Dan is a retired mediator, psychologist, and educator living with wife Susan in Sarasota. His life experiences include:
• Serving in the U.S. Army in Vietnam (noncombat) and Panama Canal Zone (1966-1968);
• Earning a PhD in counseling psychology (University of Missouri, 1977);
• Teaching at a New England university for 28 years, and guest-lecturing at educational institutions on six continents;
• Founding in 1985 and growing a successful Internet-based educational enterprise (endowed to a Florida college in 2013);
• Being a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives (1998);
• Living, working, or traveling in over 85 countries on seven continents.
Dan is the author of two books on mediation, one on secular humanism, and several volumes of haiku quintets, all available at Amazon and other online booksellers. Five Palms Press, named for his perch overlooking Sarasota Bay, was created to share his poetic handiwork in retirement. He is the father of one and grandfather of two. Born in 1945 to a Protestant family in rural Missouri, he has been an atheist for over 60 years.
Dan is HUSBAY’s self-appointed Haiku Laureate, specializing in his invented form, the haiku quintet (click to browse his expanding library). Here’s a sampling of special interest to secular humanists:
I Tried – in the end, I failed
Manatee – we should be more like you
Christian Cosmologists – a rarely sighted creature
What Is Nothing? – cosmology’s most fundamental question
Glidepath – the ground is rising
Staring into the Abyss – let’s pay attention
Now – full moon setting over Sarasota Bay
The Swing – a moment in racial history
My Dad’s Afterlife – he still breathes in me
You can find more on this page: https://www.dandana.us/poems/
You can also learn moe about Dan by visitng our Who’s Who page.
Dan has authored four books, two of which we feature below. For information on the others, please click on this link. Click on either of the book covers for specifics on that selection.
This short book, only 8,000 finely crafted words, is destined to be one of the most cited and influential modern treatises on atheism and secular humanism.
It focuses squarely on the inherent irrationality of religion, and reveals its utter irreconcilability with science. Offering several “reconciliation theories” to people of faith, it forces every reader to make a choice.
This slim book makes a compelling case that the future of humanity would be better served by limiting procreation. A natural extension of secular humanism, Dr Dana draws from settled science the recognition that, across geologic time, the total weight of suffering in the world far exceeds the pleasures enjoyed by the privileged few. Using his signature “haiku quintet” poetic form, he artfully leads the reader to this inescapable ethical conclusion. Finally, he offers high-empathy readers practical ways to implement this compassionate worldview, which may initially appear remotely abstract. The nulled occupants of the future would thank us if they could. Advocates of human rights will discover here a powerful arrow in their quiver for opposing the anti-humanistic forces that maintain today’s unsustainable population growth.
Starting by sharing “My Personal Journey to Atheism,” the author then employs the novel poetic form of haiku quintets to concisely describe mind-expanding bits of science (fact, not fiction, mostly cosmology) and its bond to secularism. Skeptics will enjoy “Ode to Scientism” and its rejection of supernaturalism, followed by “Debunking Creationism with Science and Reason.” The book concludes with a survey of quotes by famous scientists about their atheism
