ICELANDIC HUMANISTS

From Philosopedia

ICELANDIC HUMANISTS

An associate member of the IHEU is Sidmennt, the Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association, Aesufell 4 #2F, 111 Reykjavik, Iceland. The president is Hope Knutsson, an American from New York who married an Icelander and has lived in the country since 1974. Sidmennt was founded in 1990. The group promotes Humanism, organizes annual secular confirmation courses and ceremonies for teenagers, and assists people with other secular ceremonies such as name-giving, weddings, and funerals although it does not yet have trained celebrants to perform the latter three.

Sidmennt also works for separation of church and state and for equal status and funding for all life stance organizations. Annual Gallup polls over the last decade show consistently that two-thirds of the population of Iceland favors separation of church and state. Sidmennt maintains a comprehensive and frequently updated website Sidmennt with an English summary.

In 1998 an active atheist brunch discussion group was formed within Sidmennt, called SAMT, short for Samfelag Trulausra which means The Atheist Society. SAMT is an associate member of Atheist Alliance International (AAI) and maintains a separate website [http::www.samt.is], which also has an English summary.

In June 2006, SAMT is hosting an AAI International Atheist Conference in Iceland in cooperation with Sidmennt and the 2 other Icelandic Freethought organizations: Vantru and Skeptikus.

Andrew Greeley, an outspoken Catholic priest, sociologist, and author of best-selling novels that by some have been termed "salacious," was asked about celibacy, whether priests have always practiced it. "For much of Catholic history," he responded, "celibacy was only a rule in theory. A friend of mine tells me a third of the population of Iceland are descendants of the last Catholic archbishop. [Laughs] Celibacy as a norm really only became typical after the Council of Trent."

Mikael Karlsson, of the University of Iceland, is on the Executive Committee of the Hume Society, a group that engages in scholarly activity concerning David Hume. {Modern Maturity, May-June 1996}