Scott Ballenger is founder of the Trial Acceleration Institute in Spring House, Pa., which assists stakeholders in speeding up clinical trials.

The Secular Seasons website provides information about secular holidays and secular/humanist ceremonies. Upcoming observances include Freethought Month (October) and Freethought Day (Oct. 12). The site also offers examples of secular invocations and graces.

The National Day of Reason is held each May as a counterpoint to the National Day of Prayer.

HumanLight is a nontheistic alternative to Christmas and Hanukkah. The late-December holiday celebrates humanists’ hope for a future “in which all people can identify with each other, behave with the highest moral standards, and work together toward a happy, just and peaceful world.” Festivities marking the 2009 holiday were held in more than two dozen U.S. […]

Freethought Day commemorates an Oct. 12, 1692, evidentiary decision by William Phipps, governor of the Colony of Massachusetts, that ended the Salem witch trials. An outdoor observance marking the anniversary is held each year in Sacramento, Calif.

Frank Palumbo is a professor and director of the Center on Drugs and Public Policy at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in Baltimore.

Read an article on CNN about Blasphemy Day. Blasphemy Day was first officially observed on Sept. 30, 2009. Dedicated to the premise of free expression, the inaugural event featured lectures, provocative exhibits and other activities in a number of North American cities. The Center for Inquiry recently changed the name of the observance to International Blasphemy […]

Christine Schenk is a Catholic nun and the executive director emerita of  FutureChurch, based in Lakewood, Ohio, which advocates ordaining married Roman Catholic men and women as priests to alleviate priest shortages.

Louise Haggett, a sales and marketing specialist from Maine, is president and founder of rentapriest.com.