3 years ago, 26 freethinkers met for the first time in Shangri-la Starbucks to talk about reason, science, and secularism. Since then, we’ve been pretty busy:

• We’ve spread freethought on social media through Twitter (over 3,000 followers), Facebook (over 3,000 group members and almost 10,000 fans), and our website, which has almost a thousand posts, has been viewed more than half a million times, and has won the overall prize at the recent Globe Tatt Awards. (And don’t forget our forum, Tumblr, and YouTube pages, too.)
• We’ve presented the freethinker’s perspective — on secularism, skepticism, and the RH Bill — through our appearances and interviews on AM and FM radio; and both local and foreign TV.
• We’ve hosted more than a hundred events — meetups, forums, a film fest, and an excommunication party — in Metro Manila and Davao; and in our university chapters in UP Diliman, UP Manila, and DLSU.
• We’ve helped educate students on freethought and secularism, giving interviews and answering questions for homework and research papers; delivering talks and participating in panel discussions; and providing a forum for learning and discussion through our university chapters.
• We’ve become advocates and activists, mobilizing creative demonstrations for causes we believe in: fighting for the passage of the Reproductive Health Bill and refuting irrational arguments against it; walking (and running) with our LGBT allies and distracting the bigots who bother them; reminding people to guard their freedom of speech from opponents who cry blasphemy and call for censorship.

And we don’t intend to stop. Just this January, we’ve presented at the World Debate Forum in Ateneo, lectured at UP Diliman and Philippine Science High School, and guested on Bottomline with Boy Abunda. (The episode will air this Saturday (Feb. 4) at 11:45PM on ABSCBN, with a replay on Sunday at 1 PM on ANC.)

To celebrate all this, we’re organizing our third forum, tentatively titled “Filipino Freethinkers Turns Three.” It will be held on March 3, 2012, a Saturday, and will probably be a whole-day event. Be sure to save the date; details will soon follow.

If you want to celebrate in advance, the best way to do so is to attend our meetup this weekend, the first of many we’ll have in our fourth year.

3 years ago

Location: Starbucks, Anson’s (across The Podium), ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig (Google map)
Date: Sunday, February 5, 2012
Time: 2:30pm – 5:30pm

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Hi folks! This meetup marks three years since the first ever FF meetup on February 1, 2009! Thanks for being with us in all the meetups, our filmfest, our parties, and forums! Come join us in our first meetup of our fourth year on February!

Discussion Topics
- Temples for Atheists
- Cybercrime Bill
- DepEd delays science
- Ethics of artificial brain enhancement
- The Merits of Pride Marches

After the meetup we go for dinner and beer drinking at(see map). If you’re not a meetup regular and can’t make it for the meetup but would like to go for the post meetup, please indicate on a post in the wall or comment so we can contact you.

Got questions about the meetup? Contact us at 0927 323 3532

* Newbies are welcome.
* Look for the FF sign (or the group of smart, sexy people).
* There is no required age, religion, philosophy, or IQ level.
* Discussions are informal yet intelligent (most of the time).
* You don’t have to talk; you can just sit in and listen.
* You don’t have to buy anything from Starbucks.

Location: Don Henrico’s, Festival Mall – Alabang, Muntinlupa
Date: Sunday, January 29, 2012
Time: 4pm – 7pm

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Proposed Topics:

-DepEd curriculum which introduces Science as a subject only by Grade 3
-Secular Camp: A proposed project to promote science, secularism, and reason
-French Secularism (Facilitator: Ryan Amparo)
-Should euthanasia be legalized? (Facilitator: Marx Cole)
-Is the demolition of informal settlements moral? (Vlad Pablo)

Location: Holly’s Coffee, One Archer’s Place, Taft Avenue (Google map)
Date: Sunday, January 22, 2012
Time: 2:30pm – 5:30pm

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Hi folks! We’re heading to Taft this meetup! We’d like to invite people from around the area to come and join us, especially the students!

Discussion Topics:
- SOPA/PIPA Blackout (Wikipedia, Reddit, and other sites go down on January 18 in protest)
-Patronizing slave labor
-Department of Tourism “More Fun in the Philippines” Campaign

After the meetup we go for dinner and beer drinking at Sherwood (roughly across the street). If you’re not a meetup regular and can’t make it for the meetup but would like to go for the post meetup, please indicate on a post in the wall or comment so we can contact you.

Got questions about the meetup? Contact us at 0927 323 3532

* Newbies are welcome.
* Look for the FF sign (or the group of smart, sexy people).
* There is no required age, religion, philosophy, or IQ level.
* Discussions are informal yet intelligent (most of the time).
* You don’t have to talk; you can just sit in and listen.
* You don’t have to buy anything from Holly’s.

EDIT: The day of the meetup has been moved from January 8 to January 7, Saturday

Location: Starbucks, Anson’s (across The Podium), ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig (Google map)
Date: Saturday, January 7, 2012
Time: 2:30pm – 5:30pm

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Happy new year folks! The Earth has just completed another revolution around the sun, let’s all get together and start the new year right with great discussions and a good time with our little freethinking family.

Discussion Topics
- New Year’s Resolutions
- Should we erase our painful memories?
- The right to kill home invaders
- The importance of religious debate in the Philippines

After the meetup we go for dinner and beer drinking at Gilligan’s in Megamall. If you’re not a meetup regular and can’t make it for the meetup but would like to go for the post meetup, please indicate on a post in the wall or comment so we can contact you.

Got questions about the meetup? Contact us at 0927 323 3532

* Newbies are welcome.
* Look for the FF sign (or the group of smart, sexy people).
* There is no required age, religion, philosophy, or IQ level.
* Discussions are informal yet intelligent (most of the time).
* You don’t have to talk; you can just sit in and listen.
* You don’t have to buy anything from Starbucks.

Location: Starbucks, Anson’s (across The Podium), ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City (Google map)
Date: Sunday, December 18, 2011
Time: 2:30pm – 5:30pm

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This week’s topics:

• Chief Justice Renato Corona’s Impeachment
• Piolo Pascual, Homosexuality, and Pinoy Celebrity Culture
• President Noynoy Aquino Urges Congress to Vote on RH Bill
• Holiday Plans for Heathens

After the meetup we go for dinner and beer drinking at Gilligan’s in Megamall. If you’re not a meetup regular and can’t make it for the meetup but would like to go for the post meetup, please indicate on a post in the wall or comment so we can contact you.

Got questions about the meetup? Contact us at 0927 323 3532

• Newbies are welcome.
• Look for the FF sign (or the group of smart, sexy people).
• There is no required age, religion, philosophy, or IQ level.
• Discussions are informal yet intelligent (most of the time).
• You don’t have to talk; you can just sit in and listen.
• You don’t have to buy anything from Starbucks.

Location: SB Park, in front of Batasan South Wing Gate, QC (Google map)
Date: Saturday, November 26, 2011
Time: 2:30pm – 5:30pm

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Let’s go occupy! This Saturday we’ll be holding our meetup at the Occupy4RH camp at SB Park across the South gate of the House of Representatives. The camp will have been up for almost a week, so let’s all get together and show Congress that they need to stop being servile to the Church and start serving the people! Our country’s reproductive health is more important than the Bishop’s wealth!

This will also be a mega-meetup of sorts with the good folks from the south chapter coming up to the camp to show the supposed representatives of the people that the people are clamoring for the passage of the reproductive health bill! Show them that we won’t stand for the further corruption of our democracy when the people’s representatives choose to represent the bishops with all their wealth and power instead of the people of their country!

Do come down to the Occupy4RH camp whenever you can, we’ll always have people at the FF tent!

* Newbies are welcome.
* Look for the FF tent (or the group of smart, sexy people).
* There is no required age, religion, philosophy, or IQ level.
* Discussions are informal yet intelligent (most of the time).
* You don’t have to talk; you can just sit in and listen.

Location: Starbucks, Anson’s (across The Podium), ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City (Google map)
Date: Saturday, November 19, 2011
Time: 2:30pm – 5:30pm

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This Saturday’s meetup, we’ll be discussing the following topics:

1) Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is seeking medical treatment abroad, causing questions of the right of a citizen to travel.

2) At the recent National Youth Day held by members of the Catholic Church, Fr. Falvie Feldas said that the Church was losing influence among the youth in the information age, and encouraged the remaining faithful youth to go online. Is his claim about the youth becoming less involved with the Church correct? What does this mean for society?

3) United Colors of Benneton came out with its new Unhate ad campaign featuring world leaders kissing, including the pope kissing an imam. Does it go too far? Or not far enough?

Here are their corresponding links, for your reference:

• Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the Right to Travel
• Is the Church losing influence over the youth?
• New Benneton Ad Campaign

After the meetup we go for dinner and beer drinking at Congo Grill (see map). If you’re not a meetup regular and can’t make it for the meetup but would like to go for the post meetup, please indicate on a post in the wall or comment so we can contact you.

Got questions about the meetup? Contact us at 0927 323 3532

• Newbies are welcome.
• Look for the FF sign (or the group of smart, sexy people).
• There is no required age, religion, philosophy, or IQ level.
• Discussions are informal yet intelligent (most of the time).
• You don’t have to talk; you can just sit in and listen.
• You don’t have to buy anything from Starbucks.

Location: Starbucks, Anson’s (across The Podium), ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City (Google map)
Date: Saturday, November 5, 2011
Time: 2:30pm – 5:30pm

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This Saturday’s meetup, we’re having a toast for Christopher Hitchens as part of the Hitchens video project! We’ll also be discussing the following topics:

1) The population as the human species total hits 7 billion. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

2) There’s trouble in the psychology community with a noted scientist being found out to be a fraud.

3) Back here at home, a Pinoy Big Brother contestant is apparently an atheist—we’ll be discussing religion in Pinoy TV.

Here are their corresponding links, for your reference:

• A Toast for Christopher Hitchens
• Population Hits 7 Billion
• Data Forgery in Science
• Religion in Pinoy TV

After the meetup we go for dinner and beer drinking at Congo Grill (see map). If you’re not a meetup regular and can’t make it for the meetup but would like to go for the post meetup, please indicate on a post in the wall or comment so we can contact you.

Got questions about the meetup? Contact us at 0927 323 3532

• Newbies are welcome.
• Look for the FF sign (or the group of smart, sexy people).
• There is no required age, religion, philosophy, or IQ level.
• Discussions are informal yet intelligent (most of the time).
• You don’t have to talk; you can just sit in and listen.
• You don’t have to buy anything from Starbucks.

RSVP on Facebook

We’re having our meetup on a Sunday this week in Pasig City at the Starbucks in Anson’s. We’ll be discussing the new taxes that are looming for residents in Quezon City. The city will be using the tax hike to help squatters find new homes. Also, there’s a new archbishop in town and the Philippine Daily Inquirer is complaining that people don’t care. Do you care? A tragic accident left a 2 year old girl dying on the street as 19 passersby ignore her. Saving her could have meant paying for her full recovery. What would you have done?

• Quezon City socialized housing tax hike
• There’s a new Manila archbishop, do you care? Inquirer thinks you should!
• Would you help a dying stranger if it risked paying for their full recovery?

After the meetup we go for dinner and beer drinking at Congo Grill (see map). If you’re not a meetup regular and can’t make it for the meetup but would like to go for the post meetup, please indicate on a post in the wall or comment so we can contact you.

Got questions about the meetup? Contact us at 0927 323 3532

• Newbies are welcome.
• Look for the FF sign (or the group of smart, sexy people).
• There is no required age, religion, philosophy, or IQ level.
• Discussions are informal yet intelligent (most of the time).
• You don’t have to talk; you can just sit in and listen.
• You don’t have to buy anything from Starbucks.

Location: Starbucks, Anson’s (Across The Podium), ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City (Google map)
Date: Saturday, October 8, 2011
Time: 2:30pm – 5:30pm

RSVP on Facebook

We’re back in Pasig at the Starbucks in Anson’s for this Saturday’s meetup. Technology visionary Steve Jobs died this week, while the protests at Wall Street in New York rage on. Teachers’ Day was also just this past week; tell us some stories about your favorite and not-so-favorite teachers and how they changed how you think.

Discussion Topics:
- Occupy Wall Street
- Blasphemy Day Contest
- Teachers’ Day: Stories About Your Teachers
- Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

After the meetup we go for dinner and beer drinking at Congo Grill (see map). If you’re not a meetup regular and can’t make it for the meetup but would like to go for the post meetup, please indicate on a post in the wall or comment so we can contact you.

Got questions about the meetup? Contact us at 0927 323 3532

* Newbies are welcome.
* Look for the FF sign (or the group of smart, sexy people).
* There is no required age, religion, philosophy, or IQ level.
* Discussions are informal yet intelligent (most of the time).
* You don’t have to talk; you can just sit in and listen.
* You don’t have to buy anything from Starbucks.

Location: Seattle’s Best, Katipunan Greenwhich, Katipunan (Google map)
Date: Sunday, September 25, 2011
Time: 2:30pm – 5:30pm

Emergency update: Seattle’s Best is full, we’re moving the meetup to Greenwhich in Katipunan, beside National Bookstore

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This week we’ll be having a meetup at Katipunan. We’ll be discussing prayer bans, recent statements made by PNoy on LGBT adoption and Philippines being ranked as one of the best places in the world for women.

Update
Any Atenean freethinkers out there, we’d love to have you at our meetup! We’re trying to revive a student-led effort to found a campus chapter for FF inside the Loyola Schools. We need freethinking secularists, humanists, atheists/agnostics/apatheists, progressive theists, etc. from the university willing to dedicate their intelligence and some of their time to making this movement become sustainable and dynamic enough to apply for accreditation in around two years.

If you’re interested to spearhead or join the initiative, attend this weekend and get to know your fellow founding members, then filling out this registration form.

Discussion Topics
- Ateneo Chapter
- France Bans Prayer in Streets
- Gay Adoption
- Philippines one of the best nations for women
- Quickshots: Blasphemy, Planking

After the meetup we go for dinner and beer drinking but we’re not sure where yet. If you’re not a meetup regular and can’t make it for the meetup but would like to go for the post meetup, please indicate on a post in the wall or comment so we can contact you.

Got questions about the meetup? Contact us at 0927 323 3532

* Newbies are welcome.
* Look for the FF sign (or the group of smart, sexy people).
* There is no required age, religion, philosophy, or IQ level.
* Discussions are informal yet intelligent (most of the time).
* You don’t have to talk; you can just sit in and listen.
* You don’t have to buy anything from Seattle’s Best.

Location: Starbucks at Ansons across The Podium, Ortigas (Google map)
Date: Sunday, September 11, 2011
Time: 2:30pm – 5:30pm

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This meetup falls on an momentous day. The terrorist attacks of September 11 changed many peoples relationship with religion. For the “new atheists”, it spurned a movement to be more vocal about criticizing religion in all it’s forms. Others yet turned to more religion. We’ll come together to discuss this topic and others this Sunday.

Discussion Topics:
- 9/11 10th Anniversary
- The Value of Debate (Senator Sotto’s response to Leloy Claudio’s challenge)
- Reconciling Catholicism with RH Bill support
- “Only” 4 or 5 women dying. Better things to do than RH?

After the meetup we go for dinner and beer drinking at Congo Grill (see map). If you’re not a meetup regular and can’t make it for the meetup but would like to go for the post meetup, please indicate on a post in the wall or comment so we can contact you.

Got questions about the meetup? Contact us at 0927 323 3532

* Newbies are welcome.
* Look for the FF sign (or the group of smart, sexy people).
* There is no required age, religion, philosophy, or IQ level.
* Discussions are informal yet intelligent (most of the time).
* You don’t have to talk; you can just sit in and listen.
* You don’t have to buy anything from Starbucks.

Location: Don Henrico’s at Festival Mall, Alabang
Date: Sunday, September 4, 2011
Time: 4pm – 7pm

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The Filipino Freethinkers has a group that meets up on alternate fortnights in the south of Metro Manila. If you’re from the south and have been missing out on the meetups because of the distance, come down to the south meetup and say hi to your fellow freethinkers! The discussions for this meetup will be facilitated by Simon Pano and Erick Fabian.

Discussion Topics
- Effect of mass media on popular beliefs
- Effect of popular music and the arts on world views
- Effect of technology on music and arts

* Newbies are welcome.
* Look for the FF sign (or the group of smart, sexy people).
* There is no required age, religion, philosophy, or IQ level.
* Discussions are informal yet intelligent (most of the time).
* You don’t have to talk; you can just sit in and listen.
* You don’t have to buy anything from Don Henrico’s.