Sunday, December24, 2012
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13:11
I am not sure that Paul the Apostle had this in mind when he wrote these words but when I was child, and I heard them, it gave me licence to think. After many years I finally arrived at the same conclusion as most of the people below. By clicking on each picture, you will be taken inside their thoughts. I would not be surprised to find that the statistics that Harriet shows us are accurate after a year of Covid-19.
(If reading on a mobile, picture follows text)
Harriet Sherwood Photographs and interviews: Aubrey Wade @harrietsherwood
Sat 23 Jan 2021 10.00 GMT
Lola Tinubu, 53, is an atheist and a humanist who lives in London. She is the co-founder of the Association of Black Humanists, a group for people, particularly from the African diaspora, who are free thinkers, nonbelievers, atheists, and humanists.
Adam Cardone, 47, is a stage magician and a reverend in the Church of Satan, New York City. He is an atheistic agnostic: someone who doesn’t believe in a deity, while holding that a deity’s existence is unknowable.
Robert Freudenthal, 34, is a member of a liberal synagogue in London. He describes himself as Jewish but not God-centred. When he got married a few years ago, he decided to explore different ways to think about God.
Hedda Frøland, 18, is a member of the Humanist Youth Group in Sandnes, Norway. Both secular and Christian confirmation ceremonies remain culturally important in Norway. Wearing a nordlandsbunad, a traditional embroidered costume, Frøland took part in a humanist ceremony, the choice of around 18% of 15-year-olds.
Ron Millar, 63, from Washington DC, runs the Freethought Equality Fund Political Action Committee, which helps candidates seeking election to public office who openly identify as humanist, atheist and agnostic. In 1988, he was the campaign manager for the first openly gay candidate running for the city council.
Yuko Atarashi, 46, is studying to be a Noh theatre actor in Tokyo. Noh is a form of classical Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. The plays often feature a supernatural being, transformed into human form, narrating a story. Japan regularly ranks as one of the world’s most atheist countries, although many people still engage in Buddhist and Shinto rituals.
Apostle Erlon Jacques, 47, leads the last practising congregation of positivists in the world, at the Temple of Humanity in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The secular religion was developed by Auguste Comte, the French philosopher, in the mid-1800s. It was adopted by key political figures in the establishment of the first Brazilian republic. Comte imagined a science-based positivist society in which religion would still be necessary but would no longer require a god to have moral force. The primary tenets of the religion are altruism, order and progress.
Jake Vargas, 25, a student in Lincoln, Nebraska, doesn’t “believe in the supernatural world at all”.