In the lead-up to the Global Atheist Convention, taking place in Melbourne in April 2012, we're running a series of blog posts by participating speakers. We kick off today with Melbourne writer, commentator and activist Leslie Cannold.

This April I published my third book, and first novel, The Book of Rachael. My favourite moment since the book’s publication came after I posted something about the book – which tells the story of the imaginary sister of Joshua of Nazareth or Jesus Christ – on Twitter. Two responding tweets came through in quick succession. The first was high praise for the novel from the Atheist Foundation. The second contained plaudits from ABC Religion and Ethics.

In the months that followed, ecumenical enthusiasm for Rachael continued. Feminist literary reviewers favourably compared it to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Christian leaders spruiked the book to their congregations and invitations to events like the Melbourne Jewish Book Festival poured in. Despite the depressed state of the book market, The Book of Rachael had managed to find an audience that across faith, gender and age divides.

This response vindicates the view I put at the 2010 Global Atheist Convention that believers and non-believers can live comfortably together in the same secular nest. From art to politics, progressive and thoughtful people of both religious and non-religious persuasions can and do see eye-to-eye on much that matters. In the world of literature, as in the world of politics where I first learned this lesson, the real divides are between those blindly obedient to authority and those willing to think for themselves; between those who are for the needy and those for the greedy.

I’ll be spruiking this message again at the 2012 Global Atheist Conference next April in Melbourne, but this time through the prism of the critically important Williams v. The Commonwealth case. This potentially landmark High Court case, which by then will have been decided, seeks a verdict on the constitutionality of the Federal government’s funding of chaplains in place of properly trained secular counsellors, in Australia’s public schools. If successful, the case should make father of six Ron Williams a hero and visionary of the calibre of Vashti McCollum, the brave American woman who drove the landmark Supreme Court decision that separated church and state in that country sixty-three years ago.

The Book of Rachael is a fast-moving tale of one girl’s struggle to be part of the contest of ideas that shaped her world, and continues to influence ours today. It is a book that encourages independent-minded and good-hearted people to see one another as allies, both in the appreciation of art and the pursuit of a secular landscape that separates Church and state and in so doing, allows each of us to define our own good.

Australia may soon take the first legal step towards establishing such a secular state. Surely all Australians, whatever their personal faith position, should say amen to that.

Leslie Cannold is a writer, commentator, ethicist and activist. She will be speaking at the 2012 Global Atheist Convention. The Book of Rachael is published by Text. You can find out more about Leslie at cannold.com and follow her on twitter - @lesliecannold.

The 2012 Global Atheist Convention takes place April 13-15 2012 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Find out more at www.atheistconvention.org.au . Readings is a major partner and official bookseller of the convention.