32nd Annual FFRF Convention Speakers

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Ron Reagan, self-described “unabashed atheist,” well-known radio host, Seattle resident and son of Pres. Ronald Reagan, will headline the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s 32nd annual national convention in Seattle on the weekend of Nov. 6–8, 2009.

The Red Lion Hotel on Fifth Avenue, with an ideal location in downtown Seattle, is the site. The Foundation is returning to the venue of its 2004 Northwest Mini-Convention.

The Foundation plans an upbeat gala event.

The speakers iclude:

• Ron Reagan, self-described "unabashed atheist," well-known radio host, Seattle resident and son of Pres. Ronald Reagan. Reagan hosts the Ron Reagan Show over Air America. In a 2004 New York Times interview, "The Son Also Rises," Reagan was asked if he’d like to be U.S. president. He replied: "I would be unelectable. I'm an atheist. As we all know, that is something people won't accept." That interview prompted the Foundation to contact Ron Reagan to offer him an Emperor Has No Clothes Award, which he accepted by mail. Reagan has been outspoken about his atheism since at least the early days of his father's presidency. To listen to Reagan’s interview with Freethought Radio, visit: http://ffrf.org/radio/podcast/archives/2007.php (scroll down to Oct. 17, 2007).

• Ursula K. Le Guin, legendary author of more than 20 books, including science fiction and fantasy. The pioneering Portland resident will receive an "Emperor Has No Clothes Award," reserved for public figures who make known their dissent of religion. Her many literary honors include the Hugo for her 1969 gender-bending book, The Left Hand of Darkness and another Hugo in 1975 for The Dispossessed, utopian fiction. Her writings have received five total Hugos, the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, the LA Times Robert Kirsch Award, SFWA's Grand Master honor and five Nebula awards. Her six Books of Earthsea, have sold in the millions in the United States and England. Three of her books have been finalists for the American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Recent work includes Incredible Good Fortune: New Poems (2006) and Lavinia (2008). Ms. Le Guin is at work on many other novels and has a children's book about to be published.


• Daniel Everett, chair of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Illinois State University. Everett went from missionary to atheist while working with the Amazon Pirahas tribe. In his book, Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle (2008, Pantheon Books), he in part recounts his loss of faith under the example of the Pirahas. Everett first went to the Amazon in 1977 as a missionary, to learn the language (he was the first outsider to become fluent) and translate the bible into it (he ended up jettisoning that idea). "The Pirahas did not feel lost, so they didn't feel a need to be saved either." A documentary about him, "The Grammar of Happiness," will start filming in September. It will be aired internationally and is being developed by Essential Media and Entertainment of Australia.


• Jennifer Michael Hecht, the author of award-winning books of philosophy, history, and poetry. Her book, Doubt: A History (HarperOne, 2003) demonstrates a long, strong history of religious doubt from the origins of written history to the present day, all over the world. Hecht's The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism and Anthropology (Columbia University, 2003), won the Phi Beta Kappa Society's 2004 prestigious Ralph Waldo Emerson Award "for scholarly studies that contribute significantly to interpretations of the intellectual and cultural condition of humanity." She will receive a Freethought Heroine award and will speak on "My Atheist Paradise: Leaving Our Bodies to Art."

• William Lobdell, former Los Angeles Times religion reporter and author of the fascinating and thoughtful new memoir, Losing My Religion, about losing his faith as a devout believer while covering the religion beat. Lobdell will receive the 2009 "Emperor Has No Clothes" Award and has titled his speech, "Free at Last!"


• Barry Kosmin, a principal researcher of the American Religious Identification Survey, the definitive survey which found that the nonreligious had grown to 15% of the adult U.S. population by 2008. Kosmin is the author of several books, including coeditor of Secularism and Science in the 21st Century. Dr. Kosmin holds degrees from the Universities of London and McMaster (Canada) and directs the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture at Trinity College. He will speak on "The Rising Tide of Secularity in the U.S."


• Phil Zuckerman, sociologist, member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and author of Society Without God., his contribution, “Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns,” in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism documents the inability of popular religiosity to thrive in modern, egalitarian democracies. Speaking on the welcome growth of secularism, he has titled his speech "The Goodness of Godlessness."

There will be a book-signing at the end of each session. Books for Phil Zuckerman, Daniel Everett, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Ursula K. Le Guin and William Lobdell will be available for purchase. Note: please limit your booksigning request to one book per person for Ms. Le Guin. Her newest book, Lavinia, will be for sale.