Life
Schmidt-Salomon studied education sciences at the University of Trier, earning his master's degree in educational theory in 1992, and his PhD in 1997. From 1992 to 2001 he worked as a research assistant and lecturer at the University of Trier. The main focuses of his work are science theory, [6] anthropology, aesthetics, society theory, futurology, religious criticism and ideology criticism, as well as practical ethics. He began lecturing at the Institut D'Etudes Educatives et Sociales (IEES) in Luxembourg in 2002. From 1999 to 2007, Schmidt-Salomon was editor of the journal MIZ (Contemporary Materials and Information: The Political Magazine for Atheists and the Irreligious) [7] He has been CEO of the Giordano Bruno Foundation since 2006. He co-inspired Mina Ahadi's foundation of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims in 2007, [8] : 0:52 and co-organised the Kritische Islamkonferenz in 2008 and 2013.
Schmidt-Salomon lives in Vordereifel, and has a non-traditional family [9] consisting of two biological children, three adopted children, and three other adults. [10] He has debated Christian philosopher, theologian and apologist William Lane Craig on the existence of God.
Children's book controversy
Schmidt-Salomon's book Wo bitte geht's zu Gott?, fragte das kleine Ferkel, illustrated by Helge Nyncke, was published in the autumn of 2007. [11] The book has been described as "Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion for children," due to its criticism of religion. [12]
In December 2007, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs raised objections to the book, deeming it inappropriate for children and youth due to its depiction of religion, and charging that the book had "anti-Semitic tendencies". [13] The Ministry announced in January 2007 that it was considering a ban on selling the book to minors. The Central Council of Jews in Germany supported such a ban. [14] One criticism of the book was that Jews were illustrated in a more negative light than Christians or Muslims. [15] The illustrations were compared to "anti-Semitic caricatures from the Nazi era." [12]
Peter Riedesser, director of the University Hospital for Child and Youth Psychiatry and Psychotherapy in the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, [16] deemed the book suitable for children. Riedesser saw the book as emphasizing equality between believers and unbelievers, and he did not find it indoctrinating or demeaning of religion. [10]
Giordano Bruno was an Italian philosopher, poet, cosmological theorist and esotericist. He is known for his cosmological theories, which conceptually extended to include the then-novel Copernican model. He proposed that the stars were distant suns surrounded by their own planets (exoplanets), and he raised the possibility that these planets might foster life of their own, a cosmological position known as cosmic pluralism. He also insisted that the universe is infinite and could have no center.
Bruno Bauer was a German philosopher and theologian. As a student of G. W. F. Hegel, Bauer was a radical Rationalist in philosophy, politics and Biblical criticism. Bauer investigated the sources of the New Testament and, beginning with Hegel's analysis of Christianity's Hellenic as well as Jewish roots, concluded that early Christianity owed more to ancient Greek philosophy (Stoicism) than to Judaism.
Arno Schmidt was a German author and translator. He is little known outside of German-speaking areas, in part because his works present a formidable challenge to translators. Although he is not one of the popular favourites within Germany, critics and writers often consider him to be one of the most important German-language writers of the 20th century.
Othmar Spann was a conservative Austrian philosopher, sociologist and economist. His radical anti-liberal and anti-socialist views, based on early 19th century Romantic ideas expressed by Adam Müller et al. and popularized in his books and lecture courses, helped antagonise political factions in Austria during the interwar years.
Martin Ebbertz is a German writer of children's books.
Joachim Heinrich Campe was a German writer, linguist, educator and publisher. He was a major representative of philanthropinism and the German Enlightenment.
The Giordano Bruno Foundation is a Germany-based non-profit foundation under public law that promotes evolutionary humanism and the enlightenment. It was founded by entrepreneur Herbert Steffen in 2004 and was named after Giordano Bruno. Cofounder and spokesperson is Michael Schmidt-Salomon. He has formed the Executive Board with Ulla Wessels since 2022. The foundation has more than 10,000 supporting members and 50 regional and university groups.
Santiago Ziesmer is a Spanish-born German actor.
Gerhard Streminger is an Austrian philosopher and author. From 1970, he studied philosophy and mathematics in Graz, Goettingen, Edinburgh with G.E.Davie and Oxford with J. L. Mackie. He gained his PhD in 1978 at the University of Graz, where he held posts from 1975 until 1997. In 1981 he was Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Streminger was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Graz in 1988 and received the title of University Professor in 1995.
Several alternatives to the Ten Commandments have been promulgated by different persons and groups, which intended to improve on the lists of laws known as the Ten Commandments that appear in the Bible. Lists of these kinds exist in many different cultures and times. They are sometimes given names – for example, the Hindu Yamas.
Anton Maegerle is the Pseudonym of the German journalist Gernot Modery. He is also the author of books about far-right politics, right-wing radicalism, the New Right, and right-wing policy in general.
Theater Bremen is a state theatre in Bremen, Germany, with four divisions for opera, straight theater, dance, and student programs. Its venues are located in a city block, connected in architecture and seating up to 1,426 spectators. The theatre has drawn international attention since 1962 with innovative play productions in the Bremer Stil. Its opera company was selected as opera house of the year by Opernwelt in 2007.
Grit Boettcher is a German actress.
Guido Dessauer was a German physicist, pioneer in paper engineering, business executive, writer, art collector, patron of the arts, and academic. Born into a family of paper industrialists, he worked as an aerospace engineer during World War II and was an executive of the family's coloured paper factory in Aschaffenburg from 1945. He was an honorary citizen of Austria for saving 300 jobs in Styria in the 1960s. He earned a Ph.D. from the Graz University of Technology in his late 50s and became an honorary professor there. Interested in art, he collected bozzetti for 50 years and initiated the career of Horst Janssen as a lithographer.
A Muggeseggele or Muckenseckel is a humorous Alemannic German idiom used in Swabia to designate a nonspecific very small length or amount of something; it refers to a housefly's scrotum. It has been called the smallest Swabian unit of measurement and plays a similar role in northern Baden-Württemberg and Franconia.
Rolf Schwanitz is a German politician. From 1998 till 2005, he served under Federal Chancellor Schröder as a Minister of State in the Federal Chancellery. He was then, from 2005 till 2009, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Health ministry under Federal Chancellor Merkel.
The Kritische Islamkonferenz or KIK is an irregular organised event in Germany, which was conceived to be the critical counterpart to the Deutsche Islamkonferenz. Its first edition took place in 2008 in Cologne, where it was co-hosted by the Central Council of Ex-Muslims and the Giordano Bruno Foundation. The second edition was held in Berlin in 2013.
Gerrit Walther is a German historian.
Manifesto of Evolutionary Humanism is work of naturalistic philosophy by Michael Schmidt-Salomon. It was originally published in German in 2005, and later in translation in Polish and English.
Atheist Refugee Relief is a non-governmental organisation founded in Cologne, Germany in 2017 in defence of the human rights of apostates and nonreligious people. The board consists of Rana Ahmad, Mahmudul Haque Munshi and Stefan Paintner. Further groups and associations were formed in Munich (2019), Austria (2019), Hamburg (2019), Stuttgart (2020) and Switzerland (2020).
