Roy Brown
Former President,
International Humanist and Ethical Union, Switzerland
Both Dravidar Kazhagam and the Athiest Centre, Vijayawada have for long been in the forefront in presenting a humane, tolerant and caring face of atheism to the world.
Both of your founders, Periyar and Gora showed that there is a human-centered philosophy, based on reason and compassion that stands ready to take the place of superstition and ancient religions in guiding humanity to a happier future. It is a tribute to you all that as every year passes that philosophy – Humanism – grows stronger around the world.
Long may your work continue!
With warmest regards
Roy Brown
Levi Fragell
Norwegian Humanist Association, Norway
I have had the privilege to participate in several of the ten Atheist World Congresses arranged in India. These were some of the highest points in my career in the world union for humanists. Why? In India I learnt about the important relationship between atheism and humanism. And one thing more: I learnt what humanism means in practice.
I miss you, my friends.
Levi Fragell
Dr. Volker Mueller
Chairman of Humanistischen Freidenkerbundes Brandenburg,
(Humanist Freethinker Organisation), Germany
I send you the best wishes and kindest regards to the World Atheist Conference in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu. Our German association wants to extend good friendship relations to all other free organizations of humanism and peace. Our Humanist Freethinker Organization in Germany wants to develop good communications and co-operations with other humanist organizations in the world. Our co-operation and good friendship relations with other secular humanists, rationalists, atheists and freethinkers are an important condition to work together and effective on the problems of our present, to work together as friends and partners with equal rights.
We need in a secular society of the 21st century a new kind of tolerance, of dialogue and of conflict-management and of peaceful coexistence. It should be based on freedom, human rights and the ideal of the world citizen. The atheistic, humanistic and free-thought movement has to play an important role in this context, if it takes its demand for freedom of thought, humanity and human rights.
Everybody can learn a lot about the neighbours in our global village. We are a global family of secular humanism.
I wish you a successful conference.
Dr. Volker Mueller
Roy Speckhardt
Executive Director
American Humanist Association, USA
Thanks again for the invitation! Here’s a message from me and the AHA:
Congratulations to those gathered for the 10th World Atheist Conference!
Fortunately, our numbers of non-religious and non-theistic are continuing their rapid rise both here and around the globe. This leads to greater respect and prominence for humanist and rationalist perspectives in government and public life. Events like the World Atheist Conference help raise the profile for our perspective and focus our energies toward real progress in India and everywhere. Our best wishes to everyone gathered as we support the promotion of castelessness and critical thinking. We don’t need gods or other supernatural forces to make this world better. We understand that science and reason are better guides than ancient holy texts and divine revelation. Together, let’s make this world a better place for all.
Sincerely,
Roy Speckhardt
Rustam Singh
Atheist Alliance
International, U.S.A.
Atheist Alliance International, U.S.A. wants our number one priority to be to help atheists everywhere. Whether they are individuals facing discrimination or a new secular group struggling to keep members, AAI wants to be there for them. We’ve done this in the past but now we want to pursue it more aggressively.
AAI wants to help our affiliates with campaigns, conferences and advice on how to keep their organizations growing. We’ve already started doing this by working with groups in Guatemala and Nigeria. This past summer, AAI funded a billboard campaign in Guatemala. The message was simple – you are still a good person if you do not believe in a God or religion and you are not alone. The campaign attracted media attention and the Humanist group got over 7000 visits to their Facebook page in just a few days. Last November we sponsored a conference in Nigeria. For the first time ever, atheists in that country met together in public. Over a 100 people got together to hear speeches, be inspired and make plans to expand. The Atheist Society of Nigeria is now working to create student groups. Both these countries, Guatemala and Nigeria, are very religious and yet we are making progress. AAI wants to do more of this work and go to more places where religion dominate, to challenge its toxic influences.
Our goal is to become the number one organization for atheists around the world. The changes we’ve made this past year have made AAI ready to do this. We are prepared to battle for atheists – to help create more groups, to help affiliates change laws that discriminate against atheists, to help individuals who are under attack for expressing their non-belief and to increase secular education.
In 2018, our plans include more billboard campaigns. We are in the early stages of working on one in Africa to target witchcraft. We want to take on projects to expand critical thinking and skepticism. If you have ideas for campaigns or projects here, please let us know. We would love to include India in our work for 2018.
