Belleville humanist lives life based on logic and fact

By Raphael Borja

BELLEVILLE, Ont. (30/03/11) Bill Broderick sits in his reading chair, holding a magnifying glass and a model skull ("Someone I once knew," jokes the 80-year-old). As a secular humanist, Broderick rejects religion and believes in science and logic. He is an avid reader, with a collection of 400 books covering his favourite subjects of anatomy, astronomy, geology, philosophy and oceanography. Photo by Raphael Borja.

In a tiny apartment packed with science books, Bill Broderick sleeps soundly at night. He takes comfort in no one looking over him, because for Broderick, there is no God.

“I don’t have to worry that I’m being judged over some stupid thing. I can make love to a beautiful lady and not feel guilty… it’s wonderful,” says the 80-year-old Belleville native. “So many go through life and got all this guilt, but I’m free.”

Broderick considers himself an atheist and a humanist. He sits on the board of directors of the Quinte Secular Humanist Association, a local group of humanists who lead their lives based on logic and facts, not religion.

Broderick is currently keeping busy writing a book review for Humanist Perspectives magazine. Broderick used to write a weekly column, “The Human Touch,” in the The Trentonian.

Lining his apartment walls are shelves of books by Isaac Asimov, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Shakespeare and other thinkers. His collection has grown to about 400 titles, spanning the scientific genres of anatomy, geology and oceanography. But it’s astronomy Broderick refers to as his first love.

An anatomical model skeleton donning a Santa hat stands erect in one corner of Broderick’s living room. In another corner, sets of telescopes are huddled and aimed for the skies.

Broderick wasn’t always an atheist.

In his early life he was raised a Baptist who could, “belt out the hymns.” He says his path to atheism was a slow, gradual conversion.

“I began to think about things; we have all these earthquakes, volcanoes, natural disasters, murders…” Broderick says. “I figured if God is there, he isn’t taking good care of his children.”

Since retiring as a public servant in 1990, Broderick keeps up to date with the sciences, building his collection of books.

Traveling is one of the many things he hopes to do in the future.

“I’d like to visit southern Bavaria, where the mountains come together near Germany and Austria,” Broderick says, adding he would enjoy a hike up a mountain and have a beer.

Broderick maintains a positive outlook on life.

“I’m healthy and well-fit, so I can still enjoy myself and do things. I look at some of the other people that I’ve known — most are dead and the few that are left are in rocking chairs,” he says.

“But I’m still running around and having fun. When I die, I won’t even know it. I’ll be gone — poof! But while we are here, we have life and if we can arrange things properly, we can be happy.”