Today, I was contacted by Johnny Monsarrat (Communications Director for the SGI) who promptly filled me in on some recently developments regarding my involvement with the Secular Global Institute.
- Formerly the Global Secular Council, the Secular Global Institute “is now a fully independent entity, giving it the flexibility and sustainability to move forward at this time.”
- Monsarrat also said, “…We are happy to tell you that we have received 865 database subscribers within the first month and are now in the process of developing both a listserv and a weekly newsletter. We are also implementing a process at this time for recruiting international participation from secular groups around the world that will lead to a global annual conference of affiliates. The global annual conference will provide a forum for the discussion of best practices that would support the development and passage of laws based on reason, science, and objective truths.”
- He went on to say, ” We will also have an interactive international directory of all secular groups on our website that will be shown via a world map. This will allow us to track our international growth and coordination, and facilitate our communication. We will shortly be releasing the Global Freethought Demographic Guide that was written by Greg Paul. The Guide identifies secular growth state-by-state and country-by-country and demonstrates that the level of secularism is positively related to a wide range of societal outcomes. We also plan hosting a professionally moderated blog on the website as well.”
- The organization is also working to develop connections with secular groups globally, soon they “will request UN Observer Status as an NGO.”
- Fellows will be “encouraged to write a single page on a topic related to his or her area of expertise (e.g., global warming, why people are moral and ethical, why people are less violent, origin of the universe, origin of life, evolution, separation of church & state, etc.).”
I’m very much looking forward to working with this organization and I will keep everyone posted on it’s status as it continues to move forward!
For more information, please visit the Secular Global Institute’s official website.
Joshua Brucker 