A two-day long 9th national conference of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Association (FIRA) organised by the Odisha Rationalist Society (ORS) and the city-based Humanist Rationalist Organisation (HRO) in the city concluded on Thursday.
The conference took up different issues for promotion of scientific temper, spirit of inquiry and reform in consonance with article 51A (h) of the Indian Constitution.They spoke in detail about the significance of rationalism in present context, role of education and media to bring reform in the society, secularism and social development and superstition versus scientific temper.
The scholars expressed grave concern over the rising trend of fundamentalism and communalism in the country. In the name of religion, some opportunists have been exploiting people of the country, they said. ORS president and convener of the conference Prof Dhaneswar Sahoo said the rationalists’ society always aims to annihilate superstition, dogmatic faith and social discrimination from society and strives to build up a humane society based on other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry.The conference was attended by rationalists, academicians, scholars, researchers and social activists from Punjab, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Telengana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Kerala.