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Frequently Asked Questions
What is FIG?
The Free Inquiry Group, Inc. (FIG) is a non-profit organization founded in 1991. We meet once a month to engage with timely and often provocative speakers. See our Home Page for descriptions, dates, and times of upcoming programs.
What is FIG's purpose?
Our mission is to foster a community of secular humanists dedicated to improving the human condition through rational inquiry and creative thinking unfettered by superstition, religion, or any form of dogma.
In accordance with our purpose, we have established the following goals:
- To provide a forum for intelligent exchange of ideas for those seeking fulfillment in an ethical secular life.
- To develop through open discussion the moral basis of a secular society and encourage ethical practices within our own membership and the community at large.
- To inform the public regarding secular alternatives to supernatural interpretations of the human condition.
- To support and defend the principles of democracy, free speech, and separation of church and state as expressed in the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.
Is FIG affiliated with other organizations?
Yes, FIG is allied with the Council for Secular Humanism as well as the American Humanist Association and the American Atheists. See Friends Who Share Our Vision for more about our affiliations.
Can believers attend FIG programs?
Though most of our members are secular humanists, we welcome to our meetings anyone interested in learning about or furthering our purpose.
How do I join FIG?
What comes with my FIG membership?
While we consider everyone who attends our public programs a member, but we reserve certain privileges for dues-paying members. They can vote in the election of our Board of Directors and take part in board meetings. In this way, dues-paying members have a say in the programming, future activities, and direction of FIG. Visit our Join Page for details.
How do I contribute to FIG?
We welcome financial help. To donate to FIG, visit our Join Page.
How do I pay my FIG membership dues?
Please, see our payment options on our Join Page.
Let's Dig Deeper
What is Secular Humanism?
Secular Humanism embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision making.
People who take this position may also refer to themselves as skeptics, freethinkers, atheists, non-believers, brights, and other non-religious names.
Most FIG members would call themselves freethinkers. We emerged from the Council for Secular Humanism, publishers of Free Inquiry magazine. They inspired our name and provide a compact answer to the question, What Is Secular Humanism? as well as a more thorough definition in Secular Humanism Defined.
What is Separation of Church and State?
Thomas Jefferson, primary author of our Declaration of Independence, wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association in January of 1802 in response to their concern that the new United States government might interfere with their religions freedom.
Jefferson's response coined the term Wall of Separation:
- I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature would "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.
In addition to the First Amendment prohibition of government involvement in religion, Article Six of the United States Constitution rules that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."
How does the Separation of Church and State benefit religious people?
Unlike other modern nations, the United States prohibits our government from supporting, favoring, or promoting any particular religion. This prohibition is meant to prevent any religion from gaining dominance over any other religion or of any non-religions belief system.
While the First Amendment separates Church and State, it immediately protects the free exercise of all religions and belief and non-belief systems. We believe that the prohibition itself and by itself infers and bolsters religious freedom, nevertheless, we also support the free expression of religion.