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This is an old revision of ChrisCase made by OpenMindSpace on 2013-07-15 11:49:47.
Chris Case
Hello, my name is Chris Case and I am the curator of this resource OpenMindSpace.org. I created this site, to share the intriguing and often rare information, that I have gathered, mostly in my own mind, over many years of Freethought free thinking. I aim to create a resource that gives a bigger picture, to help engender a more holistic understanding of our selves and the reality in which we live.I feel as if my adventures in free thought are worth sharing with the world, in a comprehensive, easy to read format and that this resource can provide a way of chronicling, refining and even growing that knowledge base organically. If there's one thing I've learned over the years, its that when you express an idea, you learn something from that process and so do others; because you have to think about the concepts from a different angle, so people who aren't already familiar with the concepts can understand.
My Own Journey in Freethought
As with most people, I have been through many different phases in the development of my mind. In my own situation, I have been willing to keep an open mind, for the most part. I've been willing to consider a wide array of ideas, on a wide array of topics, without necessarily having to embrace or reject those ideas; more to keep them in mind as possibilities and see what develops.Early Childhood: Critical Thinking on Religion
Some of my earliest memories of free thinking had to do with the questioning of the religious views, that were laid down before me. When I was a relatively young child, I was sent to Church and Sunday School, typically once a week on Sunday. I felt the desire to try and make sense of what I was being taught, since it seemed important to some of the people around me. I found, however, that I arrived at conclusions that were different than what anyone else was willing to discuss openly.I remember hearing the stories of the Christian Bible and how it was routinely described as the Word of God. It occurred to me that, if this is indeed the case, that I should find out more about this body of documents. How did this information get from the deity called God, to the people of Earth? I sought out answers from the people I could ask and, to my surprise, came up empty. Most of the people I asked did not know, or care, where the Bible came from. Indeed, they did not even bother to verify the amazing claim that this book came from the creator of the universe! I found it astounding that people would believe such a claim without, at the very least, having some in-depth understanding of the history of the document.
Who wrote the Bible? Who translated the Bible? Who edited the Bible? How do we know that the document ever did, or still does, contain the will of the supreme deity of the universe?
Few of the people I asked seem to have even pondered any of these questions. This was a bit shocking to me, considering how important their religion was to them. I would have thought that they would have had good answers to all of these questions, given the extraordinary claims they are making about their religion. I was starting to realize that there is a strong undercurrent of anti-intellectualism in the major religions and even an annoyance at those who ask difficult questions.
In fact, the questions I asked were so annoying, that I was routinely kicked out of Sunday School class. As it turns out, if you don't know the answer to an inconvenient question, you just brush it off and try to ignore the question altogether. I found this very frustrating the paradoxical nature of the prevailing religious beliefs. If it is so important, why not discover the answers?
As it turns out most of these people were not very curious about their own religion. Having already been given the answers that they sought, to assuage their fears about not knowing much about the mysterious nature of the reality in which they inhabit; they simply leave it at that. Many were actually afraid that questioning what they were told was some kind of a sin, that they would be punished for; so that gave them the excuse they needed, to avoid delving into it any further.
