Dan Barker

Last updated

Dan Barker
Dan Barker.jpg
Born
Daniel Edwin Barker [1]

(1949-06-25) June 25, 1949 (age 75)
Alma mater Azusa Pacific University
Occupation(s)Co-president, Freedom From Religion Foundation, author, musician
Known for

Daniel Edwin Barker (born June 25, 1949) [2] is an American atheist activist and musician who served as an evangelical Christian preacher and composer for 19 years but left Christianity in 1984. He and his wife Annie Laurie Gaylor are the current co-presidents of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, [3] and he is cofounder of The Clergy Project. [4] He has written numerous articles for Freethought Today, an American freethought newspaper. He is the author of several books including Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist. [5]

Contents

Barker has been an invited speaker at Rock Beyond Belief. [6] He is on the speakers bureau of the Secular Student Alliance. [7]

Biography

Barker received a degree in religion from Azusa Pacific University and was ordained to the ministry by the Standard Community Church, California, in 1975. [1] He served as associate pastor at several churches: Religious Society of Friends (Quaker), a church in the Assemblies of God fellowship, and an independent Charismatic church. He receives royalties from his popular children's Christian musicals, Mary Had a Little Lamb (1977) and His Fleece Was White as Snow (1978), both published by Manna Music. [8]

In 1984, he announced to his friends, family, and co-ministers that he had become an atheist, [9] and appeared on AM Chicago (hosted by Oprah Winfrey) later that year on a show about "kicking the religion habit". [10]

Personal life

Barker and Gaylor met when both were guests on the show. They began dating six months later and married in 1987. They have a daughter, Sabrina Delata. [11]

He is a member of the Lenni Lenape Delaware Tribe of Indians, [12] and in 1991 edited and published Paradise Remembered, [13] a collection of his grandfather's stories as a Lenape boy in Indian Territory.

Freedom From Religion Foundation

Barker introduces himself and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

He is the current co-president with his wife Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an American freethought organization that promotes the separation of church and state. [14] Barker is co-host of Freethought Radio , a radio program based in Madison, Wisconsin for atheists, agnostics, and other freethinkers that began in 2006 and has included interviews with Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Steven Pinker, Christopher Hitchens, Philip Pullman, Daniel C. Dennett, Ron Reagan, Julia Sweeney, and Michael Newdow. [15]

Media appearances

Barker with a red Bible, debating Dinesh D'Souza at UCSD in 2011. Barker-DSouza-UCSD-201103.jpg
Barker with a red Bible, debating Dinesh D'Souza at UCSD in 2011.

Barker has appeared on dozens of national television and radio programs to discuss and debate issues related to atheism and the separation of state and church. He has discussed nativity scenes on government property, [16] the campaign against a Mother Teresa stamp, [17] prayer in public schools, [18] and has appeared on Oprah Winfrey , The O’Reilly Factor , Tucker Carlson , Laura Ingraham , Phil Donahue , Hannity & Colmes , Maury Povich , Good Morning America , Sally Jessy Raphael , and Tom Leykis , as well as many international television and radio shows.

He was featured in a New York Times article about the growth of atheism in Southern states, [19] has given addresses on his own "de-conversion" across the United States, [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] and has participated in more than 140 debates around the country and the world. [26]

Barker and his wife host a weekly one-hour radio program, Freethought Radio. It is carried on several stations throughout the Midwest and is available through podcast. [27]

Publications

Musicals

Books

Music albums

Related Research Articles

Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, the divine, or the supernatural is either unknowable in principle or currently unknown in fact. It can also mean an apathy towards such religious belief and refer to personal limitations rather than a worldview. Another definition is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify either the belief that God exists or the belief that God does not exist."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom From Religion Foundation</span> American nonprofit organization

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for atheists, agnostics, and nontheists. Formed in 1976, FFRF promotes the separation of church and state, and challenges the legitimacy of many federal and state programs that are faith-based. It supports groups such as nonreligious students and clergy who want to leave their faith.

Atheism is the rejection of an assertion that a deity exists. In a narrower sense, positive atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities, effectively taking the stance of a positive claim in regards to the existence of any goddess or god. The English term 'atheist' was used at least as early as the sixteenth century and atheistic ideas and their influence have a longer history.

Ruth Hurmence Green gained notability within the atheist community with the publication of her book The Born Again Skeptic's Guide to the Bible in 1979. This book has since been the best selling publication from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. She was also the author of many other essays which were published posthumously in The Book of Ruth in 1982.

Some movements or sects within traditionally monotheistic or polytheistic religions recognize that it is possible to practice religious faith, spirituality and adherence to tenets without a belief in deities. People with what would be considered religious or spiritual belief in a supernatural controlling power are defined by some as adherents to a religion; the argument that atheism is a religion has been described as a contradiction in terms.

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. Perceived atheist prevalence seems to be correlated with reduction in prejudice. There is global prevalence of mistrust in moral perceptions of atheists found in even secular countries and among atheists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annie Laurie Gaylor</span> American atheism activist

Annie Laurie Gaylor is an American atheist, secular and women's rights activist and a co-founder – and, with her husband Dan Barker, a current co-president – of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. She was also the editor of the organization's newspaper, Freethought Today until 2015. Gaylor is the author of several books, including Woe to the Women: The Bible Tells Me So, Betrayal of Trust: Clergy Abuse of Children and, as editor, Women Without Superstition: No Gods – No Masters.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Dillahunty</span> American atheist activist (born 1969)

Matthew Wade Dillahunty is an American atheist activist and former president of the Atheist Community of Austin, a position he held from 2006 to 2013. Between 2005 and October 2022, Dillahunty was host of the televised webcast The Atheist Experience.

Agnostic atheism – or atheistic agnosticism – is a philosophical position that encompasses both atheism and agnosticism. Agnostic atheists are atheistic because they do not hold a belief in the existence of any deity and are agnostic because they claim that the existence of a divine entity or entities is either unknowable in principle or currently unknown in fact.

Atheist feminism is a branch of feminism that also advocates atheism. Atheist feminists hold that religion is a prominent source of female oppression and inequality, believing that the majority of the religions are sexist and oppressive towards women.

The term New Atheism describes the positions of some atheist academics, writers, scientists, and philosophers of the 20th and 21st centuries. New Atheism advocates the view that superstition, religion, and irrationalism should not be tolerated. Instead, they advocate the antitheist view that the various forms of theism should be criticised, countered, examined, and challenged by rational argument, especially when they exert strong influence on the broader society, such as in government, education, and politics. Critics have characterised New Atheism as "secular fundamentalism" or "fundamentalist atheism". Major figures of New Atheism include Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett, collectively referred to as the "Four Horsemen" of the movement.

Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists is a book which was written by Dan Barker in 2008, in which he describes his deconversion from being a preacher to becoming an atheist.

Atheism, or irreligion in Indonesia, is uncommon among the country's inhabitants, as there is a great stigma attached to being an atheist in Indonesia and it is widely condemned by the Indonesian people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hemant Mehta</span> American activist (born 1983)

Hemant Mehta is an American author, blogger, YouTuber and atheist activist. Mehta is a regular speaker at atheist events, and he has been a board member of charitable organizations such as the Secular Student Alliance and the Foundation Beyond Belief.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Clergy Project</span> Organization

The Clergy Project (TCP) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that provides peer support to current and former religious leaders who no longer believe in a god or other supernatural elements. The group's focus is to provide private online forums for its participants, career transition assistance, and subsidized psychotherapy sessions in partnership with Recovering from Religion's Secular Therapy Project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Nicol Gaylor</span> American atheist and campaigner for abortion rights

Anne Nicol Gaylor was an American atheist and reproductive rights advocate. She co-founded the Freedom from Religion Foundation and an abortion fund for Wisconsin women. She wrote the book Abortion Is a Blessing and edited The World Famous Atheist Cookbook. In 1985 Gaylor received the Humanist Heroine Award from the American Humanist Association, and in 2007 she was given the Tiller Award by NARAL Pro-Choice America.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mandisa Thomas</span> Founder and president of Black Nonbelievers Inc.

Mandisa Lateefah Thomas is the founder and president of Black Nonbelievers Inc. She has spoken at secular conferences and events, and has promoted the group's agenda in media outlets.

References

  1. 1 2 Lueders, Bill (July 28, 1991). "Fervor in reverse". The Milwaukee Journal. pp. 7–13.[ permanent dead link ]
  2. "Dan Barker". geni_family_tree. December 26, 2023. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  3. Grauvogl, Ann (December 18, 2009). "Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor are happily God-free". Isthmus The Daily Page. Archived from the original on November 7, 2013. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  4. unknown (n.d.). "The Story of The Clergy Project". The Clergy Project. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
  5. "“God is a delusion”: I was a Pentecostal preacher — until I lost my faith". Salon.
  6. Griffith, Justin (January 16, 2011). "Dan Barker Joins the Lineup". Rock Beyond Belief website. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  7. "Dan Barker". Secular Student Alliance. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved August 18, 2013.
  8. "Manna Music All Songs List". Manna Music. Archived from the original on October 11, 2013. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  9. Von Busack, Richard (October 3, 2002). "Heretical Animals". Metro Silicon Valley. Archived from the original on December 15, 2012. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  10. "The Oprah Winfrey Show". AM Chicago. 1984. Archived from the original on December 19, 2021. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  11. Erickson, Doug (February 25, 2007). "The Atheists' Calling". Madison.com. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  12. "Delaware Tribe of Indians".
  13. Barker, Dan (1991). Paradise Remembered a Lenape Indian Childhood and Other Stories. Dan Barker. ASIN   B00GW4Z9LS.
  14. "Annie Laurie Gaylor". Freedom From Religion Foundation. January 30, 2024. Archived from the original on April 26, 2024. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
  15. "Freethought Radio". January 2000.
  16. "Fox & Friends". Fox News. December 4, 2010. Archived from the original on March 1, 2014. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  17. The Daily Show (March 14, 2010). "Mail Mary". Comedy Central. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  18. "Does Prayer Have A Place In Public Schools". Fox News. August 14, 2011. Archived from the original on March 1, 2014. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  19. Sella, Marshall (December 7, 1997). "Faith Is a Fraud; Godless And Proud of It". New York Times. Retrieved September 27, 2007.
  20. Lazarus, Bill (January 24, 1991). "Minister-turned-atheist Speaks This Weekend". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
  21. Lyman, Wendy (April 28, 2004). "Dan Barker Speaks Tonight at Schofield". The Flip Side. University of Wisconsin. Retrieved August 30, 2013.
  22. "Atheism speaker attracts large crowd". The Spectator. University of Wisconsin. April 24, 2004. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
  23. Baker, Jim (November 13, 2004). "Former preacher 'de-converts' to atheism". Lawrence Journal World. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  24. Tonge, Shawn (March 11, 2013). "Evangelical preacher shares story of conversion to atheism". Michigan Central Life. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  25. "Minister-Turned-Atheist Discusses Journey to Deconversion in Lawrence University Address". Lawrence University. May 11, 2006. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
  26. "The Interminable Debate". The Harvard Crimson. April 30, 2008. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
  27. "Freethought Radio & Podcast". January 2000. Retrieved June 12, 2013.