​​Q&A

Note: Questions and answers related to a specific article, publication or video are located on the web page for that article, publication or video.

What is a Freethinker?

      A Freethinker (or Free Thinker) is a person who makes up their own mind about things, based on reason and objective evidence, not faith or the statements of some authority. This does NOT automatically exclude anything supernatural (God, prayer, Heaven, Hell, ghosts, etc), it just requires that the validity of all claims - including supernatural ones - have to be evaluated by reason and verifiable facts. 

​     Although many Freethinkers are non-religious (because religion is based on faith, not evidence, Hebrews 11:1), "non-religious" and "Freethinker" are not the same thing. There are many non-religious people who believe highly irrational things based on superstition, mysticism or misrepresentation of known facts; they are not Freethinkers. And some Freethinkers, such as Benjamin Franklin, were/are Deists. 

Is Freethought A Godless Liberal Conspiracy?

     No. Freethought is very mainstream. For example, these quotes are inscribed over doorways in the Cox Corridors on the first floor of the United States Capitol in Washington D.C.  (Don't take our word for it. See for yourself at https://www.aoc.gov/facts/quotations  ):

     "Freedom of thought and the right of private judgment in matters of conscience direct their course to this happy country." -  Samuel Adams

     "Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech." -  Benjamin Franklin​​​

Why do you not blog?
     The articles, videos and publications of Freethinkers Books take a large amount of time to research and produce. We feel that developing these products uses our particular skillsets and talents more effectively than blogging.  
     We like blogs. We think that some blogs are very interesting, and some of our authors follow several blogs closely. We just choose not to blog. 

Why are you not on Facebook or Twitter? 
     For the same reasons that we do not blog.​

I have written a book. Will Freethinkers’ Books publish it?

     Freethinkers’ Books is not currently accepting new authors. We recommend that you publish it yourself, using one of the many fine “On Demand” publishing services that are now available.

I have written an article. Will Freethinkers’ Books post it on their web site??

     We would love to read your article, so please email a link to us at freethinkersbooks@gmail.com  (For security reasons, we do not open attachments to emails from people we do not know.) If we like your article, we may ask for your permission to post the link (but not the article) on our web site. 

What is A.E.D. Pierce’s full name?
     Alexander Eratosthenes Darwin Pierce.  Dr Pierce says that his parents named him after three scientists whom they admired: Alexander Fleming, Eratosthenes of Cyrene and Charles Darwin. (“Pierce” is their family surname.)  Most of his friends call him "Ed".

Are you Atheists?
     The term "Atheist" is often misunderstood, and covers a very wide range of views and attitudes. For that reason, none of the authors associated with Freethinker's Books describes themselves as an Atheist. It is true, however, that none of our authors believe in the existence of any god that is associated with any of the world's major religions, including but not limited to: Jesus Christ, Satan/Lucifer, Jehovah/Yahweh, Allah, Buddha, Krishna, Brahma/Brahman, etc. 
     Since becoming ex-Christians, some of our authors have regularly attended (but never joined) churches or other religious groups, for family reasons and/or to help us understand different points of view. A partial list of these includes humanistic Jewish fellowships, as well as Unitarian and various liberal Protestant Christian churches. 

What do you believe in?
     We do not have beliefs. We have logical conclusions based on evidence. Beliefs depend on faith (2 Corinthians 5:7, Hebrews 11). The problem with faith is that people can put their faith in the wrong things and be absolutely convinced that God has told them they are right. Examples of this are almost infinite, but we will point out just two. The first one dominated the childhoods of some of our authors. The second one, tragically, appears in the news almost every day. 
     Some of our authors are old enough to remember when our parents, relatives and other authority figures told us that it was God's will for some U.S. citizens to be denied many basic human rights solely because they were black. Today, this belief is widely (though not universally) recognized as morally reprehensible. But 60 years ago it was more than an opinion, it was the law in all "Bible Belt" states in the U.S. "Jim Crow" was God's will.  For more info, go to   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws

     More tragic examples of the problems with faith are the numerous suicide bombers that strap bombs to themselves and use those bombs to kill large numbers of innocent people, because they believe that their god has told them to and will reward them for being a "martyr". 

​Why do you not accept financial donations?
    The directors of Freethinkers' Books have determined that, through careful expense management and the use of volunteers, existing revenues (primarily book sales) can provide adequate financing. This also maximizes our freedom to say what needs to be said. Please refer to this web site's "About" page for further discussion about our funding and support. 
    We do not have any problem with other organizations or individuals accepting donations, provided that they follow all applicable laws and use those donations responsibly. We just choose not to accept donations.

​

Why have you disabled comments on your YouTube videos?
    In years past, the comments sections for our videos have been "trolled" by fundamentalist Christians. These comments were abusive and sometimes even threatening. The biggest problem, however, was the overwhelming volume of "troll" comments whose only purpose was to overwhelm real comments and make it impossible for real commenters to have any constructive dialog. Although we have no way of proving that these attacks were coordinated, the rapid rate at which these abusive comments were posted strongly suggests that they were organized by one or more Christian fundamentalist groups. 
   There were so many of these abusive comments that legitimate comments, even legitimate comments from Christians, were drowned out because they were a small percentage of the total. 
   We tried various strategies, without success. Finally, we removed all of our videos (which deleted all of the comments) and waited a while. 
   We then re-posted our videos with comments disabled, and put a statement in each YouTube description that comments and questions can be sent to us via email. We will post any sincere comments on our web site, even if we disagree with them. That way, anyone who has a genuine comment or question can easily contact us and their comments will be available to other viewers. We won't allow trolls to waste anyone's time, and we will deny trolls the attention that their truncated egos and decerebrate emotions so inappropriately crave. 

Why don't you produce a new video every week?
   Creating videos which are interesting, factual and well-documented requires large amounts of time. Before we even start producing a video, we intensively investigate each subject: the history, archaeology and science, as well as the claims, fallacies and arguments of Christianity, its theologians, apologists and other respected sources. We would love to publish a new video every week or even every day. But our videos require many of hours of effort, and it is just not possible for us to create them any faster and maintain the high quality that our viewers deserve.