Mabuhay ka PinoyAthiest.

knowledge *or high education

Gods, I need to sleep. Point is, stop glorifying poverty. Everyone deserves information. If a person wants something bad enough, he/she will find ways to get it. Likewise a rich person can slack off. Money isn't much of a problem really.

Free-thinking is cheap. At least as cheap as the internet or the library. You learn from everything anyways. You don't need thick-ass books to be an intellectual because knowledge and high education doesn't make up for wisdom. You don't even need to be an "intellectual." K.I.S.S.

No need to rationalize or tell everyone about your battle or how far you've come because to me it only looks like fishing for credit. And it's trite. "Ohh the world on my shoulders!"

I'm fine with how I am. A little more money would be nice, but I'm not much of a consumer-type to even label myself poor or incomplete. Rich, poor – big deal.

Godless!

Peace is a lie; there is only passion.
Through passion; I gain strength.
Through strength; I gain power.
Through power; I gain victory.
Through victory; my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.

Moving on, i understand the sentiments of John about the inaccessibility of the Starbucks site for others. But let me also say that Luneta is inaccessible as well. If the poor Freethinker is deterred from going to the usual gather of FF because of the inability to buy an espresso, so are others who want to avoid other circumstances. I myself grew up (and still am) a poor man, and that is the reason i would prefer a mall meeting instead of a park where i might lose some stuff or get into trouble.

My suggestion is to let both schools (the mall freethinkers, and the non-mall freethinkers for lack of better terms) flourish, then find a way to meet on a larger gather. I'm actually more for multiple small but dynamic groups flourishing on their own, than one big fellowship with only a few active and the rest as "supporters".