Atheist Alliance International

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The Atheist Alliance International (AAI) is an alliance of currently 58 autonomous atheist organizations, 46 of them in the USA . It was founded in order to jointly increase the influence in all countries of the world and to stimulate cooperation for common goals. President Stuart Bechman .

At first she only concentrated on the USA, but has since expanded her area of ​​responsibility to include the international level. The work of the Alliance began when four atheist groups met for the first time in Los Angeles in 1991 and came together. They decided that they wanted to tackle the problematic situation of atheists in the USA from the ground up by forming this association.

The alliance was deliberately designed in such a way that all members have the same influence on the objectives, program, fundamental decisions and the conduct of the work of the coalition. Each constituency has one vote, although the original four have grown to nearly sixty (2009).

It is run and supported by volunteers. All members work on a voluntary basis.

The AAI has the status of "special advisor" at the United Nations.

activities

One of the main goals of the AAI is to create further groups and to strengthen the existing ones. In parallel to this task, they want to develop their understanding of rational thinking . They want to counteract religious worldviews by teaching at schools and universities.

The alliance handles all of these activities with the help of existing media and means of communication: it brings individuals and groups together at its annual conference, it provides information using a quarterly magazine, it provides a website and annually prints a new directory listing organizations and information describes and lists for worldwide contact. It also provides information about organizations that offer help and support in the event of discrimination against atheists and agnostics , and also gives information about authorities and agencies where you can report on anti-atheist bigotry and find other forms of assistance.

Allianz supports the start-ups of like-minded organizations in an indirect way by providing models for group infrastructures, establishing connections with like-minded people and encouraging group formation; she makes z. B. Advertising for two national student alliances. It also financially supports the growth of the individual member organizations by doubling their self-made donations. It also wants to bring the members together and therefore holds regular meetings.

The AAI organizes an annual conference every year. The first convention was held in Los Angeles in 1995 . In recent years the meetings have been in:

Richard Dawkins Award

The AAI has been presenting the Richard Dawkins Award during the conference since 2003 . The award is named after Richard Dawkins , an English zoologist who was described by Der Spiegel magazine as the most influential biologist of his time . The Richard Dawkins Award honors an outstanding atheist who, through his work during the past year, has done most to raise public awareness of atheism.

Previous winners:

Others

The term Bright emerged from a conference of the AAI .

International member organizations (selection)

Web links

References

  1. ^ AAI member organizations. (No longer available online.) AAI, archived from the original on July 7, 2007 ; Retrieved August 3, 2007 .
  2. ↑ Stuart Bechman Elected President of AAI. (No longer available online.) Atheists United, archived from the original on January 5, 2009 ; Retrieved January 14, 2009 .
  3. ↑ Arik Platzek : United Nations: Atheist umbrella organization receives special advisory status. In: diesseits.de. Humanistic Association of Germany, August 26, 2013, accessed on August 26, 2013 .
  4. ^ Frank Patalong: Richard Dawkins presents autobiography - review. In: Spiegel Online . March 18, 2016, accessed May 2, 2020 .
  5. ^ Penn & Teller's official website
  6. ^ Richard Dawkins Foundation's official website
  7. ↑ Jerry Coyne Receives 2015 Richard Dawkins Award! ( Memento from March 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive )