Matt Cherry
From Philosopedia
Cherry, Matt (7 March 1967— )
Cherry has worked in senior positions for humanist organizations in three countries. Having gained in 1989 a B.A. honors in philosophy from University College London (known as “The Ungodly Hole on Gower Street” because of its freethinking tradition dating back to its founder Jeremy Bentham), he started working in 1990 for the British Humanist Association. He led the Young Humanists, organizing a successful week-long international young humanist conference in 1991. That same year he became director of development and public relations at the British Humanist Association, for which he became editor of Humanist News.
At the end of 1993 he joined the staff of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) as Secretary for Development and Public Relations, the office of which at that time was in The Netherlands.
In 1995, he moved to Amherst, New York, becoming Executive Director of the Council for Secular Humanism and the International Secretariat for Growth and Development of the IHEU.
Cherry was coordinator of the 1996 Humanist World Congress held in Mexico City. In 1999 he helped establish the Center for Inquiry branch in Los Angeles, California. Cherry signed Humanist Manifesto 2000. {International Humanist News, December 1996}
In 2000 Cherry became executive director of a new group, the Institute for Humanist Studies. The group is headquartered at the Humanist Center in Albany, New York.
Since 2002, Cherry has served as an official NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) delegate to the U.N., representing the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). In May 2002 he was elected secretary of the United Nations NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief. In May 2004 Cherry was elected president of the UN NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief and was reelected to this post in 2006.
In 2009, Cherry was appointed by the IHEU as its newest International Representative.
Cherry is the author of “Introduction to Humanism: A Primer on the History, Philosophy, and Goals of Humanism ” an online course.
Cherry is married to Shannon Cherry, president of PR firm Cherry Communications. They have twin daughters: Sophia (after the Greek word for “wisdom”) and Lyra (after the deicidal heroine of Philip Pullman’s great humanist trilogy, “His Dark Materials”.)
In his various humanist positions, Cherry has interviewed numbers of philosophers and non-believers. He once spoke with Stephen Hawking about
- his beliefs and the concluding sentence of A Brief History of Time ("However, if we discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable by everyone, not just by a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason -- for then we should know the mind of God.")
- Referring to his line about knowing "the mind of God," I asked if he believed in a personal God or if, like Einstein, he was a humanist who used "God" as a metaphor for Nature. He replied that like Einstein he did not believe in a personal God.
