All Freethinkers CLUB Meetings and Events are held at:

 

On Top of the World Hobby Building Event Room

9125 SW 98th Street, Ocala 34481

2025 Sunday Meeting Dates:

 

January 5th and 19th

 February 2nd and 16th

March 9th and 23rd

April 6th and 20th

May 4th and 18th

June 8th and 22nd

July 6th and 20th

August 3rd and 17th

September 7th and 21st

October 5th and 19th

Novermber 2nd and 16th

December 7th

 

 

 

  PROGRAMS FOR MAY

 

 SUNDAY MAY 4, 1-3 PM

WORD AND IMAGE: HOW GRAPHIC DESIGN INFLUENCES OUR EMOTIONS AND OUR DECISION-MAKING

Understand the hidden power of graphic design with our own Domenica Genovese, a co-founder of the design firm, Greatest Creative Factor, and former adjunct professor at the University of Baltimore. In this presentation, Domenica will demonstrate how design impacts our thinking and the decisions we make in daily life from the grocery store to the voting booth. Learn how design can help us understand complex issues, and how it shapes our opinions, feelings, and actions—often without us even realizing it.

 

SUNDAY MAY 18, 1-3 PM

It's Time fo Freethinkers Open Forum! 

 

Six tables, six different discussions. 

Choose the one you are most interested in:

 

Discussion 1—Roe 1
• Should America pass a new amendment establishing a right to privacy?
• From a legal point of view, was reversing Roe vs. Wade the proper constitutional interpretation?
• Some states make it a crime for their citizens to go to another state for abortions. While this may be outrageous, can it be legally justified in any way?

 

Discussion 2—Roe 2 
• If abortion is a moral issue, who should make such moral judgement: the government, the people by referendum, someone else? Should religious values, especially christian values, play a part in determining this issue?

• Agree or disagree: The state should limit abortion if the abortion is simply for the convenience of the mother.

• Is there any way to say definitively when life begins? If so, should the beginning of life be the determining factor if abortion is legal?

Discussion 3—Living in a 55+ community 

• What kinds of social connections do people expect in a 55-plus community—and how do those hopes play out in real life?

• Do activity-based interactions—like games or clubs—help build deeper friendships, or do they typically stop at the surface?

• Is it difficult for people to speak honestly about their social and emotional life in a retirement community?

• Are there unspoken rules of behavior that shape how we act and interact in a community like OTOW?

Discussion 4—Democratic Socialism

• Can a modern complex economy provide the necessary efficiency and good management under democratic governance?

• Does public ownership of the commanding heights of the economy (a term in Marxian economics meaning public utilities, natural resources, and sectors relating to foreign and domestic trade) give too much power to government? 

• Is public ownership more susceptible to corruption and cronyism?
• One of the most important reforms under democratic socialism is the elimination of financialization (the increasing dominance and importance of financial  markets, institutions, and transactions) of the economy. What might the financial system look like under democratic socialism, if, for example, the U.S. had no stock market?

Discussion 5—Freethinkers

Are freethinkers open minded people, or are we as dogmatically closed to things foreign to us as everyone else?

Discussion 6—Free will

• Is there such a thing as free will?

• Are all decisions made subconsciously and then the conscious mind is merely informed of the decision?

• Because we live in the physical world, is everything based on cause and effect?

• Does belief in a god who is omniscient mean there is no free will, since that god already knows everything that’s going to happen?

This is a fun way to get to know each other as our group continues to grow. After the Meet & Greet, two of our participants will talk about how they came to be Freethinkers. Some of us grew up in non-religious households; others of us came to know gradually that the dogma of the church we were raised in didn't make as much sense to us as maybe it once did, and we started our journeys using critical thinking to look for a new way. And yet others are just beginning to question and look for a community to help them. Regardless of where you are in the process, come be inspired by two of our own.

 

MONDAY MAY 19, 6:30-8 PM

CONVERSATIONS THAT MATTER
SWEET 16 PARTY

 Networking and connections matter—so as part of our selected Mondays series, Conversations that Matter, the first 16 registrants will attend a get together for sweets and (sweet) talking from 6:30-8:00 pm in the Hobby Building Events Room. No pink streamers here, just a way to get to know some people who we just see briefly at our Sunday meetings. 

REGISTRATION IS FULL FOR MAY 19.  Email FreethinkersFlorida@gmail.com if you'd like to get on the list for early notification of the next date.

  

 

5 CALLS

 

This is the perfect place to introduce 5 Calls—an app you download to your smartphone. Once you put in your zip code, it will tell you who your federal representatives and senators are and what bills/issues are under consideration. When you choose the subject you want to support or oppose, a sample script will appear. You then choose which representative you want to contact and click the phone number. That's all there is to it. Sometimes you get a person, more often than not, you get a voicemail.  

 

Go to the App Store on your phone and download 5 Calls. Here's a video to help you get started.

Thanks to Freethinker Rob Vlacancich for his tireless activism in promoting our right to register our opinions with our elected officials.