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Jason Ball, President of the University of Melbourne Secular Society and one of the coordinators of the Global Atheist Convention spoke with Catherine Deveny on ABC 774 Melbourne Radio.
The Rise of Atheism2010 Global Atheist Convention
Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins won both the Royal Society of Literature Award and the Los Angeles Times Literary Prize in 1987 for The Blind Watchmaker...
Phillip AdamsA lifelong atheist, Phillip Adams started writing on the joys of disbelief, the merits of the meaningless universe and the sins of religion half a century ago...
Taslima NasrinA physician, a writer, a feminist, human rights activist and a secular humanist...
Peter SingerPeter Singer is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, a position he has held since 1999...
Catherine DevenyCatherine Deveny is a comedy writer, stand-up comedian, and an opinion columnist in The Age newspaper since 2001...
PZ MyersPZ Myers is an American biology professor at the University of Minnesota Morris (UMM) and the author of the science blog Pharyngula ...
Sue-Ann PostSue-Ann Post has created her own brand of information charged comedy that has shocked and delighted audiences around Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA...
Kylie SturgessKylie started her working life as an award-winning English teacher and has continued to keep busy with the weekly podcast The Skeptic Zone...
Dan BarkerDan Barker is co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and author of Godless: How An Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists...
John PerkinsDr. John L Perkins is an economist and atheist activist and a regular contributor to freethought magazines. He has qualifications from universities in Melbourne and London...
Tamas PatakiDr. Tamas Pataki is honorary senior fellow at the University of Melbourne and honorary fellow of Deakin University...
Russell BlackfordRussell Blackford is an Australian writer and editor. His publications include novels, short stories, academic monographs, and numerous book chapters...
Stuart BechmanStuart Bechman is completing his first year as president of the board of Atheist Alliance International, and the first AAI conference under his direction...
Max WallaceMax Wallace is Director of the Australia New Zealand Secular Association (ANZSA). His idea for the first conference on the lack of constitutional separation of church and state...
Ian RobinsonIan Robinson is President of the Rationalist Society of Australia and for a number of years edited the Australian Rationalist...
AC GraylingAnthony Grayling MA, DPhil (Oxon) FRSL, FRSA is Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford...
Robyn WilliamsScience journalist and broadcaster, Robyn Williams, presents Radio National's Science Show, Ockham's Razor and In Conversation....
Simon TaylorSimon Taylor defines the difference between sleight of hand and sleight of mind magic. Through studies in psychology, practice of hypnosis and experience in the performing arts...
NonStampCollector is one of the highest-subscribed atheist movie-makers on Youtube. His animations have had over a million views, and have been featured on Pharyngula and RDnet...
Julian Morrow is a co-founder of The Chaser, a satirical media empire which rivals Rupert Murdoch's News Corp in all fields except power, influence, popularity and profitability....
Craig Reucassel was a founding editor of The Chaser newspaper. With the Chaser he has gone on to do shows on the ABC such as The Election Chaser, CNNNN and The Chaser's War on Everything. ...
Lyn Allison was a member of the Australian Senate from 1996 to 2008, representing the state of Victoria and was the last federal parliamentary leader of the Australian Democrats....
Dr Leslie Cannold is a bio-ethicist, researcher, writer, commentator and an Honorary Fellow at the School of Philosophy, Anthropology, & Social Inquiry at the University of Melbourne....
Maggie Millar is an Honours graduate of RADA in London, having won a scholarship to study there, and in her graduation year she won the 'Gertrude Lawrence Award for Best Performance'....
Jane Caro wears many hats; including author, lecturer, mentor, social commentator, columnist, workshop facilitator, speaker, broadcaster and award winning advertising writer.....
Tanya Levin grew up in the church that became Hillsong, the country's most ambitious, entrepreneurial and influential religious corporation. Tanya Levin is now a social worker and atheist....
Only days, hours, minutes and seconds to go!
Well done Jason!
Oh, and I particularly loved your point that atheists could have no better role model for living an ethical life than Peter Singer.
I can't wait to hear him speak.
Jason did very well despite the constant interruptions of Deveney. She means well, but it was Jason being interviewed, not her.
A well presented, rational and positive interview. Well done, I look forward to the get together in March
Great interview
Great work Jason, you put the atheist point of view across very well. The Convention is going to be great - see you there!
well spoken... good work!
I agree with Peter. Several times during the interview I asked aloud ' stop interrupting and let him talk or complete what he was saying '. I really enjoyed the whole program and the swing towards atheism will become more pronounced during the next few months. These are exciting times.
My epiphany occured during a high school science lesson on evolution about 50 years ago. This made much more sense than "something/someone up there" which/who was all seeing/hearing and capable of such joy and devestation depending on how one behaves on any given day.
While I remained reasonably silent about my realization for some years, I eventually "came out" about 10 years later much to the shock of many when I publicy acknowledged my Atheism.
I experienced a great sense of relief and have developed and incredible sense of inner strength, as I came to understand that how I live and manage my life is pretty much up to me.
A mind set which has sustained and enabled me to accept a "stuff happens" mentality through many difficult situations in my travels through life.
Relying on something "up there" doesn't pay the bills and fix broken bodies and hearts. Self reliance and strength of character will.
Would love to be at the convention but other commitments prevent me from doing so.
No need to wish you good luck it will be a great and enjoyable gathering.
Great interview Jason.
I thought the quip about the AFA being one man in a house in SA was a bit rude. The AFA takes advantage on modern technology to cope with a geographically diverse membership and I seem to recall that committee members spend some time travelling considerable distances to attend face to face committee meetings.
Where does the human mind come from? The human brain.
Where does the smile of a child come from? Its a variation on the smile of its parents.
Good on you Jason, well done.
Mardi Gras ?? WTF
It will be a society- changing event, that I am convinced of.
Imagine the website being attacked. How far will some unknowns go to prevent or at least make it hard for the convention to run smoothly.
Good interview, the more people know about this interference, the more we atheists will realise that we are making a mark.
Richard Dawkins is my hero. He has reinforced what I have believed all my life. I openly say I am an atheist, and "guess what?" as our somewhat dubious prime minister says, many people have replied they are too. Some explain they believe in something other than a 'God' so they are really agnostic but don't know they are.
The important point I have found, is that most people don't believe in a 'creator', they believe in evolution! Obviously people are thinking about the redundancy of religion.
Well done Jason. Very articulate, very dignified.
The religionists preach "do unto others as you would have them do to you" then some of them have the cheek to attack a website presenting a different point of view. Why are they against free speech. Hypocrisy is their stock in trade.
She let herself down when she dissed David.
Jason was brilliant.
Hope Catherine is more "funny" on the day.
Catherine publicly dissed David. So not funny.
I am so pleased that AFA is hosting this convention. It is absolutely time that Australia had one of the conventions. I will try to get back to Australia in March next year and hope I can attend.
Jason - you have a terrific line-up of speakers for this convention. I know so many names on your list but didn't realise that none was being paid for appearance at the convention. How amazing and laudable.
Sob, you will have sold all the tickets by the time I can it together to get back to Australia.
If I can't make it, hopefully it will be video'ed and put up on different web sites.
Tell that caller, Trisha to listen to a talk by Lawrence Krauss accessible on richarddawkins dot net about something from nothing. It's very good and answers the question of the big bang. It is the newest cosmological take so far and Krauss is a brilliant speaker.
Well fielded Jason, there is no need for any god-type figure at all in any of this cosmology or evolutionary biology.
I disagree that Catherine Deveney interrupted unnecessarily. I thought the whole program was excellent and that Catherine added to the quality by turning the interview into a conversation.
I'm so happy to know that Atheism is on the rise...brilliant stuff.
I think Deveny likes the sound of her own voice a little too much for her radio interviews to be seamless and a means of extracting of information from the interviewee.
As a stand-up single speaker and commentator she's probably very good.
The quote from Galileo lost its impact from her not remembering it correctly. But she may have rehabilitated herself via a more modern eclectic observer of social mores in the guise of M.L.King jr.
"There is nothing in the world more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." He probably intended a universal application to his observation, for it applies particularly to the more extreme forms of religious faith.
The means by which the human intellect may unshackle itself from unquestioning religious faith will receive numerous elaborations and adductions. But the message must reach a vastly wider audience than an immediate live one. I urge the organisers to bend serious thought to the production and sale of a complete DVD set of the convention's proceedings, including questions from the audience. Publication in book form should also be considered.
To Dez 26/10/2009,
The Golden Rule [Do unto others.................] has a history centuries older than the abrahamic religions. It is found in one form or another in philosophical/religious texts from the middle east to China.
As with anything that is of value in religious doctrine and dogma, it was plagiarised from much older and more secular civil and mercantile law texts common among earlier civilisations.
It forms the basis of our sense of justice and most probably arose in the centuries that followed the arising of settled agricultural societies and the natural increase in mercantile transactions among and between the different classes that arose in society.
Since this is my first time to ever listen/read/look up info on Atheisim, I was disappointed the interviewer talk sooo much . She is rude. She did not allow him to answer or she would interupt and here I am propably others like me we are in AWE here. I am a Christian always have been from a forever line of Christians etc you get it sooo for me to be even be here! I truely wonder about this whole thing? I never knew ATHEISIM was organized. Doesn't that alone make ya"ll a religion too? Please do pray to God . If my God is there He will hear ya'lls prayers too . I belive If He hears mine He hears all prayers. Guess it shows I am questioning what I have believed now for 60 years and taught it to my children. I now question myself , what do I believe? what do I really believe myself not what I have just accepted as truth forever. Thanks for I did find out.
Oh, please excuse all the unchecked errors in grammer and spelling. I guess I am a little nervous. A Christian at this site and commenting. The last sentence should read: Thanks for what I did find out.
Liza-Jane,
I don't know why you are nervous.
A lot of christians are frequent visitors (and welcome) on all atheist websites.
Perhaps trying to get to know someone who thinks differently from you ... you may even like them!
I welcome diversity of opinion / thoughts / expressions ... I only ask for some evidence to back up any statements a person makes.
"Doesn't that alone make ya"ll a religion too?"
No.
Is Nudism a religion? Nudists have organisations you know. So do underwater hockey players ... is underwater hockey a religion?
Atheism is to religion as not collecting stamps is to hobby.
If you are interested in finding out more check out:
http://www.atheistfoundation.org.au/
http://richarddawkins.net/
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/
and may his Noodliness bless you with his noodly appendage, http://www.veganza.com
Sorry, its http://www.venganza.org/