Review: “Freethought Resource Guide”

“A Directory of Information, Literature, Art, Organizations, & Internet Sites Related to Secular Humanism, Skepticism, Atheism & Agnosticism”

—by Mark Vandebrake

Website: http://freethoughtguide.com; Available now on Amazon.com

Mark Vandebrake has clearly put in a lot of hours and energy sorting through countless resources for the freethought community in this recently released book. Despite the fact that he calls this compilation “not an exhaustive collection,” it represents more than enough to cover the areas of freethought that are most commonly discussed, and some areas I had not actually even considered.

The general structure of the volume consists of sections that begin with introductory essays, in which the author expresses his perspectives, interweaving passages from the writings of famous and historic freethinkers, relevant to the subject matter. These introductory essays are then followed by a breakdown of resources that cover the topics under consideration, often broken down further into subcategories. These resources take the form of annotated bibliographies, and occasionally simple lists. Vandebrake has inserted personal notes and recommendations in areas where he felt further information or clarification might be useful to the reader.

The categories included are as follows:

Introduction: The Introduction presents the author’s personal thoughts on why skepticism is important and when and how different people apply it to various claims. He also takes a moment to explain why the book was produced, “I began exploring the world of freethought and soon realized there was not a single work which brought the various threads of this perspective together. Furthermore, there are so many resources dedicated to various aspects of freethought that it is easy to get bogged down and confused. What I wanted was a single book which had filtered through this mass of information and presented the very best of what freethought has to offer.”

In a nutshell, such a guide would have been useful to him in his research, but did not exist. And so he took the initiative to make it so.

Also contained in the introduction are many definitions for common terms, such as “atheism,” “agnosticism,” “naturalism,” “pantheism,” “secularism” and even “science.”

To wrap the Introduction, Vandebrake uses personal perspectives and passages from freethought works to address FAQs that include “how do freethinkers find meaning in life?,” and “do freethinkers have a basis for morality?”

Brief History of Freethought: Provides a review of the progression of freethought, globally. Keeping it concise, the author still manages to not only include Western freethinkers, but freethinkers in other areas and cultures through history, including parts of Asia and the Muslim world.

Studies and Statistics: Presents compiled facts and figures, as well as they can be represented, for breakdowns and comparisons with levels of belief, religious affiliation, and social metrics such as education, crime, end-of-life care, abortion and much more.

Activism: Explores different models of what has caused modern secular societies to become more secular, and also reviews proposed strategies employed by activists (not just in freethought)—such as visibility, organizing, engaging in public debate and dialog. This section also examines the concepts of Religious Freedom and Separation of Church and State—what they mean and how they function to protect citizen’s rights.

Education and Parenting: The opening essay for this section is brief and followed by lists of Humanist values that are beneficial to people, families, and societies; it still contains a substantial bibliography, and resources broken down by age, topic, and parent and child subcategories.

Science: Unpredictably, the essay in this section is possibly the most brief. However, it contains a robust list of resources on general science, astronomy and physics, and biology, psychology and anthropology.

Religion and Pseudoscience: Addresses benefits of religion including extending the human imagination, in order to frame elusive psychological, human experiences into meaningful, and often powerful mythologies and symbols. The bibliography includes religious history and analysis, counter apologetics, additional resources categorized by specific religion, and even includes a listing of pseudoscience watchdog groups.

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