And divided we shall fail

I have been planning for some time to do a bit of research on the history of Freethought, Skepticism, Humanism and Atheism in Australia.  It’s my perception, quite frankly, that until very recently their has been a division between various groups that belong to one or more of the categories above.  Now whether this is due to geographical factors i.e. the spread out nature of our population, or fundamental differences in mission or something else entirely I am not sure.  One thing I am sure of is that if these groups don’t coalesce and work together on shared issues or support each others endeavours, each of us is doomed to fail.

Am I being a bit pessimistic?

What I am not suggesting is that we come together to form an uber organisation bent on global domination  but rather that each of us in the groups above and those of us with multiple memberships in organisations fitting under these categories, work toward collaboration and promoting each others issues, specifically where it doesn’t cost us anything or where we can offer “in kind” support.

I am already starting to see this happening, case in point-

Jason Ball is one of the Global Atheist Convention Organisers, and a prominent member of the Young Australian Skeptics.  He recently attended Briskepticon(Australian National Skeptics Convention) and earlier in the year he was guest of the CFI with sponsorship from the Rationalist Society of Australia and the Council of Australian Humanist Societies.  Jason appears to have seemlessly integrated three of the above categories into his activism.

I also note that the Skeptic Zone have aired adds for the Global Atheist Convention on their last two podcasts and Skeptic Zone reporter and researcher Kylie Sturgess will be speaking at the convention.

You my readers, probably have your own examples, perhaps even you yourself are already doing what I am suggesting?

One thing I know for sure is that if we fail to work together on issues beneficial to each of us then nothing changes and we each row our own barbed wire canoes.

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