Author: Ed Buckner
Ed Buckner served as executive director for the Council for Secular Humanism from 2001–2003, as president of American Atheists 2008–2010, and, as of this writing, is the interim executive director of American Atheists. He and his wife live in Atlanta, their son lives in Decatur, GA. All three are proud life members of the Council.
Groups or Their Members: Who’s to Blame?
Author’s Note: This is dedicated to Sue Gibbons, because she loved Tom Flynn more than anyone did (and he her), and he helped greatly with this article, as with so many other things. Not long ago, in the context of discussing an article in The Guardian about a documentary on the exploitation of “Jane Roe” …
A Refutation of John Gray’s Rejection of Humanism
In his 2018 book Seven Types of Atheism, John Gray gives his understanding and opinions on seven ways that Western thinkers have fashioned worldviews free of Western monotheism. Gray rejects secular humanism as an attractive worldview, additionally rejecting four other manifestations of atheism. We believe Gray’s rejection of secular humanism is poorly founded and merits …
This article is available for free to all.An Atheist Stranger in a Strange Religious Land: Selected Writings from the Bible Belt
An Atheist Stranger in a Strange Religious Land: Selected Writings from the Bible Belt, by Herb Silverman (Durham, NC: Pitchstone Publishing, 2017, ISBN 978-1634311052) 264 pp. Softcover, $15.95. Can anyone write an objective, reasonable review of an essentially autobiographical book about someone he knows well and admires? Perhaps not, but An Atheist Stranger in a …
Should Atheist and Humanism Organizations Broaden Their Purpose?
Humanist and atheist organizations can’t solve every problem in society; maybe they should stick to the issues on which they can make the largest difference.
This article is available for free to all.On Leading Cats into Standing Up for Cats
Candidate Without a Prayer: An Autobiography of a Jewish Atheist in the Bible Belt, by Herb Silverman (Charlottesville, Va.: Pitchstone Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-0984493289) 255 pp. Hardcover, $22.95. Herb Silverman is quite well known to all insiders of the secular humanist, atheist, freethought, rationalist, Brights, Ethical Culturalists, and Humanistic Jewish movements. His autobiography—Candidate Without a …
Something about Nothing
Nothing: Something to Believe In, by Nica Lalli (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2007, ISBN 978-1-59102-529-0) 271 pp. Paper $17.00. Looking for a carefully reasoned philosophical treatise defending atheism and attacking theism? Then this isn’t the book for you, nor does author (and Brooklyn art educator) Nica Lalli pretend to be offering such weighty material. But …
Georgia’s Granite Guidestones
What are they and Why? Near Elberton, Georgia, the self-described “Granite Capital of the World,” stands a weird arrangement of granite that has to be seen to be believed. Five giant stone slabs—four tablets and a central “gnomon stone,” each nineteen feet high—support a huge capstone. The tablets are inscribed front and back in English, …
The Black Humanist Experience: An Alternative to Religion
The Black Humanist Experience: An Alternative to Religion, edited by Norm R. Allen, Jr. (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2003, ISBN 1-57392–967-0) 167 pp. Cloth $24. If there are readers anywhere naïve enough to think that secular humanism is exclusively or even mostly a “White” or European phenomenon, Norm R. Allen, Jr.’s latest book will quickly …