“The Tree of Knowledge: Celebrating the Roots of Humanism”

The roots of humanism run deep in many written traditions – from ancient religions to ancient Greece, from the middle ages to the renaissance to the enlightenment to today. Humanists revere many books – books of faith and skepticism, knowledge and opinion. Libraries serve as sacred humanist sites. Fearful of reason and reading, intolerant mobs have burned books and destroyed libraries in the vain hope of cutting the roots of the tree of knowledge. Thankfully, freethinkers and scholars have kept this tree alive. Join Hugh Taft-Morales as he explores this hostility towards knowledge and celebrates the liberating power of books.

Hugh Taft-Morales joined the Baltimore Ethical Society as its professional leader in 2010, the same year he was certified by the American Ethical Union as an Ethical Culture Leader. He also serves as Leader of the Ethical Humanist Society of Philadelphia. His presence in Ethical Culture has been termed “invigorating.” Taft-Morales lives in Takoma Park, Maryland, with his wife Maureen, a Latin American Analyst with the Congressional Research Service, with whom he has three beloved children, Sean, Maya, and Justin.