Lakeside Freethinkers Meeting Minutes Nov. 20, 2025

[Lakeside Freethinkers]

The November 20, 2025, meeting of the Lakeside Freethinkers was held at  4:00 p.m. at Yves' restaurant. There were 8 members and 3 guests attending in person.    Due to technical difficulties, Zoom participation was not available as planned.

Lloyd opened the meeting by giving an update on the science student, Fatima, sponsored by this group.  The next payment for her tuition is coming up soon and members are encouraged to donate toward this cause, if possible ($500p. suggested amount). Donations are being collected by Lloyd and Dab or can be brought to the next meeting.

The topic of the day was "Revolution" in commemoration of the anniversary of Mexico's  Dia de la Revolucion.  Lloyd said a few words about the Mexican Revolution of 1910 in lieu of our scheduled presenter who was absent due to a home emergency.

Rich then spoke at some length about the individual "Founding Fathers of the American Revolution".  All of them were either Free Masons  (including George Washington) or Deists....and neither group adherents were believers in the "Christian God". For example, the God of the Free Masons  was considered to be the "architect" of the  nation's capital. The Deists believed in a Creator- God who did not participate at all in human affairs.  Rich went on to say that the deity of the Declaration of Independence was "Nature's God"...not the Christian God of a man-made religion.

Lloyd followed with a report on the worldwide trend occurring between 2010 -2020 when there was a significant rise in the numbers of people who identified as "Nones" i.e.  individuals who said they were not affiliated with any religion. In other words, there was a substantial decline in the number of people identifying as Christians as compared with the results of previous broad- based surveys.  The numbers of mainline Protestants, Evangelicals and Catholics all dropped several percentage points during this period and there was a perceived increase in the secularization of society then.

Dab then talked about the results of the most recent polling  by the PEW Research Center which concluded in 2024.   This report indicated a definite slowing down of the "None" trend with the population of Christians stabilizing since 2019. This change was attributed to a significant number of young adults, particularly Gen Z men, who have been increasingly identifying with Christianity-  thus, counteracting previous trends of secularization and non-affiliation of the former decade.

It was noted that the article shared online by Frosty prior to the meeting goes into greater detail about this phenomenon as it pertains to significant numbers of young men currently joining the ranks of  "Orthodox Christianity".

There was a lively group discussion throughout the meeting.

The next meeting of the Lakeside Freethinkers  is scheduled to be held on December 18, 2025. 

Respectfully submitted,

Dab Steadman, Secretary

[Felix Billingsley]

Thanks, Dab...It sounds as though it was a very interesting meeting.

Cheers, Frosty 

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From: Lakeside Freethinkers <lakeside-f...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2025 7:39:32 PM
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Subject: [lakeside-freethinkers] Lakeside Freethinkers Meeting Minutes Nov. 20, 2025

 

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