The humanist community assembled many of its leading lights recently to award Richard Dawkins a prize for furthering rational thought. A secular humanist convention is not the witches’ coven that some sheltered theists might expect. I did not see anyone smoking and never heard a profane word. Drinking at the reception was modest by anyone but a teetotaler’s standards, and far less than at the Episcopal fundraiser I’d attended the previous week. Also unlike the Episcopal affair, I did not spot a single same-sex couple. I began to wonder how much fun these people, freed from religion’s rules, were having with their liberty.
Edward J. Larson
Edward J. Larson is the author of six books and over forty articles relating to the history of the theory of evolution and its cultural impact including Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory (Modern Library, 2004) and the Pulitzer Prize winning Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and Americaâ??s Continuing Debate over Science and Religion (Basic Books, 2006). He teaches history and law at Pepperdine University and lives in Georgia and California.
