Name: Arthur J. Naebig Jr.
Born: 1937, Chicago, Ill.
Currently living in: La Valle, Wis. [about 25 miles west of Wisconsin Dells]. I moved here for the bicycle trails.
Education: Sacred Heart Grammar School, Chicago Vocational High School, Woodrow Wilson Jr. College, Chicago Teachers College (B. Ed.).
Occupation: Retired from teaching automotive technology for 21 years at Kennedy-King College in Chicago.
How I got where I am today: Thanks to a free college education available to residents of Chicago back when corporations and the rich actually paid taxes.
Where I’m headed: Who knows?
Person in history I admire: Ben Franklin, a genius who knew how to enjoy life.
A quotation I like: “When religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, ’tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.” — Benjamin Franklin
A few of my favorite things: Science, the natural world, good food.
These are not: Fast food, climate change deniers, religion and other kinds of scams.
My doubts about religion started: At age 8 or 9 when the nuns were telling us outrageous things we were supposed to believe.
Before I die: I hope the Fountain of Youth will finally be discovered.
Ways I promote freethought: I write letters to newspapers to refute lies and misinformation in letters they have printed from other readers — usually, but not always, of a religious nature.
I wish you’d have asked me: “What would you tell young people?” Don’t believe anything you’re told unless you have checked it out for yourself. Don’t be afraid to call bullshit what it is.
