Book launch: The History of Atheism in Belgium
New VUB research group Secular Studies Association Brussels
The new VUB research group Secular Studies Association Brussels (SSAB) is hosting, with the Humanistisch Verbond, an online presentation of the book The History of Atheism in Belgium, edited by Dr Christoph De Spiegeleer and Patrice Dartevelle and published by Liberas. The launch is on Thursday 24 March via Zoom. Admission is free, but registration is required before 16.00 on 24 March.
The History of Atheism in Belgium places the active denial of the existence of God in Belgium in a historical perspective for the first time. It is the work of several members of the SSAB, an interdisciplinary research group that brings together expertise on the thinking and actions of non-believers and secularists.
During the webinar, several authors will elaborate on freethinkers who, whether or not in dialogue with believers, dedicated themselves in various ways to spreading atheist thought throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
Programme
Introduction
Welcome by Gert De Nutte (Humanistisch Verbond and Atheist Platform)
Introduction by Jeffrey Tyssens and Christoph De Spiegeleer: Why a history of atheism?
Atheism among freethinkers and freemasons
Christoph De Spiegeleer: Atheism and the 19th-century freethinking movement
Jeffrey Tyssens: Atheism and freemasonry
Critical philosophy
Niels De Nutte, also on behalf of Alain Vannieuwenburg: Moral science and critical reason: atheism at the Rijksuniversiteit Gent?
Willem Elias: Leopold Flam – “Philosophy is atheism”.
Question round
Questions from the audience, via chat
Christoph De Spiegeleer is affiliated with VUB and the heritage institution Liberas. Jeffrey Tyssens is professor of history at VUB and chair of SSAB. Willem Elias is VUB emeritus and affiliated with SSAB. Niels De Nutte is training coordinator for deMens.nu, PhD student at VUB and secretary of SSAB. Alain Vannieuwenburg is a member of the scientific board of Centrum van Academische en Vrijzinnige Archieven at VUB.
SSAB
The Vrije Universiteit Brussel has a strong name and long history in the field of research on secular thought, both in historical and contemporary perspectives. This is rooted in the university’s basic principle of free inquiry, which unites scholars from both the exact and human sciences. The SSAB unites academics as once the Center for the Study of Enlightenment and Free Thought did.
Its research focuses on secularism worldwide, death and secularism, freemasonry, bioethics, enlightenment and freethinking.
