Tom Flynn - In Like Flynn

Published: June 25, 2010, 9:45 p.m.

Tom Flynn is Executive Director of The Council for Secular Humanism, \nEditor of Free Inquiry magazine, Director of Inquiry Media \nProductions, and Director of the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace \nMuseum.\n\n

\nA journalist, novelist, entertainer, and freethought historian, Flynn is\n the author of numerous articles and editorials for Free Inquiry \nmagazine. In addition to The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, his \nbooks include two black comedy science fiction novels, Nothing Sacred,\n its prequel Galactic Rapture, and The Trouble With Christmas,\n a secularist critique of the holiday. He has made hundreds of radio and\n TV appearances in his role as the curmudgeonly "anti-Claus." \n

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\nIn this conversation with Robert Price, Tom explains how he transitioned\n from his conservative Catholic youth Secular Humanist he is today. He talks about the part Mormonism played in his \ntransition to non-belief. Perhaps one of the most consistent secularists\n around today, Tom elaborates on the problems he has with rites of \npassage ceremonies and marriage. He talks about what he sees as \nproblems with some secular charity programs and the parts of life he believes should\n be off-limits to a secular community. Finally, he and Price discuss \nradical Islam and how we should approach talking about it.