Unfortunately, Richard Haynes was unable to travel to Montreal because of a last minute problem and his talk was therefore cancelled.
Richard Haynes (AKA: Brother Richard) is a writer and public speaker living in Atlanta, Georgia. He was raised in a nonreligious home, but as a teenage runaway, he had a "born again" experience. Almost immediately he became an evangelist and personally led hundreds of individuals to Christ. Richard went on to receive a Bachelor of Science in Biblical Studies, and became an associate minister in a 12,000 member mega-church.
In 1993, a couple of months after the birth of their eldest daughter, Richard and his wife Angela, made the agonizing decision to leave their church which was engulfed by scandal. Terrified and unemployed, they began the long and arduous journey to rationality and nontheism.
Richard is now secularly ordained and has dedicated himself to building nontheist communities, and encouraging others to "come out" of the atheist closet. He maintains the blog: LifeWithoutFaith.com, co-hosts the highly popular podcast: AtheistNews.org, and is the executive director of AtheistNexus.org.
How do we take what we have learned this weekend and make an impact in our local communities?
Our efforts have been successful. Atheist books continue to top best seller lists, and research confirms an ever growing number of individuals now identifying themselves as nontheistic. So, where are they? Why aren’t they joining our organizations? Are we not accessible? Do they see us as irrelevant? What can we do to attract them?
Is confronting irrational religious dogma enough? If our goal is simply to become unnecessary, we are on the right path. However, what if one morning we awoke to a world in which superstition no longer had influence on civilization? Yes, the world would be a better place, but would we do? What type of a legacy are we building for our children? Are our organizations prepared to fill the void left in our societies? Is there a transition plan?