Monthly Meeting - Godless in Dixie with Dr. Charles Harvey

Socialize with other freethinkers, grab a snack, and enjoy a presentation on an interesting topic. Also learn what the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers is doing.

Doctor Charles Harvey, Retired Professor of Philsophy (University of Central Arkansas) will be presenting his paper on growing up with an atheistic worldview.

Godless in Dixie: Religion, Reason and Reflection in the Making of the Self

This essay attempts to display both the existential problems and positive possibilities of growing up Godless in a God-intoxicated world. It traces cross-generational causes and reasons that connect and constitute a non-religious, atheistic heritage and worldview. Through personal narrative mixed with philosophical reflection, I place within the context of specific lives the experiences and relations that lead some people to conclude, in spite of the social hazards associated with such belief, that we live in a Godless universe. The virtues, values, benefits and losses coupled with such a worldview are also explored.

The essay describes some of the ways in which family inheritance informs philosophical and religious outlooks and it recounts what might be described as the existential education of an atheist. It accesses some of these issues through vignettes taken from the philosophical classroom. The essay also reflects upon the importance of honesty between parents and children for the development of certain moral virtues by showing how the reflective inheritance of non-traditional values and beliefs may positively influence the future persons that children become.

Dr. Charles W. Harvey is a retired Professor of Philosophy and long-time Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Central Arkansas: charlesh@retired.uca.edu. He has published two books and over 40 articles on phenomenology, existential philosophy, the self and social criticism, and a number of essays of philosophy through personal narrative. His most recent published essays are concerned with human nature and environmental collapse and are titled “Human(un)kind and the Rape of the World” and “Insatiable: Why Everything is Not Enough.” In retirement, Charlie has been writing a series of personal essays and philosophical memoirs, while he maintains his lifelong love of rambling (walking), weight training, travelling, eating and drinking, and reading and writing.

This meeting will be conducted in person at the UU Church in Little Rock and via YouTube Live on the Channel for the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers.