 The North Texas Church of Freethought does most everything every other church in the DFW Metroplex does, but without the supernaturalism. As we often say, we just believe in one less deity than the traditional faith-based churches. In one of our official documents we state our mission this way: "To promote and advance, as a moral imperative, the unfettered power of thought over belief, of reason over faith, of facts over revelation and superstition, and of knowledge over dogmas and doctrines, especially in matters of religion and religious opinion. In so doing, the NTCOF intends to safeguard these important elements of human interest and experience from the stranglehold of tradition, the dangers of authority, and the unthinking grasp of established belief, as well as from the prejudices and intolerances engendered by them, in order to address the human need for understanding within both the categories of public, social, and objective truth, and of personal, individual, and subjective insight and self discovery."These are broad terms. In practice, what we do tends to fit into three basic categories: Education:
Like all churches, we have a message. But most people, even nontheists, know a lot less about the message of Freethought than about that of the traditional faith-based churches, especially Christianity, the most prevalent religion in America. There is a desperate need for the message of Freethought to be preached, heard, and understood. Our goal is to fill this need, especially through our regular monthly services which have been free and open to the public since February of 1995. Articles on this website, most of them from our services over the years, supplement this mission. And we also gladly make available speakers for other groups wishing to know more about us and our rational approach to religious questions. |  |
Community:
Human beings are social animals. It's just a fact. Most of us belong to families related by kinship and we all live in larger communities as well. Churches are a unit of social organization intermediate betwen that of the family and the larger community. Their basis is that of shared values relating to personal needs, interests, talents and ambitions. That's what makes churches different from various "cause" organizations including those that focus on supporting state-church separation or opposing what they consider to be the harmful effects of religious dogmatism and extremism. The NTCOF has brought together people who have married and had children and others who found valuable and life-long friendships. People relating to others is a good thing, even for unbelievers - especially for unbelievers! |  |
Charity:
Just as individuals fit into families, churches fit into the larger community and we, like most other churches, would like to do so in helpful and caring ways. Although we are not large enough (yet!) to sponsor ambitious charitable projects, we are committed to doing what we can to help others in our church and in the larger community. Religions justify this in different ways. For example, some of them say that their deity "told them to do it." Our attitude is that we human beings should help each other because there are no deities we can look to for help. If we don't do it, no one will. |  |
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