Atheist youth speak out

There seem to be so many old farts associated with freethought, rationalism etc. (myself included), so it’s great news to report on a promising blog called Young Freethought, which went live this week.

See it here, and support it. I for one will be looking in on it from time to time, if the quality of the writing so far is anything to go by.

In the “Welcome” article posted on Tuesday, its editor, Michael Campbell, says:

Young Freethought is here to try and give a voice to a small section of society that, we feel, is currently being ignored. Young atheists and freethinkers are abundant, but trying to find out just what they think is a difficult thing. This is why we will accept submissions from anyone aged 16–21, on issues relating to Freethought. This could be a book review, an opinion piece on current news or even a small essay. The first few pieces will be going up later this week. They will be written by myself and my two colleagues at first, but we soon hope to be too busy reading submissions to be able to write our own pieces. If you’re an experienced writer, or have never tried your hand at it before, it doesn’t matter. We consider all entries equally.

The box at the top of the front page declares:

Young Freethought is an independent blog, open for anyone, but with the aim of providing a way for young people to find the ideas of like-minded peers regarding issues such as rationalism, humanism, science and philosophy.

The latest post – at the time of writing – went up yesterday, and in it Campbell takes on the mighty, with a swipe at John Polkinghorne, who was Professor of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge University between 1968 and 1979 and was the 2002 recipient “of that infamous award – the Templeton Prize”.

Polkinghorne is one of those people who can believe in all that science has uncovered, be that genetics, evolution or quantum field theory, but still hold onto the idea that there is a creator god. Indeed, he became an ordained Anglican priest in 1982.

I think we’re going to be treated to some challenging reading from Campbell and his team.