This book is a 30 Day plan for gaining more freedom from religion. "Freedom From Religion in 30 Days" (FFR) is an antidote for anti-democratic tendencies, irrationality, tribalism and intolerance. It also offers relief from the mental constraints of dogmas, creeds, and superstitions.
Religion, as promoted by Christian Nationalists, obstructs and threatens our wellbeing and freedoms. Christopher Hitchens best-seller, "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything," seems increasingly apt. In FFR, a case is made that religions poison not quite everything, but more than enough to make it a mental health and quality of life hazard.
Whether you're a believer, a devout freethinker, or someone in-between, you will find each of the 30 days meets three standards: 1) engaging; 2) entertaining; and 3) informative. My goal is that FFR will hold your attention for a solid month, and benefit you even longer.
WHY IT MATTERS
FFR is about breaking away from the false claims and destructive effects of religion. It's also about the positive nature of a REAL wellness way to think more critically, live more exuberantly and enjoy more personal liberties. A large number of freedoms are available for the taking, once mental constraints of creeds and dogmas are eliminated. This book promotes:
1. Science-based critical thinking, using reason to guide important decisions. Few decisions are as important as what you believe about religions, especially the one in which you were indoctrinated.
2. Happiness, joy, fun, adventure, meaning and purpose in life. These are the key elements in the REAL wellness dimension of exuberance.
3. Freedom to live the kind of life you desire. This is the liberty dimension of REAL wellness.
THE 30 DAY FORMAT
All 30 essays address some aspect of religion as it affects mental freedoms that shape values, commitments, beliefs, behaviors and ultimately quality of life and wellbeing.
The format is inspired by Wilfred Funk's, "30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary."
Within the 30 essays are four self-evaluations focused upon reason, exuberance, personal liberties and management of stress. Over 30 topics are covered in the essays, though religion is a theme throughout. The topics, besides religion in general and Christianity in particular, include politics, heroic freethinkers, mountebanks, dubious and needed holidays, ethics, prayers, play, commandments, parenting, happiness, sexuality, doubt, aging and death. In addition to informing and entertaining, FFR advances skills and awareness needed to slow the frightful trends that threaten our national interests.
THE PRISON OF BELIEF
Although Christianity no longer has the power it wielded in the Middle Ages, and thus no longer engages in atrocities, such as the Inquisition's auto de fé carnival-like public executions of heretics, it has another insidious liability--it imprisons the brains of adherents, thereby diminishing our democracy and crippling our personal freedoms and opportunities for exuberant lives.
James Haught put it this way:
When people accept supernatural claims of a religion, their lives are altered. They commit themselves to belief in miracles, prophecies and similar magic, which orients their view of reality. It confines them—hindering their ability to consider other possibilities. This narrowed lifestyle can be called 'the prison of belief.'
This book will delight you if you're no longer willing to go along with pablum babble in ritual blather, such as In God we trust, so help me God or God bless America.
==================
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION
PRAISE FOR FREEDOM FROM RELIGION
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
THE 30 DAYS FOR FREEDOM FROM RELIGION
Day 1 Questions To Guide A REAL Wellness Philosophy and Lifestyle
Day 2 Religion and Wellbeing
Day 3 Perspectives on Radical Islam and Christian Nationalism
Day 4 Doubt: A Vital Quality for Effective Decision-Making
Day 5 Why Catholics Should Consider Leaving the Church
Day 6 An Upgrade from 10 Commandments to 10 REAL Commitments
Day 7 Use Your Mind and You Will Find Nothing Fails Like Prayer
Day 8 The National Day of Prayer Or a National Day of Reason
Day 9 Exceptional People, the Winter Solstice and Christmas
Day 10 Self-Evaluation to Estimate Your Experience of Reason
Day 11 It's Difficult to be Well but, w/a Little Bit of Luck, You Might...
Day 12 A REAL Wellness Take on Ethics
Day 13 Robert G. Ingersoll
Day 14 Play: An Under-Utilized Element in Education and Adult Life
Day 15 Self-Evaluation of Stress Awareness and Management
Day 16 Exuberant Skepticism: A Safeguard Against Pleasant Illusions
Day 17 Dysfunctional Belief Systems and Anxieties, Magical Thinking
Day 18 Life Is Meaningless: A Liberating REAL Wellness Perspective
Day 19 Nothing Is Sacred
Day 20 Self-Evaluation to Estimate Your Experience of Exuberance
Day 21 Sexuality From a REAL Wellness Perspective
Day 22 A REAL Perspective on the Satanic Temple
Day 23 Real Wellness Or Religion: Choose Freedom, Not Dogma
Day 24 Guiding Children Toward Critical Thinking and Mental Freedom
Day 25 Happiness: REAL Wellness Perspectives on Enjoying Life
Day 26 Reason-Based Alternatives To Alcoholics Anonymous
Day 27 Which Will Come First: The Rapture Or the Demise of Religion
Day 28 Celebrate Those Who Promote Reason & Science, Not Superstition
Day 29 How to Die Healthy
Day 30 Self-Evaluation to Estimate Experience of Personal Freedoms
RECOMMENDED READING
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO EVERYONE, LIVING AND DEAD, WHOSE WORDS ARE QUOTED IN "FREEDOM FROM RELIGION IN 30 DAYS"
