Richard Haynes (Photo: Paul Fidalgo)
The Atheist Alliance International 2009 convention was over, but the best was yet to come.
After a perfunctory "closing ceremony," two additional talks were scheduled for this exciting gathering of nonbelievers, which included such luminaries as Richard Dawkins, Bill Maher, PZ Myers, Jerry Coyne, Lawrence Krauss, Eugenie Scott, Daniel Dennett, I could go on. But being placed after what was officially announced as "the end," few were left to attend. They were a happy few.
The latter of those presentations I will write about later, an excellent talk by Brian Parra of Atheists United on forging alliances.
But for the first, I had just enough battery power in my two cameras to record 80 percent or so of the talk given by Richard Haynes of Atheist Nexus (a.k.a. "Brother Richard"). Haynes, a former preacher, is a natural speaker, and he has an earnest, simple quality about his oratory.
Haynes' talk addressed his loss of faith, his reasoning for the founding of Atheist Nexus (a social networking site exclusively for nonbelievers), and what atheists need to do to raise their profile and make progress toward social equality. (There was also a Q&A that went a little off the rails, so you'll see that's somewhat edited.) It, along with Parra's, were easily the most relevant and useful talks of the conference, particularly for me with their political and organizational focus, areas almost totally unaddressed in the other talks I attended.
Here, in four parts, are what I was able to record of Haynes' talk. The video quality is not great, my pocket-size cameras can get a little shaky, and I must say, I had a load of trouble with both my versions of iMovie getting this all to work. But the substance should all be there. You see, the rest of the conference's talks were professionally video recorded, leaving only these last to disappear into the ether.
Happy I was there now, aren't you? Enjoy.
Related Secularism Examiner Articles:
- Humanism, activism and politics: An interview with Jende Huang of the American Humanist Association
- Secular Coalition chief to atheist convention: 'Our efforts are not yet worthy'
- Center for Inquiry in DC celebrates Blasphemy Day with heretical art show
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