Monthly forum
NOTE: DUE TO A POLICY CHANGE AT THE LIBRARY, ALL FORUMS WILL BEGIN PROMPTLY @ 7PM and end promptly at 9PM!
Due to illness, our originally scheduled guest speaker, Dr. R. Joseph Hoffmann is unable to appear.
We are fortunate to have as a "last minute" guest speaker, the Editor of Free Inquiry magazine and author of "THE NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF UNBELIEF," Tom Flynn . He will make a presentation based on this epic new book. Our musical guest is singer-songwriter Pedro Pereira .
This all-new, just-under-900-page tome has been hailed as the new standard reference in its field. It covers in unprecedented detail the freethought, atheist, and humanist traditions across the world, country by country. Flynn invited, coordinated, and cajoled more than 150 contributors who wrote well over 500 separate entries. Prominent contributors included Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Victor Stenger, Paul Kurtz, and Vern Bullough , who finished writing more than 20 entries on topis from sex to social science before he died. The editing process wasn't always straightforward. Flynn will share stories about his "every editor's nightmare" experiences. What do you do when a prolific contributor dies before correcting his proofs? How do you motivate an author who's agreed to write more than a dozen entries, but never starts writing? Flynn will reveal all with his trademark good humor. He'll also draw on entries from the New Encyclopedia's to give an up-to-the-minute portrait of the demographics of unbelief? Who are the nonreligious? How has our community been measured by social scientists through the years? What's behind these media accounts saying atheism is more popular than ever?
Making a repeat visit to Long Island, Tom Flynn is editor of FREE INQUIRY , director of the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum, and a founding co-editor of the newsletter SECULAR HUMANIST BULLETIN . He edited THE NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF UNBELIEF , published by Prometheus Books late in 2007. His previous books include the irreverent science fiction novels GALACTIC RAPTURE and NOTHING SACRED and the rollicking polemic THE TROUBLE WITH CHRISTMAS , all published by Prometheus.
Don't miss this special presentation by one of the leading humanist activists in the world. The FREE AND OPEN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC forum will be hosted by CFI Community of Long Island coordinator, Gerry Dantone .
