Denis Cobell

Last updated

Denis Cobell (born 1938) is a prominent UK secularist, humanist, republican and pacifist. He was President of the National Secular Society from 1997 to 2006.

Contents

Early life

Cobell was born in Hove just before the Second World War. His parents were strict evangelical Christians; his father was a lay preacher. Cobell was baptised and attended St Nicolas's Church of England School in Portslade. Following the 11-plus examinations he went to Hove County Grammar School for Boys.

Working life

Cobell began his training as a nurse at Southlands Hospital, Shoreham-by-Sea, in 1956. He moved to London in 1960 and worked at Guy's Hospital for over 30 years, finally becoming a senior nurse. In 1994 he shifted from full-time to part-time, continuing to work for the National Health Service until he finally retired in December 2004 (after 48 years in the NHS).

Family

Cobell married in 1968 and has three children and three grandchildren.

Atheism, secularism and humanism

In his late teens, Denis Cobell spent time at Hove Public Library reading a variety of books including works by Bertrand Russell, who he was to meet at his North Wales home in 1959. He discovered both the Unitarian Church in New Road Brighton and the Brighton and Hove Humanist Group. In terms of developing his atheist views, Denis Cobell had some interesting conversations. He talked with the Rev John Rowland of the Unitarians. John Rowland had worked for the Rationalist Press Association on the Literary Guide (precursor to the New Humanist magazine) and wrote in The Freethinker . During this time Cobell also met the feminist author Daisy L. Hobman, who was the initiator of the Brighton and Hove Humanist Group. Denis was invited to give a talk at the Group's first public meeting.

Cobell started writing for secular / humanist and socialist publications from the late 1950s and also spoke at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park during the 1960s and 1970s. He also co edited the Hyde Park Socialist quarterly paper from 1968 to 1984; a regular contributor to this paper was FA Ridley, a former President of the National Secular Society.

Cobell joined the Lewisham Humanist Group [1] in 1973 and has been the Hon Secretary since 1974.

He continues to officiate at many secular funerals, baby namings and weddings.

He was Humanist Chaplain to the Mayor of Lewisham 1998-99 [2] and also the Humanist Chaplain to Greenwich Hospital, and Chaplain to UK Armed Forces Humanist Association. [3]

He is a Director of the publishing company responsible for The Freethinker.

Cobell joined the Council of the National Secular Society in 1976, and became president in 1997. He stepped down as president in 2006 but remained on the Society's Council of Management. [4] He has announced that he will retire from the Council in 2009. [5]

Other activities

Cobell is a pacifist and is currently Chair of the Right to Refuse to Kill (RRK) Group for recognition of conscientious objectors. He was a signatory to the "Manifesto of the Third Camp Against US Militarism and Islamic Terrorism". [6]

Cobell was Treasurer of Brighton Young Liberals in 1959–60; the chairman was Navnit Dholakia, later Lord Dholakia, who was President of the Liberal Democrats, 2000–2004.

Works and articles

Over 300 articles and reviews in various journals - including The Freethinker , Guy's Kings & St Thomas' Gazette, [7] New Humanist, Nursing Mirror, Nursing Standard [8] and Socialist Leader .

Bibliography

Secularism and humanism

Health

Related Research Articles

Secular humanism Life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism

Secular humanism, often simply called 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 that beliefs 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.

National Secular Society

The National Secular Society (NSS) is a British campaigning organisation that promotes secularism and the separation of church and state. It holds that no one should gain advantage or disadvantage because of their religion or lack of it. It was founded by Charles Bradlaugh in 1866.

Barbara Smoker British humanist

Barbara Smoker was a British humanist activist and freethought advocate. She was also President of the National Secular Society (1972–1996), Chair of the British Voluntary Euthanasia Society (1981–1985) and an Honorary Vice President of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association in the United Kingdom.

Jim Herrick is a British humanist and secularist. He studied history and English literature at Trinity College, Cambridge University, and then worked as a school teacher for seven years. He has written or edited several books on humanism or the history of freethought.

Humanists International Secular humanism advocacy organization

Humanists International is an international non-governmental organisation championing secularism and human rights, motivated by secular humanist values. Founded in Amsterdam in 1952, it is an umbrella organisation made up of more than 160 secular humanist, atheist, rationalist, skeptic, freethought and Ethical Culture organisations from over 80 countries.

Secular Coalition for America

The Secular Coalition for America is an advocacy group located in Washington D.C. It describes itself as "representing the interests of atheists, humanists, freethinkers, agnostics, and other nontheistic Americans."

The Freethinker was a British secular humanist magazine, founded by G.W. Foote in 1881. One of the world's oldest surviving freethought publications, it moved online-only in 2014.

William J. "Bill" McIlroy was a British secularist and atheist activist, writer and editor.

European Humanist Federation

The European Humanist Federation, officially abbreviated as EHF-FHE, is an umbrella of more than 60 humanist and secularist organisations from 25 European countries.

Keith Porteous Wood British secularist

Keith Porteous Wood is the president of the National Secular Society in the United Kingdom. From 1996 until November 2017 he held the paid position of general secretary which was later re-titled executive director.

Barry Duke South African journalist (born 1947)

Barry Duke is a journalist, atheist, gay rights activist, former editor of The Freethinker and current editor of theThe Pink Humanist.

Andrew Copson British humanist leader

Andrew James William Copson, FRSA, FCMI, MCIPR is a Humanist leader and writer. He is the Chief Executive of Humanists UK and the President of Humanists International.

Organized secularism Belgian irreligious union

In Belgium, organized secularism is the local associations and organizations which provide moral support for naturalist, atheist, agnostic, secular humanist, freethinking, Bright, or irreligious and non-confessional citizens. A person who subscribes to such entities or ideologies, or at least espouses an interest in "free inquiry" apart from religious traditions is described as a "secular" or "free-thinker".

Charles Watts (secularist) English secularist

Charles Watts was an English writer, lecturer and publisher, who was prominent in the secularist and freethought movements in both Britain and Canada.

Irreligion in the United Kingdom is prevalent, and British society is one of the most thoroughly secularized in the world. Agnosticism, nontheism, atheism, secular humanism, and more so casual non-affiliation or apathy, are common. At least 33% of Britons, and over 50% in some recent polls, do not identify with any faith when surveyed. Some 40% of Britons do not believe in a deity, and some 15% are agnostic. While non-affiliation is the primary indicator, objective irreligion does not necessarily correlate with it. A third of Anglicans polled in a 2013 survey doubted the existence of God, while 15% of those with no religion believed in some higher power, and deemed themselves "spiritual" or even "religious."

Jason Torpy

Jason Torpy is president of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers (MAAF), an advocacy group focused on non-religious service members and veterans. He is a veteran of the U.S. Army and a Humanist Celebrant who works to increase the visibility of "atheists in foxholes".

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.

References

  1. ↑ Archived October 17, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ↑ "UK | Church attacks council's atheist chaplain". BBC News. 1998-07-30. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  3. ↑ "Defence Humanists | Rumours of no atheists in foxholes are greatly exaggerated". Armedforceshumanists.org.uk. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  4. ↑ "NSS Annual Report 2006" (PDF). Secularism.org.uk. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  5. ↑ "NSS Annual Report 2009" (PDF). Secularism.org.uk. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-11-22. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  6. ↑ "Manifesto of the Third Camp agai". Thirdcamp.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  7. ↑ "gktgazette.com". gktgazette.com. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
  8. ↑ "Nursing Standard Homepage". Nursingstandard.rcnpublishing.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-09-18.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.