CFI On Campus Speakers

Norm Allen

Executive Director of African Americans for Humanism (AAH), an educational organization primarily concerned with fostering critical thinking, ethical conduct, church-state separation, and skepticism toward untested claims to knowledge among African Americans. He is the editor of the ground-breaking book African-American Humanism: An Anthology, AAH Examiner, and an Associate Editor of Free Inquiry magazine.

Mr. Allen has traveled and lectured throughout North America, Europe, and Africa. His writings have been published in scores of newspapers throughout the US, and he has spoken on numerous radio and television programs. Mr. Allen's writings have appeared in such books as Culture Wars and the National Center for Science Education's Voices for Evolution.

Norm Allen has spoken at many institutions of higher learning including Harvard, Temple University, the University of Minnesota, and Ohio State University. He has appeared on numerous radio and television talk shows, including The O'Reilley Factor, The Diane Rehm Show, and BBC Radio.

Expertise:

  • History and philosophy of humanism
  • Humanism and the Civil Rights Movement
  • Humanism and American abolitionism
  • Secular celebrations

Debate Topics:

  • Will God Save Black America?
  • Does God Exist?
  • Secular versus Biblical Ethics
  • Is the Bible the Word of God?
  • Is a belief in god harmful to Blacks?

Donald B. Ardell

Donald B. Ardell, Ph.D. is the host of the Wellness Center at The Wellness Web. He is the author of author of fifteen books, including Health, Work and Wellness, High Level Wellness: An Alternative to Doctors, Drugs, and Disease, Die Healthy, 14 Days to Wellness and (from Prometheus Books) The Book of Wellness: A Secular Approach to Spirituality, Meaning and Purpose.

Since 1984, Don has also produced the provocative Ardell Wellness Report (AWR). It serves as a forum for his skeptical, funny, godless view of lifestyle artistry-living well in a superstitious, irrational world. At present, 58 editions are in circulation! Don has addressed conventions all over the world for over 20 years, describing in entertaining ways the nature and applications of self management concepts.

Expertise:

  • Living happily and well in a world without a god

Dan Barker

Dan Barker is a former evangelist, missionary, and Christian music arranger, producer, and performer. By 1984, Mr. Barker had "lost faith in faith," and he joined the staff of the Freedom From Religion Foundation in 1987. Mr. Barker is the author of Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist (1992), Just Pretend: A Freethought Book for Children (1988), Maybe Yes, Maybe No: A Guide for Young Skeptics (1990), and Maybe Right, Maybe Wrong: A Guide For Young Thinkers (1992), as well as numerous letters and opinion columns in newspapers across the country. He has appeared on many national television talk shows, including the Phil Donahue, Sally Jessy Raphael, Oprah Winfrey, Maury Povich, Pat Robertson's CBN, Good Morning America, Religion & Ethics News Weekly, and The Hannity & Colmes.

Debate Topics:

  • Does God Exist?
  • Did Jesus Rise From the Dead?
  • Jesus of Nazareth: Messiah or Myth?
  • Is Christianity True?
  • Is the Bible an Acceptable Guide for Morality?
  • Has Evolution Provided Greater Benefits to Society than Creationism?

Joe Barnhart

Joe E. Barnhart, Ph.D., has been a Professor of Philosophy and Religion Studies at the University of North Texas since 1974. He is a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Association for the Scientific Study of Religion, the Society for Biblical Literature, the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, the Southwest Commission on Religious Studies, and the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, to name but a few.

President of the American Academy of Religion, Southwest division, Dr. Barnhart holds Editorial Board positions for The Journal for the Critical Study of Religion, The Humanist, and Free Inquiry. His books include The Billy Graham Religion, Religion and the Challenge of Philosophy, The Study of Religion and Its Meaning: New Explorations in Light of Karl Popper and Emile Durkheim, Jim and Tammy: Charismatic Intrigue Inside PTL, The New Birth: A Naturalistic View of Religious Conversion (with Mary Ann Barnhart), The Southern Baptist Holy War, and Dostoevsky on Evil and Atonement: The Ontology of Personalism in His Major Fiction (with Linda Kraeger). Dr. Barnhart's writing has appeared in the following publications: Philosophy Today, The Personalist, Religious Studies, American Philosophical Quarterly, The Journal of Value Inquiry, Southern Journal of Philosophy, Harvard Theological Review, Feminism and Philosophy, and the Mercer Dictionary of the Bible.

Expertise:

  • Philosophy of Religion
  • Philosophy of Social Science and Skinner's Behaviorism
  • Church-State Relations (First Amendment)
  • Dostoevsky's Ontology and Boston Personalism
  • Karl Popper's Evolutionary Epistemology and Process Metaphysics

Rob Boston

Rob Boston is assistant director of communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and also serves as assistant editor of AU's monthly magazine Church & State.

Recognized as a leading writer and researcher on church-state topics and an advocate for the separation of church and state, Boston joined the Americans United staff in 1987. He frequently writes about the political goals of the Religious Right and other church-state issues, such as religion in public schools, tax aid to sectarian institutions and religious freedom. Boston also covers the Supreme Court for Church & State.

Boston is the author of Close Encounters with the Religious Right: Journeys into the Twilight Zone of Religion and Politics (Prometheus Books, 2000), The Most Dangerous Man in America? Pat Robertson and the Rise of the Christian Coalition (Prometheus Books, 1996) and Why the Religious Right Is Wrong About Separation of Church & State (Prometheus Books, 1993). His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including Liberty, Insight, The Public Eye, The Freedom Writer, Jewish Monthly and Free Inquiry.

In addition, Boston often serves as a spokesperson for Americans United and has appeared on NBC's Nightly News, CNN's Headline News, Fox News Channel's In Depth, and other programs. He has also appeared as a guest on talk-radio shows across the country and is a frequent subject of print interviews.

Expertise

:
  • Church-state separation
  • Religion in politics
  • Religious freedom
  • The United States as a "Christian nation"

Ed Buckner

Ed Buckner is Southern Director of the Council for Secular Humanism. He has served as Assistant Professor of Urban Studies, College of Public and Urban Affairs, Georgia State University; Assistant Professor of Labor Studies, College of General Studies, Georgia State University; a researcher for a public school system; and a writer, technical editor, photographer, information officer, and speech writer for the Georgia Department of Education, at NASA, and in the US Army. During 1983-1986 Dr. Buckner was a speaker in the Georgia State University Speakers Bureau. He is experienced in debating theists and creationists.

Dr. Buckner holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership (Georgia State University, 1983), his dissertation titled Professional and Political Socialization: High School Science Teacher Attitudes on Curriculum Decisions, in the Context of the "Scientific Creationism" Campaign. He holds a M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction (Georgia State University, 1975), and a BA in English (Rice University, Houston, Texas, 1967).

Debate Topics:

  • Should Public Universities Be Secular?
  • Does Creationism Belong in the Classroom?
  • Is America Founded on Religion?
  • Is America a Christian Nation?

Austin Dacey

Austin Dacey is director of research and education at the Center for Inquiry, and executive editor of Philo, an academic journal of philosophy, and director of the CFI's new Master's degree in Science and the Public at SUNY Buffalo .

Dr. Dacey has lectured and published widely on issues at the intersection of science, religion, ethics, and society. He has engaged in campus debates on naturalism and theist with William Lane Craig and Paul Nelson. Dr. Dacey's writings have appeared in Skeptical Inquirer, Free Inquiry, The Boston Globe, and other publications. He is co-author of The Case for Humanism: An Introduction (Rowman & Littlefied, 2003). In 2002 he earned a doctorate in philosophy. He lives in New York City. For more information, visit www.austindacey.com.

Expertise:

  • Religion and politics
  • Evolutionary theory
  • Secular ethics
  • Philosophy of religion
  • Philosophical naturalism

Margaret Downey

Ms. Downey has been an atheist activist for fifteen years, and is considered a national spokespersons for the atheist community. Founder of the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia (FSGP) in 1992 and the Anti-Discrimination Support Network (ADSN) in 1993, Ms. Downey has been a featured guest on both local and national television programs and radio broadcasts, including a National Public Radio program entitled Can an Atheist be Spiritual?

Downey has been instrumental in assisting with legal battles affecting non-theists, most notably arguing on behalf of non-believers prohibited from attaining membership in the Boy Scouts of America due to their non-belief.

Ms. Downey has been a featured presenter at the University of Minnesota and Temple University, as well as a many other conferences. Ms. Downey has spoken at the United Nations in New York City as an invited member of the "Freedom of Religion and Belief" forum, and was an atheist and humanist community representative at the UN world conference, held in London.

Expertise:

  • Boy Scouts of America: discrimination based on religious belief
  • U.S. Supreme Court church/state separation cases
  • hearing humanist and nonreligious children
  • Anti-Superstition
  • The life and writings of Thomas Paine
  • Women's Suffrage Movement
  • Adult involvement in the student freethought movement

Taner Edis

Taner Edis was born in Istanbul, 1967, to Turkish and American parents. After completing his undergraduate work at Bogazici University, he received his Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University in 1994, in theoretical and computational condensed matter physics. Working in diverse areas, from atmospheric modeling with collaborators at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to the philosophy of machine intelligence, he is currently assistant professor of physics at Truman State University, Kirksville, MO.

Fascinated by the plethora of supernatural and fringe science beliefs around him, and concerned about the rise of Islamist politics back in Turkey, Professor Edis first got involved with skeptical inquiry into paranormal claims during his graduate studies. He has since written numerous articles, particularly on the topic of anti-evolutionary thought, appearing in The Skeptical Inquirer, Reports of the National Center for Science Education, and Skeptic. His critique of "Intelligent Design" in the March 2001 Skeptical Inquirer attracted national media attention, including notice in a front-page New York Times article of April 8, 2001.

Professor Edis' writing has characteristically combined scientific rigor with an ability to reach a broad audience. His new book, The Ghost in the Universe: God in Light of Modern Science (Prometheus Books, 2002), is an accessible defense of a naturalistic view of the world.

Expertise:

  • God in light of modern science
  • Intelligent design and anti-evolutionary thought
  • Science and Islam

Tom Flynn

Tom Flynn is Editor of Free Inquiry magazine, Special Projects Director at the Center for Inquiry International, a Senior Director of Inquiry Media Productions, and Director of the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum. In addition, he was founding coeditor of Secular Humanist Bulletin, now edited by Ed Buckner, and founded by the Council for Secular Humanism's First Amendment Task Force, chaired by Ed Tabash.

Mr. Flynn graduated Xavier University in 1977 with a B.S. in Communications. A journalist, novelist, entertainer, and self-taught folklorist, Flynn is the author of numerous articles for Free Inquiry magazine, many addressing church-state issues, as well as The Trouble With Christmas (Prometheus 1993), and has made hundreds of radio and TV appearances in his role as the curmudgeonly "anti-Claus." His anti-religious black comedy science fiction novel, Galactic Rapture, was published by Prometheus Books in January 2000.

Expertise:

  • Current church-state issues
  • Critiques of religion in science fiction
  • History and politics of Christmas
  • Civil rights of the nonreligious
  • History of freethought, atheism, and humanism
  • History of Mormonism

Debate Topics:

  • Humanism: secular or religious?
  • Is humanism socially harmful?
  • Secularism vs. Civil Religion
  • Existence of God
  • Did the Resurrection occur?
  • Did Jesus exist?

DJ Grothe

As a program director for the Center for Inquiry, DJ Grothe serves as director of the CFI - On Campus, a secular, pro-science alternative to organizations such as Campus Crusade for Christ and fringe-science and paranormal movements. Mr. Grothe has traveled and lectured widely throughout North America, speaking to over a hundred campuses and communities on secular ethics, religious-political extremism, church-state separation, the role of religion in education, science advocacy and skepticism and the paranormal. His writings have been published in newspapers throughout the United States, and he has spoken on numerous radio and television programs. He is currently finishing a book on the need for public argument in a secular democracy.

Before completing graduate studies in philosophy and intellectual history at Washington University at St. Louis, DJ worked as a corporate magical entertainer and public speaker for companies such as IBM, Southwestern Bell, Esteé Lauder and Ralston Purina.

Expertise:

  • Secular versus religious ethics
  • Sexual ethics
  • History and philosophy of humanism and skepticism
  • Pseudoscience and the paranormal
  • The history of psychic charlatanry in the sciences
  • Current threats to academic freedom
  • The growth of religious-political extremism in America, and on the campus
  • The proper role of religion in American public education
  • The borderlands of science and religion
  • Center for Inquiry as an organization
  • CFI-On Campus as an organization

Debate Topics:

  • Does Organized Religion Offer Solutions To The Problems Of The 21st Century?
  • Does God Exist?
  • Can One Be Good Without Belief In God?
  • Does Christian Morality Conflict With Civic Morality?
  • Does E.S.P Exist?
  • Is Science Based on Faith?

Scott Hartman

Scott Hartman is a paleontologist and the Science Director for the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis, Wyoming. He has published on a wide range of scientific topics related to dinosaurs, and specializes in reconstructing the anatomy of extinct animals, the evolution of birds, and vertebrate functional morphology. Mr. Hartman has developed new educational programs on evolutionary biology at the high school and college level, as well as numerous museum displays at the Dinosaur Center, the Tate Museum, and around the world. He routinely consults on media and educational projects, and frequently lectures or debates on paleontology and the evolution/Intelligent Design controversy.

Expertise:

  • Intelligent Design and Young Earth Creationism
  • The Evolution of Birds and Jurassic Dinosaurs
  • Informal Science Education

R. Joseph Hoffmann

R. Joseph Hoffmann is Campbell Professor of Religion and Human Values at Wells College, New York, and chair of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion at the Center for Inquiry. He is formerly Professor of Civilization Studies at American University of Beirut and Senior Research Scholar of St. Cross College, Oxford. Dr. Hoffmann is a specialist in the social and cultural history of early Christianity. Hoffman is the author of Jesus Outside the Gospels, co-editor of Biblical versus Secular Ethics, Jesus in Myth and History, Modern Spiritualities, The Origins of Christianity, The Secret Gospels, What the Bible Really Says, and editor and translator of the Oxford University Press editions of Celsus' On the True Doctrine: A Discourse Against the Christians and Porphyry's Against the Christians: The Literary Remains.

Richard Hull

Dr. Richard Hull was professor of philosophy and clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Buffalo where he received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1994. He has served on several ethics committees and offered advanced courses in bioethics at Buffalo General Hospital. Dr. Hull has edited eight books, including Ethical Issues in the New Reproductive Technologies and has authored 100 articles, chapters, reviews, and pamphlets, most on issues in medical ethics. He has lectured widely on ethical issues in medicine, nursing, allied health care, and biomedical research. He is the director of the CFI Community-Tallahassee.

David Koepsell

Dr. Koepsell earned his Law degree and and Doctorate in Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. In addition to practicing law for eight years, he is adjunct Assistant Professor of Philosophy at SUNY, specializing in Legal Philosophy, Ontology and Ethics. His dissertation, entitled "The Ontology of Cyberspace: Law, Philosophy, and the Future of Intellectual Property," was published by Open Court in 2000. He continues to write and publish articles and books on law, philosophy, and ethics. Prof. Koepsell has lectured on a variety of subjects in Madrid, Turin, Rome, as well as throughout the Unites States. His publications include a number of articles in scholarly journals and the following books: Reboot World, (New York: Writer's Club Press) (fiction) and Searle on the Institutions of Social Reality, co-edited with Laurence Moss, (Oxford UK: Blackwell).

Expertise:

  • First Amendment issues
  • Separation of Church and State
  • Secular Humanism
  • Secular ethics and "moral realism"
  • Naturalistic ethics

Debate Topics:

  • Is Natural Law necessarily Divine Law?
  • Should Publicly Funded Universities be Secular?
  • Is the U.S. a Christian Nation?

Paul Kurtz

Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University at Buffalo, and the founder and chairman of the Center For Inquiry and its two main subdivisions, the Council for Secular Humanism and the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. He is Editor-in-Chief of the magazine, Free Inquiry, and is on the Editorial Board of the Skeptical Inquirer magazine.

Dr. Kurtz is the author or editor of over 40 books, including The Courage to Become (Praeger/Greenwood 1997), Forbidden Fruit (Prometheus 1987), The Transcendental Temptation (Prometheus 1986), A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology (Prometheus 1985), Exuberance (Wilshire Books 1977) American Philosophy in the Twentieth Century (Macmillan 1966), and Moral Problems in Contemporary Society (Prentice-Hall 1969). He has published over 650 articles and reviews in journals such as Journal of Philosophy, Philosophical Quarterly, American Behavioral Scientist, Psychology Today, Antioch Review, Smithsonian, and Science Digest. Dr. Kurtz's life and work have been featured in newspapers and periodicals including New York Times, Washington Post, Time Magazine, Reader¹s Digest, Science Magazine, Scientific American, Cosmopolitan, Wall Street Journal, and London Times, and he has appeared on most national TV and radio news programs, such as Today Show, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, and Nightline. Dr. Kurtz is entered in Who's Who in the World and Who's Who in America.

Dr. Kurtz earned an B.A. in Philosophy at New York University in 1948, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy at Columbia University in 1952. He has taught at the New School for Social Research, Vassar College, Trinity College, Union College, Queens College, City University of New York, University of Besançon (France), and has served as Vice President of the American Humanist Association and Co-President of the International Humanist and Ethical Union.

Expertise:

  • History and philosophy of humanism
  • History of philosophy
  • Skepticism and the paranormal
  • Comparative history of religion
  • Spiritualism and faith healing
  • Theism vs. non theism

Jeffery Jay Lowder

Founder and president of Internet Infidels, Inc. He has published numerous articles on the World Wide Web, as well as in Philo: the Journal of the Society of Humanist Philosophers, and has appeared on T.J. Walker's radio talk show. An experienced debater of theists, Mr. Lowder graduated from Seattle Pacific University, where he did his honors thesis on The Historicity of the Resurrection: The Debate Between Christians and Skeptics.

    Debate Topics:
  • Does Science Support Theism?
  • Does God Exist?
  • Did Jesus Rise From the Dead?

Keith Parsons

Keith Parsons is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Houston at Clear Lake and former editor of Philo: The Journal of the Society of Humanist Philosophers. He is the author of God and the Burden of Proof (1989), and he has contributed a chapter to Does God Exist? Dr. Parsons is currently writing a book on philosophical issues in dinosaur paleontology. In June, 1998 Dr. Parsons debated William Lane Craig. Dr. Parsons holds a Ph.D. in the History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Pittsburgh and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Queens University.

Debate Topics:

  • Are Science and Religion Compatible?
  • Does Science Support the Existence of God?
  • Is There a God?

Frank Pasquale

Frank L. Pasquale, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist who has been buoyantly non-religious for more than 40 years. His career has spanned scholarship, international business, and cultural education. He has pursued life-long interests in culture, religion and irreligion, ethics and morality, and church-state separation. He has contributed articles on these an other topics to Free Inquiry, Secular Humanist Bulletin, Sightings, The Oregonian, Oregon’s Future, and Humanism Northwest, among others. He is currently at work on research concerning the nonreligious in the United States and a book on study and neglect of the nonreligious in the behavioral and social sciences.

Dr. Pasquale graduated from Northwestern University in 1972 with a B. A. in Psychology. He received an M. S. in Social Psychology at Western Washington University, and returned to Northwestern for his M. A. and Ph.D. in cultural anthropology, studying under Francis L. K. Hsu. His academic research has focused on attribution of responsibility and cultural factors in moral development, social behavior, and mental health. He was co-founder of the Self-Help Institute, a non-profit organization focusing on self-help/mutual aid groups, and was a research fellow at the East-West Center, Honolulu, where he studied cultural differences in communication among Japanese, Chinese, and U. S. Americans. He is a lifetime associate member of the Council for Secular Humanism.

Expertise:

  • Scientific study and neglect of the nonreligious
  • Morality/ethics with and without supernatural religion
  • History and cultures of philosophical humanism
  • Church-state relations in the U. S.

Sample Presentation topics:

  • Morality and ethics: Absolute, absolutely relative, or resolute?
  • Humanism and progress toward an essential ethic
  • Contemporary philosophical humanism and its discontents
  • The nonreligious in the United States: What we do and do not know

Massimo Pigliucci

Dr. Massimo Pigliucci is Associate Professor in the Departments of Botany and of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He has a Doctorate in genetics from the University of Ferrara (Italy), and a Ph.D. in botany from the University of Connecticut. He has been a post-doctoral associate at Brown University.

Dr. Pigliucci's academic research focuses on the ecology and evolution of genotype-environment interactions (the nature vs. nurture problem). He has published 49 technical papers in evolutionary biology. He has written two popular science books in Italian. Sinauer published in 1998 his technical book Phenotypic Evolution: a Reaction Norm Perspective (co-authored with Carl Schlichting), and he has just completed Phenotypic Plasticity: Beyond Nature vs. Nurture for Johns Hopkins University Press. He has been awarded the prestigious "Dobzhansky Prize" by the Society for the Study of Evolution and has been selected as teacher of the year by the University of Tennessee Mortar Board Faculty Appreciation committee.

As a skeptic and secular humanist, he has debated creationist Duane Gish and Christian theologian William Lane Craig, has given talks to various skeptic and humanist groups throughout the US, and has published in The Skeptic, Free Inquiry and Skeptical Inquirer.

Expertise:

  • Evolutionary genetics and psychology
  • Science and religion
  • Secular versus religious ethics

Debate Topics:

  • Theism vs. non-theism
  • Evolution versus intelligent design theory

Robert M. Price

Dr. Price is Professor of Biblical Criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute and edits The Journal of Higher Criticism. His books include Beyond Born Again (1993), The Widow-Traditions in Luke-Acts: A Feminist-Critical Scrutiny (1997) and Deconstructing Jesus (2000). He has written some seventy articles on religion, theology and the Bible for The Christian Century, The Evangelical Quarterly, Christian Scholars Review, The Journal for the Study of The NY, The Journal of Psychology and Theology, Religious Studies, The Reformed Journal, Religious Humanism, Playboy, American Rationalist and others. He occasionally appears on A&E Bible documentaries. Dr. Price holds a Ph.D. in Theology (Drew, 1981) as well as a Ph.D. in New Testament (Drew 1993).

Debate Topics:

  • Was the Bible Inspired by God?
  • Is the Bible Infallible?
  • Did Jesus Die on the Cross?
  • Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?
  • Did Jesus Claim to be God?
  • Who Was the Historical Jesus?

Benjamin Radford

Benjamin Radford is the director of publications for the Center for Inquiry-Transnational and managing editor for Skeptical Inquirer and Pensar. He is the author of Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists, and Advertisers Mislead Us and co-author of Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias: Why We Need Critical Thinking. He has written over a hundred articles on various topics, including urban legends, mass hysteria, mysterious creatures, and media criticism, and appeared on programs from BBC Radio, CBC, The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, The National Geographic Channel, The Discovery Science Channel, and MTV’s Big Urban Myth Show.

Expertise:

  • Urban Legends
  • Cryptozoology
  • The Barbie Myth

Barry Seidman

Barry F. Seidman has been with the Center for Inquiry since 2000. He is currently the Coordinator for the Center for Inquiry Community of New Jersey.

Barry has a BA in Video and Film Production from Rutgers University, and a MA in Science Journalism from New York University. He has written for Biotechnology News, Oncology.com, Free Inquiry, The Skeptic UK, Philosophy Now and Skeptical Inquirer. He has a chapter in the book anthology, Opposing Viewpoints: Death and Dying, and is coeditor of the anthology for Prometheus Books, Toward a New Political Humanism.

Barry is also the producer of “Equal Time for Freethought,” a live radio program which debuted on WBAI-NY in 2002. ETFF's mission is "to explore and represent an evidence-based worldview, thereby providing a forum for social change based on secular humanism, scientific naturalism, and healthy skepticism."

Socrates (Ronald Gross)

Get to know the person whom Paul Kurtz calls "perhaps Western civilization's first great humanist hero." Socrates exemplifies independent, critical thinking. He celebrates individual freedom and dignity, the use of reason, and fulfillment in this life. Portrayed by Ronald Gross, author of Socrates' Way: Seven Master Keys to Using Your Mind to the Utmost, and chair of the University Seminar on Innovation at Columbia University, Socrates has been featured in the New York Times, Newsday, and other national media. In an acclaimed multi-media theatrical event including video, slides, and costuming, Socrates addresses major issues we face today.

Expertise:

  • Critical thinking
  • Civil disobedience and questioning authority
  • Lying and deceit in public life
  • Entrapment in "The Cave" of electronic media
  • The retreat from reason in our culture

Harris Sussman

Harris Sussman, Ph.D., is a consultant on social, cultural, and organizational issues. He has been guest instructor at 30 colleges, universities, and professional institutes and has given 300 professional development/staff in-service presentations, workshops, forums, and retreats throughout the USA and in Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, Russia, Samoa, and Europe. He has been writing the most widely-read national monthly column on cultural diversity in the US since 1991 and wrote a handbook, How Diversity Works. He was the first president of the Humanist Student Union of North America.

He has been quoted in numerous newspaper and magazine articles and has been featured on the NBC Evening News, NBC Today Show, and the PBS NewsHour, and in a Business Week cover story on his work in corporate diversity programs. He went to a one-room school in Vermont, taught on Hopi, Navajo, and Apache reservations, and as a teenager met Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.

Expertise:

  • Understanding religious and cultural differences
  • The world after September 11, 2001
  • The future of diversity
  • How can things change if your mind can't?
  • Social justice near and far
  • Cultural creativity
  • Living with War and Terrorism
  • Living in a Time of Crisis
  • Dealing with Fear and Anxiety

Edward Tabash

Civil rights attorney Edward Tabash is the Chair of the National Legal Committee for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, as well as the Honorary Chair of the Center for Inquiry West, and Chair of the First Amendment Task Force of the Council for Secular Humanism. Since 1980 Mr. Tabash has been California's most active debater advocating women's reproductive rights. He has published numerous articles on civil rights and religious liberty in Beverly Hills Bar Journal, Daily Breeze, Los Angeles Times, and Los Angeles Daily Journal

.

Mr. Tabash graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. from UCLA in 1973 and earned his Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles in 1976.

Mr. Tabash has participated in debates with many prominent religious spokesmen, including William Lane Craig and Peter Van Inwaagen. The son of an Auschwitz survivor and an Orthodox Rabbi, Tabash is able to draw on his family background to emphasize his ethical, nonreligious position on the topics he debates on.

Debate Topics:

  • Does God Exist?
  • What does the separation of church and state really mean?
  • Does Prayer Belong in the Classroom?
  • Does the Constitution guarantee Freedom From Religion?
  • Is Abortion Morally Permissible?
  • Is it Rational to Believe in God?
  • Can People be Good Without God?

Robert Talisse

Robert Talisse is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He holds a Ph.D. from City University of New York Graduate School. Professor Talisse has published numerous articles on American pragmatism, political liberalism, and the theory of democracy. His books include On James: Philosophy as Vision (Wadsworth 2002), On Rawls: A Liberal Theory of Justice and Justification (Wadsworth 2001), and On Dewey: The Reconstruction of Philosophy (Wadsworth 2000).

Debate Topics:

  • What is Inquiry?
  • Democracy and Free Inquiry