Almost 40 years after I said farewell to my Christian faith – after having been a Christian preacher in my younger days – I sat in my room in the guest hotel at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. I had just ordered a cup of coffee in my room. In a couple of hours I was expected to give a lecture on Humanism to students and teachers at the Institute for Philosophy. I came directly from a Humanist conference in India, and had an optimistic feeling since India had given me a hope that even in traditional cultures there was an increasing support for rationalism and non-religious ideas and values. Having paraded through the streets of Chennai with Dr. Veeramani and 15,000 self-respecting followers of Periyar, and having seen that the leaders of the Atheist Centre in Vijayawada were among the highest esteemed citizens of the community, I had told myself that belief in God was not any longer self-evident in the Third World. I had to realise, though, that at the football stadium not far from the University I had seen two meter high posters with pictures of American evangelists, but as far as I knew they had not been invited to address the university students – like myself!

The coffee I had ordered was served by a smiling young man who wanted to say hello and talk a little:

“I am Christian, he said, “I belong to the Apostolic Church. What church do you belong to?” he asked.

“I am not Christian,” I answered, and followed up with a comment I knew from experience would make the young man perplexed: “I do not believe in God. I am an atheist”.  I have seen many become embarrassed by a direct response like that, but this time the man’s reaction was completely confounding.

“You don’t believe in God? Not at all? Are you joking? It can’t be true!” And he opened the door and called out to his colleagues, several young men and women: “Hi, come here, this man don’t believe in God!”  And they gathered around me, with curious questions and comments.

This was an eye opening experience for me. Belief in God is still the norm in this world. The secularised Western Europe is the exception, and our atheist friends in the greater part of the world represent marginal –  often suppressed, and even persecuted groups. In some Muslim countries atheism is looked upon as blasphemy, which is punished with hanging or stoning.

What can we do about this negative image of atheism?  Actually it will be a long and extremely difficult and dangerous project to change the mind of religious fundamentalists, who base their conviction on Holy scriptures or prophetic revelations. But what about the more enlightened public, the passive followers, the religious indifferent – how can we convince them that we atheists are not a danger to society, but the opposite – a source of enlightenment and social development for individuals as well as cultures?

To change the negative image of atheism, we need to present ourselves as persons who not only turn our back on religion, but are friends and neighbours who reach out for the best of human values; we show empathy with the poor and suffering, we fight for the suppressed ones – be it women, poor or casteless, and we struggle for freedom, equality, brother -  and sisterhood.

Indian atheists have given us the best examples of  this strategy, not only the strategy, but also a demonstration of what these values mean as a lifestance, a philosophical and ethical alternative to religion. You may call it positive atheism, which it really is. Others use different labels for the same conviction.

And we all assemble under the banner of Humanism. All over the world we now have Humanist groups, who do their best to create this alternative culture – which is the ambitious theme of this conference.

I want to exemplify for you some of the values that signify this alternative. The last issue of the international magazine for Humanists, calledInternational Humanist News, gives an interesting and typical illustration of what values international Humanists today are promoting and fighting for.

I will give you some examples:

The editor, Sangeeta Mall, writes an article called Ban the Ban. It is about banning books and written material in the name of religion or politics, even banning of  websites, like Facebook and Google. She points to Salman Rushdie`s Satanic Verses, Taslima Nasrin’s books and other well-known titles. Sangeeta concludes – I quote:

“One of the most inalienable rights of an individual is freedom of expression. Most democratic countries include this right in their constitutions. And yet, many governments, on the pretext of preserving law and order or public peace, are quick to abrogate this right. It is the duty of right-thinking individuals to defend this right against all attacks.”

On the same page there is an advertisement for the next world congress for Humanists, in Oslo in August this year. What is the congress about? The theme is Humanism and Peace. Peace is the highest and most needed value in this world – a challenge no religion so far has been able to resolve, and where the voice of Humanism now is highly needed in several of the world’s bloody conflicts. Among the speakers in the Oslo conference you will find prominent Indian Humanists.

If we turn the page, we come to the Humanist demonstration against the Pope’s visit to London last fall. Almost 20 000 protested against the Pope’s handling of the enormous amount of child abuse cases, the Vatican’s homophobia, the Pope’s attitude to women and reproductive freedoms and contraceptives. 

Further we can read about the brave exposure of another of the world’s religious leaders – Dalai Lama. This is the story about the little schoolgirl Sambhavi who was paraded by her parents on the TV channels as a child with miraculous powers. She was taken out of school and installed in a temple as a goddess, with the support and encouragement from Dalai Lama himself – in the extreme tradition of child gods and goddesses. The international director of International Humanist and Ethical Union, Babu Gogineni, intervened with all his might, filed a petition in the Human Rights Commission, argued the case and led a high profile international campaign. After many hearings and a court case, the judgment was clear: The child had to leave the temple and go back to school. In the Humanist philosophy also children have human rights.

My last example – all taken from this one and only issue of the Humanist magazine, is connected to the former president of International Humanist and Ethical Union, Roy Brown, and his reflections about the religious and cultural development in Europe. As one of the pioneers in the world population question, he has followed the migration and immigration developments on several continents. Now he gives us Europeans advice about the dangers that can be caused by the very rapid demographic changes, as to religion, culture and social structures. In his article here he underlines a warning to us all, which in my view touches upon the key question for us as Humanists. I quote:

“We should start by adopting a policy of Zero tolerance towards incitement to hatred and towards preachers of hate. ….We should …have no hesitation in acting severely against anyone who incites hatred of any group. And this applies whether the group in question is Jews, Muslims, immigrants, atheists, homosexuals, Christians or any other…..No religion should be permitted to preach hatred simply because such hatred appears in their holy texts.”

Still there are 20 or more pages in this magazine I have not touched upon. But I can tell you that summing up, it would give a good recipe for a Humanist agenda to make the world a better place to live for everyone. And a safer world.

Is there a need for an alternative to religion? Yes, there is. Can we ever become a real and qualified alternative for people in East as well as West? Yes, we can.

(Inaugural address at the World Atheist Conference held at Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India, January 7^th 2011)

--Levi Fragell
Former President, IHEU