News – 19 May 2012

The road less travelled

Chris Stedman

P. Z. Myers

Leslie Cannold

Meredith Doig

On 16 April 2012, the University of Melbourne saw Chris Stedman, P. Z. Myers and Leslie Cannold discuss the question, Can believers and atheists work together for the common good? The forum was sponsored by Rationalist Society of Australia, Humanist Society of Victoria, InterAction, Embiggen Books and Global Atheist Convention.

Chris Stedman is the first Interfaith and Community Service Fellow for the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University. He writes for The Huffington Post, Washington Post and his own blog, NonProphet Status. His book, Faitheist: how an atheist found common ground with the religious, will be published later in 2012.

P. Z. Myers is professor of biology at the University of Minnesota, specialising in evolutionary biology. His blog Pharyngula has been listed by the journal Nature as the top-ranked blog written by a scientist. He is often cited as the ‘cranky curmudgeon’ of the freethought community.

Leslie Cannold is an award-winning ethicist based at the University of Melbourne and noted as one of Australia’s most influential public intellectuals. A native New Yorker, she has made Australia home for the past 23 years. In addition to her prolific writing on a wide variety of ethical issues, her distinctive voice is heard across public and commercial radio. In 2011, Leslie was named Australian Humanist of the Year.

The forum was moderated by Meredith Doig, President of the Rationalist Society of Australia.

Report by Stephen Stuart