In Admiration of Paul Kurtz

Paul Kurtz has resigned from CFI. His letter of resignation can be read here. His hand picked board of officers wanted to take the organization that he started in a different direction than he wanted it to go. Apparently the board wanted to go in the direction of the new atheists with a more forceful attack against religion, whereas Paul wanted to include all secular-humanists in a vision for the future, many of which are liberals. Apparently this was a deal breaker with no room for an agreeable compromise between them.

I am not privy to the details and don't presume to know them. I know some of the people involved and I respect them all. People just disagree, that's all. It happens with passionate people. It's just too bad that probably the most influential man of our generation for skepticism and freethinking was ousted like this. Probably the most extensive public documentation of these events can be found on The Friendly Atheist site.

In any case I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Paul for all of the many things he has accomplished so far in his life--he's 84 and no signs of stopping--some of which can be read in his letter of resignation. We needed him for our generation. He's done marvelous things as a visionary and leader. My admiration for him is great.

He will always have a warm place in my heart for he was the one who read my self-published book and recommended it to Prometheus Books for publication when others didn't see the value in it, now titled: Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity It was that book which was recognized by other scholars to be significant such that Tom Flynn, editor of Free Inquiry recently said of it:
Doubting Christians beginning to doubt will find this book a juggernaut....If you seek an encyclopedic compendium of arguments against almost any imaginable defense of the Christian faith, this is your book....[T]he reader seeking a comprehensive disproof of Christianity as contemporary evangelicals defend it can do little better than to consult this volume. [April/ May 2010]
Because of that book I was able to gather together some scholars to write chapters for The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails which is helping to significantly change the religious landscape.

Paul seems indefatigable so I look forward to what he's going to do next. I wish Paul all the best.

1 comments:

GearHedEd said...

I didn't know, so I looked it up.

CFI