The mission of the Stiefel Freethought Foundation is to secure humanity’s future by ensuring public policy decisions are based on love and reason rather than bias and dogma.
Strategies:
Increase the influence of people who base their decisions on love and reason
- End false stereotypes by helping people become openly secular
- End the stigma against nonreligious government officials and candidates
- Build a reason-based voting bloc actively courted by political candidates
- Encourage secular communities to do good deeds demonstrating how ethics do not require religion or a deity
- Contrast fundamentalist values with secular values
- Grow communities for the nonreligious
Promote rational thinking
- Invest in resources for those questioning their beliefs
- Educate how sacred texts are factually and morally imperfect
- Bolster teaching comparative religions through the historical-critical method
- Improve the critical thinking and skepticism skills of the population
- Counter science-denialism on issues like global warming and evolution
- Push for evidence-based medicine over “alternative” medicine
- Help the population overcome bias and misinformation when acquiring information and forming opinions
- Oppose illogical excuses to invalidate ideas and silence others, such as ad hominem attacks, claiming hurt feelings or taking offense
Support organizations that work to secularize American public policy
- Weaken the influence of the American fundamentalist “Religious Right”
- Raise awareness about laws based primarily on religious grounds, such as “blue laws” and anti-LGBT legislation
- End legal privileges given to religious groups and individuals that are not given to secular groups and individuals
- Ban all tax dollars going to and strip tax exemptions from groups that discriminate in services or employment
- Stop efforts to allow religious free exercise to be used as an excuse to discriminate and violate the rights of others
- Make sure officials have religious free exercise when acting as individuals but not when acting on behalf of the government
- Stop the diversion of tax dollars from public schools to religious schools
Encourage foreign policy that helps create a world where reason can thrive
- Endorse countering militant, tyrannical and tribalistic political ideologies, including autocracy, theocracy and nationalism
- Support ending censorship of speech, internet and news media around the world
- Promote economic penalties for foreign governments that deprive their people of civil liberties
- Work for the end of blasphemy and apostasy laws
- Advocate for policies that free women globally from the shackles of religious-based misogyny
- Push for a global alliance against holy war, genocide and terrorism
Reform systemic problems undermining American democracy to ensure freethought is able to flourish at home
- Educate on the legalized corruption of campaign money buying influence over and access to government officials
- Endorse countering gerrymandering and other efforts allowing elected officials to select their voters rather than voters selecting them
- Support curbing foreign influence campaigns such as lobbying, online propaganda and funding of non-profits to spread religious and political ideologies
- Advocate for limiting autocratic decree by having tighter limits on presidential executive orders
- Promote changes to primary and presidential nomination systems so they are less biased towards the extremist candidates from political parties
Values
The values promoted by the Stiefel Freethought Foundation include:
Love
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Fellowship
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Friendliness
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Benevolence
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Harmony
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Enthusiasm
Reason
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Inquiry
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Science
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Knowledge
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Education
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Empiricism
Integrity
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Honesty
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Fairness
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Morality
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Responsibility
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Tolerance
Freedom
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Democracy
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Equality
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Liberty
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Capitalism
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Justice
Vision
We envision a peaceful world where science and freedom flourish.