Michael Schmidt-Salomon


Michael Schmidt-Salomon is a German author, philosopher, and public relations manager. As chairman of the Giordano Bruno Foundation, a humanist organization that is critical of religion, he has been identified as Germany's "Chief Atheist." His books include the Manifesto of Evolutionary Humanism: A Plea for a Contemporary Culture, and Die Kirche im Kopf. His children's book Wo bitte geht's zu Gott?, fragte das kleine Ferkel caused controversy for its depiction of religion.

Life

Schmidt-Salomon studied education sciences at the University of Trier, earning his master's 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, anthropology, aesthetics, society theory, futurology, religious criticism and ideology criticism, as well as practical ethics. He began lecturing at the Institut D'Etudes Educatives et Sociales in Luxembourg in 2002. From 1999 to 2007, Schmidt-Salomon was editor of the journal MIZ He has been CEO of the Giordano Bruno Foundation since 2006. He co-inspired Mina Ahadi's foundation of the Central Council of Ex-Muslims in 2007, and co-organised the Kritische Islamkonferenz in 2008 and 2013.
Schmidt-Salomon lives in Vordereifel, and has a non-traditional family consisting of two biological children, three adopted children, and three other adults. He has debated Christian philosopher, theologian and apologist William Lane Craig on the existence of God.

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's The God Delusion 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 tendencies". The Ministry announced in January 2007 that it was considering a ban on selling the book to minors. The Central Council of Jews in Germany supported such a ban. One criticism of the book was that Jews were illustrated in a more negative light than Christians or Muslims. The illustrations were compared to "anti-Semitic caricatures from the Nazi era."
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart filed suit, claiming that the author and illustrator of the book incited hatred—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 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, Christianity, and Islam, 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 and unbelievers, and he did not find it indoctrinating or demeaning of religion.

Publications