Freethought Books Project

Vital Stats

Leslie A. Z

Portland, OR

  • People Doing It7

The Problem

For too long, atheist, agnostic, and freethinking prisoners have been without support in the United States. Before this project, inmates who didn't believe in God had nowhere to turn. Numerous Christian charities would provide Bibles, addiction-recovery programs, and faith-based connections to the wider world. However, if you were an atheist in prison, there was no way for you to connect to others who thought like you did. Since the fall of 2005, the Freethought Books Project has worked to change that. The Book Project has collected and donated 2,500+ books to non-theistic prisoners and prison-donating charities nationwide. We have also connected atheists to like-minded Pen Pals to give them support and connections. We have heard from tens and tens of secular prisoners about how much our service benefits them. Through our efforts, we try to impact prisoners who don't believe in god to see that there are ethical, compassionate alternatives to fundamentalist Christian solutions on how to become a productive, contributing citizen. In short, this project embraces secular humanism, which is defined as being good without god, to impact the prison population.

Plan of Action

To create the project, we started collecting freethought books from various non-theistic organizations and individuals in 2005. Our donors include Daniel Dennett, the American Humanist Association, Michael Shermer, the Secular Student Alliance, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and many others. After collecting the literature, we have distributed the it to prison-donating non-profits across the country. In addition to giving books to prison-donating non-profits, we have also been able to connect with 50+ atheistic inmates. Freethought organizations often get letters from prisoners, and they forward them on to us. We have become the book hub of the entire Freethought Movement, and get letters weekly. The prisoners share how much the books have connected them to atheist, agnostic, and humanist authors and have started conversations about god and morality among their friends. In short, the prisoners really enjoy the books we've donated, and we get a steady stream of requests from various freethinking prisoners. In short, the books are life-changing.
Go
Education

Related Stuff