The Freethought Society and the Ethical Humanist Society of Philadelphia (EHSP) are delighted to co-host an event featuring Herb Silverman as the special guest and speaker. Silverman’s presentation will begin at 7:00 PM at the EHSP building located at 1906 South Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103. There is a suggested donation of $5.00 at the door to help with costs.
Herb Silverman is founder and president of the Secular Coalition for America, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the College of Charleston. He ran for governor of South Carolina in the 1990s to challenge a state law that required religious belief to hold public office. After an eight-year battle, he won a unanimous decision in the South Carolina Supreme Court, which struck down this religious test requirement.
Silverman’s speech, “Candidate Without a Prayer,” will highlight excerpts from his book of the same name. Books will be sold for $20 each and Silverman will inscribe them as time permits.
Amazon’s description of the book, and some distinguished reviews:
In this deeply revealing and engaging autobiography, Herb Silverman tells his iconoclastic life story. He takes the reader from his childhood as an Orthodox Jew in Philadelphia, where he stopped fasting on Yom Kippur to test God’s existence, to his adult life in the heart of the Bible Belt, where he became a legendary figure within America’s secular activist community and remains one of its most beloved leaders. Never one to shy from controversy, Silverman relates many of his high-profile battles with the Religious Right, including his decision to run for governor of South Carolina to challenge the state’s constitutional provision that prohibited atheists from holding public office. Candidate Without a Prayer offers an intimate portrait of a central player in today’s increasingly heated culture wars. It will be sure to charm both believers and nonbelievers alike, and will lead all those who care about the separation of church and state to give thanks.
“Herb Silverman’s lively history of an atheist raised as an Orthodox Jew fills a real gap in the literature of the ‘New Atheism,’ in that it describes the emergence of a creed based on human goodness without godliness in highly personal rather than abstract philosophical terms. In an account that will resonate with people raised in all faith traditions who have made the same journey, Silverman captures the essence of what it means to realize that you think differently from those around you–including the people who brought you into this world.” —Susan Jacoby, author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism
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