Roundup of Recent Activities, Honors, and Events of Our SGI Famous Team

26 Sep 2014/in /by

Secular Global InstituteWe are pleased to report that many SGI Fellows and communicators have made the news and are engaged in spreading secularism to our growing non-religious brothers and sisters worldwide.

  • Michael Shermer’s latest book “The Believing Brain“In this, his magnum opus, one of the world’s best known skeptics and critical thinkers Dr. Michael Shermer—founding publisher of Skeptic magazine and perennial monthly columnist (“Skeptic”) for Scientific American—presents his comprehensive theory on how beliefs are born, formed, nourished, reinforced, challenged, changed, and extinguished. This book synthesizes Dr. Shermer’s 30 years of research to answer the questions of how and why we believe what we do in all aspects of our lives, from our suspicions and superstitions to our politics, economics, and social beliefs.
  • Paul Krassner was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oakland branch of the writers organization PEN.Paul Krassner just published, “Patty Hearst and the Twinkie Murders: A Tale of Two Trials,” now available at paulkrassner.com.
  • Elham Manea  was elected as a Member of Federal Commission for Women Affairs by appointment of the Swiss Federal Council.Elham also awarded a Research Grant, Swiss South African Joint Research Program (2014-2016).
  • Phil Zuckerman will be speaking at CFI Portland on Oct. 9th, and also speaking at Freethought Day in Sacramento, California, on Oct.12th.Phil’s new book, “Living the Secular Life”, comes out in December, 2014.
  • Elizabeth Loftus received a recent Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology.American Psychological Foundation. (For “extraordinary contributions to our understanding of memory during the past 40 years that are remarkable for their creativity and impact”).Her Recent Ted talk, at Ted Global  2013 “The fiction of Memory“.
  • Taslima Nasrin an award-winning writer, physician, secular humanist and human rights activist, is known for her powerful writings on women oppression and unflinching criticism of religion, despite forced exile and multiple fatwas calling for her death. In India, Bangladesh and abroad, Nasreen’s fiction, nonfiction, poetry and memoir have topped the best-seller’s lists. Bestowed with honorary doctorates from Gent University and UCL in Belgium, and American University of Paris and Paris Diderot University in France, she has addressed gatherings in major venues of the world like the European Parliament, National Assembly of France, Universities of Sorbonne, Oxford, Harvard, Yale, etc. She got fellowships as a research scholar at Harvard and New York Universities. She was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in the USA. Visit Taslima’s  website : http://www.taslimanasrin.com/index2.html
  • Edwina Rogers reminds us that SGI recognizes September 30–this coming Tuesday–as Blasphemy Rights Day International. We request that all our fellows, communicators, and supporters make a statement on their Twitter and Facebook accounts about the importance of supporting blasphemy rights. Free expression of ideas is a basic human right and needs to be upheld in every country around the world.