The Reed Secular Alliance is excited to announce that Phil Zuckerman, the author of “Society Without God” and contributor to the Huffington Post, has been rescheduled for this coming Friday. Come listen to his talk “Faith No More”! The lecture is on Friday, April 22, 2011, at 5 pm in the Psychology Auditorium at Reed College. The room is also known as Psychology 105. For directions, go to http://www.reed.edu and look at the map.
During his 2009 inaugural speech, President Obama described the United States as a nation of “Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus—and nonbelievers.” It was the first time an American president had acknowledged the existence of this rapidly growing segment of the population in such a public forum. Indeed, so many Americans claim no religion (16%, up from 8% in 1990) that this category now outranks every other religious group except Catholics and Baptists.
And yet the reasons why more and more Americans are turning away from religion are still poorly understood. Based on in-depth interviews with nearly ninety people who have left religion, Zuckerman discusses what’s really behind the process of losing one’s faith. He shows that rejecting religion is a highly personal, complex, and drawn-out process. And rather than the cliche of the angry, nihilistic atheist, apostates are life-affirming, courageous, highly intelligent and inquisitive, and deeply moral individuals.
Phil Zuckerman has an impressive resume, including a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Oregon in 1998. He is currently a professor of sociology at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, where he teaches courses in religion, secularity, and social theory. He is also a regular visiting professor at the University of Aarhus, in Denmark.
He is the author of several books, including Faith No More: How and Why People Reject Religion (Oxford, 2011), Society Without God (NYU, 2008) and Invitation to the Sociology of Religion (Routledge, 2003), and the editor of several books, including Atheism and Secularity (Praeger, 2009) and The Social Theory of W.E.B. Du Bois (Pine Forge, 2004). He has also written numerous essays and articles, and is a regular contributor to Free Inquiry and Huffington Post. He lives in Claremont, California, with his wife and three children. His favorite Beatles album is “Revolver.”
I am a member of the greater Portland community that was informed just today about the Zuckerman lecture. I rearranged my schedule and got across town from Beaverton in rush hour traffic to attend, very much looking forward to this presentation. There on the psych building was the poster confirming the info emailed to me reagrding the date and location of the lecture. Alas, the 105 auditorium was locked up tight. No answer to loud knocking and looking apparently dark inside. No note saying it had been relocated, cancelled, anything. Wandered around, asked a few people, no one seemed to know what I was talking about. Came across one other confused person going through the same steps. Rechecking sites, etc.
What gives???????
Most frustrating was believing that the lecture was happening SOMEWHERE on campus, but WHERE????? Come on Secular Alliance, you can do better!
I was fortunate to get to attend the Greta Christina lecture and appreciate what you do to bring speakers on humanism to the area. Keep it up, but keep your information current also!!!!!
Eliza Crockett
Dear Eliza,
I am very sorry about this. Phil Zuckerman’s flight was cancelled, and therefore, we had to reschedule the lecture. I am the site’s webmaster but no longer go to Reed College, therefore, I was not able to put up signs on the doors. I will talk to our current President about this, and I feel badly that you made the long trek from Beaverton for a lecture that had to be cancelled. We will be rescheduling Zuckerman for a couple weeks in the future, and I hope you can attend then.
My apologies,
Leslie A. Zukor
Founder and Former President,
Reed Secular Alliance
Thanks for getting back to me, Leslie. And yes, I hope I’ll be able to get there for the rescheduled lecture. Apology accepted. Again, I appreciate your organization sponsoring these events.
Eliza