Michael Schmidt-Salomon
Encyclopedia
Trier
Trier, historically called in English Treves is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle. It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC....
) is a German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
author, philosopher, and public relations manager. As chairman of the Giordano Bruno Foundation
Giordano Bruno Foundation
The Giordano Bruno Foundation is a Germany based non-profit foundation under public law that pursues the “Support of Evolutionary Humanism”. It was founded by entrepreneur Herbert Steffen in 2004 and was named after the Dominican monk Giordano Bruno who was convicted of heresy and burnt at the...
, a humanist
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
organization that is critical of religion
Religious skepticism
Religious skepticism is a type of skepticism relating to religion, but should not be confused with atheism. Religious skeptics question religious authority and are not necessarily anti-religious but are those skeptical of a specific or all religious beliefs or practices. Some are deists, believing...
, he has been identified as Germany's
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
"Chief Atheist." His books include the Manifesto of Evolutionary Humanism: A Plea for a Contemporary Culture, and Die Kirche im Kopf (The Church in the Head). His children's book Wo bitte geht's zu Gott?, fragte das kleine Ferkel ("How Do I Get to God? Little Piglet Asked") caused controversy for its depiction of religion.
Life
Schmidt-Salomon studied education sciences at the University of TrierUniversity of Trier
The University of Trier , in the German city of Trier, was founded in 1473. Closed in 1798 by order of the then French administration in Trier, the university was re-established in 1970 after a hiatus of some 172 years. The new university campus is located on top of the Tarforst heights, an urban...
, earning his Masters degree in educational theory in 1992, and his PhD. in 1997. From 1992 to 2001 he worked as a research assistant and lecturer at the University of Trier. The main focuses of his work are science theory
Philosophy of science
The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, methods and implications of science. It is also concerned with the use and merit of science and sometimes overlaps metaphysics and epistemology by exploring whether scientific results are actually a study of truth...
, anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
, aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
, society theory, futurology
Futurology
Futures studies is the study of postulating possible, probable, and preferable futures and the worldviews and myths that underlie them. There is a debate as to whether this discipline is an art or science. In general, it can be considered as a branch under the more general scope of the field of...
, religious criticism and ideology criticism, as well as practical ethics
Applied ethics
Applied ethics is, in the words of Brenda Almond, co-founder of the Society for Applied Philosophy, "the philosophical examination, from a moral standpoint, of particular issues in private and public life that are matters of moral judgment"...
. He began lecturing at the Institut D'Etudes Educatives et Sociales (IEES) in Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
in 2002. From 1999 to 2007, Schmidt-Salomon was editor of the journal MIZ (Contemporary Materials and Information: The Political Magazine for Atheists and the Irreligious) He has been CEO of the Giordano Bruno Foundation since 2006.
Schmidt-Salomon lives in Vordereifel
Vordereifel
Vordereifel is a Verbandsgemeinde in the district of Mayen-Koblenz, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated on the eastern edge of the Eifel, west of Mayen. The seat of the municipality is in Mayen, itself not part of the municipality.The Verbandsgemeinde Vordereifel consists of the...
, and has a non-traditional family consisting of two biological children, three adopted children, and three other adults.
Children's book controversy
Schmidt-Salomon's book Wo bitte geht's zu Gott?, fragte das kleine Ferkel, illustrated by Helge Nyncke, was published in the autumn of 2007. The book has been described as "Richard Dawkins'sRichard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
The God Delusion
The God Delusion
The God Delusion is a 2006 bestselling non-fiction book by British biologist Richard Dawkins, professorial fellow of New College, Oxford, and inaugural holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford.In The God Delusion, Dawkins contends that...
for children," due to its criticism of religion.
In December 2007, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs raised objections to the book, deeming it inappropriate for children and youth due to its depiction of religion, and charging that the book had "anti-Semitic
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
tendencies." The Ministry announced in January 2007 that it was considering a ban
Censorship in the Federal Republic of Germany
The Federal Republic of Germany guarantees freedom of speech, expression, and opinion to its citizens as per Article 5 of the constitution. Despite this, censorship of various materials has taken place since the Allied occupation after World War II and continues to take place in Germany in various...
on selling the book to minors. The Central Council of Jews in Germany
Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland
The Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland is a federation of German Jews organizing many Jewish organisations in Germany. It was founded on July 19, 1950, as a response to the increasing isolation of German Jews by the international Jewish community and increasing interest in Jewish affairs by the ...
supported such a ban. One criticism of the book was that Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
were illustrated in a more negative light than Christians or Muslims. The illustrations were compared to "anti-Semitic caricatures
Nazi propaganda
Propaganda, the coordinated attempt to influence public opinion through the use of media, was skillfully used by the NSDAP in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany...
from the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
era."
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart filed suit, claiming that the author and illustrator of the book incited hatred
Incitement
In English criminal law, incitement was an anticipatory common law offence and was the act of persuading, encouraging, instigating, pressuring, or threatening so as to cause another to commit a crime....
--a claim that the book's publisher, Gunnar Schedel of Alibri Publishing Company, dismissed as "slanderous." At the request of Germany's Education Ministry, the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons
Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien
The Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons is an upper-level German federal agency subordinate to the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. It is responsible for examining media works allegedly harmful to young people and entering these onto an...
investigated to see whether the book should be placed on a "list of youth-endangering media." Such a ruling would have banned the sale or distribution of the book to minors in Germany. However, after concluding an investigation that began in October 2007, the Department ruled in March 2008 that the book was equally critical of Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, and Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, and that it was not anti-Semitic.
Peter Riedesser, director of the University Hospital for Child and Youth Psychiatry and Psychotherapy in the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, deemed the book suitable for children. Riedesser saw the book as emphasizing equality between believers
Religious belief
Religious belief is a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny. Such a state may relate to the existence, characteristics and worship of a deity or deities, divine intervention in the universe and human life, or values and practices centered on the teachings of a...
and unbelievers
Irreligion
Irreligion is defined as an absence of religion or an indifference towards religion. Sometimes it may also be defined more narrowly as hostility towards religion. When characterized as hostility to religion, it includes antitheism, anticlericalism and antireligion. When characterized as...
, and he did not find it indoctrinating
Indoctrination
Indoctrination is the process of inculcating ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or a professional methodology . It is often distinguished from education by the fact that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned...
or demeaning of religion.
Publications
- Michael Schmidt-Salomon: Leibniz war kein Butterkeks. Den großen und kleinen Fragen der Philosophie auf der Spur Pendo Publishing Company, München-Zürich 20011, ISBN 978-3-86612-280-2
- Michael Schmidt-Salomon: Jenseits von Gut und Böse. Warum wir ohne Moral die besseren Menschen sind Pendo Publishing Company, München-Zürich 2009, ISBN 3-86612-212-8
- Michael Schmidt-Salomon: Susi Neunmalklug erklärt die Evolution: Ein Buch für kleine und große Besserwisser Alibri Publishing Company, Aschaffenburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-86569-053-1
- Michael Schmidt-Salomon: Die Geschichte vom frechen Hund: Warum es klug ist, freundlich zu sein Alibri Publishing Company, Aschaffenburg 2008, ISBN 3-86569-041-6
- Michael Schmidt-Salomon: Auf dem Weg zur Einheit des Wissens. Die Evolution der Evolutionstheorie und die Gefahren von Biologismus und Kulturismus. Alibri Publishing Company, Aschaffenburg 2007, ISBN 3-86569-200-1
- Helge Nyncke und Michael Schmidt-Salomon: Wo bitte geht’s zu Gott? fragte das kleine Ferkel. Ein Buch für alle, die sich nichts vormachen lassen. Alibri Publishing Company, Aschaffenburg 2007, ISBN 3-86569-030-0 English translation of the text (PDF)
- Carsten Frerk und Michael Schmidt-Salomon: Die Kirche im Kopf. Von "Ach Herrje!" bis "zum Teufel!". Alibri Publishing Company, Aschaffenburg 2007, ISBN 3-86569-024-6
- Michael Schmidt-Salomon: Manifest des evolutionären Humanismus. Plädoyer für eine zeitgemäße Leitkultur. 2. enlarged editions, Alibri Publishing Company, Aschaffenburg 2006, ISBN 978-3865690111
- Hermann Gieselbusch und Michael Schmidt-Salomon (Ed.): "Aufklärung ist Ärgernis...": Karlheinz Deschner - Leben, Werk, Wirkung. Alibri Publishing Company, Aschaffenburg 2005, ISBN 978-3865690036 (omnibus with contributions from Hans AlbertHans AlbertHans Albert is a German philosopher. Born in Cologne, he lives in Heidelberg.His fields of research are Social Sciences and General Studies of Methods. He is a critical rationalist, giving special attention to rational heuristics...
, Karlheinz DeschnerKarlheinz DeschnerKarl Heinrich Leopold Deschner , is a German researcher and writer who has achieved public attention in Europe for his thorough and fiercely critical treatment of Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in particular, as expressed in several articles and books, culminating in his opus The...
, Horst Herrmann, Joachim Kahl, Ludger Lütkehaus, Hermann Josef Schmidt and others) - Michael Schmidt-Salomon: Stollbergs Inferno. Alibri Publishing Company, Aschaffenburg 2003, ISBN 978-3932710490
- Michael Schmidt-Salomon: Erkenntnis aus Engagement. Alibri Publishing Company, Aschaffenburg 1999, ISBN 978-3932710605 (an interdisciplinary contribution to the discussion about the shaping of the future)
- Michael Schmidt-Salomon: Mythos Marx? Grundrisse des Lebens und Werks des Philosophen, Ökonomen und Politikers Karl Marx. In: Aufklärung und Kritik. Special report 10/2005
- Michael Schmidt-Salomon: Von der Negation zur Position: Über die Notwendigkeit säkularer sozialer Dienstleistungen. In: Humanismus Aktuell 3/1998
External links
- Salomons Homepage: Michael Schmidt-Salomon's personal website
- Aufklärung und Kritik: Zeitschrift für freies Denken und humanistische Philosophie, (Enlightenment and Criticism: Magazine for free thinking and humanistic philosophy), published by the Society for Critical Philosophy, Nuremberg. This issue archive includes many articles by Schmidt-Salomon.
- Materialien und Informationen zur Zeit (MIZ): website of the magazine edited by Schmidt-Salomon from 1999 to 2007.
- Reading of the cabaret artist Dr. Satori from 2008: website of the "Giftspritzer" magazine