It has been almost five months since David Silverman, one of the nation’s most visible and outspoken public atheists, was suddenly terminated as president of American Atheists amid allegations of financial and sexual misconduct.
“I certainly behaved sometimes in a manner that was unworthy of the office of president of American Atheists,” Silverman, 52, said in a phone interview this week, the first time he has spoken publicly about being accused of nonconsensual sexual contact with two women at atheist gatherings, one of them a student.
Silverman denies the women’s allegations that their relations were nonconsensual, and American Atheists says he was not fired due to sexual relationships.