Robert Boston | |
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![]() Rob Boston in 2018 | |
Born | Altoona, Pennsylvania, U.S. | December 7, 1962
Robert Boston (born December 7, 1962) is Senior Adviser for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Editor of Church & State magazine. He has worked at Americans United since 1987, and formerly served as Assistant Director of Communications and Assistant Editor of Church & State as well as Director of Communications. [1] Boston is an advocate of separation of church and state and has authored four books on the subject. He frequently appears on television and radio. Prominent media appearances include CNN, NBC Nightly News , Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor and MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann . [2]
In addition to his monthly contributions to Church & State magazine, Boston has written articles for Free Inquiry , The Humanist, Public Eye, Liberty , Jewish Monthly and other publications. He is frequently quoted in the print media on church-state topics, and often delivers public lectures before various audiences. Boston serves on the Advisory Board of Secular Coalition for America and offers advice to the coalition on the acceptance and inclusion of nontheism in American life. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the American Humanist Association. [3]
Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, logic, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism, while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision making.
Paul Kurtz was an American scientific skeptic and secular humanist. He has been called "the father of secular humanism". He was Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, having previously also taught at Vassar, Trinity, and Union colleges, and the New School for Social Research.
Sherwin Theodore Wine, Hebrew name שמעון בן צבי, Shimon ben Tzvi, was an American rabbi and a founding figure of Humanistic Judaism, a movement that emphasizes Jewish culture and history as sources of Jewish identity rather than belief in any gods. He was originally ordained as a Reform rabbi but later founded the Birmingham Temple, the first congregation of Humanistic Judaism, in 1963.
Michael Arthur Newdow is an American attorney and emergency medicine physician. He is best known for his efforts to have recitations of the current version of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools in the United States declared unconstitutional because of its inclusion of the phrase "under God". He also filed and lost a lawsuit to stop the invocation prayer at President Bush's second inauguration and in 2009 he filed a lawsuit to prevent references to God and religion from being part of President Obama's inauguration.
Ellery Schempp is an American physicist and the primary student involved in the landmark 1963 United States Supreme Court decision of Abington School District v. Schempp which declared that required public school sanctioned Bible readings were unconstitutional.
Torcaso v. Watkins, 367 U.S. 488 (1961), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court reaffirmed that the United States Constitution prohibits states and the federal government from requiring any kind of religious test for public office, in this specific case as a notary public.
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.
David Barton is an American evangelical author and political activist for Christian nationalist causes. He is the founder of WallBuilders, LLC, a Texas-based organization that promotes pseudohistory about the religious basis of the United States.
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Edwin Frederick Kagin was an attorney at law in Union, Kentucky, and a founder of Camp Quest, the first secular summer camp in the United States for the children of secularists, atheists, agnostics, brights, skeptics, naturalists and freethinkers. He served as the National Legal Director of American Atheists from 2006 until his death in 2014.
John Foster "Chip" Berlet is an American investigative journalist, research analyst, photojournalist, scholar, and activist specializing in the study of extreme right-wing movements in the United States. He also studies the spread of conspiracy theories. Since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Berlet has regularly appeared in the media to discuss extremist news stories. He was a senior analyst at Political Research Associates (PRA), a non-profit group that tracks right-wing networks.
Melvin S. Lipman, aka Mel Lipman was an attorney, civil libertarian and humanist (nontheist/atheist) activist.
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.
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Leo Pfeffer was an American lawyer, constitutional scholar, and humanist who was active in movement for religious freedom in the United States, and was one of leading legal proponents of the separation of church and state.
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