Welcome, Denton Atheists!

Meet other local atheists and freethinkers for whom other existing venues are not convenient, especially college graduates living and working in Denton, but by no means limited thereto. Gather, preferably downtown, for dinner and intelligent conversation, solidarity with other nonbelievers, and make new friends.

UNT students should check out the Freethought Alliance (FTA) on campus first *before* joining this group, they are on Facebook, and I can put you in touch with an FTA officer if you like. TWU students and regular working adults, however, would probably be better served by a group that meets a little later in the evening, after work hours (FTA meets 5pm on the UNT campus during the week and that just doesn't work for me). I like FTA and its people, and sometimes attend their events, but I feel like this Meetup group could reach beyond the UNT campus community to embrace Denton at large.

I also think the North Texas Church of Freethought is great; I have been to some of their "services", which were excellent (they go out and have lunch and chat at Jason's Deli in Irving afterward) BUT Irving, TX is a long way to drive, even just once a month. I wanted to meet non-theists closer to home.

I am providing a forum for people to meet who, for example, regularly listen to ACA's The Non-Prophets podcast, or maybe read Dr. PZ Myers's popular blog Pharyngula, or who grew up watching Carl Sagan's COSMOS in the 1980s or James Burke's CONNECTIONS series, or who are members of FFRF or American Atheists or the American Humanist Association or the Texas Freedom Network, or any combination thereof.

Stealth evangelists, however, are not welcome and will be asked to leave.

I am originally from Houston and used to hang out with the Humanists of Houston/Houston Church of Freethought down there. I was also a little uneasy with the name "Church of Freethought" at first; I enjoy hanging with HCOF and NTCOF people, but I understand how that name alone keeps people away who might otherwise participate. I miss the sense of community I had in Houston with Freethinkers there and would like to see if there is a way we can create a small but vibrant atheist community right here in "little D".

Although I'm personally generally pretty Left-wing (vaguely Red/Green) and politically independent, nonbelievers of all stripes are welcome, whether Libertarian, Democrat, Green, or Log Cabin Republicans. We can all agree on the desirability of maintaining a secular society and keeping church and state separate.

Freethinkers are generally fun-loving, intelligent, and funny people and the kind of people I like to schmooze with.
If you like hanging out with people like that, too, then come join!