Hector Avalos, a respected biblical scholar despite his open atheism, died after a battle with cancer on April 12, 2021.

Born October 8, 1958, in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, Avalos completed his undergraduate studies at the University at Arizona. He was awarded a master of theological studies from Harvard Divinity School. In 1991, he received a PhD in Hebrew Bible and northwest Semitic philology from Harvard’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

Avalos joined the religious studies faculty at Iowa State University (ISU) in 1993, where he cofounded the ISU Atheist and Agnostic Society in 1999, which primarily serves students who do not use religion as a way to live in this world.

Avalos published numerous books, including The Reality of Religious Violence: From Biblical to Modern Times (2019); The Bad Jesus: The Ethics of New Testament Ethics (2015); Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Ethics of Biblical Scholarship (2011); This Abled Body: Rethinking Disabilities in Biblical Studies coedited with Sarah Melcher and Jeremy Schipper (2007); The End of Biblical Studies (2007); Strangers in Our Own Land: Religion in U.S. Latina/o Literature (2005); Fighting Words: The Origins of Religious Violence (2005); Introduction to the U.S. Latina and Latino Religious Experience (editor, 2004); ¿Se puede saber si Dios existe? (2003); and Health Care and the Rise of Christianity (1999).

Avalos published articles in many publications, including Free Inquiry, on topics such as ancient health care, biblical studies, ethics, science and religion, and U.S. Latino literature.

In addition, Avalos was a member of the Council for Secular Humanism’s (later the Center for Inquiry’s) Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER).

The Council for Secular Humanism profoundly thanks Hector Avalos for his contributions to biblical studies and criticism.