The Rational Factor Weblog

A journey into humanism, skepticism, freethought, science, atheism, and philosophy.

Mission Statement

My mission is to promote critical thinking skills in all aspects of life.    

3 Comments »

  1. Hi, Jack.
    I’m originally from Knoxville, and so I find your accent an echo of home. Understanding you is like understanding my family.

    I seem to have misplaced my accent years ago. After high school I left Tennessee to move north, first to college, then to DC, and then finally to New Hampshire. I found the journey out of the Bible belt was liberating in every way possible.

    I’m curious about whether you find any like-minded individuals in your area now. My Tennessee social circle was sorely lacking in critical thinkers, although I would have benefited from knowing people could express doubts rationally and calmly.

    Peace, and Happy Vernal Fecundity Festival.

    I’m enjoying the podcasts.

    Comment by gaytheistic | March 23, 2008

  2. Hi there,

    Living as a freethinker in the Bible belt has been challenging and often disheartening. I had very few friends that critically examined their beliefs. My entire family is still all religious and we kind of have an unstated truth to not debate religion. I’ve lived in the South my entire life except for a brief stint in upstate New York for two months. I was raised in the Chattanooga area and lived there for most of my life though I moved to Wilmington, NC last June for a job. I’ve been fortunate to find a humanist and freethought group here that has been very good to me. The president of the group and I actually attended a talk by Frank Turek tonight. He has a book titled “I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist” so you can imagine the makeup of the crowd. It was good though and I enjoyed it. I’ve never heard of Vernal Fecundity Festival and I will have to look that up but I hope you have a good one too! Thank you so much for the kind words. Jack

    Comment by therationalfactor | March 25, 2008

  3. :-)

    “Vernal Fecundity Festival” is my term for “Easter.” It honors its pagan and Roman roots without the resurrection reference that has become attached to it. To wit:

    The name “Easter” originated with the names of an ancient Goddess and God. The Venerable Bede, (672-735 CE.) a Christian scholar, first asserted in his book De Ratione Temporum that Easter was named after Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Similarly, the “Teutonic dawn goddess of fertility [was] known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos.” Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring: “eastre.”

    ( http://www.religioustolerance.org/easter1.htm )

    Comment by gaytheistic | March 26, 2008


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