Dale McGowan | |
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| Occupation | Author, educator, philanthropist, podcaster |
| Nationality | American |
| Subject | Atheism, humanism, music theory, parenting |
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Dale McGowan (born February 28, 1963) is an American author, educator, podcaster, and philanthropist who has written and edited several books related to nonreligious life, particularly parenting without religion.
McGowan graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 1986 with a double major B.A. in anthropology and music theory. In 1991 he received an MA in Instrumental Conducting from California State University, Northridge. In 1999 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in music theory and composition. [1]
From 1991 to 2006, he was associate professor of music at St. Catherine University, a Catholic women's college in Minneapolis/St. Paul. His experiences at the college are satirized in his 2002 novel Calling Bernadette's Bluff and the 2010 sequel Good Thunder. In 2012 he began writing Atheism for Dummies for the popular For Dummies book series. [2]
In 2014 McGowan became National Director of Ethical Education at the American Ethical Union [3] and is a former director of engagement at the multi-faith website Patheos. [4] [3] As of September 2021, he is chief content officer for the secular media company OnlySky. [5]
He currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
In 2006, McGowan resigned his university position to pursue a full-time writing career. He edited and co-authored Parenting Beyond Belief (2007), a compilation of essays on raising children outside of religion. Contributors to this volume included Michael Shermer, Richard Dawkins, Penn Jillette, and Julia Sweeney. Around the same time, he began to travel throughout the United States, giving seminars on secular parenting at atheist conventions, as well as Unitarian Universalist and Ethical Culture congregations. In 2009, he released a practical companion to Parenting Beyond Belief titled Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief. [6] Like its predecessor, Raising Freethinkers included contributions from multiple authors, including McGowan himself. McGowan was prompted to write the two books because as a freethinking parent looking for advice, "There was nothing else out there". [7] Parenting Beyond Belief lays out a general philosophy of non-religious parenting, and Raising Freethinkers "is the answer to practical questions, activities that the family can do together and resource reviews." [7] His seminars and both books aim to help parents raise open-minded, inquiring kids and not to push them towards any particular world view.
McGowan is an advocate for authoritative parenting which, while not permissive, allows children to understand the reasoning behind clearly defined boundaries and rules, which he claims allows children to make informed moral judgements where no situation specific rules have been pre-set. [3] He further states that indoctrination impedes a child's moral development. [8]
Between 2007 and 2014 he wrote a blog, The Meming of Life: on secular parenting and other natural wonders. [9] He currently writes about mortality at the Patheos blog The Lucky Ones [10] and about music at Unweaving the Score. [11]
Voices of Unbelief: Documents from Atheists and Agnostics, edited by McGowan and published in September 2012, is a collection of documents from atheists and agnostics throughout history. In March 2013, McGowan's book Atheism for Dummies was released by Wiley Publishing. August 2014 saw the release of In Faith and in Doubt, the first comprehensive resource for secular/religious mixed marriages. A second edition of Parenting Beyond Belief with new contributors was released in 2016, and Sharing Reality: How to Bring Secularism and Science to an Evolving Religious World (co-authored with Jeff T. Haley) was published in 2017. He is currently at work on a book about how music communicates emotion.
In January 2018, McGowan presented a TEDx talk in Atlanta on the changing nature of religion and irreligion in America. [12]
In late 2018, McGowan launched three podcasts about music (How Music Does That), raising kids without religion (Raising Freethinkers) and death (The Lucky Ones). [13] He also appears as a regular guest on Parenting Beyond Belief, published by the Atheist Community of Austin. [14]
In 2005 while visiting St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis, McGowan realized the atheist community lacked a systematic way to donate to charity, such as the church has with tithing or collection plate donations. The idea developed, and by 2009 McGowan had set up Foundation Beyond Belief (FBB), a nonprofit organization designed to encourage and facilitate charitable giving and volunteering among humanists and atheists. [15] [2] The Foundation selects four charitable organizations per quarter, one in each of the following cause areas:
Members join the foundation by signing up for a monthly automatic donation in the amount of their choice, then set up personal profiles to indicate how they would like their contribution distributed among the five categories. As of April 2016, the members of FBB have raised over $2 million for charities worldwide. McGowan has said he is happy to acknowledge the things religious communities do better than atheists such as fostering community and charitable giving, and learn from them. [15]
FBB also sponsors more than 125 humanist volunteer teams in cities around the U.S., a Humanist Service Corps providing global service opportunities for nontheists, and Humanist Disaster Recovery Teams, a program coordinating humanist volunteers to respond on the ground after natural disasters. [16]
In 2015 McGowan stepped down as executive director and was succeeded by Noelle George. [16]
McGowan was named 2008 Humanist of the Year by the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University in recognition for his work in nonreligious parenting education. [8]
Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision making.
Freethought is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and should instead be reached by other methods such as logic, reason, and empirical observation. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a freethinker is "a person who forms their own ideas and opinions rather than accepting those of other people, especially in religious teaching." In some contemporary thought in particular, free thought is strongly tied with rejection of traditional social or religious belief systems. The cognitive application of free thought is known as "freethinking", and practitioners of free thought are known as "freethinkers". Modern freethinkers consider free thought to be a natural freedom from all negative and illusive thoughts acquired from society.
The Secular Coalition for America is an advocacy group located in Washington D.C. It describes itself as "protecting the equal rights of nonreligious Americans."
The Rationalist Society of Australia (RSA) promotes the interests of rationalists nationally in Australia. Originally formed as the Victorian Rationalist Association, the society originated in a meeting of freethinkers in the University of Melbourne in 1906. It is the operational arm of the rationalist movement in Australia.
The National Day of Reason is a secular celebration for humanists, atheists, secularists, and freethinkers. The day is celebrated annually on the first Thursday in May, in response to the statutory observance of a National Day of Prayer in the United States, which many atheist and secular groups deem unconstitutional. The purpose of the National Day of Reason is to "celebrate reason—a concept all Americans can support—and to raise public awareness about the persistent threat to religious liberty posed by government intrusion into the private sphere of worship." The National Day of Reason is also meant to help build community among the non-religious in the United States.
Discrimination against atheists, sometimes called atheophobia, atheistophobia, or anti-atheism, both at present and historically, includes persecution of and discrimination against people who are identified as atheists. Discrimination against atheists may be manifested by negative attitudes, prejudice, hostility, hatred, fear, or intolerance towards atheists and atheism or even the complete denial of atheists existence. It is often expressed in distrust regardless of its manifestation. The main mechanism behind anti-atheist prejudice is the projection of believers' repressed desires. Perceived atheist prevalence seems to be correlated with reduction in prejudice.
The Out Campaign is a public awareness initiative for freethought and atheism in the US. It was initiated by Robin Elisabeth Cornwell, and is endorsed by Richard Dawkins, a prominent atheist. The campaign aims to create more openness about being an atheist by providing a means by which atheists can identify themselves to others by displaying the movement's scarlet letterA, a scarlet colored capital "A" in the Zapfino typeface, and an allusion to the scarlet letter A worn by Hester Prynne after being convicted of adultery in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. It encourages those who wish to be part of the campaign to come out and re-appropriate, in a humorous way, the social stigma that in some places persists against atheism, by branding themselves with a scarlet letter.
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which in its most general form is the belief that at least one deity exists.
Thomas W. Flynn was an American author, journalist, novelist, executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism, and editor of its journal Free Inquiry. He was also director of the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum and the Freethought Trail.
Apostacon, before 2013 known as Midwest Humanist Conference, Midwest Humanist and Freethought Conference and Midwest Freethought Conference, is an annual event about atheism, freethought, humanism, secularism and skepticism in the (Midwestern) United States. The conference, which embraces the parody religion of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, is aimed at "atheists, humanists, agnostics, skeptics, apostates, freethinkers, rationalists and pastafarians."
Sikivu Hutchinson is an American author, playwright, director, and musician. Her multi-genre work explores feminism, gender justice, racial justice, LGBTQIA+ rights, humanism and atheism. She is the author of Humanists in the Hood: Unapologetically Black, Feminist, and Heretical (2020), White Nights, Black Paradise (2015), Godless Americana: Race and Religious Rebels (2013), Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and the Values Wars (2011), and Imagining Transit: Race, Gender, and Transportation Politics in Los Angeles (2003). Her plays include "White Nights, Black Paradise", "Rock 'n' Roll Heretic" and "Narcolepsy, Inc.". "Rock 'n' Roll Heretic" was among the 2023 Lambda Literary award LGBTQ Drama finalists. Moral Combat is the first book on atheism to be published by an African-American woman. In 2013 she was named Secular Woman of the year and was awarded Foundation Beyond Belief's 2015 Humanist Innovator award. She was also a recipient of Harvard's 2020 Humanist of the Year award.
Humanist Society (Singapore) is registered in 2010 as a society in Singapore for humanists, freethinkers, atheists, agnostics and other like-minded people. The non-religious make up 17% of the Singapore population as of last available Census in 2010.
Hemant Mehta is an American author, blogger, YouTuber and atheist activist. Mehta is a regular speaker at atheist events, and has been a board member of charitable organizations such as the Secular Student Alliance and the Foundation Beyond Belief.
The secular movement refers to a social and political trend in the United States, beginning in the early years of the 20th century, with the founding of the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism in 1925 and the American Humanist Association in 1941, in which atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, freethinkers, and other nonreligious and nontheistic Americans have grown in both numbers and visibility. There has been a sharp increase in the number of Americans who identify as religiously unaffiliated, from under 10 percent in the 1990s to 20 percent in 2013. The trend is especially pronounced among young people, with about one in three Americans younger than 30 identifying as religiously unaffiliated, a figure that has nearly tripled since the 1990s.
Atheism in the African diaspora is atheism as it is experienced by black people outside of Africa. In the United States, blacks are less likely than other ethnic groups to be religiously unaffiliated, let alone identifying as atheist. The demographics are similar in the United Kingdom. Atheists are individuals who do not hold a belief in God or gods. Atheism is a disbelief in God or gods or a denial of God or gods, or it is simply a lack of belief in gods. Some, but not all, atheists identify as secular humanists, who are individuals who believe that life has meaning and joy without the need for the supernatural or religion and that all individuals should live ethical lives which can provide for the greater good of humanity. Black atheists and secular humanists exist today and in history, though many were not always vocal in their beliefs or lack of belief.
Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart: Rewriting the Ten Commandments for the Twenty-first Century is a 2014 book by Lex Bayer and Humanist Chaplain, John Figdor, that has been described as a manual for working out one’s own epistemological and secular ethical beliefs. The book sets out to address what the authors see as a need among a growing number of Americans to talk about their beliefs, and lead happy and moral lives when they don't believe in gods or aren't comfortable with religion. It offers a clear set of constructive, positive principles to live by for agnostics, atheists, humanists and non-religious.
GO Humanity (Giving and Organizing for Humanity) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2009 in Georgia by Dale McGowan, originally under the name Foundation Beyond Belief.
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