Regardless of your faith persuasion, there’s one thing we can probably all agree on: the fundamental cause of all human problems – everything from little children not playing nicely in the playground, to climate change and the threat of nuclear conflict – is people behaving selfishly, putting their self-interest before the good of others and the world. Our most urgent need must surely be, therefore, to learn how to cooperate selflessly together – something that, as history attests, doesn’t come naturally to us! Metanoia is the word we’re looking for: the transformation, for each of us individually and for our species collectively, from our natural-born state of self-centredness to a very unnatural state of selflessness. In fact, Metanoia has always been the central concern of historical religion, as evidenced in, for example, the Mosaic Law, the Dreaming stories of Australian Aboriginal religion, or the Eight-fold Path of Buddhism. My talk on April 15 will focus on prospects of Metanoia for the human race, at the same time as being a window into my recent book, The God Who Doesn’t Exist, which I hope you’ll read.
Fergus McGinley is an Adelaide writer and teacher with a background in science, philosophy, education and theology. He is the author of many essays and articles, and his recent book is The God Who Doesn’t Exist, ATF Press (2025). Fergus is founder of the Anti-Theology Project, an initiative which aims to synthesize insights from parenting, education, theoretical physics, evolutionary theory, philosophy, psychology, comparative religion, biblical exegesis and political theory, into a new, post-religious understanding of God – if it turns out there actually is one! You can follow the project through the website antitheologia.com.