Alabamian to lead nation’s neo-Deist religion

Alabamian to lead nation’s neo-Deist religion

BIRMINGHAM — A young religion called Universism has named a new leader who hopes to spread the neo-Deist movement nationwide. Todd Stricker, 25, has been named executive director of the nonprofit organization, which has its largest membership in Birmingham.

University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) medical student Ford Vox started Universism in 2003, saying that Christianity, Islam and, to a lesser extent, other world religions are harmful because they attempt to impose their own versions of moral certainty on others. Through the Internet, Universism has recruited 8,000 atheists, deists, freethinkers and others who rally around the notion that no universal religious truth exists and the meaning of existence must be determined by each individual.

Born and raised in Chicago, Stricker said he has been working fulltime since he was 17. He works as a project manager for a woodworking company in Moody, but he plans to return to Chicago and base Universism there.