SKP Freethinkers
A Birds Of a Feather group (BOF) of Escapees RV Club
New Member Information
As of November 2008 we have 192 members in our BOF which was formed
in August of 2006. Before we had a website, our members
used our
Yahoo! News Group which is still available (on request) for
viewing our initial correspondance. Most physical get togethers so far have been
informal but as we grow, more of our members are finding each other and
connecting socially.
SKP Freethinkers BOF is exclusively for members of Escapees RV club
so to join the BOF you must first become a member of
Escapees.
The name of our BOF, "Freethinkers" is used as an umbrella term for
"secular
humanists, rationalists, skeptics, atheists, agnostics and all those
who reject supernatural beliefs." The term "Freethinkers" has historical
meaning dating back hundreds of years. Notice that it is
one word, and not "free thinkers." The freethought movement has
advocated such diverse causes as abolitionism and feminism but the
unifying themes have been the rejection of supernatural belief
including religious belief, and the separation of church and state. Some Escapees have mistaken
"freethinker" to mean "open minded" or
"anything goes" and have consequently been disappointed with our
orientation. So if you're not familiar with freethinking, you might investigate it with our Links
or on your own with the internet. After you join you will have
access to our member resources. You'll find that except for our
membership in Escapees, our RVing lifestyle, and our lack of
religiosity, our group is quite diverse.
All members of Escapees are of course welcome to join our BOF
regardless of their beliefs. But we offer religious believers a word
of caution: This group serves as a place for non-believers to be
open and honest with their friends, so some may not find the respect
for religion here that they may be accustomed to.
Our forums are open only to our BOF members and that exclusivity is
part of the appeal. Group newcomers are encouraged to "tell their story" of how they came to
be Freethinkers. So if you would like to post
something, it will give the others in the group a chance to see who
else is here with us and provide us a glimpse into your unique
perspective. If you prefer to just read, that's fine too.
We try to avoid moderation on our forums and any need for it is
rare. As long as you avoid personal attacks on individual members,
bashing of the group, or repetitive promotion of an unrelated
agenda, you will
probably find your comments welcome.
We collect some voluntary demographic information on our Membership Application. This information is used for statistical reporting within the BOF. Most new member comments from the member application are reported on our forum but without member names.
We respect your privacy. Our member roster is not published and we do not share member information with anyone besides Escapees, Inc. Many members do however choose to share their identities with other members in the Members Only sections of our website. Our forum is "members only," for reading and posting, but real member names are appended to posts.
“SKP Freethinkers” bumper stickers are available. You’ll find them a
great way to identify yourself to our members and as a
“consciousness raiser” in the RVing community.
I sincerely hope that you enjoy your experience with us.
All the best,
Howard Replogle
Founder, SKP Freethinkers
Ready to join?
Go to Membership Application
Code of Conduct
This is not an independent group. We are part of the much larger
Escapees RV Club which is owned by Escapees, Inc. a closely held
private corporation. We have an ad in the bimonthly Escapees
Magazine and our BOF is an enhancement to the benefits of Escapees
membership. So it is important that we conduct ourselves in a manner
appropriate to our parent organization. Escapees has strict rules
against “hate groups” within their organization. We are not a hate
group, but it is nevertheless necessary for us to take care in our
use of language that we avoid any appearance of hate or hateful
agendas. But I should temper that caution with this: disagreement,
even strong disagreement is not hate. You are encouraged to speak
your mind on our forum, but civility is enforced.
Ready to join?
Go to Membership Application
FAQ: What's with the turtles?
It’s turtles all the way down!
A well-known scientist (some say it was the philosopher Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise."
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?""You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"
So that is why we’ve decorated our website (somewhat facetiously) with graphics of turtles. We’ve also included some favorite RV pictures because we are all RVers as well as Freethinkers!
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