Let’s welcome Helen to our Who We Are page on our web

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February 2010 Newsletter

February 2010 Newsletter

Who We Are: Welcome Paul Gehrman (Author of Kaleidoscope)

Hi, my name is Paul Gehrman (Author of Kaleidoscope). I grew up in a fairly religious environment in Texas. I went to protestant church most Sundays and I was a believer into my twenties. Although I knew fairly early on that religion was judgmental, divisive, and extraordinarily hypocritical, I still believed most of the dogma until I began to appreciate the explosive explanatory power of Darwin’s ideas and how religion was ultimately an assault not only on science, but on human knowledge generally. After 9/11, I felt compelled to write about the dangers of religious belief, including its dreadful depiction of humanity as inherently dirty, sinful, etc. I spent four years writing, which resulted in the publication of my novel, Kaleidoscope, in 2009.


Now that I’ve completely extricated myself from the hold of religious dogma, I have great appreciation for how manipulative and vicious religion can be, particularly on children, who are frightened into believing with threats of eternal torture, ostracism, etc. This is unethical to say the least. I think all people of goodwill should vigorously oppose this thought cancer in the hope that we can move humanity past superstition, bigotry, homophobia, etc., and to a place where reason, knowledge, and intellectual honesty are highly valued.

Let’s welcome Julia to the Who We Are page on our web site.

Hi, my name is Julia Buss and I am an atheist. I call myself an atheist because I think that there is a very low probability that there is any kind of god in the universe. On a personal level, I find that my life is happy and fulfilled without a god or a religion. Therefore I do not feel the need to try to find any evidence for a god. I consider myself lucky because I was raised without religion having any place in my childhood, so I was not indoctrinated or trained from an early age to hold it in any place of importance. I do not care whether others choose to believe in the supernatural, in angels or various mysterious beings. But I do think it is important to identify myself as an atheist because I believe it is harmful to society when irrational beliefs drive government or culture. If religions were merely harmless beliefs and did not promote such things as misogyny, homophobia, and war I would not feel the need to take a stand against the belief in these fantasy worlds and beings.

Who We Are web page.

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