The Human Factor

There will be an open meeting in the Havelock North Community Centre on Sunday 5th June at 7 pm.

Bill Cooke is an independent scholar of intellectual history, focusing on the history and nature of various strands of non- or anti-religious thought. Until 2008 he was Programme Leader, Contextual Studies at Manukau School of Visual Arts, University of Auckland at Manukau, New Zealand. He has a PhD in Religious Studies from Victoria University of Wellington on the history and ideas of rationalism and humanism in New Zealand. He has written five books, the current title being A Wealth of Insights: Humanist Thought Since the Enlightenment, to be published by Prometheus Books later in 2011. His previous books include A Dictionary of Atheism, Skepticism and Humanism (Prometheus: 2006); The Blasphemy Depot: A Hundred Years of the Rationalist Press Association (RPA: 2003); A Rebel to His Last Breath: Joseph McCabe and Rationalism (Prometheus: 2001); and Heathen in Godzone: A History of Rationalism in New Zealand (NZARH: 1998). He has written many articles and reviews for edited books, academic and other journals and has spoken about the non-religious worldview in debates (including with William Lane Craig), television and radio. 

Cooke has served on advisory boards of two major encyclopedia projects: Encyclopedia of Anthropology (Sage: 2006) for which he wrote ten entries; and the Encyclopedia of Unbelief (Prometheus: 2007) for which he wrote 45 entries. He has also contributed twelve entries for the Encyclopedia of Time (Sage: 2009). He is a Senior Editor of Free Inquiry, the bi-monthly magazine of the Council for Secular Humanism and from, 1992 till 2008 was editor of The Open Society, the quarterly journal of the NZ Rationalists & Humanists. And since 2000 he has written a column of art criticism for Art all, a New Zealand-based arts magazine.

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The Hawkes Bay Atheist Group will meet on Sunday March 6th 2011 at 7 pm in The Havelock North Community Centre. All atheists and those of similar persuasions are welcome.

The Human Factor is a Humanist – Atheist website based in New Zealand but open to participation from all countries in the world.

We welcome intelligent comment and debate but will reject material that is rude, abusive or objectionable.

We recognise the right of every individual to have faith and practise the religion of their choice. However we will test that faith against the evidence available and urge people to make rational decisions in the best interests of further human existence.

We are opposed to religious fundamentalism, religious extremism or religious militancy of any kind. We will also counter any missionary activity, conversion programmes or religious propoganda.

We call for the abandonment of faith based religious teachings throughout the world. We would like to see no more faith based religious teachings anywhere by, ideally,  2035 or by 2050 at the very latest. We support the study of religion as an academic exercise and in particular studies of the origins and history of world religions, comparative religions, the contribution of religion to civilisation and a study of the negative and devisive consequences of religion throughout the ages.

We do not support militancy to combat religion but advocate a more robust response than has typically been forthcoming from the “silent atheist majority” over the past 50 or so years.