In July, Peter Ellerton and I spoke at the Reality Writes literary festival about our chapters in Warren Bonett’s The Australian Book of Atheism.

Geoffrey Datson did a great job of recording our presentation and festival organiser, Annette Hughes, gave me permission to use it.

Unable to do anything by halves, I used the audio to create a series of four x 15 minute (approx) videos.

In this discussion I talk about religion (or the lack of it) in early colonial Australia. You’ll hear about saucy female convicts, the flogging parson, and how a group of outback workers payed a travelling parson to ‘clear out’. I also talk about the links between trade unionism and atheism and the atheist origins of the Eureka Stockade.

Peter discusses his chapter, Theology is not Philosophy. He explains why philosophy (at least in the modern Western tradition) has little to do with finding the “Meaning of Life” and much more to do with critical thinking and reason. Peter explains why he doesn’t really care what you believe – as long as you can explain why you believe it. He also discusses why opinions are not facts and why it is not an act of personal disrespect or vilification to criticize ideas.

It’s an interesting mix of atheism, history, politics and philosophy and I do hope you’ll enjoy watching the videos.

Chrys Stevenson

If you enjoyed these, you might consider subscribing to my new YouTube Channel.  I hope to add more content during the year.

The Australian Book of Atheism is available from Embiggen Books and all other good bookstores. It is also available on Amazon and in a Kindle version,