Recovering from Religion volunteer talks to Freethinkers

Hot Springs Freethinkers will hold a free, open-to-the-public seminar at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts. Todd Yoder will share the story of his faith journey and introduce a technique called “Street Epistemology,” a technique used to guide people into engaging their critical thinking skills and applying them to their own religious claims. It is a productive and positive way to discuss beliefs with others. A growing number of people worldwide have found value in the technique and are adopting it in their conversations.

Yoder is a recently retired firefighter from Fort Smith. His parents were brought up in the Old Order Amish tradition, and Yoder was raised in the Amish/Mennonite church in northern Indiana. In studying his family’s religious history, dating back to the fourth century, the sanctioning of violence and persecution between religions was the beginning of his deconversion. Todd is a volunteer at Recovering from Religion who helps people who are doubting their beliefs or leaving their faith.

Hot Springs Freethinkers is an organization for non-theist people to meet others who are of like-mind. By definition, a freethinker is “a person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists. No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed or messiah. To the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth,” Dan Barker, Freedom from Religion Foundation.