AMERICAN ATHEISTS will hold its 36th National Convention April 2-4, 2010 (pre-registration plus a special event starts on the evening of Thursday the 1st) in Elizabeth/Newark, NJ — right across the river from The Big Apple, New York! The theme–”BLASPHEMY?–On The Dangers of Privileging Religious Beliefs”–is one that most speakers will touch on in one way or another. As Atheists, we reject all or almost all theistic beliefs all the time, and we stand ready to debate religious vs. irreligious beliefs in any fair forum. But the greatest dangers of religion–to scientific progress, to rational thinking, to democratic governance, politics, and protections for free individuals, to human rights, to educational growth, to peace, and to ethical progress for humanity–come when religion is cloaked with special rights and special protections, when critiquing religious belief is called “blasphemy” or beliefs are held to be “sacred.” Any idea, religious or otherwise, that cannot withstand untrammeled scrutiny in the marketplace of ideas should be rejected without further ado.
We will gather at one of the premier meeting sites on the East Coast — the Newark Liberty Renaissance Hotel near Newark International Airport.
Fly in to Newark, grab your bags, and take the shuttle (available 24/7) to one of the most luxurious convention sites in the area — easily convenient to New York City!
* SPEAKERS: We’ll have a blockbuster line-up! Confirmed so far are:
DAN BARKER, co-president, Freedom From Religion Foundation
CECIL BOTHWELL, Atheist city councilman from Asheville, NC, investigative journalist, author of the Prince of War
ED BUCKNER, president of American Atheists
JOHN R. BUTLER, musician, special guest of the president
SEAN FAIRCLOTH, executive director, Secular Coalition for America
TOM FLYNN, editor of Free Inquiry and executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism
EDWIN F. KAGIN, National Legal Director of American Atheists, author poet, blasphemy king
WENDY KAMINER, author, lawyer and social critic, writes about law, liberty, feminism, religion, and popular culture.
PAUL KURTZ, philosopher, author, founder of the Council for Secular Humanism, Newark native
MARTIN LEWISON, professor of business, wit, former Wall Street executive
MASSIMO PIGLIUCCI, author, philosopher, advocate for science
DARREL RAY, author, psychologist, theorist on religion’s power to infect society
TERRY SANDERSON, president, National Secular Society (United Kingdom)
JEFF SHARLET, author of The Family, original investigator and exposer of the Christian Right’s ongoing attempt to run our government, operate a famous C Street apartment house, etc.
TODD STIEFEL, entrepreneur and freethought leader (member of American Atheists development committee)
EDDIE TABASH, attorney, debater, fierce Atheist advocate
ANDY THOMSON, M.D. psychiatrist; Trustee and CFO of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (RDFRS); interests include evolutionary psychology, suicide terrorism, and the cognitive neuroscience of religious belief
PORTEOUS WOOD (KEITH), executive director, National Secular Society (United Kingdom)
INDRA ZUNO, linguist born and raised in Mexico. Actor in Mexican theater and TV; now Spanish Court Interpreter for the US District Court and for the Los Angeles Superior Court. Her talk will be offered in both Spanish and English; she will also translate simultaneously one other talk into Spanish.
