tasks.With that said, I’m not sure that starring at the TV, computer, or phone is considered a good break for your brain. I’m also not talking about sleep in this case. But there are people who tax their minds past their limits and I’ve seen the kind of devastating crashes that come as a result. If you don’t take enough breaks, your body tends to force you to take breaks, and that is a hard thing to watch. Your mental faculties need some time, every so often, to recover. So what things can you do to give your brain some much-deserved time off? I imagine that simple tasks like doing the dishes, gardening, or going for a walk all fall in this category. Perhaps even giving yourself some silence can help.I’ll wrap up this episode on that note. I suppose that I speak for many of us when I say that we may be addicted to distraction. Ask yourself, when was the last time you listened to silence, or the white noise of the wind or city around you? Intentional periodic disconnection from the endless deluge of information made possible by the internet could yield impressive results. Maybe getting some peace and quiet is also worth thinking about when were are thinking about cognitive health.If you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our group and our podcast. Thank you!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? What feedback or ideas do you have for this program or our organization? Feel free to share your perspective.A Special Shout-Out goes to Shayne Wissler, Lance Freeman, and Brooke!Your monthly support makes this all possible. To check out our awesome donor rewards starting at one dollar per month, please visit: <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org/donate" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org/donate</a>.SOURCESVaynman, Shoshanna, and Fernando Gomez‐Pinilla. "Revenge of the “sit”: how lifestyle impacts neuronal and cognitive health through molecular systems that interface energy metabolism with neuronal plasticity." Journal of neuroscience research 84.4 (2006): 699-715.Voss, Michelle W., et al. "Revenge of the “sit” II: does lifestyle impact neuronal and cognitive health through distinct mechanisms associated with sedentary behavior and physical activity?." Mental Health and Physical Activity 7.1 (2014): 9-24.Lee, Yunhwan, et al. "Systematic review of health behavioral risks and cognitive health in older adults." International psychogeriatrics 22.2 (2010): 174-187.Hillman, Charles H., et al. "Physical activity and executive control: implications for increased cognitive health during older adulthood." Research quarterly for exercise and sport 75.2 (2004): 176-185.Small, Gary W., et al. "Effects of a 14-day healthy longevity lifestyle program on cognition and brain function." The American journal of geriatric psychiatry 14.6 (2006): 538-545.Walker, Matthew P., et al. "Cognitive flexibility across the sleep–wake cycle: REM-sleep enhancement of anagram problem solving." Cognitive Brain Research 14.3 (2002): 317-324.Allaire, Jason C., et al. "Successful aging through digital games: Socioemotional differences between older adult gamers and non-gamers." Computers in Human Behavior 29.4 (2013): 1302-1306.Mahncke, Henry W., et al. "Memory enhancement in healthy older adults using a brain plasticity-based training program: a randomized, controlled study." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103.33 (2006): 12523-12528.Ferreira, Nicola, et al. "Associations between cognitively stimulating leisure activities, cognitive function and age‐related cognitive decline." International journal of geriatric psychiatry 30.4 (2015): 422-430.Davis, Philip, et al. "Reading: Brain, Mind and Body." Reading and Mental Health. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019. 293-320.Duff, Dawna, J. Bruce Tomblin, and Hugh Catts. "The influence of reading on vocabulary growth: A case for a Matthew effect." Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 58.3 (2015): 853-864.Ritchie, Stuart J., Timothy C. Bates, and Robert Plomin. "Does learning to read improve intelligence? A longitudinal multivariate analysis in identical twins from age 7 to 16." Child development 86.1 (2015): 23-36.Bavishi, Avni, Martin D. Slade, and Becca R. Levy. "A chapter a day: Association of book reading with longevity." Social Science &amp; Medicine 164 (2016): 44-48.Jabr, Ferris. "The reading brain in the digital age: The science of paper versus screens." Scientific American 11.5 (2013).Hall, Wayne, and Michael Lynskey. "Long-term marijuana use and cognitive impairment in middle age." JAMA internal medicine 176.3 (2016): 362-363.Lovell, M. E., et al. "Cognitive, physical, and mental health outcomes between long-term cannabis and tobacco users." Addictive behaviors 79 (2018): 178-188.Wu, Jing, et al. "Relation of cigarette smoking and alcohol drinking in midlife with risk of cognitive impairment in late life: the Singapore Chinese Health Study." Age and ageing 48.1 (2018): 101-107.Welch, Killian. "11 Cognitive and behavioural effects of chronic alcohol excess." (2017): A6-A6.Kuroda, Sachiko, and Isamu Yamamoto. "Why do people overwork at the risk of impairing mental health?." Journal of Happiness Studies 20.5 (2019): 1519-1538.Prasad, Bhairav, and Charu Thakur. "Chronic Overworking: Cause Extremely Negative Impact on Health and Quality of Life." Int. J. Adv. Microbiol. Health. Res 3.1 (2019): 11-15.___Written By Nicholas Burk, Executive Board Member © 2019 Free Thought Initiative

Healthy Habits (Part 3) for the Mind

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 31How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.When this episode was first recorded, we were just a couple of days away from the September Autumnal Equinox at my latitude. For members of a Free Thought Forum and others, this means that the time has come for the Wisdom Festival! Today, I’d like to take this special occasion to talk about this new tradition as well as the virtue of wisdom itself, one of the four cardinal virtues of classical philosophy, and, according to Plato, the most important characteristic of a philosopher-king.This program is brought to you by the contributing members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal background, religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions each week.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to support this program through monthly donations, please visit freethoughtforum.org. While you’re there, be sure to check out our online store – now with freethought t-shirts, mugs, and other smart-looking swag!What does it mean to be wise? How can one develop wisdom? After we wrestle with those questions, I’d like to introduce you to the ideas and traditions behind the Wisdom Festivals hosted by this organization on the days before each September Equinox. This episode is divided into four parts. In order to get the most out of this podcast, please stick around for each one!Part 1 – What is Wisdom?Finding the best definition of wisdom, to me, is a captivating exercise. In a group of friends, it can spark a conversation that lasts hours. I will share some of my thoughts on it, but I’d also like to ask you for yours. To better conceptualize the virtue of wisdom, I’ve broken it down into four main ideas:1. A MULTI-LAYERED AND ORGANIZED PERSPECTIVE.One may see wisdom as the ability to recognize the harmony or conflict between many different perspectives at once and reliably prioritize and organize them in the most useful way. For example, a wise person is able to consider both the learned facts and moral sensibilities applicable in a given situation. This comes from a deep understanding not only of what is real but also what is right. Their actions and thoughts are not ruled by just one objective or presupposition. Rather, they carefully weigh multiple considerations with respect to things like complicating nuance, cultural norms, logical fallacies, long-term consequences, and so forth. Wisdom isn’t the stubborn reliance on one idea that cancels-out all others. Instead, wisdom is a developed skill that takes one’s experience into account with other factors and allows one to properly consider what one should do, what one shouldn’t do, and how to act as a result.2. PROPERLY APPLIED KNOWLEDGEWhen we are presented with neutral facts, what are we supposed to do with them? A wise person can give a good answer. Much like how engineering can be considered the application of science to innovate, invent, or solve real-world problems, wisdom can be considered the best possible application of knowledge, or knowledge put to good use. From this perspective, knowledge represents raw data, the facts, and plain information that doesn’t necessarily lend itself to any practical usage. A long list of memorized facts does not constitute wisdom. Yet when we take this raw data and consider how to best use it, we are exercising a modicum of wisdom. This is the process you go through when you solve a story problem in your math class. You may be told that a car has a 15-gallon tank, gets 30 miles per gallon, has only half a tank left, and is stopped at a gas station 10 miles away from the next gas station. Those are all just facts, words on a piece of paper. But then when you go to answer the question, “Can the driver reach the next gas station if they don’t fill their tank now?” that requires a little bit of wisdom. How wise a person is can be shown by how they use information. A wise person knows when to use specific tools of logic, when to estimate, when to through-out certain ideas, and when to highly value others. For example, if a child asked their parent, “Why do some berries taste bad,” a foolish parent may answer the question at face value, doing very little with the situation. A wise parent, on the other hand, may proceed to find out if the child has been endangering themselves by eating wild berries.3. EXERCISED CAUTION WHEN IT COMES TO ACTION AND BELIEFA wise person is also careful about what they believe. They are not easily fooled, nor are they overconfident. They recognize the value of learning and are quick to replace previously held concepts when they are shown to be false. The wise have discovered a healthy balance between skepticism and open-mindedness. They value what is taught by experts, but they do not blindly believe in any authority. Rather than accept the conventional wisdom of their time, a wise person is slow to make conclusions and quick to investigate, ask questions, and improve their understanding. This also carries over to their actions. They strive to always consider the short-term and long-term effects of their choices, and only do something if they have good reason to do it.4. MEANINGFUL DIALOGUECalling something wise can be like calling something beautiful. Through a subjective lens, stated wisdom seems meaningful to its listener. It strikes us as profound, insightful, intelligent, and surprisingly useful. In contrast, foolish speech seems vacuous, hollow, and barren. This relates to what Plato said, that wise people speak only when they have something important to say, but fools speak because they always have to say something. When you add your two cents, I suppose that it is helpful to contemplate your motives behind it. A wise person genuinely believes they have something to add to the conversation supported by a deep comprehension of the subject matter and careful consideration of the situation. A fool simply wants to meet a deadline or fill an awkward silence with noise.Part 2 – Developing WisdomIf you would like to be a wiser person, here are some things to try-out:1. THE WHY GAMEThink about one of your most important beliefs. Ask yourself why you believe it. Once you think of an answer, ask yourself why you believe that answer. Continue until you’ve reached a belief or an idea that you can’t explain and write it down. Now you’ve found something important to study and/or discuss with other freethinkers!2. DETECTING YOUR BLIND SPOTSThink of the last time you were not able to explain something to a child, were fooled, became angry during a debate, or when you dramatically changed your mind about something important. Consider how you felt and what you thought about that thing before and after your mind was changed. This may help you identify your personal “blind spots” or subjects that you would do well to think about more carefully in the future.3. READ ABOUT SOMETHING SOMEONE LIKE YOU WOULDN’T READWe can be picky about the kind of ideas we let into our minds. Without meaning to do so, we may find ourselves trapped in an echo-chamber of our own making, recycling the same ideas. A wise person actively tries to broaden their mind and deepen their well of knowledge. You can do this by choosing to read something you otherwise would never have read. Dive into it as far as you can! Even superficial knowledge of a topic previously foreign to you can one day prove useful in an unexpected way.4. THE BEST COUNTERARGUMENTSIt can be extremely helpful to dispassionately contemplate strong arguments coming from the “other side” of a debate. Think of a position you hold on a given issue. Then try to find the best possible arguments coming from those who hold the opposite position. Even if you don’t end up changing your mind, this exercise may powerfully enrich your perspective.Part 3 – Forging New FestivalsNow that we’ve given the concept of wisdom some time to swim in our thoughts, I want to better explain this weekend’s celebrations, and why this organization is hosting them in the first place.In the early days of the Free Thought Initiative, one discussion among board members drifted into the importance of traditions and seasonal celebrations within a community. We wanted to come up with four of them, four special events that could interrupt our regularly scheduled discussions on science, health, and philosophy. More importantly, holidays and annual events can bring fun, distinction, and a sense of unity to a group of people. This kind of cultural unity is something our local groups can really use, especially when we consider how diverse our members are and tend to be.Any Free Thought Forum may be comprised of members who are Atheists, Christians, Sikhs, Pantheists, Mystics, Hindus, Buddhists, Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Anarchists, and so forth, in various ratios. If we are to come together to celebrate something, it has to be something that we all can value, no matter our backgrounds or beliefs. In the wider picture, it wouldn’t be prudent to base these traditions on local cultural norms. If a Free Thought Forum was created in Taiwan, for example, it would be silly for them to throw annual parties about a culturally-specific idea like American Football.This line of thinking brought us to celebrations themed around moral virtues and common life goals related to those virtues. While many holidays and festivals call back to a person, historical event, region, product, or story, we set our sights to something more universal. The key was to select specific virtues that would apply to all people, from all regions, and across time.Another thing to consider was the timing. When would these four celebrations take place? After all, many countries around the world don’t even use the same calendar as we do in the United States. To answer that question, we turned to another concept that breaks through the barriers between cultures: Science. Scientific fact beautifully and equally applies to all peoples of the world. To find special times throughout the year, why not look at the actual seasons and orbit of the earth itself? If we are to have four annual secular celebrations, then it is perfectly reasonable to space them equidistantly, and according to natural phenomena, such as the solstices and equinoxes of our planet. For convenience, we can then make the official celebration times fall on the weekends just before each solstice and equinox. Since all of our groups meet on Saturday or Sunday, then all they would need to do is replace their regular meetings with these themed parties when the time comes.But what should we do at each of our annual festivals? That is completely up to you and our community! Feel free to be creative and inventive. Sharing your suggestions can help us all create a rich and meaningful experience each year. We have looked around the world for inspiration and have been pleased with what we have found thus far. Likewise, if you look near and far for great traditions and practices that match each theme, we would love to hear what you find.To see our official updated traditions for each of our festivals as well as a list of all such upcoming celebrations, please visit freethoughtforum.org/festivals.Part 4 – Wisdom Based TraditionsIn addition to your other local, national, and cultural festivities, we hope that you will join us for this year’s Wisdom Festival, a celebration of prudence, intellectualism, logic, learning, knowledge, education, intelligence, expertise, reason, rationality, brilliance, sagacity, and other related virtues. Participants are encouraged to value learning and understanding for its own sake, and not just as a means to an end. We set personal goals for the coming year regarding our individual education and each guest may select new free book to read. Past academic achievement is celebrated and the senior members of our families are honored. Starting in September of 2019, the following traditions connected to this festival were set in place and modified according to the feedback of our members:Looking Smart –Many participants will use the occasion to look smart, don dapper digs, and dress to the nines. Feel free to wear your best dress, your fanciest tie, or simply just come as you like.Intelligent Treats and Mystery Sacks – Dig into an assortment of (surprisingly healthy) erudite edibles. This year, we will have fresh vegetables, banana-oat cookies, and rice-crackers. Be sure to also pick up a grab-bag of intellectual goodies such as top-of-the-line pens, bookmarks, and owl-shaped erasers before you leave!Used Book Exchange – Bring one or more used books that you would like to donate or swap for one or more new reads from other freethinkers!Honoring Academic Achievement – We’d like to shine the spotlight on the sacrifice and personal improvement of our scholars, no matter their age! Did you learn a language, sign-up for your first college classes, graduate with honors, win 2nd place in a spelling-bee, learn how to play an instrument, earn 100% on an exam, or something similar? Let’s share that with the audience followed by some much-deserved applause.Party Games and Treasure Hunts – Be ready to test your knowledge and wit playing strategy and trivia games. Young guests can even go on a puzzle-based hunt for the chance to win some toy treasure!Suggested Family Tradition: Senior Interviews – Guests are encouraged to take some time in the week following this event to visit an elderly family member or friend and invite them to share their stories, memories, and life-lessons-learned for an enriching and educational experience for all involved.Additional Theming -- To ground the abstract concepts featured in this celebration, the following symbolism is utilized:The Colors Orange, Yellow, and Gold - In Europe and in North America, orange is strongly associated with the autumn season and with warnings calls to be careful. In the historical European arts of heraldry and vexillology, these colors were associated with prosperity (like fields of wheat), wealth, sunlight (enlightenment), and excitement. In Sikhism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, yellow represents knowledge, learning, mental development, and a grounded lifestyle. Orange (saffron) is also a sacred color of spiritual purity.The Owl - This was the symbol of Athens in the ancient world, a hub of the arts and scholarship. In classical mythology, the owl is a representation of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. In Hinduism, an owl is the vahana of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, fortune, and prosperity.An Open Book - From the ancient halls of the Library of Alexandria to the ebook collection you have on your smart device, few of humanity’s tools over the years match the teaching power of books. Reading is one of the fastest and most efficient ways you may increase your knowledge, and knowledge is power!Which traditions would you like us to attach to these events? What do you think of our plans so far? Your FEEDBACK is welcome.If you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our group and our podcast. Thank you!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? What feedback or ideas do you have for this program or our organization? Feel free to share your perspective.A Special Shout-Out goes to Shayne Wissler, Lance Freeman, and Brooke!Your monthly support makes this all possible. To check out our awesome donor rewards starting at one dollar per month, please visit: freethoughtforum.org/donate.___Written By Nicholas Burk, Executive Board Member © 2019 Free Thought Initiative

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 31How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.When this episode was first recorded, we were just a couple of days away from the September Autumnal Equinox at my latitude. For members of a Free Thought Forum and others, this means that the time has come for the Wisdom Festival! Today, I’d like to take this special occasion to talk about this new tradition as well as the virtue of wisdom itself, one of the four cardinal virtues of classical philosophy, and, according to Plato, the most important characteristic of a philosopher-king.This program is brought to you by the contributing members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal background, religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions each week.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to support this program through monthly donations, please visit <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a>. While you’re there, be sure to check out our online store – now with freethought t-shirts, mugs, and other smart-looking swag!What does it mean to be wise? How can one develop wisdom? After we wrestle with those questions, I’d like to introduce you to the ideas and traditions behind the Wisdom Festivals hosted by this organization on the days before each September Equinox. This episode is divided into four parts. In order to get the most out of this podcast, please stick around for each one!Part 1 – What is Wisdom?Finding the best definition of wisdom, to me, is a captivating exercise. In a group of friends, it can spark a conversation that lasts hours. I will share some of my thoughts on it, but I’d also like to ask you for yours. To better conceptualize the virtue of wisdom, I’ve broken it down into four main ideas:1. A MULTI-LAYERED AND ORGANIZED PERSPECTIVE.One may see wisdom as the ability to recognize the harmony or conflict between many different perspectives at once and reliably prioritize and organize them in the most useful way. For example, a wise person is able to consider both the learned facts and moral sensibilities applicable in a given situation. This comes from a deep understanding not only of what is real but also what is right. Their actions and thoughts are not ruled by just one objective or presupposition. Rather, they carefully weigh multiple considerations with respect to things like complicating nuance, cultural norms, logical fallacies, long-term consequences, and so forth. Wisdom isn’t the stubborn reliance on one idea that cancels-out all others. Instead, wisdom is a developed skill that takes one’s experience into account with other factors and allows one to properly consider what one should do, what one shouldn’t do, and how to act as a result.2. PROPERLY APPLIED KNOWLEDGEWhen we are presented with neutral facts, what are we supposed to do with them? A wise person can give a good answer. Much like how engineering can be considered the application of science to innovate, invent, or solve real-world problems, wisdom can be considered the best possible application of knowledge, or knowledge put to good use. From this perspective, knowledge represents raw data, the facts, and plain information that doesn’t necessarily lend itself to any practical usage. A long list of memorized facts does not constitute wisdom. Yet when we take this raw data and consider how to best use it, we are exercising a modicum of wisdom. This is the process you go through when you solve a story problem in your math class. You may be told that a car has a 15-gallon tank, gets 30 miles per gallon, has only half a tank left, and is stopped at a gas station 10 miles away from the next gas station. Those are all just facts, words on a piece of paper. But then when you go to answer the question, “Can the driver reach the next gas station if they don’t fill their tank now?” that requires a little bit of wisdom. How wise a person is can be shown by how they use information. A wise person knows when to use specific tools of logic, when to estimate, when to through-out certain ideas, and when to highly value others. For example, if a child asked their parent, “Why do some berries taste bad,” a foolish parent may answer the question at face value, doing very little with the situation. A wise parent, on the other hand, may proceed to find out if the child has been endangering themselves by eating wild berries.3. EXERCISED CAUTION WHEN IT COMES TO ACTION AND BELIEFA wise person is also careful about what they believe. They are not easily fooled, nor are they overconfident. They recognize the value of learning and are quick to replace previously held concepts when they are shown to be false. The wise have discovered a healthy balance between skepticism and open-mindedness. They value what is taught by experts, but they do not blindly believe in any authority. Rather than accept the conventional wisdom of their time, a wise person is slow to make conclusions and quick to investigate, ask questions, and improve their understanding. This also carries over to their actions. They strive to always consider the short-term and long-term effects of their choices, and only do something if they have good reason to do it.4. MEANINGFUL DIALOGUECalling something wise can be like calling something beautiful. Through a subjective lens, stated wisdom seems meaningful to its listener. It strikes us as profound, insightful, intelligent, and surprisingly useful. In contrast, foolish speech seems vacuous, hollow, and barren. This relates to what Plato said, that wise people speak only when they have something important to say, but fools speak because they always have to say something. When you add your two cents, I suppose that it is helpful to contemplate your motives behind it. A wise person genuinely believes they have something to add to the conversation supported by a deep comprehension of the subject matter and careful consideration of the situation. A fool simply wants to meet a deadline or fill an awkward silence with noise.Part 2 – Developing WisdomIf you would like to be a wiser person, here are some things to try-out:1. THE WHY GAMEThink about one of your most important beliefs. Ask yourself why you believe it. Once you think of an answer, ask yourself why you believe that answer. Continue until you’ve reached a belief or an idea that you can’t explain and write it down. Now you’ve found something important to study and/or discuss with other freethinkers!2. DETECTING YOUR BLIND SPOTSThink of the last time you were not able to explain something to a child, were fooled, became angry during a debate, or when you dramatically changed your mind about something important. Consider how you felt and what you thought about that thing before and after your mind was changed. This may help you identify your personal “blind spots” or subjects that you would do well to think about more carefully in the future.3. READ ABOUT SOMETHING SOMEONE LIKE YOU WOULDN’T READWe can be picky about the kind of ideas we let into our minds. Without meaning to do so, we may find ourselves trapped in an echo-chamber of our own making, recycling the same ideas. A wise person actively tries to broaden their mind and deepen their well of knowledge. You can do this by choosing to read something you otherwise would never have read. Dive into it as far as you can! Even superficial knowledge of a topic previously foreign to you can one day prove useful in an unexpected way.4. THE BEST COUNTERARGUMENTSIt can be extremely helpful to dispassionately contemplate strong arguments coming from the “other side” of a debate. Think of a position you hold on a given issue. Then try to find the best possible arguments coming from those who hold the opposite position. Even if you don’t end up changing your mind, this exercise may powerfully enrich your perspective.Part 3 – Forging New FestivalsNow that we’ve given the concept of wisdom some time to swim in our thoughts, I want to better explain this weekend’s celebrations, and why this organization is hosting them in the first place.In the early days of the Free Thought Initiative, one discussion among board members drifted into the importance of traditions and seasonal celebrations within a community. We wanted to come up with four of them, four special events that could interrupt our regularly scheduled discussions on science, health, and philosophy. More importantly, holidays and annual events can bring fun, distinction, and a sense of unity to a group of people. This kind of cultural unity is something our local groups can really use, especially when we consider how diverse our members are and tend to be.Any Free Thought Forum may be comprised of members who are Atheists, Christians, Sikhs, Pantheists, Mystics, Hindus, Buddhists, Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Anarchists, and so forth, in various ratios. If we are to come together to celebrate something, it has to be something that we all can value, no matter our backgrounds or beliefs. In the wider picture, it wouldn’t be prudent to base these traditions on local cultural norms. If a Free Thought Forum was created in Taiwan, for example, it would be silly for them to throw annual parties about a culturally-specific idea like American Football.This line of thinking brought us to celebrations themed around moral virtues and common life goals related to those virtues. While many holidays and festivals call back to a person, historical event, region, product, or story, we set our sights to something more universal. The key was to select specific virtues that would apply to all people, from all regions, and across time.Another thing to consider was the timing. When would these four celebrations take place? After all, many countries around the world don’t even use the same calendar as we do in the United States. To answer that question, we turned to another concept that breaks through the barriers between cultures: Science. Scientific fact beautifully and equally applies to all peoples of the world. To find special times throughout the year, why not look at the actual seasons and orbit of the earth itself? If we are to have four annual secular celebrations, then it is perfectly reasonable to space them equidistantly, and according to natural phenomena, such as the solstices and equinoxes of our planet. For convenience, we can then make the official celebration times fall on the weekends just before each solstice and equinox. Since all of our groups meet on Saturday or Sunday, then all they would need to do is replace their regular meetings with these themed parties when the time comes.But what should we do at each of our annual festivals? That is completely up to you and our community! Feel free to be creative and inventive. Sharing your suggestions can help us all create a rich and meaningful experience each year. We have looked around the world for inspiration and have been pleased with what we have found thus far. Likewise, if you look near and far for great traditions and practices that match each theme, we would love to hear what you find.To see our official updated traditions for each of our festivals as well as a list of all such upcoming celebrations, please visit <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org/festivals" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org/festivals</a>.Part 4 – Wisdom Based TraditionsIn addition to your other local, national, and cultural festivities, we hope that you will join us for this year’s Wisdom Festival, a celebration of prudence, intellectualism, logic, learning, knowledge, education, intelligence, expertise, reason, rationality, brilliance, sagacity, and other related virtues. Participants are encouraged to value learning and understanding for its own sake, and not just as a means to an end. We set personal goals for the coming year regarding our individual education and each guest may select new free book to read. Past academic achievement is celebrated and the senior members of our families are honored. Starting in September of 2019, the following traditions connected to this festival were set in place and modified according to the feedback of our members:Looking Smart –Many participants will use the occasion to look smart, don dapper digs, and dress to the nines. Feel free to wear your best dress, your fanciest tie, or simply just come as you like.Intelligent Treats and Mystery Sacks – Dig into an assortment of (surprisingly healthy) erudite edibles. This year, we will have fresh vegetables, banana-oat cookies, and rice-crackers. Be sure to also pick up a grab-bag of intellectual goodies such as top-of-the-line pens, bookmarks, and owl-shaped erasers before you leave!Used Book Exchange – Bring one or more used books that you would like to donate or swap for one or more new reads from other freethinkers!Honoring Academic Achievement – We’d like to shine the spotlight on the sacrifice and personal improvement of our scholars, no matter their age! Did you learn a language, sign-up for your first college classes, graduate with honors, win 2nd place in a spelling-bee, learn how to play an instrument, earn 100% on an exam, or something similar? Let’s share that with the audience followed by some much-deserved applause.Party Games and Treasure Hunts – Be ready to test your knowledge and wit playing strategy and trivia games. Young guests can even go on a puzzle-based hunt for the chance to win some toy treasure!Suggested Family Tradition: Senior Interviews – Guests are encouraged to take some time in the week following this event to visit an elderly family member or friend and invite them to share their stories, memories, and life-lessons-learned for an enriching and educational experience for all involved.Additional Theming -- To ground the abstract concepts featured in this celebration, the following symbolism is utilized:The Colors Orange, Yellow, and Gold - In Europe and in North America, orange is strongly associated with the autumn season and with warnings calls to be careful. In the historical European arts of heraldry and vexillology, these colors were associated with prosperity (like fields of wheat), wealth, sunlight (enlightenment), and excitement. In Sikhism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, yellow represents knowledge, learning, mental development, and a grounded lifestyle. Orange (saffron) is also a sacred color of spiritual purity.The Owl - This was the symbol of Athens in the ancient world, a hub of the arts and scholarship. In classical mythology, the owl is a representation of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. In Hinduism, an owl is the vahana of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, fortune, and prosperity.An Open Book - From the ancient halls of the Library of Alexandria to the ebook collection you have on your smart device, few of humanity’s tools over the years match the teaching power of books. Reading is one of the fastest and most efficient ways you may increase your knowledge, and knowledge is power!Which traditions would you like us to attach to these events? What do you think of our plans so far? Your FEEDBACK is welcome.If you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our group and our podcast. Thank you!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? What feedback or ideas do you have for this program or our organization? Feel free to share your perspective.A Special Shout-Out goes to Shayne Wissler, Lance Freeman, and Brooke!Your monthly support makes this all possible. To check out our awesome donor rewards starting at one dollar per month, please visit: <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org/donate" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org/donate</a>.___Written By Nicholas Burk, Executive Board Member © 2019 Free Thought Initiative

Celebrating Wisdom

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 8How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.When you were young, were you a fan of the magic school bus or Carl Sagan’s ship of the imagination? I’m still a fan, and today, we will be taking a journey on our own makeshift craft to explore the amazing discoveries of science.This episode is the first part in a series where we will be looking back through the past a few billion years at a time. If you invented a time machine and began to travel backwards, what would you see? How far back could you go? In this episode, we will try to wrap our minds around some paleontology, biology, and geology as we rewind time at one billion years per minute, with the help of a little imagination.This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit freethoughtforum.org.Picture, if you will, our time machine. It has taken years to design and construct with cutting-edge technology. If we sat inside and began to work the controls, what might we see?I hope you packed a lunch because we may be gone for a while. I’m powering up the machine now. Many physicists such as Stephen Hawking have deduced that backward time-travel is impossible, given how easy it is to create paradoxes that would prevent your travel in the first place, but we will table a discussion on the physics, mechanisms, and logistics of time travel for some other day. Today, we are going back in time!That is what you wanted to do today right? Go back as far as we can, maybe to the beginning of the universe? Let’s make it a quick ride, traveling at about 1 billion years a minute, or about 16 million years a second… I’ll program the computer to tell us once we hit each billion-year milestone. You know, at that speed, the techonomic plates below our feet will be moving at about 2,000 miles per hour. Usually, they only move at about 5 cm per year, but like I said, we are trying to make this trip quick. But to be on the safe side, let’s launch into the air to prevent whiplash. Alright, pull the lever to take us backwards. That one, there!With a stunning spiral of sparks and light, we are flung into history. Quickly, look out the window! We are travelling so fast through time that we can’t distinguish between day and night.If you blinked, then you just missed literally all of human history. I’m not just talking about World War II, the European Middle Ages, or even the construction of the Egyptian pyramids. Nope, in just one second we have gone back to before humans wrote anything down, before we settled down into farming villages, and even before our ancestors were walking on two legs.Trees quickly dominate where farms and cities once stood. In just one second into our journey, all humanity has been reduced to a tree-dwelling ancestor in Africa. The Homo genus has not even branched off yet from the tree of life.Lakes freeze back into massive glaciers and we careen past multiple ice-ages. We pass through the Neogene Period and the world is dominated by long-extinct mammals such as the early ancestors of woolly mammoths, giant sloths, and saber-tooth cats. Grassy fields disappear as the world grows more arid, mountainous, and desert-like.Two seconds into our journey lands us in the middle of the Paleogene Period. Dense and hot jungles cover the land. The large mammals we saw are shrinking in size, back to their shrew-like ancestors, ruled over by large crocodiles and snakes, and then by large flightless birds. The dominant sharks and whales in the oceans are replaced by unrecognizable monsters.Four seconds back and the earth is rocked by the K-T meteorite that killed the dinosaurs. For the next 11 seconds, we witness flowering plants vanish, and great herds of triceratops chased by the ancestors of modern birds, the theropods such as Tyrannosaurs, Allosaurus, and raptors. Duck-billed Hadrosaurs and the long-necked Sauropods take-over as the Earth’s continents continue to shift. The dinosaurs shrink in size, back into their reptilian ancestors and the continents of the world clump together into one landmass: Pangea.About 15 seconds into our journey and the air becomes thick with coal smoke from Siberian volcanic eruptions during what scientists call “The Great Dying.” Less than 5% of all life on earth survived this, including our reptilian-like synapsid ancestor that descended from the lumbering Dimetrodon, with the sail on its back.20 Seconds have passed and we are in the Carboniferous Period where the earth is a hot swamp planet with high levels of oxygen and massive insects! Dragon-flies the size of eagles and millipedes the size of alligators lurk below.22 seconds and we can see that fish-like creatures are starting to live on land, such as Tiktaalik! In the Devonian and Silurian Periods, the real party is in the ocean as the massive varieties of fish and arthropods like scorpions coagulate back into just a handful of ancestral species. We see the first land plants and fungi recede.Earth’s 2nd most devastating extinction event can be seen at 27 seconds, in which the earth enters a deep freeze. Before it, in the Ordovician Period, we see the first fish and cephalopods like squids evolve. We are now far enough back that Trilobites ruled the world!One half minute into our journey back in time plants us in the Cambrian period, in which the oceans saw an explosion of the first large animals in astonishing variety, each looking more alien than the next! For another second, sponges, mollusks, choral, worms, sea snails, arthropods, all devolve back into simpler colonies of cells.33 seconds back takes us into the Precambrian Neoproterozoic Era of the earth. Ediacarans are the first animals, swimming in a cooling and less oxygenated ocean as ice sheets spread over the earth. They were soft-bodied, and look more to me like a liver than an animal. The next few seconds take us to even earlier forms of life, but these have left almost no traces in our fossil record.1 BILLION YEARS AGOIn just over a minute and we have covered more than 100 million years of earth history! We have reached the Mesoproterozoic Era, a time in which our oldest rock layers formed that still exist today. Life is almost entirely single-celled organisms, now playing with something that gives them a new evolutionary advantage: sexual reproduction.Now at 1 minute and 40 seconds, life has resorted back to asexual reproduction. In other words, if single-celled organisms want to reproduce, they just split and half to make two sister cells.We now slip into the longest geological age of the earth: The Paleoproterozoic Era. The earliest forms of our planet’s continents stabilize. The days are only 20 hours long, and the first Eukaryotic Cells have emerged. These microbes are your direct ancestors. Can you see the family resemblance? They may be humble, but these cells are survivors.2 BILLION YEARS AGOA massive increase in oxygen has killed off almost all life on earth. Only the single-celled organisms that can survive in this newly toxic atmosphere will be able to reproduce. Rolling time back allows us to see where all this oxygen came from. It was a byproduct of mostly cyanobacteria, capitalizing on a new invention: photosynthesis.3 BILLION YEARS AGOOur journey has brought us to the Archean Eon. The earth begins to get warmer, and the rock of the earth’s surface is destabilizing into lava and magma. The entire planet was three times warmer than it is today, but many rock formations from this age have actually survived to present times.At about three minutes and 45 seconds, we run into a humble cell floating in the ocean. She is something special compared to all of her doomed peers. We call her “LUCA” because she is the Last Universal Common Ancestor of all life on earth. You, your dog, the bacteria, bees, and flowers outside, all carry with them an evolved form of LUCA’s fortuitous collection of some 355 genes.4 BILLION YEARS AGOIt is a good thing we are in a time machine, because you can’t breathe out there. Almost no oxygen exists in earth’s atmosphere. It is a red and black wasteland of volcanoes, lightning storms, and oceans. We are now at about four minutes into our trip. We’ll pause here.It’s time to take a closer look under that murky ocean. As we take a trip down into the archaic depths, we quickly find underwater volcanoes, spewing chemical rich gasses into the icy-cold depths. Our scanners are picking up something that just sent shivers down my back. Chemistry, just became biochemistry. The first forms of RNA have replicated themselves, which means that the electromagnetic interactions between atoms and molecules just handed the running of life over to the forces of natural selection.In other words, life as we know it has been on the earth for about four billion years!Deep in this dark ocean, this seems like a good place to take a break! Did you have a chance to grab a lunch? We’ll stop here between the Hadean Eon and the Archean Eon. In our next episode, we’ll see if we can go back a few more billion years, back to get beginning of the universe itself!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 8How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.When you were young, were you a fan of the magic school bus or Carl Sagan’s ship of the imagination? I’m still a fan, and today, we will be taking a journey on our own makeshift craft to explore the amazing discoveries of science.This episode is the first part in a series where we will be looking back through the past a few billion years at a time. If you invented a time machine and began to travel backwards, what would you see? How far back could you go? In this episode, we will try to wrap our minds around some paleontology, biology, and geology as we rewind time at one billion years per minute, with the help of a little imagination.This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a>.Picture, if you will, our time machine. It has taken years to design and construct with cutting-edge technology. If we sat inside and began to work the controls, what might we see?I hope you packed a lunch because we may be gone for a while. I’m powering up the machine now. Many physicists such as Stephen Hawking have deduced that backward time-travel is impossible, given how easy it is to create paradoxes that would prevent your travel in the first place, but we will table a discussion on the physics, mechanisms, and logistics of time travel for some other day. Today, we are going back in time!That is what you wanted to do today right? Go back as far as we can, maybe to the beginning of the universe? Let’s make it a quick ride, traveling at about 1 billion years a minute, or about 16 million years a second… I’ll program the computer to tell us once we hit each billion-year milestone. You know, at that speed, the techonomic plates below our feet will be moving at about 2,000 miles per hour. Usually, they only move at about 5 cm per year, but like I said, we are trying to make this trip quick. But to be on the safe side, let’s launch into the air to prevent whiplash. Alright, pull the lever to take us backwards. That one, there!With a stunning spiral of sparks and light, we are flung into history. Quickly, look out the window! We are travelling so fast through time that we can’t distinguish between day and night.If you blinked, then you just missed literally all of human history. I’m not just talking about World War II, the European Middle Ages, or even the construction of the Egyptian pyramids. Nope, in just one second we have gone back to before humans wrote anything down, before we settled down into farming villages, and even before our ancestors were walking on two legs.Trees quickly dominate where farms and cities once stood. In just one second into our journey, all humanity has been reduced to a tree-dwelling ancestor in Africa. The Homo genus has not even branched off yet from the tree of life.Lakes freeze back into massive glaciers and we careen past multiple ice-ages. We pass through the Neogene Period and the world is dominated by long-extinct mammals such as the early ancestors of woolly mammoths, giant sloths, and saber-tooth cats. Grassy fields disappear as the world grows more arid, mountainous, and desert-like.Two seconds into our journey lands us in the middle of the Paleogene Period. Dense and hot jungles cover the land. The large mammals we saw are shrinking in size, back to their shrew-like ancestors, ruled over by large crocodiles and snakes, and then by large flightless birds. The dominant sharks and whales in the oceans are replaced by unrecognizable monsters.Four seconds back and the earth is rocked by the K-T meteorite that killed the dinosaurs. For the next 11 seconds, we witness flowering plants vanish, and great herds of triceratops chased by the ancestors of modern birds, the theropods such as Tyrannosaurs, Allosaurus, and raptors. Duck-billed Hadrosaurs and the long-necked Sauropods take-over as the Earth’s continents continue to shift. The dinosaurs shrink in size, back into their reptilian ancestors and the continents of the world clump together into one landmass: Pangea.About 15 seconds into our journey and the air becomes thick with coal smoke from Siberian volcanic eruptions during what scientists call “The Great Dying.” Less than 5% of all life on earth survived this, including our reptilian-like synapsid ancestor that descended from the lumbering Dimetrodon, with the sail on its back.20 Seconds have passed and we are in the Carboniferous Period where the earth is a hot swamp planet with high levels of oxygen and massive insects! Dragon-flies the size of eagles and millipedes the size of alligators lurk below.22 seconds and we can see that fish-like creatures are starting to live on land, such as Tiktaalik! In the Devonian and Silurian Periods, the real party is in the ocean as the massive varieties of fish and arthropods like scorpions coagulate back into just a handful of ancestral species. We see the first land plants and fungi recede.Earth’s 2nd most devastating extinction event can be seen at 27 seconds, in which the earth enters a deep freeze. Before it, in the Ordovician Period, we see the first fish and cephalopods like squids evolve. We are now far enough back that Trilobites ruled the world!One half minute into our journey back in time plants us in the Cambrian period, in which the oceans saw an explosion of the first large animals in astonishing variety, each looking more alien than the next! For another second, sponges, mollusks, choral, worms, sea snails, arthropods, all devolve back into simpler colonies of cells.33 seconds back takes us into the Precambrian Neoproterozoic Era of the earth. Ediacarans are the first animals, swimming in a cooling and less oxygenated ocean as ice sheets spread over the earth. They were soft-bodied, and look more to me like a liver than an animal. The next few seconds take us to even earlier forms of life, but these have left almost no traces in our fossil record.1 BILLION YEARS AGOIn just over a minute and we have covered more than 100 million years of earth history! We have reached the Mesoproterozoic Era, a time in which our oldest rock layers formed that still exist today. Life is almost entirely single-celled organisms, now playing with something that gives them a new evolutionary advantage: sexual reproduction.Now at 1 minute and 40 seconds, life has resorted back to asexual reproduction. In other words, if single-celled organisms want to reproduce, they just split and half to make two sister cells.We now slip into the longest geological age of the earth: The Paleoproterozoic Era. The earliest forms of our planet’s continents stabilize. The days are only 20 hours long, and the first Eukaryotic Cells have emerged. These microbes are your direct ancestors. Can you see the family resemblance? They may be humble, but these cells are survivors.2 BILLION YEARS AGOA massive increase in oxygen has killed off almost all life on earth. Only the single-celled organisms that can survive in this newly toxic atmosphere will be able to reproduce. Rolling time back allows us to see where all this oxygen came from. It was a byproduct of mostly cyanobacteria, capitalizing on a new invention: photosynthesis.3 BILLION YEARS AGOOur journey has brought us to the Archean Eon. The earth begins to get warmer, and the rock of the earth’s surface is destabilizing into lava and magma. The entire planet was three times warmer than it is today, but many rock formations from this age have actually survived to present times.At about three minutes and 45 seconds, we run into a humble cell floating in the ocean. She is something special compared to all of her doomed peers. We call her “LUCA” because she is the Last Universal Common Ancestor of all life on earth. You, your dog, the bacteria, bees, and flowers outside, all carry with them an evolved form of LUCA’s fortuitous collection of some 355 genes.4 BILLION YEARS AGOIt is a good thing we are in a time machine, because you can’t breathe out there. Almost no oxygen exists in earth’s atmosphere. It is a red and black wasteland of volcanoes, lightning storms, and oceans. We are now at about four minutes into our trip. We’ll pause here.It’s time to take a closer look under that murky ocean. As we take a trip down into the archaic depths, we quickly find underwater volcanoes, spewing chemical rich gasses into the icy-cold depths. Our scanners are picking up something that just sent shivers down my back. Chemistry, just became biochemistry. The first forms of RNA have replicated themselves, which means that the electromagnetic interactions between atoms and molecules just handed the running of life over to the forces of natural selection.In other words, life as we know it has been on the earth for about four billion years!Deep in this dark ocean, this seems like a good place to take a break! Did you have a chance to grab a lunch? We’ll stop here between the Hadean Eon and the Archean Eon. In our next episode, we’ll see if we can go back a few more billion years, back to get beginning of the universe itself!That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!

Time Travel (Part 1) Back Through 4 Billion Years

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 11How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.In this episode, we will look at five strong reasons that scientists have to accept the big bang as the most accurate model to explain the shape, expansion, and composition of our universe. What does the evidence actually show? Is the big bang really the best explanation for what we observe? We will get right to it, in just a moment.This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit freethoughtforum.org.The word “theory” in science doesn’t mean “guess” or “hypothesis.” A Scientific Theory is a rigorously-tested model, system, or idea that can explain several observed phenomena at once. It is the highest form of Scientific Certainty, the best explanation in its field so far. A theory explains the facts, which are based on the best possible evidence.The Big Bang, for me, is one of the most bizarre of the most prominent Scientific Theories. It seems too strange to be science-fiction, but also too outlandish to be scientific fact. Things like evolution by natural selection, thermodynamics, germ theory, and Newton’s laws of motion, once understood well enough, mesh very well with our every-day experience. But this is a moot point, isn’t it? The universe really doesn’t care about making things easy for us. It doesn’t have to be at-all intuitive. Science isn’t about what can be comfortably understood. Rather, it seeks to uncover the facts of nature, whatever they may be.Many of its opponents describe the big bang theory as a type of conspiracy, drawn up by atheists to contest against a belief in a god. This is ironic to me because many fundamentalist creationists have claimed the prospect of a big bang as a “win” for their argument that the universe had a beginning, and was not merely eternally present. At the time of its conception, as is still the case for many theologians today, the big bang was seen as the smoking gun of creation, leaving egg on the face of all of the scientists who were more content with a static universe model.But as I said, the universe itself really doesn’t care about our theological, epistemological, or philosophical debates. Real science has never been about scoring points for your ideological team. Real science happens when we take our beliefs, presumptions, and prejudices and stuff them in the sock drawer. Only then are we ready to see things as they really are. Of course, this is easier said than done. Even Albert Einstein, whose theory of general relativity predicted an unstable universe with a beginning, personally favored the static and eternal model for the universe. However, true to form, the scientific community has been confronted with strong empirical data and evidence and has shifted its position, now declaring the big bang theory to be the most accurate representation of the past and present state of the universe.What pieces of evidence could possibly have swayed an entire world of cosmological experts? How could such a bizarre theory become so mainstream? Well, I’m glad you asked. Here are five examples of strong evidence that support the big bang:1. THE HUBBLE–LEMAÎTRE LAW AND RED-SHIFTED GALAXIESLet’s turn back to the early 1920s. The United States was becoming a world power, flappers danced the lindy-hop, and every astronomer understood that we were surrounded by stars and smudgy nebulae, bright clouds of space dust, found all over most of the universe, a universe that was generally understood to be filled, mostly, by the galaxy, the Milky Way.In 1924, in an observatory in California, Edwin Hubble made two groundbreaking discoveries that would change our view of the cosmos forever.First – He observed that those blotches and smudges in the night sky weren’t just dust clouds. You see, an astronomer and computing genius named Henrietta Leavitt had discovered that certain stars (known as Cepheid variable stars or “standard candles”) had a known absolute magnitude, allowing astronomers to calculate their distance. Hubble was able to find these stars in the blotchy nebulae around us, and found that they actually belonged to entirely different galaxies, millions of light-years away at the very least! Hubble had solid proof that ours was only one of many galaxies in the universe.Second – Hubble noticed something strange when calculating the distance between us and other galaxies. They were all moving away from us. The light from these galaxies was all slightly red-shifted. In fact, the further away they were, the faster they were moving. These observations must have been puzzling. Luckily, a Belgian Catholic priest and physicist named Georges Lemaître (a man who is usually credited as the first proponent of the big bang) could explain what Hubble observed.Lemaître was a fan of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. On that foundation, he was able to calculate that in the past, the universe must have been much smaller, only to have expanded. This would explain why Hubble and every single astronomer after him (with sufficiently powerful hardware) can detect that the galaxies are, in fact, still moving away from one another.Today, we understand that what I just said is actually a little off. You see, the galaxies are not moving away from each other on their own. In fact, it is the space between them that is stretching out, like water currents moving two floating leaves away from one another. Perhaps the best metaphor for this comes from a simple demonstration you can perform at home. Take a new balloon and, with a marker, create dots all over it. They will appear to be close together. Now, when you slowly blow-up the balloon, take note on how each dot seems to fly away from its neighbors. This is a 2D surface that behaves similar to how the fabric of space-time is indeed stretching and warping between the galaxies of the universe.But what is all this talk about red-shifting? The reason why this is such a big deal is because red-shifting is exactly what we would expect the light from distant stars to do if they were traveling through space-time that is indeed stretching. If you stretch-out light, it becomes red-shifted. If the universe was collapsing, like a deflating-balloon, then all of the light from distant galaxies would be blue-shifted.The red-shifting of light waves is similar to the collapsing or stretching of soundwaves. We can hear this happen when a noisy ambulance flies past us.(Siren Noise)You may remember talking about this “Doppler Effect” in science class. The pitch of the sound is warped based on our position relative to the ambulance, its speed, and its direction. Light behaves in a similar way.Put simply, the first big form of evidence for the big bang is the red-shifting of galaxies, all of which are observably moving away from us. It then logically follows, that if we could look back in time, we would find that all of the stars and galaxies of the universe were closer together. The further back we go, the closer together they would be.2. THE RATIO OF THE ELEMENTS FOUND IN THE UNIVERSESir. Fred Hoyle coined the term “Big Bang” as a derogatory term for Lemaître’s theory. They were rivals to one another. However, his theories and observations would later prove to support the Big Bang Theory! One major part of his argument comes from the periodic table you see in your chemistry textbooks. If you thought that every element on that table shows up in nature in roughly the same amounts, then you would be wrong. Oddly enough, the smaller elements vastly outnumber the elements further down the table. The drop-off is pretty dramatic. About 75% of all of the baryonic matter in the universe is just Hydrogen. About 23% is Helium. 2% is all that is left for the rest of the periodic table, but the pattern still continues. The lighter and smaller elements tend to outnumber the heavier ones in that same asymptote-like trend.This pattern is exactly what would be expected for Stellar Nucleosynthesis, a process that is central to the Big Bang theory and inflation.3. THE STRUCTURE OF THE COSMOS ITSELFThe Hubble telescope was named after the astronomer, Edwin Hubble, and it was a break-through in humanity’s ability to see the universe. It orbits our planet, past the interference of our atmosphere, and could, therefore, give us the clearest pictures of the farthest objects we could see at the time. Its first pictures, sent to us in the early 1990s, could have torn the Big Bang Theory to pieces. After all, Einstein’s theory of General Relativity, as well as the Big Bang Theory, made some testable predictions about the shape, size, and distribution of matter throughout the cosmos. The space between galaxies, the size of galaxies, the spaces between stars in galaxies, the conditions surrounding the birth and death of distance stars, as well as the distribution of things like quasars and black holes, all needed to fit within the predictions of the Big Bang for it to survive.Did they? They did in the 90s, and they still do today. Every observation made of the universe so far, from every telescope to every computer model, has not refuted or discredited the big bang theory. Granted, the theory has been adjusted as we have received more data. The addition of the dark-energy dominated era comes to mind, but we are a long way from being able to replace it.4.  THE DISCOVERY OF THE HIGGS FIELD AND FUNDAMENTAL PARTICLESThe Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s most powerful particle collider. Underground, near Geneva, Switzerland, lies this massive tunnel system built for one purpose: to smash! If I were a Marvel Comics writer, this is where I would have Bruce Banner work! But the things we find there, I think, are far more astonishing than the misadventures of the Incredible Hulk. When it comes to particle physics, reality really is stranger than fiction.In particle colliders such as the LHC, our understanding of particle physics, quantum mechanics, and the Big Bang singularity itself, are constantly tested. You see, this is how scientists can claim to know anything about the first seconds of our universe. The possible conditions of the early universe are simulated and small bits of matter are accelerated to near the speed of light, only to be obliterated when smashing into one another. It is like we are smashing a clock or a treasure-chest open in order to see what is inside. From these experiments, subatomic matter, anti-matter, and hitherto unknown particles have been observed. Particles such as positrons, neutrinos, and the Higgs-boson were just ideas until they were actually seen in this lab or in other similar labs. When we break down the complex parts of the universe, its simpler ingredients are revealed. We can then speculate about what the conditions the early universe had to have been in order to produce what is observed today.This is all to say that if literally ripping the pieces of the cosmos apart hasn’t yet disproved the Big Bang, I am not sure what will.5. THE COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND RADIATIONI wanted to save what, in my opinion, is the most powerful form of evidence for the Big Bang for the end of my list. But let’s take a step back. If you were highly skeptical of this theory, you may make the argument that scientists are making a “self-fulfilled prophesy” when it comes to the CMBR. From one point of view, scientists predicted that the cosmic microwave background radiation should exist, and then they claim to have found it. Isn’t that what is going on here?Such an argument would hold some water if it weren’t for a few of the details about how it was discovered. Also important to consider, is how it is still being found and researched by many teams all over the world, building upon decades of discovery.The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation was first predicted in 1948 by cosmologists Ralph Alpher, Robert Herman, and independently by Robert Dicke. They basically predicted that there would be a time in the early universe when it cooled down enough for stable atoms to form for the first time. This would make the universe transparent for the first time while also letting free a great deal of energy in the form of light. If that indeed happened, some of that light should still be traveling out in the distance, right? For about 15 years, this was all academic. Different teams from different schools were trying to scoop each other, each trying to be the first to find evidence for this ancient light. So who won? Well, a team of engineers working for a phone company, that’s who.In 1964, Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson were trying to solve a problem for AT&amp;T. Before, their company had no problem converting sound waves to electrical signals. That is how conversations were transmitted over telephone lines for decades. But AT&amp;T wanted to take things a step further. They wanted to take sound waves into a receiver, convert them into electrical signals through wire connected to a radio dish, convert the signals into radio waves, and then reverse the process to receive them again.This was a great idea, except that it had one annoying problem. No matter how hard they tried, Penzias and Wilson could not account for a constant hissing and buzzing of extra static and noise that was being picked up by their state-of-the-art radio signal detection hardware. Was it coming from a far-away galaxy? Was it resonating from the core of the earth? Was it the result of military testing across the ocean? No matter where they pointed their radio dishes, this background interference cold be detected everywhere! They even spent years fine-tuning and cleaning off their equipment just to make sure that it wasn’t their hardware that was causing the problem. A weak background signal in the form of radio waves that came from every direction? Who could explain it!Well, Ralph Alpher, Robert Herman, and Robert Dicke could explain it. Penzias and Wilson had just accidentally discovered the CMBR! Years later, this radiation was explored in greater detail and first mapped by the COBE and WMAP satellites. The images that these satellites produced gave us something like a shadow of the early universe. You may have seen a render of this information, looking like a blurry pink and blue oval. The data shows us a universe with all of its matter and energy spread-out evenly, except for slight clumps here and there that would become the first stars.In fact, even today, every time you drift between the stations and channels in an old radio or television set, about 1% of the static you hear belongs to that background radiation.(Static)This changed everything. This was literally a baby picture of our universe. It fit all of the other evidence we had perfectly, like the piece in the center of a puzzle. The Cosmic Background Radiation is predicted by the kind of fundamental particle interactions demonstrated by the Large Hadron Collider, it shows the expected structure of the early universe, giving us a “transitional fossil” from the big bang to today. It supports Stellar Nucleosynthesis and what we would predict of the elements present after the big bang. And it is in the form of radio-waves, red-shifted over time and the stretching of the cosmos, similar to what was observed by Hubble, decades ago.That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!___Written By Nicholas Burk, Executive Board Member © 2019 Free Thought Initiative

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 11How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.In this episode, we will look at five strong reasons that scientists have to accept the big bang as the most accurate model to explain the shape, expansion, and composition of our universe. What does the evidence actually show? Is the big bang really the best explanation for what we observe? We will get right to it, in just a moment.This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a>.The word “theory” in science doesn’t mean “guess” or “hypothesis.” A Scientific Theory is a rigorously-tested model, system, or idea that can explain several observed phenomena at once. It is the highest form of Scientific Certainty, the best explanation in its field so far. A theory explains the facts, which are based on the best possible evidence.The Big Bang, for me, is one of the most bizarre of the most prominent Scientific Theories. It seems too strange to be science-fiction, but also too outlandish to be scientific fact. Things like evolution by natural selection, thermodynamics, germ theory, and Newton’s laws of motion, once understood well enough, mesh very well with our every-day experience. But this is a moot point, isn’t it? The universe really doesn’t care about making things easy for us. It doesn’t have to be at-all intuitive. Science isn’t about what can be comfortably understood. Rather, it seeks to uncover the facts of nature, whatever they may be.Many of its opponents describe the big bang theory as a type of conspiracy, drawn up by atheists to contest against a belief in a god. This is ironic to me because many fundamentalist creationists have claimed the prospect of a big bang as a “win” for their argument that the universe had a beginning, and was not merely eternally present. At the time of its conception, as is still the case for many theologians today, the big bang was seen as the smoking gun of creation, leaving egg on the face of all of the scientists who were more content with a static universe model.But as I said, the universe itself really doesn’t care about our theological, epistemological, or philosophical debates. Real science has never been about scoring points for your ideological team. Real science happens when we take our beliefs, presumptions, and prejudices and stuff them in the sock drawer. Only then are we ready to see things as they really are. Of course, this is easier said than done. Even Albert Einstein, whose theory of general relativity predicted an unstable universe with a beginning, personally favored the static and eternal model for the universe. However, true to form, the scientific community has been confronted with strong empirical data and evidence and has shifted its position, now declaring the big bang theory to be the most accurate representation of the past and present state of the universe.What pieces of evidence could possibly have swayed an entire world of cosmological experts? How could such a bizarre theory become so mainstream? Well, I’m glad you asked. Here are five examples of strong evidence that support the big bang:1. THE HUBBLE–LEMAÎTRE LAW AND RED-SHIFTED GALAXIESLet’s turn back to the early 1920s. The United States was becoming a world power, flappers danced the lindy-hop, and every astronomer understood that we were surrounded by stars and smudgy nebulae, bright clouds of space dust, found all over most of the universe, a universe that was generally understood to be filled, mostly, by the galaxy, the Milky Way.In 1924, in an observatory in California, Edwin Hubble made two groundbreaking discoveries that would change our view of the cosmos forever.First – He observed that those blotches and smudges in the night sky weren’t just dust clouds. You see, an astronomer and computing genius named Henrietta Leavitt had discovered that certain stars (known as Cepheid variable stars or “standard candles”) had a known absolute magnitude, allowing astronomers to calculate their distance. Hubble was able to find these stars in the blotchy nebulae around us, and found that they actually belonged to entirely different galaxies, millions of light-years away at the very least! Hubble had solid proof that ours was only one of many galaxies in the universe.Second – Hubble noticed something strange when calculating the distance between us and other galaxies. They were all moving away from us. The light from these galaxies was all slightly red-shifted. In fact, the further away they were, the faster they were moving. These observations must have been puzzling. Luckily, a Belgian Catholic priest and physicist named Georges Lemaître (a man who is usually credited as the first proponent of the big bang) could explain what Hubble observed.Lemaître was a fan of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. On that foundation, he was able to calculate that in the past, the universe must have been much smaller, only to have expanded. This would explain why Hubble and every single astronomer after him (with sufficiently powerful hardware) can detect that the galaxies are, in fact, still moving away from one another.Today, we understand that what I just said is actually a little off. You see, the galaxies are not moving away from each other on their own. In fact, it is the space between them that is stretching out, like water currents moving two floating leaves away from one another. Perhaps the best metaphor for this comes from a simple demonstration you can perform at home. Take a new balloon and, with a marker, create dots all over it. They will appear to be close together. Now, when you slowly blow-up the balloon, take note on how each dot seems to fly away from its neighbors. This is a 2D surface that behaves similar to how the fabric of space-time is indeed stretching and warping between the galaxies of the universe.But what is all this talk about red-shifting? The reason why this is such a big deal is because red-shifting is exactly what we would expect the light from distant stars to do if they were traveling through space-time that is indeed stretching. If you stretch-out light, it becomes red-shifted. If the universe was collapsing, like a deflating-balloon, then all of the light from distant galaxies would be blue-shifted.The red-shifting of light waves is similar to the collapsing or stretching of soundwaves. We can hear this happen when a noisy ambulance flies past us.(Siren Noise)You may remember talking about this “Doppler Effect” in science class. The pitch of the sound is warped based on our position relative to the ambulance, its speed, and its direction. Light behaves in a similar way.Put simply, the first big form of evidence for the big bang is the red-shifting of galaxies, all of which are observably moving away from us. It then logically follows, that if we could look back in time, we would find that all of the stars and galaxies of the universe were closer together. The further back we go, the closer together they would be.2. THE RATIO OF THE ELEMENTS FOUND IN THE UNIVERSESir. Fred Hoyle coined the term “Big Bang” as a derogatory term for Lemaître’s theory. They were rivals to one another. However, his theories and observations would later prove to support the Big Bang Theory! One major part of his argument comes from the periodic table you see in your chemistry textbooks. If you thought that every element on that table shows up in nature in roughly the same amounts, then you would be wrong. Oddly enough, the smaller elements vastly outnumber the elements further down the table. The drop-off is pretty dramatic. About 75% of all of the baryonic matter in the universe is just Hydrogen. About 23% is Helium. 2% is all that is left for the rest of the periodic table, but the pattern still continues. The lighter and smaller elements tend to outnumber the heavier ones in that same asymptote-like trend.This pattern is exactly what would be expected for Stellar Nucleosynthesis, a process that is central to the Big Bang theory and inflation.3. THE STRUCTURE OF THE COSMOS ITSELFThe Hubble telescope was named after the astronomer, Edwin Hubble, and it was a break-through in humanity’s ability to see the universe. It orbits our planet, past the interference of our atmosphere, and could, therefore, give us the clearest pictures of the farthest objects we could see at the time. Its first pictures, sent to us in the early 1990s, could have torn the Big Bang Theory to pieces. After all, Einstein’s theory of General Relativity, as well as the Big Bang Theory, made some testable predictions about the shape, size, and distribution of matter throughout the cosmos. The space between galaxies, the size of galaxies, the spaces between stars in galaxies, the conditions surrounding the birth and death of distance stars, as well as the distribution of things like quasars and black holes, all needed to fit within the predictions of the Big Bang for it to survive.Did they? They did in the 90s, and they still do today. Every observation made of the universe so far, from every telescope to every computer model, has not refuted or discredited the big bang theory. Granted, the theory has been adjusted as we have received more data. The addition of the dark-energy dominated era comes to mind, but we are a long way from being able to replace it.4. THE DISCOVERY OF THE HIGGS FIELD AND FUNDAMENTAL PARTICLESThe Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s most powerful particle collider. Underground, near Geneva, Switzerland, lies this massive tunnel system built for one purpose: to smash! If I were a Marvel Comics writer, this is where I would have Bruce Banner work! But the things we find there, I think, are far more astonishing than the misadventures of the Incredible Hulk. When it comes to particle physics, reality really is stranger than fiction.In particle colliders such as the LHC, our understanding of particle physics, quantum mechanics, and the Big Bang singularity itself, are constantly tested. You see, this is how scientists can claim to know anything about the first seconds of our universe. The possible conditions of the early universe are simulated and small bits of matter are accelerated to near the speed of light, only to be obliterated when smashing into one another. It is like we are smashing a clock or a treasure-chest open in order to see what is inside. From these experiments, subatomic matter, anti-matter, and hitherto unknown particles have been observed. Particles such as positrons, neutrinos, and the Higgs-boson were just ideas until they were actually seen in this lab or in other similar labs. When we break down the complex parts of the universe, its simpler ingredients are revealed. We can then speculate about what the conditions the early universe had to have been in order to produce what is observed today.This is all to say that if literally ripping the pieces of the cosmos apart hasn’t yet disproved the Big Bang, I am not sure what will.5. THE COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND RADIATIONI wanted to save what, in my opinion, is the most powerful form of evidence for the Big Bang for the end of my list. But let’s take a step back. If you were highly skeptical of this theory, you may make the argument that scientists are making a “self-fulfilled prophesy” when it comes to the CMBR. From one point of view, scientists predicted that the cosmic microwave background radiation should exist, and then they claim to have found it. Isn’t that what is going on here?Such an argument would hold some water if it weren’t for a few of the details about how it was discovered. Also important to consider, is how it is still being found and researched by many teams all over the world, building upon decades of discovery.The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation was first predicted in 1948 by cosmologists Ralph Alpher, Robert Herman, and independently by Robert Dicke. They basically predicted that there would be a time in the early universe when it cooled down enough for stable atoms to form for the first time. This would make the universe transparent for the first time while also letting free a great deal of energy in the form of light. If that indeed happened, some of that light should still be traveling out in the distance, right? For about 15 years, this was all academic. Different teams from different schools were trying to scoop each other, each trying to be the first to find evidence for this ancient light. So who won? Well, a team of engineers working for a phone company, that’s who.In 1964, Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson were trying to solve a problem for AT&amp;T. Before, their company had no problem converting sound waves to electrical signals. That is how conversations were transmitted over telephone lines for decades. But AT&amp;T wanted to take things a step further. They wanted to take sound waves into a receiver, convert them into electrical signals through wire connected to a radio dish, convert the signals into radio waves, and then reverse the process to receive them again.This was a great idea, except that it had one annoying problem. No matter how hard they tried, Penzias and Wilson could not account for a constant hissing and buzzing of extra static and noise that was being picked up by their state-of-the-art radio signal detection hardware. Was it coming from a far-away galaxy? Was it resonating from the core of the earth? Was it the result of military testing across the ocean? No matter where they pointed their radio dishes, this background interference cold be detected everywhere! They even spent years fine-tuning and cleaning off their equipment just to make sure that it wasn’t their hardware that was causing the problem. A weak background signal in the form of radio waves that came from every direction? Who could explain it!Well, Ralph Alpher, Robert Herman, and Robert Dicke could explain it. Penzias and Wilson had just accidentally discovered the CMBR! Years later, this radiation was explored in greater detail and first mapped by the COBE and WMAP satellites. The images that these satellites produced gave us something like a shadow of the early universe. You may have seen a render of this information, looking like a blurry pink and blue oval. The data shows us a universe with all of its matter and energy spread-out evenly, except for slight clumps here and there that would become the first stars.In fact, even today, every time you drift between the stations and channels in an old radio or television set, about 1% of the static you hear belongs to that background radiation.(Static)This changed everything. This was literally a baby picture of our universe. It fit all of the other evidence we had perfectly, like the piece in the center of a puzzle. The Cosmic Background Radiation is predicted by the kind of fundamental particle interactions demonstrated by the Large Hadron Collider, it shows the expected structure of the early universe, giving us a “transitional fossil” from the big bang to today. It supports Stellar Nucleosynthesis and what we would predict of the elements present after the big bang. And it is in the form of radio-waves, red-shifted over time and the stretching of the cosmos, similar to what was observed by Hubble, decades ago.That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!___Written By Nicholas Burk, Executive Board Member © 2019 Free Thought Initiative

Hard Evidence That Supports the Big Bang

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 4How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.Today, I have some news and announcements about the upload schedule for this podcast as well as some exciting events coming up for our Utah Valley group where you can meet us in person!This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit freethoughtforum.orgOur first announcement covers our updated upload schedule.Rather than uploading one episode per day, we will, starting tomorrow, bring you one episode of the Fresh Perspective Podcast every-other day, or 3-4 times a week, for the foreseeable future. We wanted to take some of our production time and dedicate more of it to research. Hopefully that will ensure that the information in our episodes can continue to meet a high standard.At this stage, our podcast, social media pages, and even our tabling at city festivals are all intended to let people know about our organization. Hopefully, soon, this will lead to our flagship group growing so large that it can split into other groups across the state of Utah. Wouldn’t it be awesome one day, to find a Free Thought forum in Salt Lake City, Denver, Phoenix, Seattle, and beyond? That is our long-term goal, and if you are listening to this podcast, you too are playing a role in that ambitious vision.Moving onto other news, I am excited to announce that our podcast is now on Apple News!For those who like getting awesome information on their iPhones, iPads, or other apple products, be sure to pay a visit to our news channel: the fresh perspective. A link to our apple news page can be found on our website. Simply visit freethoughtforum.org then click on the “blog” link at the top.For all of you who live in the Provo, Utah area, I have some exciting news from our Utah Valley group.The 1000 Lights Water Lantern Festival is coming to the shores of Utah Lake, and the Free Thought Forum will be there to invite the public to learn about our new group! Come pay our executive board a visit, enter to win thought-provoking-prizes, bring some cash for some of the other local vendors, and set your lantern adrift as part of a tradition from half a world away!The Water Festival will take place on Saturday, May 18th at 5:30 pm at the Lindon Marina in Vineyard Utah, near Orem. The official website for the event is www.1000lights.com/utahcounty, and here is a quote from there about what to expect:“At 1000 Lights Lantern Festival, we are about producing lasting memories and times for families, friends, and communities to connect. Bring your favorite lounging items, games, whatever you like! We will provide food trucks, live entertainment, games, and best of all, a magical array of sparkling lights.”Personally, I think setting hundreds of lanterns adrift can be an awesome spectacle and calls back to several traditions I know of in Hinduism and Buddhism. Except, this event seems to be completely secular, so that anyone can participate. And that is something I can really get behind.We have applied also to have a booth at Springville’s Art City Day’s festival in early June. If they approve our application, then we will definitely add more information about that event on the website.The Utah Valley Free Thought Forum has been invited to the Fire and Ice Festival at the Iceland Days event on June 21st and 22nd at the Spanish Fork City Park on Center Street and Main Street! Bring an appetite and some cash to support local vendors. We will still have plenty of prizes to give away, and will be happy to answer any questions you have about our vision, groups, plans for the future, and so forth.Here is information about the Fire and Ice Festival from their official Facebook event:“We are excited for Iceland Days 2019! It just gets bigger every year! Come learn about and celebrate Iceland and honor the Icelanders who settled in Spanish Fork, the oldest Icelandic settlement in North America. Whether you have Icelandic ancestry or are simply curious about the beautiful country of Iceland, this event is for you!”Those are all the announcements I have for you today. The best way to keep up to date on each group’s events is by checking their specific group page on our website. I hope we can see many of you at these festivals, and for those who are outside the Utah Valley area, I hope you will be seeing other Free Thought Forum group leaders with a booth at your festivals some day soon.

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 4How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.Today, I have some news and announcements about the upload schedule for this podcast as well as some exciting events coming up for our Utah Valley group where you can meet us in person!This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a>Our first announcement covers our updated upload schedule.Rather than uploading one episode per day, we will, starting tomorrow, bring you one episode of the Fresh Perspective Podcast every-other day, or 3-4 times a week, for the foreseeable future. We wanted to take some of our production time and dedicate more of it to research. Hopefully that will ensure that the information in our episodes can continue to meet a high standard.At this stage, our podcast, social media pages, and even our tabling at city festivals are all intended to let people know about our organization. Hopefully, soon, this will lead to our flagship group growing so large that it can split into other groups across the state of Utah. Wouldn’t it be awesome one day, to find a Free Thought forum in Salt Lake City, Denver, Phoenix, Seattle, and beyond? That is our long-term goal, and if you are listening to this podcast, you too are playing a role in that ambitious vision.Moving onto other news, I am excited to announce that our podcast is now on Apple News!For those who like getting awesome information on their iPhones, iPads, or other apple products, be sure to pay a visit to our news channel: the fresh perspective. A link to our apple news page can be found on our website. Simply visit <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a> then click on the “blog” link at the top.For all of you who live in the Provo, Utah area, I have some exciting news from our Utah Valley group.The 1000 Lights Water Lantern Festival is coming to the shores of Utah Lake, and the Free Thought Forum will be there to invite the public to learn about our new group! Come pay our executive board a visit, enter to win thought-provoking-prizes, bring some cash for some of the other local vendors, and set your lantern adrift as part of a tradition from half a world away!The Water Festival will take place on Saturday, May 18th at 5:30 pm at the Lindon Marina in Vineyard Utah, near Orem. The official website for the event is <a href="https://www.1000lights.com/utahcounty" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.1000lights.com/utahcounty</a>, and here is a quote from there about what to expect:“At 1000 Lights Lantern Festival, we are about producing lasting memories and times for families, friends, and communities to connect. Bring your favorite lounging items, games, whatever you like! We will provide food trucks, live entertainment, games, and best of all, a magical array of sparkling lights.”Personally, I think setting hundreds of lanterns adrift can be an awesome spectacle and calls back to several traditions I know of in Hinduism and Buddhism. Except, this event seems to be completely secular, so that anyone can participate. And that is something I can really get behind.We have applied also to have a booth at Springville’s Art City Day’s festival in early June. If they approve our application, then we will definitely add more information about that event on the website.The Utah Valley Free Thought Forum has been invited to the Fire and Ice Festival at the Iceland Days event on June 21st and 22nd at the Spanish Fork City Park on Center Street and Main Street! Bring an appetite and some cash to support local vendors. We will still have plenty of prizes to give away, and will be happy to answer any questions you have about our vision, groups, plans for the future, and so forth.Here is information about the Fire and Ice Festival from their official Facebook event:“We are excited for Iceland Days 2019! It just gets bigger every year! Come learn about and celebrate Iceland and honor the Icelanders who settled in Spanish Fork, the oldest Icelandic settlement in North America. Whether you have Icelandic ancestry or are simply curious about the beautiful country of Iceland, this event is for you!”Those are all the announcements I have for you today. The best way to keep up to date on each group’s events is by checking their specific group page on our website. I hope we can see many of you at these festivals, and for those who are outside the Utah Valley area, I hope you will be seeing other Free Thought Forum group leaders with a booth at your festivals some day soon.

Meet us at these Festivals Spring 2019

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 15How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.I can remember when I was first taught about evolution as a teenager. In my Salt Lake City High school Biology class, my science teacher was openly religious and was dismissive of Charles Darwin’s revolutionary idea. He presented a flaccid depiction of the evidence for the theory, and was quick to mention that there are alternative theories such as “Intelligent Design.” The all too common “But you should study all the ideas out and then decide what you believe” came up a few times. This was in 2004, and soon, the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial would take place across the country. Is Intelligent Design just as valid a theory as Evolution? Is Evolution just “Darwinism,” a cult-like belief in one man’s ideas? Is Evolution, in fact, just an anti-God theory or an atheistic conspiracy? In this episode, we will answer those questions in Part 1 of our new series: “Misconceptions about Evolution.”This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit freethoughtforum.org.I was 23 years old when I first really learned about evolution, and it was actually an emotional experience for me. My whole life, I had thought that Evolution was a flimsy, weak, and unsubstantiated guess that very few scientists took seriously. Thanks to the internet, documentaries, library books, and college education, I finally realized that I had been dismissive of what is perhaps the most groundbreaking and powerful idea of all time. But only about half of Americans take this scientific theory seriously and believe that it accurately describes the history of life on Earth. When reality itself is so criminally misrepresented by educators and so casually dismissed by the masses, it takes everyday people like us to make things right. Join me, as we look at three common misconceptions about the theory of Evolution:1. IS EVOLUTION IS AN ANTI-GOD THEORY OR AN ATHEISTIC CONSPIRACY?No, it isn’t, and it never was. I hear this argument against evolution all the time and it is a deeply disingenuous one. Pedaled by fear-mongers, it is meant to fill religiously indoctrinated children with doubt and distrust when it comes to modern science. People who poison a child’s ability to learn well-established facts later in life are, in my opinion, committing a heinous and immoral act. Conspiratory thinking can rob our trust in experts and in society itself, so it is important that we turn to the facts. What do we know about the actual people behind the origins of this theory?The first scientist who proposed Evolution through Natural Selection was Charles Darwin. Darwin - who happened to be born on the same day, in the same month, and in the same year as Abraham Lincoln, by the way - was a theist, not an atheist. His wife Emma was also religious. His childhood family was Unitarian, and he was baptized into the Church of England. He wrote about his belief in the Bible and even went to school to become an Anglican Clergymen. Darwin’s early studies of naturalism were attached to this religious pursuit. Much later in life, he began to doubt that the Bible was an accurate historical account of creation, but he continued to believe that God was still the ultimate source of all morality. In 1879 he wrote, "I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God.”Another early evolutionary scientist was Alfred Russel Wallace, who once said, “I am thankful I can see much to admire in all religions.” He wasn’t a Christian, but he was spiritual and believed in spiritualism and the afterlife.Obviously, these men and other geologists and biologists at the time were not atheists. Atheism, as we understand it today, is actually a relatively modern movement. Around the time of the American Civil war and prior, non-believers in conventional Christianity were more likely to be “deists,” or people who believed that there was a god who set everything in motion, but that god remained largely absent. This is in stark contrast to the personal prayer-answering God in which most theists believe, but it is far from atheism.Evolution is obviously not an anti-God theory or an atheistic conspiracy. In fact, a plurality of evolutionary scientists, biologists, geologists, paleontologists, microbiologists, embryologists, and other scientists today are indeed, religious, and believers in a personal god. If this really was a sham designed to sow doubt or disbelief in god, then it has failed miserably, and can’t be seriously considered to be a threat by any theist today.Moreover, several mainstream churches such as the Catholic Church accept the science of evolution, saying (for example) that it was the “soul” of man that is divinely created, rather than his body. Other spiritual traditions claim that it was God who started the processes that got evolution started in the first place. When many religious leaders are asked about the conflict between science and religion, it has become common for them to reply something like, “What conflict? I don’t really see a conflict at all.”Evolution is real and valid science, based on the rock-solid foundation of empirical evidence that survives the strictest of scientific scrutiny. It is a scientific fact, born of curiosity, and is the best explanation we have for the complexity and variety of life so far. It is most certainly not a crafty atheist’s invention.2. ISN’T EVOLUTION JUST “DARWINISM,” A CULT-LIKE FOLLOWING OF ONE MAN’S IDEAS?No, Evolution is not a belief system. It is not a religion, and it is not a cult. If you watch a lot of anti-evolution, creationist, or intelligent design vides, you may be surprised how often you hear the word, “Darwinism.” "Darwinism" isn’t a thing. Scientists don’t use this term at all. The term is a shady back-handed attempt to paint the multiple sciences that study evolution as all one silly group of people obsessed with one crazy man’s idea. But let’s go a little deeper. Is evolution only based on Charles Darwin?No, it’s not. Charles Darwin’s book “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life” was published in 1859, some 160 years ago! Do you think that science has not adjusted or improved on this theory in 160 years? Here is a better question, why don’t you think that in 160 years, no human being on earth has been able to disprove or discredit this theory? Is it because no one has tried? That is nonsense, scientists are trying to disprove established science every single day. That is exactly how you earn a Nobel Prize, by the way. Why has an entire planet of experts failed to replace this theory with a better one? I have an answer: because it’s true. Evolution is a scientific fact.Evolution has moved far beyond Charles Darwin’s original discoveries and ideas. Think about this - Charles Darwin didn’t even know about DNA. When the structure and purpose of DNA were discovered, how easy would it have been to dethrone Evolution? Well, surprise - surprise, everything we know about DNA only reinforces, supports, and expands the Theory of Evolution. Thousands and millions of researchers study evolution around the world every single day. Are all of them beholden to a civil-war era British naturalist? Of course not!In fact, not to guild the lily too much, modern science has proven many of Darwin’s initial ideas wrong. One of his early ideas is that the different races of humanity all must have evolved from different species of apes. Well, he was wrong about that, and every biologist on earth is comfortable in saying that. Human beings of all races, in fact, all belong the same species. All of us, no matter our shape or skin color, came from the same ape-like ancestor. Charles Darwin was wrong about a lot of things, and that is ok. That is how science works. We don’t follow charismatic leaders with blind faith. We don’t hold scientific writings as sacred. The opposite is true. Science history is filled with competitive researchers slandering one another, trying to discredit one another, and ruthlessly taking apart each other’s publications, claim by claim.We don’t call gravity “Newtonism” or germ theory “Pasteurism.” We don’t call the heliocentric model of the solar system “Copernicusism,” so why in the world would we ever call evolution “Darwinism?” “Darwinism” is not a thing, and the next time you hear someone use the phrase, you will hopefully now better understand that they are coming from a place of ignorance concerning how science actually works.3. ISN’T INTELLIGENT DESIGN JUST AS VALID A THEORY AS EVOLUTION?Absolutely not. The idea that Intelligent Design is scientific at all is completely untrue. “Intelligent Design” as promoted by the Discovery Institute and other similar religious organizations is not a valid scientific theory. It is a thinly-veiled theological argument that has been demonstrated in the court of law to be a religiously-motivated pseudoscience!Yes, you heard me right. Intelligent Design was developed by the Discovery Institute. The same organization that produced the creationist textbook “Of Pandas and People.” This is the same organization responsible for the Creationist Museum in which people can see animatronic dinosaurs in a theme-park version of the garden of Eden. The Discovery Institute is the same group behind the “Ark Encounter.” You heard me right. The same group of religious leadership that teaches children about Adam and Eve, and Noah and his Ark, is claiming to author a scientific theory as viable as Evolution.Intelligent Design is a fraud, and its dishonest tactics, shady motivations, and unscientific basis was laid out in unflattering detail before a Pennsylvania District Court Judge in the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District case in 2005. In that court case, a school district, which tried to teach Intelligent Design in public schools, was being sued by parents who saw this as a violation of their children’s first amendment rights. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” It is your legal right as an American to live in a free country in which your government will not promote or require any religion. And every single time a public school teacher in a classroom expresses their personal religious views, in front of a room of children who trust them to tell them the truth, they are violating that right. In my years of teaching elementary school children, I saw this sort of underhanded preaching all of the time, and it’s wrong. It shouldn’t happen, but that is a discussion for a different day.In the Kitzmiller v. Dover case, every so-called “expert” on Intelligent Design was called to testify and make their case before a judge that their proposal was, in fact, a scientific theory. Yet day after day, they failed to do so. The reporters were not impressed. The public was not impressed. The judge, who is a conservative Christian, had no choice but to side with the real science presented by the experts on evolution in that courtroom!Intelligent Design has failed in the eyes of the scientific community. Intelligent Design has failed in the court of law. This idea should have been buried a long time ago. The fact that we still hear about it from time to time, even after it has been so thoroughly debunked, shows just how unscientific it really is. However, no matter how badly it is battered by reason, logic, evidence, and the facts, it will live on as a belief in the hearts of many.Because that is all it is, a belief. But the problem is that most people don’t know that. Its premises have been debunked so many times. But in the quest to follow the facts, wherever they may lead, and defend the actual and objective truth, I am not about to let Intelligent Design continue to slip under our radar. In future episodes, I will continue to debunk common misconceptions about Evolution, and I hope you will join me.If you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our group and our podcast.That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!___Written By Nicholas Burk, Executive Board Member © 2019 Free Thought Initiative

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 15How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.I can remember when I was first taught about evolution as a teenager. In my Salt Lake City High school Biology class, my science teacher was openly religious and was dismissive of Charles Darwin’s revolutionary idea. He presented a flaccid depiction of the evidence for the theory, and was quick to mention that there are alternative theories such as “Intelligent Design.” The all too common “But you should study all the ideas out and then decide what you believe” came up a few times. This was in 2004, and soon, the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial would take place across the country. Is Intelligent Design just as valid a theory as Evolution? Is Evolution just “Darwinism,” a cult-like belief in one man’s ideas? Is Evolution, in fact, just an anti-God theory or an atheistic conspiracy? In this episode, we will answer those questions in Part 1 of our new series: “Misconceptions about Evolution.”This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a>.I was 23 years old when I first really learned about evolution, and it was actually an emotional experience for me. My whole life, I had thought that Evolution was a flimsy, weak, and unsubstantiated guess that very few scientists took seriously. Thanks to the internet, documentaries, library books, and college education, I finally realized that I had been dismissive of what is perhaps the most groundbreaking and powerful idea of all time. But only about half of Americans take this scientific theory seriously and believe that it accurately describes the history of life on Earth. When reality itself is so criminally misrepresented by educators and so casually dismissed by the masses, it takes everyday people like us to make things right. Join me, as we look at three common misconceptions about the theory of Evolution:1. IS EVOLUTION IS AN ANTI-GOD THEORY OR AN ATHEISTIC CONSPIRACY?No, it isn’t, and it never was. I hear this argument against evolution all the time and it is a deeply disingenuous one. Pedaled by fear-mongers, it is meant to fill religiously indoctrinated children with doubt and distrust when it comes to modern science. People who poison a child’s ability to learn well-established facts later in life are, in my opinion, committing a heinous and immoral act. Conspiratory thinking can rob our trust in experts and in society itself, so it is important that we turn to the facts. What do we know about the actual people behind the origins of this theory?The first scientist who proposed Evolution through Natural Selection was Charles Darwin. Darwin - who happened to be born on the same day, in the same month, and in the same year as Abraham Lincoln, by the way - was a theist, not an atheist. His wife Emma was also religious. His childhood family was Unitarian, and he was baptized into the Church of England. He wrote about his belief in the Bible and even went to school to become an Anglican Clergymen. Darwin’s early studies of naturalism were attached to this religious pursuit. Much later in life, he began to doubt that the Bible was an accurate historical account of creation, but he continued to believe that God was still the ultimate source of all morality. In 1879 he wrote, "I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God.”Another early evolutionary scientist was Alfred Russel Wallace, who once said, “I am thankful I can see much to admire in all religions.” He wasn’t a Christian, but he was spiritual and believed in spiritualism and the afterlife.Obviously, these men and other geologists and biologists at the time were not atheists. Atheism, as we understand it today, is actually a relatively modern movement. Around the time of the American Civil war and prior, non-believers in conventional Christianity were more likely to be “deists,” or people who believed that there was a god who set everything in motion, but that god remained largely absent. This is in stark contrast to the personal prayer-answering God in which most theists believe, but it is far from atheism.Evolution is obviously not an anti-God theory or an atheistic conspiracy. In fact, a plurality of evolutionary scientists, biologists, geologists, paleontologists, microbiologists, embryologists, and other scientists today are indeed, religious, and believers in a personal god. If this really was a sham designed to sow doubt or disbelief in god, then it has failed miserably, and can’t be seriously considered to be a threat by any theist today.Moreover, several mainstream churches such as the Catholic Church accept the science of evolution, saying (for example) that it was the “soul” of man that is divinely created, rather than his body. Other spiritual traditions claim that it was God who started the processes that got evolution started in the first place. When many religious leaders are asked about the conflict between science and religion, it has become common for them to reply something like, “What conflict? I don’t really see a conflict at all.”Evolution is real and valid science, based on the rock-solid foundation of empirical evidence that survives the strictest of scientific scrutiny. It is a scientific fact, born of curiosity, and is the best explanation we have for the complexity and variety of life so far. It is most certainly not a crafty atheist’s invention.2. ISN’T EVOLUTION JUST “DARWINISM,” A CULT-LIKE FOLLOWING OF ONE MAN’S IDEAS?No, Evolution is not a belief system. It is not a religion, and it is not a cult. If you watch a lot of anti-evolution, creationist, or intelligent design vides, you may be surprised how often you hear the word, “Darwinism.” "Darwinism" isn’t a thing. Scientists don’t use this term at all. The term is a shady back-handed attempt to paint the multiple sciences that study evolution as all one silly group of people obsessed with one crazy man’s idea. But let’s go a little deeper. Is evolution only based on Charles Darwin?No, it’s not. Charles Darwin’s book “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life” was published in 1859, some 160 years ago! Do you think that science has not adjusted or improved on this theory in 160 years? Here is a better question, why don’t you think that in 160 years, no human being on earth has been able to disprove or discredit this theory? Is it because no one has tried? That is nonsense, scientists are trying to disprove established science every single day. That is exactly how you earn a Nobel Prize, by the way. Why has an entire planet of experts failed to replace this theory with a better one? I have an answer: because it’s true. Evolution is a scientific fact.Evolution has moved far beyond Charles Darwin’s original discoveries and ideas. Think about this - Charles Darwin didn’t even know about DNA. When the structure and purpose of DNA were discovered, how easy would it have been to dethrone Evolution? Well, surprise - surprise, everything we know about DNA only reinforces, supports, and expands the Theory of Evolution. Thousands and millions of researchers study evolution around the world every single day. Are all of them beholden to a civil-war era British naturalist? Of course not!In fact, not to guild the lily too much, modern science has proven many of Darwin’s initial ideas wrong. One of his early ideas is that the different races of humanity all must have evolved from different species of apes. Well, he was wrong about that, and every biologist on earth is comfortable in saying that. Human beings of all races, in fact, all belong the same species. All of us, no matter our shape or skin color, came from the same ape-like ancestor. Charles Darwin was wrong about a lot of things, and that is ok. That is how science works. We don’t follow charismatic leaders with blind faith. We don’t hold scientific writings as sacred. The opposite is true. Science history is filled with competitive researchers slandering one another, trying to discredit one another, and ruthlessly taking apart each other’s publications, claim by claim.We don’t call gravity “Newtonism” or germ theory “Pasteurism.” We don’t call the heliocentric model of the solar system “Copernicusism,” so why in the world would we ever call evolution “Darwinism?” “Darwinism” is not a thing, and the next time you hear someone use the phrase, you will hopefully now better understand that they are coming from a place of ignorance concerning how science actually works.3. ISN’T INTELLIGENT DESIGN JUST AS VALID A THEORY AS EVOLUTION?Absolutely not. The idea that Intelligent Design is scientific at all is completely untrue. “Intelligent Design” as promoted by the Discovery Institute and other similar religious organizations is not a valid scientific theory. It is a thinly-veiled theological argument that has been demonstrated in the court of law to be a religiously-motivated pseudoscience!Yes, you heard me right. Intelligent Design was developed by the Discovery Institute. The same organization that produced the creationist textbook “Of Pandas and People.” This is the same organization responsible for the Creationist Museum in which people can see animatronic dinosaurs in a theme-park version of the garden of Eden. The Discovery Institute is the same group behind the “Ark Encounter.” You heard me right. The same group of religious leadership that teaches children about Adam and Eve, and Noah and his Ark, is claiming to author a scientific theory as viable as Evolution.Intelligent Design is a fraud, and its dishonest tactics, shady motivations, and unscientific basis was laid out in unflattering detail before a Pennsylvania District Court Judge in the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District case in 2005. In that court case, a school district, which tried to teach Intelligent Design in public schools, was being sued by parents who saw this as a violation of their children’s first amendment rights. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” It is your legal right as an American to live in a free country in which your government will not promote or require any religion. And every single time a public school teacher in a classroom expresses their personal religious views, in front of a room of children who trust them to tell them the truth, they are violating that right. In my years of teaching elementary school children, I saw this sort of underhanded preaching all of the time, and it’s wrong. It shouldn’t happen, but that is a discussion for a different day.In the Kitzmiller v. Dover case, every so-called “expert” on Intelligent Design was called to testify and make their case before a judge that their proposal was, in fact, a scientific theory. Yet day after day, they failed to do so. The reporters were not impressed. The public was not impressed. The judge, who is a conservative Christian, had no choice but to side with the real science presented by the experts on evolution in that courtroom!Intelligent Design has failed in the eyes of the scientific community. Intelligent Design has failed in the court of law. This idea should have been buried a long time ago. The fact that we still hear about it from time to time, even after it has been so thoroughly debunked, shows just how unscientific it really is. However, no matter how badly it is battered by reason, logic, evidence, and the facts, it will live on as a belief in the hearts of many.Because that is all it is, a belief. But the problem is that most people don’t know that. Its premises have been debunked so many times. But in the quest to follow the facts, wherever they may lead, and defend the actual and objective truth, I am not about to let Intelligent Design continue to slip under our radar. In future episodes, I will continue to debunk common misconceptions about Evolution, and I hope you will join me.If you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our group and our podcast.That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!___Written By Nicholas Burk, Executive Board Member © 2019 Free Thought Initiative

Evolution (Part 1) Intelligent Design and Darwinism

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 9How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.Did you get a chance to listen to our last episode about our journey back through 4 Billion years of earth’s history? If not, pause this episode and go check it out. I’ll be sure to leave a link below.https://youtu.be/7WMHfLL473EThis episode is the second part in a series where we will be looking back through the past, a few billion years at a time. If you invented a time machine and began to travel backwards, what would you see? How far back could you go? In this episode, we will try to wrap our minds around some planetary science, astrophysics, and cosmology, as we rewind time at one billion years per minute, with the help of a little imagination.This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit freethoughtforum.org.(Crunching Noises)Mmmhmm, now that was a good lunch! I noticed you were looking out the window. Are you hoping to see something swimming out there? It’s unlikely, we have already traveled over 4 billion years into the past. As far as we know, our planet is now completely barren. True, there are organic molecules all over the earth, but they’re not quite yet alive.Did you hear that? It could be an earthquake or volcano. Most likely, the earth has been hit. You see, this far back in time, the space between the planets of the solar system wasn’t quite as empty like it is in our time. There is an awful lot of space junk up there being collected by gravity into anything big close by, like us.Our time machine is about to surface, and then we can continue our trip back to the beginning of time. To tell you the truth, we aren’t even half way there! Are you ready? Alright, I’ll re-set our speed to travel at about one billion years per minute, or at about 16 million years per second. Our computer will also let us know when we reach each billion-year milestone. Go ahead and pull that lever back!Our vehicle glows and twists space-time, hurdling us back into the past. We are in the Hadean Eon, looking down, as much of our oceans boil and rumble into clouds of steam. The clouds are reabsorbed into balls of rocky ice, comets, which fly off in all directions, leaving massive craters in the hellish landscape of our infant planet.We pass through the late heavy bombardment in which the Earth and moon is pelted, non-stop, by asteroids, meteorites, and all kinds of space debris. The moon flies past us, dangerously close to the surface of the earth, spiraling in until it dissolves into countless rocks and globs of earth. For a few seconds, our lava planet has no moon, but has at least a partial set of rings.At 30 seconds into our journey, the planet shakes and is almost broken in half! Its rings and vaporized-rock atmosphere re-form into its surface and a protoplanet, about the size of mars, which struck the earth! This protoplanet, named “Theia,” flies back into space, re-assuming its doomed spiral toward us.More evaporated water is pulled back onto the infant world, a red-hot ember of molten rock and radioactive elements. From here, you can almost see the light rocky elements of the crust falling and the heavy metal elements rising, mixing the world up into a liquefied mess as rocks from space continued to bombard it.We pull back to keep our distance in just enough time to see our world spin faster and faster, flinging its rock, metal, and water out into space. In no time at all, it’s gone. The earth is nothing but a massive cloud of light elements, a dust pile around a new star.I was so focused on our planet that I missed the formation of Mercury, Venus, Mars, or Jupiter. All the planets, moons, and objects in our solar system have now dissolved into a scattered and dusty gas cloud.Once we pass 40 seconds back, the light goes out. 99% of the mass of our solar system is no longer condensed by gravity enough for nuclear fusion. The matter around us is no longer compact enough to form a star. In a few more seconds, we drift in the darkness of space, unable to tell that we were once in a system of majestic planets.If you look down there, you can see the constellation Libra. Below that you can see the stars of the Southern Cross. Between those two is the Centaurus constellation. Do you see the brightest star in the centaur? That is where you can find the Alpha Centauri system of three stars and a planet. Proxima Centauri is the closest star to us, but at about 50 seconds we see it fly further away from us, and then shrink back into its own stellar nursery of gas clouds.Surrounded mostly by invisible hydrogen and helium in a molecular cloud, we see the stellar siblings of our sun grow closer to us, only to also be snuffed out in the rewinding of time.5 BILLION YEARS AGOAt this speed you can see some of the constellations slowly contort and become unrecognizable. Some stars in other constellations go out while other remain unchanged. The expansion of the universe is stretching the space between the galaxies, but we are seeing this in reverse. In fact, distant stars and galaxies seem to be rushing closer. Don’t worry, we have plenty of time before they collide with us. They appear to be moving quickly now because we are in the Dark Energy Dominated Era. Pretty soon, the mysterious dark energy that accelerated this expansion will, for some reason, have a weaker effect.6 BILLION YEARS AGOFrom here, you can see the bright center of our galaxy. There is an ancient black hole there, and it usually takes our sun about 225 million years to circle it. At our speed of one-billion-years per minute, we will rotate around the center of the galaxy about every 14 seconds. Our Milky Way has about 100 billion stars, and there are about 125 billion galaxies in the universe, but that number is slowly dropping as we fly through history.As far as we know, we are the only living things that can see this view out the window. What is so special about the stars and galaxies out there? To be fair, it still looks a lot like something you’d see from the Hubble telescope. Well, we’ve made it half way. We have traveled through half of the age of the universe. In other words, we are half way to the Big Bang!7 BILLION YEARS AGOAfter seven minutes of travel, our milky way is starting to change its size and shape. Many of its stars, including our sun, have gone out, but long dead stars have reignited. Smaller galaxies slowly pull away from it and the Milky Way has begun to shrink. Some parts of our home galaxy house some of the oldest stars in the universe, so we shouldn’t expect it to vanish any time soon.8 BILLION YEARS AGOSuperclusters begin to break apart into clusters, clusters into groups, and groups into lone galaxies. Neighboring galaxies in our local group are spinning and dissolving into smaller clusters of stars. For the next 6 minutes, you are going to see a lot of that. The universe is expanding in reverse for us, so as it slowly closes in, it is getting easier to spot other galaxies shrinking, splitting apart, and growing dimmer as fewer stars set them apart from the inky black cosmos.9 BILLION YEARS AGOThe universe is only 4.8 billion years old now, and many of the elemental clouds that would give birth to future stars are collapsing into supernovae, blinding explosions that flash for the briefest instant, only to swell back into super massive stars where most of the heavy elements of the cosmos are cooked.10 BILLION YEARS AGOThe edges of the universe have again begun to speed up toward us. The universe is only 3.8 billion years old now, and it is getting warmer. Gravity hasn’t had much time to clump all of the galaxies together, so the stars we see are far more spread out compared to what we are used to seeing. To us, our own Milky Way has become unrecognizable, but I am sure there are some experts that could point out some notable features even this far back.11 BILLION YEARS AGOWait, have you been touching any of the controls to the time machine? I haven’t. It seems like we are getting faster. Does time itself warp more dramatically, the closer we get to the big bang? I don’t know, but it is a fascinating thing to consider.12 BILLION YEARS AGOIt is really dark out there! There are a few stars near us, and there must be countless other stars, but most of them are just too far away for us to see. It was nice when there were bright galaxies, but I can’t even see any of them anymore.There are plenty of black holes out there. The truth is we could fall into one of the smaller ones at any moment, and we would never see it coming.Look! Even the oldest stars, quasars, and dwarf galaxies are going out! In a few seconds, we won’t see a thing…I don’t think I have ever seen anything so dark.13 BILLION YEARS AGOOur sensors are picking up a great deal of ultraviolet light. The space around us is quickly heating up into a kind of plasma. Blasts of light come from blinding hyper novae, the death of the very first stars. They were super massive Hydrogen giants. Now that they have reformed we have crossed into a universe ruled by energy, not matter.The Hydrogen giants weren’t formed by gravity collecting hydrogen gas alone. No, most of the stuff out our window is dark matter, as has always been the case, accelerating the collection of molecules together.At 13 minutes and 50 seconds into our voyage, even the first black holes are evaporating back into their stellar forms. Matter is spread fairly evenly across the cosmos. We are plunged in darkness yet again. This is fitting, because we have crossed into the Cosmic Dark Age.At our current speed, it’s not going to stay dark for long.White light floods our windows, like a searchlight, right into our eyes! No, that isn’t some explosion or star. That is a wave of photons released from the Recombination &amp; Decoupling stage of our universe. The first neutral atoms had just formed, allowing tremendous amounts of energy to fly free in the now transparent cosmos. We can even see this energy back in our own time, as the cosmic microwave background radiation! Just as suddenly as the light arrived, it vanishes.This is the end of the line for us. I know we wanted to go further, but I have to insist. The universe is only 47,000 years old, but this is as far as we can go. It is getting so hot outside our time machine that atoms are no longer able to hold onto their electrons. In other words, our time machine will soon dissolve into a plasma itself! The universe is now dark and opaque, a dense foggy soup of plasma, like the inside of a star. If we travel much further, we will be ripped apart by antimatter and crushed by the pressure of the universe closing in around us.There is no time for a debate! Our craft can’t take this heat! Push that button to reverse our course – hurry!…Now that was an adventure.Now that we are safe back home, I really can’t wait to get my feet back on the ground. I hope you aren’t too disappointed that we couldn’t see the big bang. I suppose that no time-machine, probe, robot, or space craft can really go much further back in time than we did. However, if you would like to perform a thought experiment to see if we can go back to the big bang, and even before it, I do have an episode of this podcast called, “What Happened before the Big Bang?” Why don’t you give it a listen? I bet you’d get a kick out of it.That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 9How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.Did you get a chance to listen to our last episode about our journey back through 4 Billion years of earth’s history? If not, pause this episode and go check it out. I’ll be sure to leave a link below.<a href="https://youtu.be/7WMHfLL473E" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/7WMHfLL473E</a>This episode is the second part in a series where we will be looking back through the past, a few billion years at a time. If you invented a time machine and began to travel backwards, what would you see? How far back could you go? In this episode, we will try to wrap our minds around some planetary science, astrophysics, and cosmology, as we rewind time at one billion years per minute, with the help of a little imagination.This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a>.(Crunching Noises)Mmmhmm, now that was a good lunch! I noticed you were looking out the window. Are you hoping to see something swimming out there? It’s unlikely, we have already traveled over 4 billion years into the past. As far as we know, our planet is now completely barren. True, there are organic molecules all over the earth, but they’re not quite yet alive.Did you hear that? It could be an earthquake or volcano. Most likely, the earth has been hit. You see, this far back in time, the space between the planets of the solar system wasn’t quite as empty like it is in our time. There is an awful lot of space junk up there being collected by gravity into anything big close by, like us.Our time machine is about to surface, and then we can continue our trip back to the beginning of time. To tell you the truth, we aren’t even half way there! Are you ready? Alright, I’ll re-set our speed to travel at about one billion years per minute, or at about 16 million years per second. Our computer will also let us know when we reach each billion-year milestone. Go ahead and pull that lever back!Our vehicle glows and twists space-time, hurdling us back into the past. We are in the Hadean Eon, looking down, as much of our oceans boil and rumble into clouds of steam. The clouds are reabsorbed into balls of rocky ice, comets, which fly off in all directions, leaving massive craters in the hellish landscape of our infant planet.We pass through the late heavy bombardment in which the Earth and moon is pelted, non-stop, by asteroids, meteorites, and all kinds of space debris. The moon flies past us, dangerously close to the surface of the earth, spiraling in until it dissolves into countless rocks and globs of earth. For a few seconds, our lava planet has no moon, but has at least a partial set of rings.At 30 seconds into our journey, the planet shakes and is almost broken in half! Its rings and vaporized-rock atmosphere re-form into its surface and a protoplanet, about the size of mars, which struck the earth! This protoplanet, named “Theia,” flies back into space, re-assuming its doomed spiral toward us.More evaporated water is pulled back onto the infant world, a red-hot ember of molten rock and radioactive elements. From here, you can almost see the light rocky elements of the crust falling and the heavy metal elements rising, mixing the world up into a liquefied mess as rocks from space continued to bombard it.We pull back to keep our distance in just enough time to see our world spin faster and faster, flinging its rock, metal, and water out into space. In no time at all, it’s gone. The earth is nothing but a massive cloud of light elements, a dust pile around a new star.I was so focused on our planet that I missed the formation of Mercury, Venus, Mars, or Jupiter. All the planets, moons, and objects in our solar system have now dissolved into a scattered and dusty gas cloud.Once we pass 40 seconds back, the light goes out. 99% of the mass of our solar system is no longer condensed by gravity enough for nuclear fusion. The matter around us is no longer compact enough to form a star. In a few more seconds, we drift in the darkness of space, unable to tell that we were once in a system of majestic planets.If you look down there, you can see the constellation Libra. Below that you can see the stars of the Southern Cross. Between those two is the Centaurus constellation. Do you see the brightest star in the centaur? That is where you can find the Alpha Centauri system of three stars and a planet. Proxima Centauri is the closest star to us, but at about 50 seconds we see it fly further away from us, and then shrink back into its own stellar nursery of gas clouds.Surrounded mostly by invisible hydrogen and helium in a molecular cloud, we see the stellar siblings of our sun grow closer to us, only to also be snuffed out in the rewinding of time.5 BILLION YEARS AGOAt this speed you can see some of the constellations slowly contort and become unrecognizable. Some stars in other constellations go out while other remain unchanged. The expansion of the universe is stretching the space between the galaxies, but we are seeing this in reverse. In fact, distant stars and galaxies seem to be rushing closer. Don’t worry, we have plenty of time before they collide with us. They appear to be moving quickly now because we are in the Dark Energy Dominated Era. Pretty soon, the mysterious dark energy that accelerated this expansion will, for some reason, have a weaker effect.6 BILLION YEARS AGOFrom here, you can see the bright center of our galaxy. There is an ancient black hole there, and it usually takes our sun about 225 million years to circle it. At our speed of one-billion-years per minute, we will rotate around the center of the galaxy about every 14 seconds. Our Milky Way has about 100 billion stars, and there are about 125 billion galaxies in the universe, but that number is slowly dropping as we fly through history.As far as we know, we are the only living things that can see this view out the window. What is so special about the stars and galaxies out there? To be fair, it still looks a lot like something you’d see from the Hubble telescope. Well, we’ve made it half way. We have traveled through half of the age of the universe. In other words, we are half way to the Big Bang!7 BILLION YEARS AGOAfter seven minutes of travel, our milky way is starting to change its size and shape. Many of its stars, including our sun, have gone out, but long dead stars have reignited. Smaller galaxies slowly pull away from it and the Milky Way has begun to shrink. Some parts of our home galaxy house some of the oldest stars in the universe, so we shouldn’t expect it to vanish any time soon.8 BILLION YEARS AGOSuperclusters begin to break apart into clusters, clusters into groups, and groups into lone galaxies. Neighboring galaxies in our local group are spinning and dissolving into smaller clusters of stars. For the next 6 minutes, you are going to see a lot of that. The universe is expanding in reverse for us, so as it slowly closes in, it is getting easier to spot other galaxies shrinking, splitting apart, and growing dimmer as fewer stars set them apart from the inky black cosmos.9 BILLION YEARS AGOThe universe is only 4.8 billion years old now, and many of the elemental clouds that would give birth to future stars are collapsing into supernovae, blinding explosions that flash for the briefest instant, only to swell back into super massive stars where most of the heavy elements of the cosmos are cooked.10 BILLION YEARS AGOThe edges of the universe have again begun to speed up toward us. The universe is only 3.8 billion years old now, and it is getting warmer. Gravity hasn’t had much time to clump all of the galaxies together, so the stars we see are far more spread out compared to what we are used to seeing. To us, our own Milky Way has become unrecognizable, but I am sure there are some experts that could point out some notable features even this far back.11 BILLION YEARS AGOWait, have you been touching any of the controls to the time machine? I haven’t. It seems like we are getting faster. Does time itself warp more dramatically, the closer we get to the big bang? I don’t know, but it is a fascinating thing to consider.12 BILLION YEARS AGOIt is really dark out there! There are a few stars near us, and there must be countless other stars, but most of them are just too far away for us to see. It was nice when there were bright galaxies, but I can’t even see any of them anymore.There are plenty of black holes out there. The truth is we could fall into one of the smaller ones at any moment, and we would never see it coming.Look! Even the oldest stars, quasars, and dwarf galaxies are going out! In a few seconds, we won’t see a thing…I don’t think I have ever seen anything so dark.13 BILLION YEARS AGOOur sensors are picking up a great deal of ultraviolet light. The space around us is quickly heating up into a kind of plasma. Blasts of light come from blinding hyper novae, the death of the very first stars. They were super massive Hydrogen giants. Now that they have reformed we have crossed into a universe ruled by energy, not matter.The Hydrogen giants weren’t formed by gravity collecting hydrogen gas alone. No, most of the stuff out our window is dark matter, as has always been the case, accelerating the collection of molecules together.At 13 minutes and 50 seconds into our voyage, even the first black holes are evaporating back into their stellar forms. Matter is spread fairly evenly across the cosmos. We are plunged in darkness yet again. This is fitting, because we have crossed into the Cosmic Dark Age.At our current speed, it’s not going to stay dark for long.White light floods our windows, like a searchlight, right into our eyes! No, that isn’t some explosion or star. That is a wave of photons released from the Recombination &amp; Decoupling stage of our universe. The first neutral atoms had just formed, allowing tremendous amounts of energy to fly free in the now transparent cosmos. We can even see this energy back in our own time, as the cosmic microwave background radiation! Just as suddenly as the light arrived, it vanishes.This is the end of the line for us. I know we wanted to go further, but I have to insist. The universe is only 47,000 years old, but this is as far as we can go. It is getting so hot outside our time machine that atoms are no longer able to hold onto their electrons. In other words, our time machine will soon dissolve into a plasma itself! The universe is now dark and opaque, a dense foggy soup of plasma, like the inside of a star. If we travel much further, we will be ripped apart by antimatter and crushed by the pressure of the universe closing in around us.There is no time for a debate! Our craft can’t take this heat! Push that button to reverse our course – hurry!…Now that was an adventure.Now that we are safe back home, I really can’t wait to get my feet back on the ground. I hope you aren’t too disappointed that we couldn’t see the big bang. I suppose that no time-machine, probe, robot, or space craft can really go much further back in time than we did. However, if you would like to perform a thought experiment to see if we can go back to the big bang, and even before it, I do have an episode of this podcast called, “What Happened before the Big Bang?” Why don’t you give it a listen? I bet you’d get a kick out of it.That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!

Time Travel (Part 2) Back Through 13 Billion Years

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 6How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.This episode is the second installment in series we call: “50 Habits for Maximizing Personal Health and Wellbeing.” In this series, we will get to the bottom of what experts actually recommend when it comes to those small-yet-impactful health choices we make, day to day. If you haven’t’ yet listened to our first podcast in this series, be sure to check it out! It includes an introduction to the 50-Healthy-Habits program as well as advice about sleeping habits, diet, and exercise! Today, we will continue discussing physical health with five more habits you’d do well to adopt.This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit freethoughtforum.org.Let’s continue right for where we left off! Again, if you would like an updated version of this list, or to dig even deeper into our referenced sources to the studies and articles on which this advice is based, visit: freethoughtforum.org/blog/50-habits.6. BRUSH YOUR TEETH TWICE A DAY AND FLOSS ONCE A DAYOral hygiene is a significant contributor to one’s overall physical health. According to well-established studies, all adults should engage in tooth-brushing twice daily (soon after rising from bed or breakfast and soon after dinner) with fluoridated toothpaste. A toothbrush is the most effective tool in removing plaque from teeth, but that does not mean that flossing should be ignored. Daily brushing and flossing combat some major health conditions such as gingivitis, periodontal tissue attachment loss, and carious lesion development, even more than direct treatment of these conditions after the fact.7. BATHE ABOUT ONCE A DAYYour skin is your largest organ, and regular bathing is an essential part of skin care, infection prevention, waste removal, preventing the spread of pathogens, and overall societal standards of cleanliness and professionalism. However, it is possible to shower too often or too intensely. Excessive bathing can lead to rough, dry, and irritated skin. It can also compromise the naturally protective oils in the skin provide such as housing beneficial bacteria and providing a barrier against harmful chemicals. One’s natural scent can also be neutralized by excessive bathing, often noticeable by one’s intimate partner.Therefore, based upon your own activity levels, as well as your body’s chemistry, you should plan on showering about once per day (at least twice every three days and shortly after vigorous exercise). Remember to not use water that is too hot. Avoid showering for more than 30 minutes at a time. In order to prevent rough or dry skin, lotion and moisturizers can be used shortly after bathing.8. WASH HANDS AFTER RESTROOM USE, PRIOR TO PREPARING FOOD, EATING, AND AS NEEDEDHand washing is the single best way to stop the spread of pathogens and disease. Hand washing is even preferable to anti-bacterial alcohol-based disinfectant gels and similar products! It is a practice that is paramount to personal, interpersonal, and societal wellbeing. No other medical practice or hygienic act is as important and thus requires our constant adherence.Good handwashing practice includes hand soap, hot (but not scalding) water, and rubbing your hands together for several seconds. It is strongly recommended after any restroom use, before preparing food, before eating, after eating, and after touching objects that often come in contact with pathogens such as steering wheels, door knobs, used dishes, pets, and shoes. When asked about how often people wash their hands, they tend to exaggerate and assume that they are doing much better than they actually are. In reality, only about 40% of people wash their hands as recommended.9. USE MEDICATIONS ONLY AS PRESCRIBEDPrescription drug abuse and over-the-counter drug abuse has risen dramatically in the United States in recent years, leading to a rise in addiction and a swarm of other health and societal issues. For example, deaths from opioid overdoses quadrupled between 1999 and 2010, exceeding deaths from cocaine and heroin combined. For teens especially, the abuse of over-the-counter drugs has reached epidemic levels.Parents are strongly encouraged to be aware of the drugs being purchased and used by their adolescent children. Even innocuous drugs such as cold and cough medicines may be abused.To prevent such addiction or abuse, it is reasonable to ask your doctor about non-drug treatments whenever possible. When drug treatment is prescribed, it is important to follow one’s medical prescription exactly as it is written. Likewise, when using an over-the-counter drug, the instructions for usage on a bottle’s label should be followed with strict fidelity. Be sure to ask questions about your medication until you fully understand how and how often it should be taken. Communicate any problems you are having with your medications with your doctor before adjusting your medication use in any way. If you suspect that the recommended dosage on the side of an over-the-counter drug will not meet your needs, communicate this with a pharmacist so that you can be sure to purchase the most effective drug for your condition.10. KEEP A HEALTH JOURNALMedical professionals could use as much information about your health history as possible when making an appropriate diagnosis. Although there are efforts to record this information on a database that can be accessed by medical professionals from different organizations, the endeavor has been plagued by multiple logistical, political, and practical issues. While technical and elaborate answers may be more widely available in the future, simply keeping a written “personal health journal” can be a useful tool for this and other purposes.The Free Thought Initiative strongly recommends that each member keeps such a journal up to date and readily accessible at a moment’s notice. (To help keep your medical information private, it is recommended that you do not record this information digitally.) A personal health journal can be kept in a common notebook or sketchbook dedicated to this purpose. Even if the written information isn’t used for decades, the accumulated data can be indispensable in the future.What should be written in a health journal? You should update it with the date, time, and details of any change to your physical, cognitive, or emotional health such as:Whenever you dramatically change your diet, sleep patterns, or exercise routineWhenever your diet and sleep patterns change inexplicablyWhenever you lose or gain a large amount of weightWhenever you experience any head trauma or bodily injuryWhen you feel new pains or achesWhen you notice new bruising, burns, bites or other new marks on your skinWhen you feel dramatic changes in your mood or experience dramatic emotional eventsWhen you notice unusual things in the process or products of defecation or urinationWhenever you drink more alcohol than usualWhenever you take prescribed or over-the-counter medication. (This can help to prevent accidental overdose.) It is also useful to describe in a small note the dosage taken, the effects that you feel from the medication, and how long it takes to feel the effectsThat is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 6How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.This episode is the second installment in series we call: “50 Habits for Maximizing Personal Health and Wellbeing.” In this series, we will get to the bottom of what experts actually recommend when it comes to those small-yet-impactful health choices we make, day to day. If you haven’t’ yet listened to our first podcast in this series, be sure to check it out! It includes an introduction to the 50-Healthy-Habits program as well as advice about sleeping habits, diet, and exercise! Today, we will continue discussing physical health with five more habits you’d do well to adopt.This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a>.Let’s continue right for where we left off! Again, if you would like an updated version of this list, or to dig even deeper into our referenced sources to the studies and articles on which this advice is based, visit: <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org/blog/50-habits" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org/blog/50-habits</a>.6. BRUSH YOUR TEETH TWICE A DAY AND FLOSS ONCE A DAYOral hygiene is a significant contributor to one’s overall physical health. According to well-established studies, all adults should engage in tooth-brushing twice daily (soon after rising from bed or breakfast and soon after dinner) with fluoridated toothpaste. A toothbrush is the most effective tool in removing plaque from teeth, but that does not mean that flossing should be ignored. Daily brushing and flossing combat some major health conditions such as gingivitis, periodontal tissue attachment loss, and carious lesion development, even more than direct treatment of these conditions after the fact.7. BATHE ABOUT ONCE A DAYYour skin is your largest organ, and regular bathing is an essential part of skin care, infection prevention, waste removal, preventing the spread of pathogens, and overall societal standards of cleanliness and professionalism. However, it is possible to shower too often or too intensely. Excessive bathing can lead to rough, dry, and irritated skin. It can also compromise the naturally protective oils in the skin provide such as housing beneficial bacteria and providing a barrier against harmful chemicals. One’s natural scent can also be neutralized by excessive bathing, often noticeable by one’s intimate partner.Therefore, based upon your own activity levels, as well as your body’s chemistry, you should plan on showering about once per day (at least twice every three days and shortly after vigorous exercise). Remember to not use water that is too hot. Avoid showering for more than 30 minutes at a time. In order to prevent rough or dry skin, lotion and moisturizers can be used shortly after bathing.8. WASH HANDS AFTER RESTROOM USE, PRIOR TO PREPARING FOOD, EATING, AND AS NEEDEDHand washing is the single best way to stop the spread of pathogens and disease. Hand washing is even preferable to anti-bacterial alcohol-based disinfectant gels and similar products! It is a practice that is paramount to personal, interpersonal, and societal wellbeing. No other medical practice or hygienic act is as important and thus requires our constant adherence.Good handwashing practice includes hand soap, hot (but not scalding) water, and rubbing your hands together for several seconds. It is strongly recommended after any restroom use, before preparing food, before eating, after eating, and after touching objects that often come in contact with pathogens such as steering wheels, door knobs, used dishes, pets, and shoes. When asked about how often people wash their hands, they tend to exaggerate and assume that they are doing much better than they actually are. In reality, only about 40% of people wash their hands as recommended.9. USE MEDICATIONS ONLY AS PRESCRIBEDPrescription drug abuse and over-the-counter drug abuse has risen dramatically in the United States in recent years, leading to a rise in addiction and a swarm of other health and societal issues. For example, deaths from opioid overdoses quadrupled between 1999 and 2010, exceeding deaths from cocaine and heroin combined. For teens especially, the abuse of over-the-counter drugs has reached epidemic levels.Parents are strongly encouraged to be aware of the drugs being purchased and used by their adolescent children. Even innocuous drugs such as cold and cough medicines may be abused.To prevent such addiction or abuse, it is reasonable to ask your doctor about non-drug treatments whenever possible. When drug treatment is prescribed, it is important to follow one’s medical prescription exactly as it is written. Likewise, when using an over-the-counter drug, the instructions for usage on a bottle’s label should be followed with strict fidelity. Be sure to ask questions about your medication until you fully understand how and how often it should be taken. Communicate any problems you are having with your medications with your doctor before adjusting your medication use in any way. If you suspect that the recommended dosage on the side of an over-the-counter drug will not meet your needs, communicate this with a pharmacist so that you can be sure to purchase the most effective drug for your condition.10. KEEP A HEALTH JOURNALMedical professionals could use as much information about your health history as possible when making an appropriate diagnosis. Although there are efforts to record this information on a database that can be accessed by medical professionals from different organizations, the endeavor has been plagued by multiple logistical, political, and practical issues. While technical and elaborate answers may be more widely available in the future, simply keeping a written “personal health journal” can be a useful tool for this and other purposes.The Free Thought Initiative strongly recommends that each member keeps such a journal up to date and readily accessible at a moment’s notice. (To help keep your medical information private, it is recommended that you do not record this information digitally.) A personal health journal can be kept in a common notebook or sketchbook dedicated to this purpose. Even if the written information isn’t used for decades, the accumulated data can be indispensable in the future.What should be written in a health journal? You should update it with the date, time, and details of any change to your physical, cognitive, or emotional health such as:Whenever you dramatically change your diet, sleep patterns, or exercise routineWhenever your diet and sleep patterns change inexplicablyWhenever you lose or gain a large amount of weightWhenever you experience any head trauma or bodily injuryWhen you feel new pains or achesWhen you notice new bruising, burns, bites or other new marks on your skinWhen you feel dramatic changes in your mood or experience dramatic emotional eventsWhen you notice unusual things in the process or products of defecation or urinationWhenever you drink more alcohol than usualWhenever you take prescribed or over-the-counter medication. (This can help to prevent accidental overdose.) It is also useful to describe in a small note the dosage taken, the effects that you feel from the medication, and how long it takes to feel the effectsThat is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!

5 Habits for Health and Hygiene

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 7How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.We just got back from the 1000 Lights Water Lantern Festival and were perplexed by one question that came up a few times. “Are you a church?” In this episode, I will answer that question so that all of you out there may have a better idea of the place the Free Thought Forum has in our society.This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit freethoughtforum.org.There is nothing like meeting people and answering questions at fairs and festivals. I was impressed, at this last event, with how many people really get it! They instantly understood how important our group was and the kind of positive impact we could have. At first, they’d casually ask who we were, and when we explained that we were a group that invites religious people, non-religious people, conservatives, liberals, college educated people, non-college educated people, and so forth, to talk about big ideas, their eyes lit up! They get it!We value every single person’s perspective and want to hear what they have to say. Our organization exists to give you the opportunity to really speak your mind.More than once, someone would ask whether or not our organization was a church.No, we are not a church.We are not a church, or any other kind of faith-based group, religion, or religious institution. We do strive to be a non-profit that can meet many social needs such as funeral and wedding officiation and the need for a supportive community. Yes, we do host community events and volunteer projects. It’s true that our groups meet once a week and that we can talk about philosophical things, morality, history, and even religion itself. But that is where our similarities with religious organizations begin to break down.Here is one way to think about it. For people with a faith-based religious group, our organization is supplemental to that group. For people who don’t have a faith-based religious group, our organization can stand in as a replacement for such a group. We are more of a “church alternative.” In many ways, we can even be considered to be the opposite of a church group.There is no real historical or academic definition of what is and is not a religion. In many ways, multi-level marketing groups, political parties, and even fan conferences and conventions can share many traits that we would usually call “religious.” But we strive to set ourselves apart from those organizational models because we feel that we can do more good if we fit a different niche in society. Here are five things that I hope will make that distinction more clear:1. WE DON’T CLAIM ANY DIVINE OR SPIRITUAL AUTHORITYI find it funny when religious leaders say things like “Well, I think you should be free to believe what you want, but I think God cares a lot more about that decision.” If you think that you have to make a choice between heaven and hell, then you don’t really have a choice, do you?What makes a preacher, bishop, imam, priest, guru, shaman, witch-doctor, or prophet different from any other person? Not much. But to many, their title denotes a certain authority. When a regular Joe stands up and says what he think people should do, that is just his opinion. But when religious leaders do the same, many people believe they represent something greater than a person’s perspective. Sometimes these leaders claim some hidden knowledge, that they better understand the will of god, or the gods, or that they are scholars of some holy scripture, and are poised to help others better understand the text. They present themselves as experts in things that no one can know for sure. Often, they assert that they were chosen or compelled by a greater power, and you will just have to take their word for it.The Free Thought Forum claims no such authority. Our leaders are regular people. Some of us are college educated, some are not. Some of us have professional titles, some do not. We do, however, strive to be open to see which arguments are better than others. We can read scientific journals and studies, but so can almost anyone else. In short, we don’t pretend to have any special training, talents, or insider knowledge. Rather, we offer our programs to our members and guests who we consider equals in the sincere search for truth.With that said, we do value logic, reason, science, and rationality as extremely valuable tools in this search. Their value is apparent given how reliable science is, and how fundamental it is to every part of our modern civilization. (In fact, I invite anyone to debate me on the validity of science if you think I’m wrong to give it such a distinction.) Wherever possible, we will ask our members to back up any claims they have to spiritual knowledge with logic, reason, evidence, experiment, and so forth.More to the point, we do not ask any of our members or guests to believe in any supernatural thing, whatsoever. That fact alone pulls us apart from most religious organizations.2. WE DON’T TELL PEOPLE WHAT THEY SHOULD OR SHOULDN’T BELIEVEOnce when I was teaching 6th graders, I was asked “Do you believe in evolution?” I considered the tremendous impact of what my answer can have on the child. His parents were religious and would probably complain to the school if my answer was, “yes.” If I said “no,” then I could dramatically injure this child’s trust in science. I answered, “That is a good question, but what I believe doesn’t really matter. What matters is what is true. What matters is where the evidence leads.”There is an underlying problem with dogma. Put simply, dogma represents unjustified ideas that are established as something that must be believed, no matter what. Dogma is a cornerstone to most religious institutions. In them, you are asked to “just believe” or have faith. You are told that something is true, and that you are not supposed to question it.That approach is in stark contrast with our own. We encourage you to question, contemplate, test, and pick-apart the most important things you believe. If they are indeed accurate, then they will hold up to any kind of scrutiny or test, and will prove worthy of your belief. If they do not hold up, then you are now free to abandon false beliefs.What is true? For me, that is a question that deserves a lifetime of dedicated and sincere study, exploration, and a certain willingness to modify your findings in light of better information. In my opinion, it cheapens the truth if we try to stamp an easy answer on top of it. This organization does not claim to know the truth. Rather, we are here to walk by your side as we look for it together.Our group treats belief as a deeply personal matter. If you believe in god, gods, spirits, angels, demons, past lives, spiritual abilities, chi, the afterlife, and so on, then you are welcome to continue believing in those things. That is your personal choice, and we don’t see that it is our business to tell you want you can and can’t believe.Even when it comes to secular things such as scientific fact or history, we don’t require anyone to agree with any idea or argument. Rather, we encourage our members and guests to take an academic approach and at least be willing to consider the various ethical and scientific claims made in our presentations.Our focus is not on the conclusions, but rather, in the process. We want to discuss what is real, and how we can know it. We want to discuss what is moral, and how we can know that. The discussion is what is key. All in attendance are welcome to draw their own conclusions, week after week.3. WE DON’T DEMAND EXCLUSIVE DEVOTION, MEMBERSHIP, OR WORSHIPMany religious or political groups will discourage you from considering the other side of the argument. You may be seen as an outcast for trying out other groups. They may even call considering what other faiths have to say as a sin or shameful. They claim to know the one and only truth, and will do what they can to limit the exposure to every other approach.We encourage our members to be open minded and willing to see things from multiple angles. So if you would like to visit a forum and then visit your spiritual leader the next day, that poses no problem to us. If you are an atheist who belongs to ours and several other atheistic groups, then those groups are all the better to have you. We sincerely do hope to see all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds at our meetings, and invite you to come as often as you like. There is no cost to attend, and there is no penalty for leaving our groups. Put another way, if you visit three parties before ours, we don’t mind at all. We are just happy that you could make it to our party.The Free Thought Forum is a place where anyone can belong, and we mean it when we say “anyone.”4. THERE ARE NO OFF-LIMIT TOPICS, TABOO SUBJECTS, OR UNWELCOMED IDEAS.If you have ever been banned from a group, ex-communicated from a church, blocked on social media, or unjustly kicked-out of an organization, you know full well how painful it can be when you are not allowed to be yourself. Of course, in certain circles, it makes sense that your ability to express yourself is limited. For example, if you volunteer at a children’s hospital, it is completely reasonable that you refrain from expressing your opinions on abortion with the parents of sick children.But, as silly as that example might be, some of us find ourselves in a similar situation, no matter where we go. So what are we to do? Just not talk about important issues? Should we just keep our ideas to ourselves, indefinitely?No. The Free Thought Forum is here to give you that place where you can talk about literally anything without the fear of being silenced or kicked out. There are precious few opportunities where people can discuss complicated, serious, or important topics without fear of offending others or of severe judgement. We want to give you such an opportunity.We are not based on left-leaning politics or right-leaning politics. We are not anti-religious, anti-spirituality, or anti-atheist. As much as possible, we try not to be ideologically-tied to a “team” that limits our exploration of philosophy, history, science, health, or current events.Another major difference between our groups and religious or political groups, is that we have no “sacred cows.” We have no rules against “blasphemy” or “wrong think.” In other words, we are not offended if someone wants to share a perspective that is in conflict with the opinions of the majority of the group. Your perspective is valued. Plain and simple.You can, of course, be 100% wrong about something, but how would you know if you are never able to express the idea in the first place? This is part of why our group is both inclusive and supportive. Disagreement is encouraged, and if you are mistaken about something, it is your idea that is criticized, not you.As long as all participants in an open discussion follow our “Five Rules for Civil Discourse,” any question or comment is “fair game.” This approach is at the core of who we are and what we do. Do you disagree with what the group leader presents? Are you unconvinced that science really is the best tool for discovering the facts of reality? Do you disagree with us when it comes to first amendment rights or model citizenship? Speak your mind, and be ready to explain why you have that opinion.At the end of the day, as long as the shared goal is to follow what is actually real and what is actually right, no matter what, then any group of people can have a civil discussion on important ideas.5. WE ARE FREE TO ADMIT THAT WE ARE MISTAKEN ABOUT SOMETHING, AND ADJUST AS NEEDED.One major problem with religious and political groups is that they are often forced to conform to a certain narrative. Their “side” must always be right in the eyes of their own history. After all, if your group is being led by heaven, how can you justify getting something like fundamental physics wrong in your holy books? I hope I don’t have to explain that this can lead to all sorts of problems of bias, doctoring the facts, cover-ups, corrupting historical evidence, scandal, and so forth.The Free Thought Forum exists to help our members become better people while also improving our society. Our services are centered on public discussions. Our members and guests are not required to meet any kind of consensus or conclusion. It is the journey, not the destination, which matters most to us.Having been organized with those priorities, we are completely free to announce that we were wrong about some scientific fact, or feel that a certain moral principle we promoted in the past should be revised. We claim no special authority, so it follows that we accept our inevitable fallibility. This is part of the reason that we don’t feel compelled to demand that our proposed systems of healthy living or philosophy be followed with any kind of enforced fidelity.We are a philosophical discussion group, a volunteer group, a science advocacy group, and a friendly community. We may be many things, but the one thing we are not, is a church.That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 7How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.We just got back from the 1000 Lights Water Lantern Festival and were perplexed by one question that came up a few times. “Are you a church?” In this episode, I will answer that question so that all of you out there may have a better idea of the place the Free Thought Forum has in our society.This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a>.There is nothing like meeting people and answering questions at fairs and festivals. I was impressed, at this last event, with how many people really get it! They instantly understood how important our group was and the kind of positive impact we could have. At first, they’d casually ask who we were, and when we explained that we were a group that invites religious people, non-religious people, conservatives, liberals, college educated people, non-college educated people, and so forth, to talk about big ideas, their eyes lit up! They get it!We value every single person’s perspective and want to hear what they have to say. Our organization exists to give you the opportunity to really speak your mind.More than once, someone would ask whether or not our organization was a church.No, we are not a church.We are not a church, or any other kind of faith-based group, religion, or religious institution. We do strive to be a non-profit that can meet many social needs such as funeral and wedding officiation and the need for a supportive community. Yes, we do host community events and volunteer projects. It’s true that our groups meet once a week and that we can talk about philosophical things, morality, history, and even religion itself. But that is where our similarities with religious organizations begin to break down.Here is one way to think about it. For people with a faith-based religious group, our organization is supplemental to that group. For people who don’t have a faith-based religious group, our organization can stand in as a replacement for such a group. We are more of a “church alternative.” In many ways, we can even be considered to be the opposite of a church group.There is no real historical or academic definition of what is and is not a religion. In many ways, multi-level marketing groups, political parties, and even fan conferences and conventions can share many traits that we would usually call “religious.” But we strive to set ourselves apart from those organizational models because we feel that we can do more good if we fit a different niche in society. Here are five things that I hope will make that distinction more clear:1. WE DON’T CLAIM ANY DIVINE OR SPIRITUAL AUTHORITYI find it funny when religious leaders say things like “Well, I think you should be free to believe what you want, but I think God cares a lot more about that decision.” If you think that you have to make a choice between heaven and hell, then you don’t really have a choice, do you?What makes a preacher, bishop, imam, priest, guru, shaman, witch-doctor, or prophet different from any other person? Not much. But to many, their title denotes a certain authority. When a regular Joe stands up and says what he think people should do, that is just his opinion. But when religious leaders do the same, many people believe they represent something greater than a person’s perspective. Sometimes these leaders claim some hidden knowledge, that they better understand the will of god, or the gods, or that they are scholars of some holy scripture, and are poised to help others better understand the text. They present themselves as experts in things that no one can know for sure. Often, they assert that they were chosen or compelled by a greater power, and you will just have to take their word for it.The Free Thought Forum claims no such authority. Our leaders are regular people. Some of us are college educated, some are not. Some of us have professional titles, some do not. We do, however, strive to be open to see which arguments are better than others. We can read scientific journals and studies, but so can almost anyone else. In short, we don’t pretend to have any special training, talents, or insider knowledge. Rather, we offer our programs to our members and guests who we consider equals in the sincere search for truth.With that said, we do value logic, reason, science, and rationality as extremely valuable tools in this search. Their value is apparent given how reliable science is, and how fundamental it is to every part of our modern civilization. (In fact, I invite anyone to debate me on the validity of science if you think I’m wrong to give it such a distinction.) Wherever possible, we will ask our members to back up any claims they have to spiritual knowledge with logic, reason, evidence, experiment, and so forth.More to the point, we do not ask any of our members or guests to believe in any supernatural thing, whatsoever. That fact alone pulls us apart from most religious organizations.2. WE DON’T TELL PEOPLE WHAT THEY SHOULD OR SHOULDN’T BELIEVEOnce when I was teaching 6th graders, I was asked “Do you believe in evolution?” I considered the tremendous impact of what my answer can have on the child. His parents were religious and would probably complain to the school if my answer was, “yes.” If I said “no,” then I could dramatically injure this child’s trust in science. I answered, “That is a good question, but what I believe doesn’t really matter. What matters is what is true. What matters is where the evidence leads.”There is an underlying problem with dogma. Put simply, dogma represents unjustified ideas that are established as something that must be believed, no matter what. Dogma is a cornerstone to most religious institutions. In them, you are asked to “just believe” or have faith. You are told that something is true, and that you are not supposed to question it.That approach is in stark contrast with our own. We encourage you to question, contemplate, test, and pick-apart the most important things you believe. If they are indeed accurate, then they will hold up to any kind of scrutiny or test, and will prove worthy of your belief. If they do not hold up, then you are now free to abandon false beliefs.What is true? For me, that is a question that deserves a lifetime of dedicated and sincere study, exploration, and a certain willingness to modify your findings in light of better information. In my opinion, it cheapens the truth if we try to stamp an easy answer on top of it. This organization does not claim to know the truth. Rather, we are here to walk by your side as we look for it together.Our group treats belief as a deeply personal matter. If you believe in god, gods, spirits, angels, demons, past lives, spiritual abilities, chi, the afterlife, and so on, then you are welcome to continue believing in those things. That is your personal choice, and we don’t see that it is our business to tell you want you can and can’t believe.Even when it comes to secular things such as scientific fact or history, we don’t require anyone to agree with any idea or argument. Rather, we encourage our members and guests to take an academic approach and at least be willing to consider the various ethical and scientific claims made in our presentations.Our focus is not on the conclusions, but rather, in the process. We want to discuss what is real, and how we can know it. We want to discuss what is moral, and how we can know that. The discussion is what is key. All in attendance are welcome to draw their own conclusions, week after week.3. WE DON’T DEMAND EXCLUSIVE DEVOTION, MEMBERSHIP, OR WORSHIPMany religious or political groups will discourage you from considering the other side of the argument. You may be seen as an outcast for trying out other groups. They may even call considering what other faiths have to say as a sin or shameful. They claim to know the one and only truth, and will do what they can to limit the exposure to every other approach.We encourage our members to be open minded and willing to see things from multiple angles. So if you would like to visit a forum and then visit your spiritual leader the next day, that poses no problem to us. If you are an atheist who belongs to ours and several other atheistic groups, then those groups are all the better to have you. We sincerely do hope to see all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds at our meetings, and invite you to come as often as you like. There is no cost to attend, and there is no penalty for leaving our groups. Put another way, if you visit three parties before ours, we don’t mind at all. We are just happy that you could make it to our party.The Free Thought Forum is a place where anyone can belong, and we mean it when we say “anyone.”4. THERE ARE NO OFF-LIMIT TOPICS, TABOO SUBJECTS, OR UNWELCOMED IDEAS.If you have ever been banned from a group, ex-communicated from a church, blocked on social media, or unjustly kicked-out of an organization, you know full well how painful it can be when you are not allowed to be yourself. Of course, in certain circles, it makes sense that your ability to express yourself is limited. For example, if you volunteer at a children’s hospital, it is completely reasonable that you refrain from expressing your opinions on abortion with the parents of sick children.But, as silly as that example might be, some of us find ourselves in a similar situation, no matter where we go. So what are we to do? Just not talk about important issues? Should we just keep our ideas to ourselves, indefinitely?No. The Free Thought Forum is here to give you that place where you can talk about literally anything without the fear of being silenced or kicked out. There are precious few opportunities where people can discuss complicated, serious, or important topics without fear of offending others or of severe judgement. We want to give you such an opportunity.We are not based on left-leaning politics or right-leaning politics. We are not anti-religious, anti-spirituality, or anti-atheist. As much as possible, we try not to be ideologically-tied to a “team” that limits our exploration of philosophy, history, science, health, or current events.Another major difference between our groups and religious or political groups, is that we have no “sacred cows.” We have no rules against “blasphemy” or “wrong think.” In other words, we are not offended if someone wants to share a perspective that is in conflict with the opinions of the majority of the group. Your perspective is valued. Plain and simple.You can, of course, be 100% wrong about something, but how would you know if you are never able to express the idea in the first place? This is part of why our group is both inclusive and supportive. Disagreement is encouraged, and if you are mistaken about something, it is your idea that is criticized, not you.As long as all participants in an open discussion follow our “Five Rules for Civil Discourse,” any question or comment is “fair game.” This approach is at the core of who we are and what we do. Do you disagree with what the group leader presents? Are you unconvinced that science really is the best tool for discovering the facts of reality? Do you disagree with us when it comes to first amendment rights or model citizenship? Speak your mind, and be ready to explain why you have that opinion.At the end of the day, as long as the shared goal is to follow what is actually real and what is actually right, no matter what, then any group of people can have a civil discussion on important ideas.5. WE ARE FREE TO ADMIT THAT WE ARE MISTAKEN ABOUT SOMETHING, AND ADJUST AS NEEDED.One major problem with religious and political groups is that they are often forced to conform to a certain narrative. Their “side” must always be right in the eyes of their own history. After all, if your group is being led by heaven, how can you justify getting something like fundamental physics wrong in your holy books? I hope I don’t have to explain that this can lead to all sorts of problems of bias, doctoring the facts, cover-ups, corrupting historical evidence, scandal, and so forth.The Free Thought Forum exists to help our members become better people while also improving our society. Our services are centered on public discussions. Our members and guests are not required to meet any kind of consensus or conclusion. It is the journey, not the destination, which matters most to us.Having been organized with those priorities, we are completely free to announce that we were wrong about some scientific fact, or feel that a certain moral principle we promoted in the past should be revised. We claim no special authority, so it follows that we accept our inevitable fallibility. This is part of the reason that we don’t feel compelled to demand that our proposed systems of healthy living or philosophy be followed with any kind of enforced fidelity.We are a philosophical discussion group, a volunteer group, a science advocacy group, and a friendly community. We may be many things, but the one thing we are not, is a church.That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!

Are We a Church or a Religious Group?

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 10How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.In today’s episode, it will be my pleasure to explain our five rules of civil discourse! You may ask, “How can we have strong-willed people from the political right and the political left, the religious, spiritual, atheists, and all kinds of people participate in meaningful open discussions?” These rules certainly help, and I’d go so far as to say that they are also pretty useful in online and other in-person conversation.This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit freethoughtforum.org.I can’t take credit for our Five Rules for Civil Discourse. They were developed by all of our founding members and took a little trial and error to get right. Before I jump into them, it is important to point out why our organization’s public discussions are held in the first place.Each member of a freethought forum participates with an underlying goal, and that is for all participants to get closer to the actual truth, whatever it may be. Sometimes this is done through something like the Socratic Method, in which a participant may play devil’s advocate, and ask thought-provoking questions in order to see what responses the others might give. Sometimes this is done by throwing out an idea and seeing how quickly it is shot-down by a sound counter-argument. If needed, we may pause to contemplate a particularly difficult concept that has been proposed.In these discussions, each person must be fearless. There can be no untouchable ideas. It takes thick skin to enter the unknown, but treasure awaits. No one may be “disqualified” by offering an odd comment. Even though we may be tempted, we never ban a sincere member or guest from the conversation. In a world in which fewer and fewer of us can find a place to talk about what is most important to us, this forum has been designed as a solution. In addition, if you want to step out of the bubble or echo-chamber in which you have lived, this is how it’s done. It isn’t comfortable, but it’s rewarding.Each Free Thought Forum exists to promote healthy civil discussion and celebrate the free-exchange of ideas. We assert that one’s ability to voice their ideas and have them supported, contested, tested, and reviewed among peers (and in-person) is an indispensable tool in one’s honest search for the correct answers to life’s most important questions.To ensure that all participants in a free thought forum have the opportunity to share their ideas while being treated respectfully, the following rules for civil discourse have been tested and developed. By participating in a weekly open discussion, all guests, members, and hosts agree to abide by the following:1.	BE RESPECTFUL OF EACH OTHER’S TIMEIf a designated host senses that you have taken more than 5 minutes to make a point, he/she will insist that someone else is given an opportunity to talk. Do not to interrupt or talk over someone else.Believe it or not, this first rule actually covers most problems found in open discussions. When we are prodded to be aware of how much time we take to make a point, we think more about how we phrase our ideas and arguments. Simple and concise language emerges as a result. And don’t worry. Five minutes doesn’t seem like a long time, but when you are speaking with a large group, it can feel like an eternity. Most often, participants will add one or two sentences, and then allow others to have their say.2.	CRITICIZE IDEAS, NOT PEOPLENo one comes to an open discussion to be personally attacked. If you believe that an idea deserves criticism, it is essential that you address the claims or opinions themselves. This also applies to groups of people. There is nothing wrong with criticizing what a group of people profess, as long as the people themselves are treated with respect. Phrases such as “I disagree,” “what makes you say that?” or “what do you think of the counter-argument?” are all useful in keeping the conversation positive and inclusive.If there was ever a general rule for life, it’s this one. In our view, everyone ought to be valued first for their humanity, and everything else follows. If you are a human being, then you ought to be treated right, no matter what your ideology or stance is on various issues. Since your beliefs and convictions may change over time, we don’t consider ideas as permanent parts of your core identity. Therefore, beliefs and ideas are free game. Good ideas can take a beating. Bad ideas deserve to be beat. Criticize my ideas, I’ll criticize yours, and at the end of the day, we are both better for it.3.	AVOID FALLACIOUS ARGUMENT OR UNSUBSTANTIATED DECLARATIONS Committing a logical fallacy or making bold claims without explaining the reasoning behind why you believe as you do can hinder productive thought and meaningful discussion.We tried our best not to make this rule too wordy or confusing and I’m not convinced we are quite there. However, the core of the idea is what is important. Logical fallacies are ways that people can cheat and shortcut past rational thinking, and turns any good discussion into a dead end. A good example is the strawman fallacy. If two members are in a forum meeting and one says, “I think if an idea is a good one, it doesn’t matter who said it.” The other member would be committing the strawman fallacy if they said something like, “Well if you listen to psychopaths to find great ideas, then I can’t help you!” Basically, if you misrepresent someone’s argument to make it easier to attack, you are commenting a strawman fallacy.Other common fallacies include “ad hominem,” “special pleading,” “appealing to emotion,” and the “slippery slope.” I’ll have to make a podcast episode about them some time.Another common thing that hurts a discussion is when people make unsubstantiated declarations. Carl Sagan is famous for saying “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” In that vein, if you are going to come into a discussion and claim to be the voice of God, was born in Atlantis, or that you have discovered cold fusion in your basement, you should expect the other forum members to ask you to substantiate the claim. In other words, you will be asked to provide some kind of evidence or cohesive argument for your position. It isn’t that we don’t believe you, we just want everyone to follow the same rules for the sake of a productive meeting.4.	BE OPEN TO SCRUTINY AND A DIVERSITY OF OPINIONThe objective of each meeting is not for someone to “win” or to “convert” anyone else. A discussion is not a debate. Rather, it is to allow each participant’s idea to compete in an open marketplace of ideas under to its own merits.People come to these meetings to have their ideas tested. As long as we all understand that, we’ll be fine. Almost all of my ideas sound brilliant in my mind – but that doesn’t me they are. A good friend is one who will let you know when a concept needs more time to cook. Put another way, if the other members of your forum didn’t care about you or the truth, then they would be indifferent to what you have to say. When someone contests an idea, it shows they care enough to say something about what you said. However, there are no “winners” or “losers” here. It isn’t the goal of the meeting to come to an agreement or for everyone to reach some conclusion. If everyone disagrees about some issue, that is totally fine. A diversity of opinion is a healthy thing, especially on issues in which the truth is not clear.5.	RECOGNIZE THE AUTHORITY OF THE HOST AS MODERATORYour host (a trained volunteer) is much like a sports referee or a judge in a courtroom. In order to maintain civility and to promote productive dialogue, all participants agree to respectfully follow their Host’s facilitation and moderation.The host is the person who will interrupt you to let you know that you have gone over your time. He/She is in charge of pointing out wrongful personal criticisms and directing the conversation away from individuals and back to ideas. They will point out fallacious argument or unsubstantiated declarations and ask the speaker to try to rephrase their point in a different way. If someone is not tolerating the opinions of another, the host is the one to step in and remind everyone why they are there.It is important that this host servers as a moderator. In other words, it is important that they behave as if they are personally indifferent to the topic for as long as they are a host. As a neutral participant, their concern is only for the fair treatment of all involved, and that these five rules are followed.That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 10How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.In today’s episode, it will be my pleasure to explain our five rules of civil discourse! You may ask, “How can we have strong-willed people from the political right and the political left, the religious, spiritual, atheists, and all kinds of people participate in meaningful open discussions?” These rules certainly help, and I’d go so far as to say that they are also pretty useful in online and other in-person conversation.This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a>.I can’t take credit for our Five Rules for Civil Discourse. They were developed by all of our founding members and took a little trial and error to get right. Before I jump into them, it is important to point out why our organization’s public discussions are held in the first place.Each member of a freethought forum participates with an underlying goal, and that is for all participants to get closer to the actual truth, whatever it may be. Sometimes this is done through something like the Socratic Method, in which a participant may play devil’s advocate, and ask thought-provoking questions in order to see what responses the others might give. Sometimes this is done by throwing out an idea and seeing how quickly it is shot-down by a sound counter-argument. If needed, we may pause to contemplate a particularly difficult concept that has been proposed.In these discussions, each person must be fearless. There can be no untouchable ideas. It takes thick skin to enter the unknown, but treasure awaits. No one may be “disqualified” by offering an odd comment. Even though we may be tempted, we never ban a sincere member or guest from the conversation. In a world in which fewer and fewer of us can find a place to talk about what is most important to us, this forum has been designed as a solution. In addition, if you want to step out of the bubble or echo-chamber in which you have lived, this is how it’s done. It isn’t comfortable, but it’s rewarding.Each Free Thought Forum exists to promote healthy civil discussion and celebrate the free-exchange of ideas. We assert that one’s ability to voice their ideas and have them supported, contested, tested, and reviewed among peers (and in-person) is an indispensable tool in one’s honest search for the correct answers to life’s most important questions.To ensure that all participants in a free thought forum have the opportunity to share their ideas while being treated respectfully, the following rules for civil discourse have been tested and developed. By participating in a weekly open discussion, all guests, members, and hosts agree to abide by the following:1.	BE RESPECTFUL OF EACH OTHER’S TIMEIf a designated host senses that you have taken more than 5 minutes to make a point, he/she will insist that someone else is given an opportunity to talk. Do not to interrupt or talk over someone else.Believe it or not, this first rule actually covers most problems found in open discussions. When we are prodded to be aware of how much time we take to make a point, we think more about how we phrase our ideas and arguments. Simple and concise language emerges as a result. And don’t worry. Five minutes doesn’t seem like a long time, but when you are speaking with a large group, it can feel like an eternity. Most often, participants will add one or two sentences, and then allow others to have their say.2.	CRITICIZE IDEAS, NOT PEOPLENo one comes to an open discussion to be personally attacked. If you believe that an idea deserves criticism, it is essential that you address the claims or opinions themselves. This also applies to groups of people. There is nothing wrong with criticizing what a group of people profess, as long as the people themselves are treated with respect. Phrases such as “I disagree,” “what makes you say that?” or “what do you think of the counter-argument?” are all useful in keeping the conversation positive and inclusive.If there was ever a general rule for life, it’s this one. In our view, everyone ought to be valued first for their humanity, and everything else follows. If you are a human being, then you ought to be treated right, no matter what your ideology or stance is on various issues. Since your beliefs and convictions may change over time, we don’t consider ideas as permanent parts of your core identity. Therefore, beliefs and ideas are free game. Good ideas can take a beating. Bad ideas deserve to be beat. Criticize my ideas, I’ll criticize yours, and at the end of the day, we are both better for it.3.	AVOID FALLACIOUS ARGUMENT OR UNSUBSTANTIATED DECLARATIONS Committing a logical fallacy or making bold claims without explaining the reasoning behind why you believe as you do can hinder productive thought and meaningful discussion.We tried our best not to make this rule too wordy or confusing and I’m not convinced we are quite there. However, the core of the idea is what is important. Logical fallacies are ways that people can cheat and shortcut past rational thinking, and turns any good discussion into a dead end. A good example is the strawman fallacy. If two members are in a forum meeting and one says, “I think if an idea is a good one, it doesn’t matter who said it.” The other member would be committing the strawman fallacy if they said something like, “Well if you listen to psychopaths to find great ideas, then I can’t help you!” Basically, if you misrepresent someone’s argument to make it easier to attack, you are commenting a strawman fallacy.Other common fallacies include “ad hominem,” “special pleading,” “appealing to emotion,” and the “slippery slope.” I’ll have to make a podcast episode about them some time.Another common thing that hurts a discussion is when people make unsubstantiated declarations. Carl Sagan is famous for saying “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” In that vein, if you are going to come into a discussion and claim to be the voice of God, was born in Atlantis, or that you have discovered cold fusion in your basement, you should expect the other forum members to ask you to substantiate the claim. In other words, you will be asked to provide some kind of evidence or cohesive argument for your position. It isn’t that we don’t believe you, we just want everyone to follow the same rules for the sake of a productive meeting.4.	BE OPEN TO SCRUTINY AND A DIVERSITY OF OPINIONThe objective of each meeting is not for someone to “win” or to “convert” anyone else. A discussion is not a debate. Rather, it is to allow each participant’s idea to compete in an open marketplace of ideas under to its own merits.People come to these meetings to have their ideas tested. As long as we all understand that, we’ll be fine. Almost all of my ideas sound brilliant in my mind – but that doesn’t me they are. A good friend is one who will let you know when a concept needs more time to cook. Put another way, if the other members of your forum didn’t care about you or the truth, then they would be indifferent to what you have to say. When someone contests an idea, it shows they care enough to say something about what you said. However, there are no “winners” or “losers” here. It isn’t the goal of the meeting to come to an agreement or for everyone to reach some conclusion. If everyone disagrees about some issue, that is totally fine. A diversity of opinion is a healthy thing, especially on issues in which the truth is not clear.5.	RECOGNIZE THE AUTHORITY OF THE HOST AS MODERATORYour host (a trained volunteer) is much like a sports referee or a judge in a courtroom. In order to maintain civility and to promote productive dialogue, all participants agree to respectfully follow their Host’s facilitation and moderation.The host is the person who will interrupt you to let you know that you have gone over your time. He/She is in charge of pointing out wrongful personal criticisms and directing the conversation away from individuals and back to ideas. They will point out fallacious argument or unsubstantiated declarations and ask the speaker to try to rephrase their point in a different way. If someone is not tolerating the opinions of another, the host is the one to step in and remind everyone why they are there.It is important that this host servers as a moderator. In other words, it is important that they behave as if they are personally indifferent to the topic for as long as they are a host. As a neutral participant, their concern is only for the fair treatment of all involved, and that these five rules are followed.That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!

5 Rules for Civil Discourse: EXPLAINED

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 13How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.Today, we are talking about nothing! Absolutely nothing. Did the Universe Really Come From Nothing? A few episodes ago, we asked the question, “What Happened before the Big Bang?” If you haven’t yet listened to that podcast, be sure to do so! I stuck mostly with Stephen Hawking’s take on space-time and focused on the emergence of time itself. But the time has come to go deeper. We are getting our hands messy today with quantum physics. We are going to see if we can figure out why some scientists say that everything did indeed, come from nothing.This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit freethoughtforum.org.When I run into religious arguments against mainstream science, I often hear a line that goes something like this: “And what about the Big Bang? Now scientists would have us believe that something came from nothing. How absurd! Something is something and nothing is nothing and to think otherwise is nonsense! Besides, we never ever see something come out of nothing do we?”Do we? Here is this common misconception in a nutshell: “The universe couldn’t have possibly popped into existence out of nothing.”Quantum Physics is, in a way, the new kid on the block. While the fundamentals of the Big Bang theory represent well established and well tested science, Quantum Physics is lagging behind. Like all new sciences, it isn’t as widely accepted or well understood. Does that mean that it is necessarily “less true” than more established science? Not at all. It is actually one of the most robust and productive tools we have in the field of physics.Most of the time, when we talk about the big bang, we are talking about a microscopic singularity that expanded into the universe we live in today. Yet scientists are not content with resting on what is well tested or understood. They are perplexed by the unknown, the promise of the prize of new knowledge just beyond our horizon.Therefore, in recent years, scientists such as Laurence Krouss, Michio Kaku, and Brian Green have seen what quantum mechanics can tell us about the origins of the universe. The math behind quantum physics has been astonishingly accurate so far, and has made things like our cell phones and your internet access possible today. So when we turn this powerful mathematical model to the biggest questions of the universe, what is revealed? What have these scientists and cosmologists like them discovered? Through mathematics and indirect observation of quantum fluctuations, scientists can now make the case that our universe did indeed come into existence out of what people call, “nothing.”Now most people’s problem with this astonishing discovery comes from the use of this word, “nothing.” In everyday language, when we say nothing, we mean the opposite of something. We mean absolute emptiness, an unambiguous void. This pure, theoretical, and definition-based abstract doesn’t really exist. This idea isn’t exactly what cosmologists and quantum physicists mean. The “nothing” they are talking about is what is left over when we take outer space, and remove all of its ingredients, or at least all of the ingredients with which we are most familiar. If we take away stars, galaxies, dust clouds, planets, rocks, ice, molecules, atoms, all baryonic matter, dark matter, and energy... What is left over?The quote-unquote “Nothing” that is left over, is actually a rolling boil of quantum fluctuations, sub atomic energy that flows in and out of existence according to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. How cool is that? When everything is stripped away, we have this bizarre energy that can’t make up its mind. It phases in and out of our universe, like swarms of bees flying in and out of a busy hive. An impressive fact about quantum fluctuations, is that they represent a massive amount of energy on larger scales. The truth is, some 70% of the energy in the universe comes from this humble rumbling below space itself. This wiggling soup of ingredients that bounce between “is” and “isn’t” really exists, and is that “something” that quantum physicists mean when they say “nothing.”I hope that helps, but I should add that even with everything I just said, mathematically, the quantum fluctuations can still be completely accurately described as “nothing.”But if everything came from nothing, how can this agree with what we understand about the conservation of matter or the conservation of energy? Haven’t we heard that matter and energy can’t be created or destroyed, but they can only be changed into other forms?If that is what you were thinking, then you are on the right track. The next thing to remember is that energy and matter are basically the same thing. Do you remember Einstein’s most famous equation: E=MC2 and what it represents? Basically, matter can turn into energy (think of an atomic bomb) and energy can turn into matter. We are talking about two sides of the same coin.We live in what cosmologists call a “flat universe.” Put another way, if we mathematically account for all of the matter, all of the dark matter, and all of the gravity, all virtual particles, and all of the positive and negative energy of the universe and add it together, how much energy would that total? Well, this isn’t just a hypothetical question. Scientists have actually done the calculation. So how much energy does it total?The answer is zero: zero joules, zero electronvolts, zero calories. The laws of conservation are completely satisfied. Here is an oversimplified equation that I think would help. 0 = -1000 + 1000. This statement is still true when we read it backwards: 1000 - 1000 = 0. Now imagine that the equals sign is the big bang. Before the universe expanded, we had zero. Now that we have a full and complex universe, all of its laws, matter, and energy can be represented by positive 1000 and negative 1000. If we add all the positive and negative matter and energy together, we are back to zero.This is an over-simplified explanation of how nothing can create something, and something can equal nothing. I hope it helps, and I hope that the next time you hear someone say, “The universe couldn’t have popped into existence out of nothing” you will now be able to say something, rather than nothing.But before I wrap up this episode, there is one more point I’d like to make in this whole discussion about nothing. This is me just thinking out loud, but I can’t help it. New and challenging ideas, at the edge of my understanding, only make sense to me if I can think out loud.Do you remember Edwin Hubble’s observations? He was the first to discover that the fabric of space itself is stretching between the galaxies. Our universe is expanding. In fact, it is even accelerating in its expansion. This is often attributed to enigmatic dark energy, a phenomenon that scientists are still trying to tackle and define. I have been perplexed by the idea of dark energy since my childhood. I even wrote a report on it as a sixth grader. There must be massive amounts of it to push against all gravity and the forces of nature and push the universe to expand even faster than it already is! Where has all that energy been all this time? Where is it coming from?Many scientists believe that the evidence points to quantum fluctuations giving rise to the singularity that expanded into our universe. In the absolute emptiness of non-existence, quantum fluctuations produced all existence. And it started out small, a little bit of space-time that eventually expanded into a massive cosmos.But it didn’t end there, did it? The universe is still expanding and even accelerating in its expansion based upon what we can measure. The Big Bang isn’t something that happened, it is something that is still happening, and we are seeing it happen from the inside!If the seemingly empty space between these galaxies is filled with humming and jostling quantum fluctuations, the same kind of fluctuations that created the fabric of space-time in the first place, could it be that they are still busy at work, creating even more space-time?What if the same quantum mechanisms that started our cosmos are responsible for making more cosmos between the galaxies, causing the universe to expand? Could the mystery of dark energy one day be solved completely through quantum mechanics? Could this explain where the universe is getting all of this extra energy?Well, I don’t know. Like I said, we have reached the edge of my understanding of this topic. Nevertheless, I look forward to the day when we all can better understand this bizarre universe of quantum mechanics, dark energy, and the unintuitive potential of “nothing.”If you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our group and our podcast.That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!___Written By Nicholas Burk, Executive Board Member © 2019 Free Thought Initiative

The Fresh Perspective Podcast - Episode 13How’s it going everyone? I’m Nick and you are listening to the Fresh Perspective Podcast.Today, we are talking about nothing! Absolutely nothing. Did the Universe Really Come From Nothing? A few episodes ago, we asked the question, “What Happened before the Big Bang?” If you haven’t yet listened to that podcast, be sure to do so! I stuck mostly with Stephen Hawking’s take on space-time and focused on the emergence of time itself. But the time has come to go deeper. We are getting our hands messy today with quantum physics. We are going to see if we can figure out why some scientists say that everything did indeed, come from nothing.This program is brought to you by the members of the Free Thought Initiative.We help those in need of an inclusive, supportive, and free-thinking community by hosting public discussions on moral philosophy, healthy living, and science, to improve the cohesion, health, and scientific literacy of our society.Everyone is welcome, (regardless of personal religious belief, political leanings, etc.) to participate (in-person) in these open and civil discussions.To find a Free Thought Forum meeting near you, to start your own local group, or to become a member and support this program through monthly donations – please visit <a href="http://freethoughtforum.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">freethoughtforum.org</a>.When I run into religious arguments against mainstream science, I often hear a line that goes something like this: “And what about the Big Bang? Now scientists would have us believe that something came from nothing. How absurd! Something is something and nothing is nothing and to think otherwise is nonsense! Besides, we never ever see something come out of nothing do we?”Do we? Here is this common misconception in a nutshell: “The universe couldn’t have possibly popped into existence out of nothing.”Quantum Physics is, in a way, the new kid on the block. While the fundamentals of the Big Bang theory represent well established and well tested science, Quantum Physics is lagging behind. Like all new sciences, it isn’t as widely accepted or well understood. Does that mean that it is necessarily “less true” than more established science? Not at all. It is actually one of the most robust and productive tools we have in the field of physics.Most of the time, when we talk about the big bang, we are talking about a microscopic singularity that expanded into the universe we live in today. Yet scientists are not content with resting on what is well tested or understood. They are perplexed by the unknown, the promise of the prize of new knowledge just beyond our horizon.Therefore, in recent years, scientists such as Laurence Krouss, Michio Kaku, and Brian Green have seen what quantum mechanics can tell us about the origins of the universe. The math behind quantum physics has been astonishingly accurate so far, and has made things like our cell phones and your internet access possible today. So when we turn this powerful mathematical model to the biggest questions of the universe, what is revealed? What have these scientists and cosmologists like them discovered? Through mathematics and indirect observation of quantum fluctuations, scientists can now make the case that our universe did indeed come into existence out of what people call, “nothing.”Now most people’s problem with this astonishing discovery comes from the use of this word, “nothing.” In everyday language, when we say nothing, we mean the opposite of something. We mean absolute emptiness, an unambiguous void. This pure, theoretical, and definition-based abstract doesn’t really exist. This idea isn’t exactly what cosmologists and quantum physicists mean. The “nothing” they are talking about is what is left over when we take outer space, and remove all of its ingredients, or at least all of the ingredients with which we are most familiar. If we take away stars, galaxies, dust clouds, planets, rocks, ice, molecules, atoms, all baryonic matter, dark matter, and energy... What is left over?The quote-unquote “Nothing” that is left over, is actually a rolling boil of quantum fluctuations, sub atomic energy that flows in and out of existence according to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. How cool is that? When everything is stripped away, we have this bizarre energy that can’t make up its mind. It phases in and out of our universe, like swarms of bees flying in and out of a busy hive. An impressive fact about quantum fluctuations, is that they represent a massive amount of energy on larger scales. The truth is, some 70% of the energy in the universe comes from this humble rumbling below space itself. This wiggling soup of ingredients that bounce between “is” and “isn’t” really exists, and is that “something” that quantum physicists mean when they say “nothing.”I hope that helps, but I should add that even with everything I just said, mathematically, the quantum fluctuations can still be completely accurately described as “nothing.”But if everything came from nothing, how can this agree with what we understand about the conservation of matter or the conservation of energy? Haven’t we heard that matter and energy can’t be created or destroyed, but they can only be changed into other forms?If that is what you were thinking, then you are on the right track. The next thing to remember is that energy and matter are basically the same thing. Do you remember Einstein’s most famous equation: E=MC2 and what it represents? Basically, matter can turn into energy (think of an atomic bomb) and energy can turn into matter. We are talking about two sides of the same coin.We live in what cosmologists call a “flat universe.” Put another way, if we mathematically account for all of the matter, all of the dark matter, and all of the gravity, all virtual particles, and all of the positive and negative energy of the universe and add it together, how much energy would that total? Well, this isn’t just a hypothetical question. Scientists have actually done the calculation. So how much energy does it total?The answer is zero: zero joules, zero electronvolts, zero calories. The laws of conservation are completely satisfied. Here is an oversimplified equation that I think would help. 0 = -1000 + 1000. This statement is still true when we read it backwards: 1000 - 1000 = 0. Now imagine that the equals sign is the big bang. Before the universe expanded, we had zero. Now that we have a full and complex universe, all of its laws, matter, and energy can be represented by positive 1000 and negative 1000. If we add all the positive and negative matter and energy together, we are back to zero.This is an over-simplified explanation of how nothing can create something, and something can equal nothing. I hope it helps, and I hope that the next time you hear someone say, “The universe couldn’t have popped into existence out of nothing” you will now be able to say something, rather than nothing.But before I wrap up this episode, there is one more point I’d like to make in this whole discussion about nothing. This is me just thinking out loud, but I can’t help it. New and challenging ideas, at the edge of my understanding, only make sense to me if I can think out loud.Do you remember Edwin Hubble’s observations? He was the first to discover that the fabric of space itself is stretching between the galaxies. Our universe is expanding. In fact, it is even accelerating in its expansion. This is often attributed to enigmatic dark energy, a phenomenon that scientists are still trying to tackle and define. I have been perplexed by the idea of dark energy since my childhood. I even wrote a report on it as a sixth grader. There must be massive amounts of it to push against all gravity and the forces of nature and push the universe to expand even faster than it already is! Where has all that energy been all this time? Where is it coming from?Many scientists believe that the evidence points to quantum fluctuations giving rise to the singularity that expanded into our universe. In the absolute emptiness of non-existence, quantum fluctuations produced all existence. And it started out small, a little bit of space-time that eventually expanded into a massive cosmos.But it didn’t end there, did it? The universe is still expanding and even accelerating in its expansion based upon what we can measure. The Big Bang isn’t something that happened, it is something that is still happening, and we are seeing it happen from the inside!If the seemingly empty space between these galaxies is filled with humming and jostling quantum fluctuations, the same kind of fluctuations that created the fabric of space-time in the first place, could it be that they are still busy at work, creating even more space-time?What if the same quantum mechanisms that started our cosmos are responsible for making more cosmos between the galaxies, causing the universe to expand? Could the mystery of dark energy one day be solved completely through quantum mechanics? Could this explain where the universe is getting all of this extra energy?Well, I don’t know. Like I said, we have reached the edge of my understanding of this topic. Nevertheless, I look forward to the day when we all can better understand this bizarre universe of quantum mechanics, dark energy, and the unintuitive potential of “nothing.”If you have enjoyed this conversation or have learned something from it, please leave a like, subscribe, and share it with other open-minded people. All of those small things really do make a big difference and help others find our group and our podcast.That is all I have for you today, but the conversation continues across social media and in the comment sections below. Do you agree with today’s message? Am I mistaken about some detail? How can I better elaborate on this topic in the future? Feel free to share your perspective!___Written By Nicholas Burk, Executive Board Member © 2019 Free Thought Initiative

Did the Universe Come From Nothing?

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