Celebrating the Opening of CFI Low Countries
February 29, 2008
A new branch of Center for Inquiry Transnational in the the Netherlands and Belgium - together called the Low Countries.
According to Jonathan Israel in his works Radical Enlightenment and The Enlightenment Contested
the Low Countries are the birth place of the early, radical and
atheistic Enlightenment of the 17th century of whom Spinoza is the most
important thinker. Spinoza, and Descartes for some time, both lived and
published in Holland. The comparatively tolerant political climate made
the thriving cities of trade a haven for free thought. It seems
therefore natural that in the present day a cosmopolitan, transnational
secular humanist organization propagating science and reason, both
ideals of the Enlightenment, establishes a branch in the Low Countries.
Celebrating the Opening of Center For Inquiry Low Countries
Saturday May 3rd 2008
Academy Building, Domplein 29, Utrecht, the Netherlands
How should a secular society be organized? How can secularism be promoted? What kind of education is best fit for secularism? Is secularism a political framework or can there be secular ethics? These, and more, questions will be spoken about in this opening conference of the secular humanist think tank Center for Inquiry Low Countries (Netherlands and Belgium).
