TFS proudly presents Darrel Ray

The Triangle Freethought Society

proudly presents

"Sex and the God Virus:
Why is Religion so Interested in Sex?"

with

Dr. Darrel Ray, Ed.D

Thursday November 10th, 2011 at 7 pm

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh, Founders’ Hall

3313 Wade Avenue, Raleigh NC 27607

Darrel Ray, Ed.D. has spoken throughout the US and has been on national Radio and Television. Darrel's presentation style is fast paced, humorous and engaging. He is not afraid to explore even the most sensitive areas of religious infection from sexual guilt to abstinence only, from the hypnotic techniques of ministers to music's role in infection and how it all fits together.

In May 2011 Dr. Ray published his ground breaking research on Sex and Secularism: What Happens When You Leave Religion. It can be downloaded and read for free at IPCPress.com. In January 2012 he will publish his next book, Sex and God: How Religion Distorts Sexuality.

Dr. Ray is an organizational psychologist and consultant. He practiced for 10 years as a clinical psychologist before starting an international corporate consulting practice. He has been a student of religion all his adult life. Raised in a fundamentalist home by parents who eventually became missionaries, he has seen religion from the inside out. Growing up, he attended church 3-5 times a week, was a camp counselor, Sunday school teacher and church youth minister.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in Sociology/Anthropology at Friends University he decided to go into the ministry. He entered Scarritt College for Christian Workers to complete an MA in Church and Community in 1974. He soon learned that he could not tell others to believe what he didn't. After finishing his MA, he changed course and earned a doctorate in psychology at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. Parts of his doctoral dissertation were published in three different academic journals and provided the basis for successful lawsuits against the Tennessee Department of Corrections in 1980.

Darrel attended church, taught Sunday school and even preached on occasion throughout his 20's and into his mid-thirties but nothing about religion seemed to add up. By age 35 he was an agnostic and by 40, atheist. He continued to be curious about the inner workings of religion and how it impacts and infects people. His research and writing finally led him to Dawkins Viruses of the Mind and Memetics, which provided the seed upon which to research and write about religion as a parasitic meme, culminating in his latest book The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture.

As one reviewer said, "After reading Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris, I still needed a question answered - How does religion work? None of the aforementioned books really make any in-depth attempt at answering this dangerous question. The God Virus does exactly that." Or as Dale McGowan noted in his review: "Darrel Ray has made a marvelous contribution to our understanding of ourselves. The description of religion as a cultural virus is not new, Darrel is the first to put the virus on a slide and pull out the microscope. The God Virus goes beyond analogy, offering a fascinating and detailed look at the wiggling, maddening virus itself how it moves, how it survives, and how and why it continues to thrive.” -- Author/editor, Parenting Beyond Belief and Raising Freethinkers.

In 2009 he founded Recovering from Religion, an organization supporting people leaving religion with chapters all over the US and a podcast called Living After Faith with Rich and Deanna Joy Lyons.

To download a printable version of this announcement, click here.