Ashamed of Jesus

One of the things I've been noticing on Facebook in the past year or so is Christian family and friends writing things like I'm not ashamed of my Jesus. Ashamed? An interesting thing to defend. Have you seen it?

I can't help but wonder where this particular meme comes from, though I suspect I know.

In the churches, for example, from the pulpits, are they saying They, the atheists!, they want you to feel ashamed of your belief?  I guess it is a part of the persecuted Christian narrative that is so prevalent now. From my many years in the church, I'm sure that the people on the pulpits across our country are riling people up with the idea that they are being persecuted, shut down, challenged in their belief. And it's scary.

Maybe it's because I'm older, but I've become so much more aware of fad, fashion, crazes, and bandwagon thinking in things like music, fashion, even beliefs than I've ever been before. I've watched clothing and hair styles come and go again and again. I've seen musical styles give rise and fall. I've seen the belief systems of the church change from decade to decade. This decade seems to be the decade of War on Christianity.

How does this so-called persecution work for the church?

Any good team builder knows that the building of a good, strong team is to find a common goal around which to base the community. Where the group identity includes victimization (thank you abusers for giving us this form of identity) a leadership can organize all kinds of dynamic activity. From community-building activities to an overall sense of cohesion and battle-ready mode.

How does this persecution narrative effect the church?

I ask this because I've been thinking about this a little bit. First I have to remind myself of that quote that my son John reminds me of quite often: You see what you are looking for.  So if I'm going to consider the idea that the church finds this claim useful, I have to wonder why.

I think the portrayal of persecution toward Christians does several things. I think it is designed to bring together a community of people who are willing to ignore information seen and heard in the media for whatever is being sold by the leader of the club.  That means that people in the church are even more likely to disregard all forms of knowledge being accumulated by science every single day. Not to mention the idea that science is something to fear or to disparage. Which is something I find reprehensible, I'll admit.

It also creates a sense of willingness and a glamour to stand alone in a louder secular world. The feeling of persecution gives believers a sense of connection to the earliest church builders who were battling to survive. A stronger connection to the idea of being a True Christian. I think that some believers get a sense that it is a meaningful thing to fight the good fight for their religion, which is a tough thing to prove in such a wealthy and privileged country as the USA. I think there is also a sense of alarm and fear of all things outside of the church. Some people might even be willing to take their inflated sense of outrage and fear to the polls. More importantly, this increased fear and motility infuses the church with vocal supporters and empowers the quiet among them.

It’s almost a celebration of us vs. them to consider yourself to be persecuted. Can you see the benefits to the church of creating this false sense of persecution?

Sadly, this means that people who have bought into this narrative of exaggerated sense of ill-treatment are highly likely to ignore science, knowledge, critical thought, and any movement toward secularism and are more likely to shrink back into the confines of church doctrine as interpreted by current day proselytizers, are more likely to ignore the many things that are nonsensical about their religions, are proud to reject the outer world for a more fundamental belief system, are far less likely to explore their doubt, are subject to increase vast, impenetrable cognitive barriers between believers and others, to separate believers from the rest of the world.

And I think that that is a crime, a crisis of thought.
I resent the increased tension between believers and non-believers, I resist the church using the minds of kind people, and I resent the spread of fear of knowledge, all created from the church itself, in its pathetic last ditch effort to remain relevant. 

 What do you think? 

* For Karen Garst the Faithless Feminist

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Genetic Testing - 23 & Me

A bunch of years ago my friend Judi sent her saliva to get the genetic testing thing done and she kept urging me to get my testing done. 
At the time I wasn't very interested, though 
I understood her excitement about the ability to gain knowledge of ourselves. Recently I decided that the time was right.

I sent my saliva sample to 23andme about six weeks ago. I was surprisingly excited to get my results, after all of these years. Well, they finally arrived. Today. YAY.  😀

In my family, a little on both sides, there is some belief in an Italian background. And Swiss, tons of Swiss. But generally we expected German. Forever back, German. It turns out that some of that is correct and some of that is incorrect. Here's the breakdown:

Not a bit of Italian in the bunch and lots more Irish than I thought, or ever even considered. It's a rather unremarkable ancestry, all things considered. Also, I would venture to say that nearly everyone in my hometown has an ancestry that would break down nearly the same.  😄  Unremarkable. In fact, in my own composition, there is nothing at all except for German until one goes back to at least the early 1800s. 
Ja, Freunde, ich bin eine Deutsch madchen.

Along with the ancestry composition, the genetic testing results from 
23 and Me include quite a lot of other interesting information. I doubt much of it is interesting to you, Dear Reader, Sehr Geehrter Leser, except to know exactly what type of results are available through this particular company, and I'm delighted, erfreut, to share that with you. The only thing that really and truly surprised me about my own results is the part telling me that I'm highly unlikely to experience any dementia or Alzheimer's because it was not detected in my genes...I fully expected to get that because of my ridiculously bad memory and recall. Anyway...

The results came to me today by email, six weeks after sending in my spit. I've been clicking on many links and boxes and getting more and more information on myself. The results have lots of explanation as well as lots of disclaimers. 
The explanations are very clear and useful. 
Here is a list of a few basics bits of that information that is available with the emailed results. Each item listed here has an explanation of the characteristic as well as if the characteristic was detected. Lots more comprehensive information is available on their website to help understand results, though no result is considered a diagnosis. I'm including this entire list in case you are looking for something specific:

I found most of that interesting to read about. The results include a multitude of fascinating links to keep me busy reading for days!

I also enjoyed reading about how my long, long ago ancestors spread across the European continent, as well as some information on the family of African mother and I, Afrikanische Mutter und ich, and, indeed, most of us, came from. Here is an example. This map shows the movement of my ancestors, a very short trip, it seems to me, for such a long period of time, over 160,000 years! The L, L3, N, R, and H groups are all traceable and knowable lineages. My results included information on the movement of these distant ancestors. Here are two enticing and intriguing nibbles of information that came with this map:

Haplogroup L

180,000 Years Ago If every person living today could trace his or her maternal line back over thousands of generations, all of our lines would meet at a single woman who lived in eastern Africa between 150,000 and 200,000 years ago. Though she was one of perhaps thousands of women alive at the time, only the diverse branches of her haplogroup have survived to today. The story of your maternal line begins with her.

and

Though haplogroup H1 rarely reaches high frequencies beyond western Europe, over 60% of eastern Tuareg in Libya belong to haplogroup H1. The Tuareg call themselves the Imazghan, meaning “free people.” They are an isolated, semi-nomadic people who inhabit the West-Central Sahara and are known today for a distinctive dark blue turban worn by the men, and for their long history as gatekeepers of the desert.

I'm still processing lots of the information and will continue to do so. I have to say that while I'm very excited about having this information, there are a few things I was hoping to find out more about. Like cancer. I seem to have some of that in the family. Maybe a few other more common disorders and abilities as well. But WOW, I'm excited about what I have to read and research and, for now, zur zeit, I'll keep following links and using this information as the perfect distraction from my bad back...

If you have had your DNA testing done, or if you have any questions at all, please let me know! I'd love to hear from you.

 
You might also enjoy, genießen:
23 and Me
Being 75 and Not Knowing
Books and Other Stuff for your Lively, Loving Heathen Children

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

(2010)

I admit it, I'm a nerd about many, many fields of study. The Chauvet caves in Southern France have always left me in a state of awe, so I was delighted to discover this documentary deep in the bowels of Netflix. 

The film begins with a quick run around the old hills and rivers of southern France where Chauvet cave is hidden. The landscape speaks of eons past for it is old old old. Our guides appreciate the magnificence of the way we travel and we fall into silent reverence, awe. When we finally see the entrance to the cave we see that authorities have sealed it and have actually placed a locked steel door to protect the delicate balance of chemistry and biology and artistry within the cave. The original entrance to the cave suffered a massive landslide thousands of years ago and is now buried within about fifty or more feet of rubble and crystal stalactites. What an interesting thought to ponder, that the immensity of time allows for both the masterpieces inside to have been created, a massive landslide, and another amount of time for that additional fifty feet to develop stalactites and stalagmites that nearly form columns...

The gorgeous shots of these crystal-covered pillars is truly breathtaking. Can our human observation of these columns adequately appreciate the beauty of Nature's ways? Can we appreciate the immensity of the creation of this single cave chamber through utterly natural, knowable forces? Does it move us that this chamber existed completely without humans' awareness for eons? Is it my mind alone that struggles to process such reality? 

We move forward into a chamber only to be welcomed by a massive bison, as though the artist could barely contain his delight at the discovery of canvas worthy of his dreams.

In fact, the paintings are absolutely transcendent to me, yet it is the time passage that makes my mind stop and pause... I cannot grasp the idea of thirty-five thousand years. I want so much to imagine the one who carried the flaming torch deep into the cave, rubbed that torch over the side wall to clear it of ash, and then painted his own handprint onto the walls. I want to, for a moment, enter into that flash of time when an artist actually scraped the cave wall free of crystallized coating and painted true images of paleolithic horses and bison with such accuracy. OR that next moment, possibly five thousand years later, when another artist painted bison, rhinoceros, and ibex onto the same walls, now, again, glazed with crystal.

The silence so deep, my own heartbeat in my ears, there he is...fingers full of red ocher, confidently recreating the abundance of life...or calling out to the spirit of those animals? The dark so deep. Where my light does not shine remains as it has been for an eon, pitch and lightless. The bones of cave bear at my feet are already beyond age and I am here where no one will again step for another age. There, the skull of a cave bear completely clothed in crystal. It is silent here, yet not, for the earth itself has a voice of its own. He works alone, stooped, broken finger, lost in the dreams in his mind. 

He dabs orange pigment into the wall making a leopard pattern, sits back and appreciates his work. He alone has done this. He alone knows of the secret of these cave walls. His name is unknown today. His hands have become legend, myth, dream. He is somehow as real as this room, yet shrouded, as indistinct in the time between us as mist. The time keeps him forever enigmatic and veiled...yet still before me...

Who was he? Can you see him?
Does his humanity call to you?


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February 12: Darwin Day
The Eyes Have It

23 and Me

OK, so I'm a curious person. For years I've been thinking about those DNA testers and thinking I'd get to it sometime. This is the time. 
I gathered up my spit and sent it in to  
23 and Me a couple of weeks ago and now 
I'm waiting for the results. Only four to six more weeks to go before I get my results.

On my dad's side of the family we can only go so far back, back to my dad's grandfather. That man, according to the only family story that I know about him, was raised in an orphanage someplace in Bern, Switzerland...the place burned down. That's it. And I don't even know if that story is true.

One elderly and incredibly beloved relative of mine once told me that someone in our family was Italian and had invented the Gamma Ray, because their name was Gamma.  LOL. I'm thinking that some parts of that story aren't true; in fact, much of what little I know is questionable. For a number of reasons, family history is pretty sketchy on both sides of my family.

On Mom's side I'm pretty sure it's all German all of the way down.

I don't expect to find anything except for German and Swiss back to the beginning of time, but I'm still looking forward to the results. I'm not really interested in the health information. I figure I already know most of that. And I figure I'm genetically-related to some fairly basic people. 

Know what? It's just about the knowing. We can know these things now. This kind of information is available to us, we here in 2017, for the first time ever.  In all of humanity, we can know what our own ancestors couldn't have known and wouldn't have understood. 
I want to know just because I can know.


Because I also know that my great great grandfather was the center of a hot, hot star. The cauldron of the center of him cooked up the heavy elements that allowed stuff to be born from the most basic elements. My ancestors swarmed in the warm, early seas and, with the force of their breath, created the atmosphere that we take for granted. The atmosphere that protects us from the coldness of space. My ancestors then crawled from that sea to explore the shores of the great landforms of Pangaea and before. And after, carrying with them the essential building blocks of my heart, my mind, my blood.

They learned to climb and fly and dig and live in every habitat they found their way into. Their DNA collecting all of the information around them to hand down to me. Some took to the skies on gossamer wings, others on wings of bone and sinew, seeing the terra below them from heights that land-walking cousins could only imagine. Some of these cousins preferred the height and built their homes in the tallest of trees or in the highest corner. Some burrowed into black dirt and were warm. These ancestors diverged further from their below kin, making the unseen currents their new oceans. Their blood still singing the songs of our connection.

Many ancestors hung in the trees and talked with their cousins who preferred being down below. These cousins loved one another for aeons. Some of my cousins, those ancestors who can still be found in my DNA, and yours, stood taller and understood more. They fought and learned and discovered more and more. Their journeys across the ever-changing continents still play in our brains, in each and every cell of our bodies, silently telling their continuous stories.

When they could not know, they used their developing brain and created stories to explain things beyond their comprehension. They celebrated all of nature around them, held nature in awe, and created pieces of art in their wonder. Art that depicted their questions, those things that nurtured them, those things that they desired. This art and these stories filled a part of them that they didn't even know existed before this.

Some hid in homes constructed of stone, some in spit and wattle, some under logs, others within the very earth itself, warm and safe. I am a part of that chain. And now we are here, today, learning where the DNA will take me. Because we can.


..........

Addendum:
AW MAN!
I wrote this post and then I found this beautiful piece!!!!!!!
More beautiful then I could ever create!

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The Eyes Have It

On Fleek

The Eyes Have it

Do you ever think about your eyes?
To truly appreciate your eyes, the functioning of your eyes, you have to realize that your normal, healthy eyes are automatically triangulating your spacial relation continuously. That, in addition to detecting detail in even extremely low levels of light, distinguishing over ten million distinct colors, observing the smallest discrete motion, adapting to changes in visible light through changes in the pupil, automatic adaptation to light quality, focusing during movement from close objects to distant objects, continual focus with both rapid and slow object movement, observing three dimensions, and recognizing subtle patterns.

Our eyes are exquisitely amazing and complicated organs. *

The evolution of sight is also truly amazing.

Our complex eyes began long ago with a few cells that were capable of sensing light. These specialized cells detected light and that light was then detected by the brain. Most resources that I found date early sight and early photoreceptive cells at about 700 million years ago. Followed by greater and greater organ development: lenses, fluid-filled sac, optic nerve, etc. 

Following that, the fossil record begins to show all kind of differences in specialization of species. Those with exceedingly excellent night vision or distance vision, light waves that are completely invisible to human beings, under water sight, heck, even under water and above water vision at the same time. Some creatures with one eye and some with more than two eyes.  Some creatures still have incredibly simple optical systems while many creatures have exquisitely complex systems for detecting the visible.

And all of this got me to thinking about something.

About how the evolution of sight went on to create further evolution of species. With sight comes the need to hide better, to hunt better, to breed better, to feed better, placement of the eyes. As the various species develop, so does their need to camouflage or stand out: all bits of evolution spurred by the development of sight. 

Also, I'm wondering just how many times those initial photosensitive cells had to happen before something really took off and started a species or two to create more and more complex photoreceptivity. How many times did the process have to start over again as one species faded out, taking the advanced sight cells with them. These processes over millions of years just boggles my brain.

Did you know that there are existing organisms today with only the basic photoreceptor cells? The euglena has a photoreceptive spot that allows it to locate light. That's all it does and the spot allows the euglena to move towards light for better opportunities for photosynthesis.

In fact, the entire range of complexity of sight is traceable in organisms on the planet today, from the simplest of photoreceptive spots all of the way up to the most complex eyes in any organism, the mantis shrimp. Dude, there is so much to learn about sight.


I visited my father-in-law the other day for an eye exam because, yes, he's an eye doctor. 😊  I'm very fortunate because with all of my many questions about eyes he had all of the answers and, furthermore, is even more of a nerd than I am. So we had a fabulous talk as he checked out my vision.


 * The internet has many great websites that look at the process of the evolution of sight. 
      Please look at several sights for greater appreciation!

iscovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. Marcel Proust
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/eyes

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. Marcel Proust
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/eyes

And Now for a Moment of Science

atheist blog

The other day I was reading around Facebook. After reading about a few people praying to their god for an end to cancer, some people talking about how their crises are meant to be, a few people referring to various energies, divine paths, one prayer circle, god's plans for someone, etc etc etc, you know what I'm talking about, I felt the need to do something to put palatable, informing, relatable science out there.

The largest percentage of my FB friends are atheists, freethinkers, humanists of all sorts who don't post rubbish of that nature but as I was reading the other day I felt all icky. ICKY and disgusted by the pseudoscience and religious rot that so many people spread around on their accounts. 

A moment of Science

Of course they are welcome to post whatever they want and I can unfriend or hide people all I want. But I started to think that I needed to do more.

I started thinking about what I felt the need to do and decided that I wanted to spread the good news of the many interesting fields of science. 
So I created a piece of clip art that says And now for a moment of SCIENCE and I have already posted it several times with a brief synopsis of a science story, discovery, or tidbit along with a link to science news sources. I decided to make an effort to post some science stuff every Sunday: Science Sunday. 
I like the alliteration.

Science Sunday

I feel better taking this small action, it's proactive and I don't have to feel so annoyed with the religious crap that permeates the lives and minds of so many people that I care about.

Want to join me? Feel free to take my clip art and use it on your FB or other social media. Just because we need more science and reason out there!

  Is this a ridiculous reactionary thing for me to do?  

  What do you think?  

Homeschool: General Science

atheist homeschool atheist homeschool atheist homeschool atheist homeschool atheist homeschool atheist homeschool atheist homeschool atheist homeschool 

This evening John and I were doing some work in his General Science book and it occurred to me that I haven't said much about his science work. You already know that we're big fans of textbooks and online resources in this house and this textbook is a great example of what we love about using textbooks.

We are using the Prentice-Hall text called Physical Science: Concepts in Action, purchased from Amazon.com used for less than $12, which included the price of shipping. Also available for this textbook on Amazon.com is a reading and study student workbook, CD-ROM with transparencies, lab workbook, additional reading booklet, additional reading and skills booklet, teacher's edition, and a variety of test and quiz booklets. The workbook is internet-linked...I love that about the Prentice-Hall/Pearson textbooks!

John wanted me to mention the book on my blog because, according to him, it's a comprehensive look at foundations of physical science that every student needs for higher levels of science study. 
Yep, he said that. We recommend it.

At this point in the text John is studying Chemistry and the classification of matter. He's enjoying the excellent examples given to clarify concepts, he told me so! Although we have covered a great deal of these science fundamentals in prior years, this textbook brings the content up to a more mature and engaging level. 

Aussie Eclipse

My husband and I are very involved with astronomy, geology, and other fields of science; this textbook has several sections specifically dealing with Earth Science and Astronomy, to my delight. John has been around all things astronomy for the entirety of his life and, somehow, perhaps by sheer will of ignoring, he reports that he has very little knowledge of astronomy but now he's interested in it.  LOL
KIDS! So he's looking forward to those chapters.

Next month John, JD, and I will be taking a field trip to the southwest where we will visit Meteor Crater, the Painted Desert, and the Grand Canyon! And so much more! We are looking forward to applying what we know to that visit...and to learning so much more! We're seriously excited about making this trip.

Anyway, just passing along another reliable resource for homeschoolers.

 GREETINGS to all readers in China

Is Teaching Creationism to a Kid Child Abuse?

atheist parent atheist parent atheist parent atheist parent atheist parent atheist parent atheist parent atheist parent atheist parent atheist parent atheist parent atheist parent

Are you on social media at all?
If so you have skipped at least a hundred articles and posts this month that are exploring and debating this question.

While I haven’t read a single one of those pieces I’m still thrilled at their existence. The fact that so many authors are addressing the question tells us something exciting, something worth celebrating.

Secular voices are rising! Secular and atheist authors and speakers and bloggers and youtubers and people are finally getting a say. We are at the table. For the first time in my life, atheist people are in the spotlight in very real and lasting ways, putting reason and critical thinking and secular points of view on display, normalizing it! I can’t help the exclamation points; it’s an amazing time to be alive.

I went and read “The Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism” from 2012, see Gallop-interanational.com for more information, and learned that, of the respondants, 37% of people claim to be nonreligious or atheists. 37%! That number, according to the same study, is a ten percent rise from a previous study from five years before. That number means alot because is shows us, in part, that people are naming it, claiming it, and identifying as nonbelievers far more openly than at any time in centuries. I think that is exciting!

I know, I know. I know that you are thinking, yeah, but atheists are also still the least trusted demographic, according to that one Pew study. Yeah… I don’t know what to say about that. That’s one of those WTF moments. But I have hope.

I have hope because there is a groundswell going on; more and more people who are in the social and public spheres calling themselves atheists, seeking like-minded associates, and putting their voices on the line. More and more people are using secular terms to describe themselves, to explore social issues, and to guide their lives...openly. More internet resources, more published material to read (most of it still self published, sadly), more atheist conventions and events. More.

Rayven

I hope the question is asked at least a million more times: Is teaching creationism to a child child abuse? Because it is finally considered a plausible question. Because people are answering yes to the question. Because public time and space is given to a question that has bothered many of us for years. PUBLIC. TIME. and SPACE.

I feel it, the change. I intend to be a part of it.  

Also, as my friend Rayven would have me say, Of Course, anytime you teach a child to forgo reason and logic for mythology you are handicapping them...for life, as well as ensuring another generation of adults who are incapable of making healthy and innovative solutions on this planet. Anytime you burden a potentially thinking mind with impediments to clear thought, you might as well be putting concrete blocks on feet that are learning how to run. 

In fact, isn't raising a child in religion child abuse? 


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First Flight

atheist parent atheist parent atheist parent

I'm a huge reader. With my back issues and whatnot these past weeks I have had the true delight of being able to read quite a bit lately. Some books on my ereader have been waiting for my attention for months. And who even knows what all is waiting there on my Nook. I love my nook; it holds so much material. My reading is so varied, everything from National Geographic (my favorite) to biographies to science tomes to Nora Roberts to historical fiction to novels. When that reading intersects with real life it can be serendipitous...sublime, even. 

About two weeks ago I started reading an amazing book that has been sitting on my Nook for several months. The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. It is a narrative history of the Wilbur and Orville Wright's years of trial, error, lesson the lead up to the 1903 flight at Kitty Hawk North Carolina, the world's first flight. 

Flight: beyond soaring, beyond dirigible, beyond lighter-than-air, beyond kite. Flight.

The learning process of these brothers was incredibly well-documented in their own journals, letters, and images. As true scientists, Wilbur and Orville documented everything, read everything available, conducted experiments, contacted people who were also working on the problem of flight, and did everything the hard way. On their own, they had absolutely no outside funding and almost no support from anyone outside of their own family.

This month, July 2015, the world saw come to fruition another flight, 112 years after the first flight at Kitty Hawk. About twenty years ago people within NASA conceived of an interplanetary probe, a mission that would last well over a decade, and be the culmination years of science and math. This month, New Horizons, a mission that launched in 2005, did an unbelievable thing.

Using the math and science that NASA human beings computed, this piano-sized grain of matter navigated from one miniscule grain of sand in this solar system to another fraction of a grain of sand billions of miles away. It truly blows my mind. On July 14th, New Horizons passed closer by Pluto than our moon is to us. 

AND THEN New Horizons sent back pixel after pixel, through the vastness of space of our solar system and we collected those pixels, one after the next, right here on our planet. The pixels formed an image of a planet with a heart on it.

Less than 112 years after self-taught Wilbur and Orville developed their own motor from spare parts, figured out how to manage yar and attitude and other flight problems, and moved the 605 pound Flight III on the eastern shore of our country, New Horizons encountered Pluto.

As I was reading The Wright Brothers I kept getting these deep feelings of tremendous awe. I get so see this. I get to be alive while human beings actually see the surface of the planet Pluto. I am the grateful recipient of these first pixels that have travelled four and a half hours through the emptiness of space between beyond Pluto and Earth.

I can’t help but wonder what Wilbur and Orville would make of it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Charlie and Kiwi: An Evolutionary Adventure

evolution, secular homeschooling, atheist
Recently a reader suggested some books for freethinking parents. One of the titles was Charlie and Kiwi: An Evolutionary Adventure written by Eileen Campbell and presented by Peter H. Reynolds and New York Hall of Science, published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Somon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division.

When Charlie starts to do a report at school about his favorite bird the kiwi, the other students have many questions about how this odd creature can be a bird when it doesn't fly and it has whiskers.  That evening Charlie goes home and, with the help of his stuffed friend Kiwi, a gift from his parents after their trip to New Zealand, Charlie learns exactly how the kiwi birds of New Zealand became perfectly evolved for the island of New Zealand!

Thanks to Charlie's curiosity, he takes a trip back in time, where Charlie and some friendly travelers learn some interesting facts about how birds evolved from dinosaurs, how evolution works, and how the kiwi, specifically, grew whiskers, became nocturnal, and became flightless, among other characteristics by learning about natural selection and adaptation.

.

The story is dynamic and interesting! I love the illustrations as well. Although my kids are teens, I would DEFINITELY have read this book a time or two to them when they were growing up.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
If you are wanting to introduce this advanced concept to your young ones, this 48-page book will keep their attention and explain evolutionary terms in ways that are very understandable and very clear.
It is probably for ages 4-10.

While looking online for a useful image for this post I came across the website for the New York Hall of Science...NICE!!!!  The page has some video and lots of downloads for use with the book.
Even NICER!

Thanks again, Frau B!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Other posts you might enjoy:
Book Review by John John
Frau B Suggestions for Freethinker Titles
Ex-Believers Come Hither!
Books for Your Skeptical Children
Secular Homeschool Materials
 

Frau M. Suggestions for Freethinker Titles

 atheist parenting books secular
One of my past posts that bring a good number of readers to my blog is a post entitled Books for Your Skeptical Children. Parents are always looking for more and better way to move beyond religion in raising their children and this post lists a dozen or so titles for freethinking families;  
I think it's time we had more books!

Who will write some more?!!!!!??

In the meantime, a reader suggested a few more freethinker titles for your library. I have ordered these from Amazon.com just this evening and I'll let you know what I think when I get them!

• Charlie and Kiwi:  An Evolutionary Adventure by The New York Hall of Science, intended for ages 4-8
• Why Don't We Go To Church? by Gail Miller, intended age is not listed but the main character is a nine year old boy.

Do you have any more titles of tried freethought books for kids or teens or adults?

Please share your library titles below!

Thanks Frau B!

An Unfortunate Necessary Evil

I’m Still Homeschool Atheist Momma!

avoiding indoctrination of children, raising atheists, rational childrenwelcome

Recently a friend asked me for some advice.
She wanted to know what she could do with her kindie daughter because her daughter loves magic and she has a fascination with all things that sound like religion and pomp. My friend was frightened and wanted a quick book or movie to inoculate her daughter against the rush of religious thinking, to teach her daughter critical thinking and secularism, to make sure that her daughter wouldn't be trapped in the quagmire that is my friend's fearful view of religion and religious indoctrination. She wanted to prevent her daughter from having to work her way through the intoxicating influence that some religions offer to children of impressionable age.

I told my friend this.
RELAX! Kids dig pretend. It's a normal, healthy developmental stage, not to be feared.
Teach natural law, water cycles, nitrogen cycles, science, all of that good stuff and there will no absolutely no reason why your daughter won't figure out the truth for herself.  
No negative messages about religion are necessary! And isn't that a relief. Because, without regular religious instruction, I am convinced that every child would remain an atheist.

Nature is a complex-mosaic of a place and there are so many things to learn about! The other day I was taking a walk through a nature park and remembering the many walks I had taken there with my growing children as we talked about the pond life, the dropping leaves, the insects and their role in the woods, the mammals in woods, birds, weather, atmosphere, etc...  SO many different components to understanding how beautifully nature works. Understanding the complexity and essential qualities of nature take some time, but are so very instructive when seeking to understand how the world works.

Patterns and cycles can be found everywhere from atoms to galaxies. Natural laws abound. Exquisitely consistent and coherent systems operate all around us without our awareness or our complete knowledge.

In the American culture, it is essential that our children wade through the cultural religiosity pervasive in this country. There is no way to avoid it. But a solid foundation of science and wonder and awe with the natural world does more than inform the mind, it also inoculates our children from buying into snazzy, shrewd propaganda designed to capture their minds.

Because Science.

What do you think?
Do you think that this is enough?
Please leave your thoughts, I enjoy hearing from you.

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