The New Orleans Secular Humanist Association is dedicated to raising the awareness of people of the Gulf Coast region to the ideals and values of secular humanism.
What is Humanism?
Humanists reject superstitious beliefs. Instead, we can make sense of the world using reason, experience and shared values. We can make the best of life by creating meaning and purpose for ourselves, and choosing to take responsibility for our actions.
It is important to act morally towards others, not because of a divine imperative, but because people have inherent dignity. We have only one life, it is our responsibility to make it a good life, and to live it well.
Learn more…
Please see the NOSHA Meetup Calendar for all scheduled events.
The following is an address made at the 25th Anniversary celebration of NOSHA’s founding, held at Messina’s Runway Cafe located at the Lakefront Airport on September 21, 2024. Following the address, recognition of the members in attendance who were at the very first meeting and some that joined very soon after: David and Connie Schultz, Will Hunn, Lucy Tierney, and John-Patrick and Patricia Lestrade and Grant and Suzy Smith, as well as Charlotte Klasson stood to the appreciative applause of…
On reading the following article—which was New Orleans’ informal public “introduction” to NOSHA—written by the now-retired Times-Picayune columnist Bruce Nolan one Saturday morning, I remember thinking to myself something like “hmm, very interesting..” followed by a quick rejection of the idea of getting involved, using the standard rationalizations that everyone has for not joining a group—”too busy…not enough spare time…I really wouldn’t like it….too much other stuff I need to do”. Twelve years later all those excuses had somehow disappeared…
It’s that time of year again. Although the formation of NOSHA has been marked as August, 1999, other birthday commemorations have been scheduled in September, or later. Somewhere around this time each year though, we recognize the resolve of the dozen or so dedicated freethinkers that saw the importance of establishing a forum for their contemporaries—in a city where a group openly touting religious heresies mixed with social and individual freedoms would have been unthinkable, or short lived at best. David…
