Everyday Humanism - Dale McGowan
4. Forming Godless Community
Everyday Humanism - Dale McGowan
Greg Epstein [+]
Harvard University
Greg M. Epstein serves as the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University, and is author of the New York Times bestselling book, Good without God:
What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe. He currently serves as Vice President of the 36-member corps Harvard Chaplains. In 2005 Greg received ordination as a Humanist Rabbi from the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, where he studied in Jerusalem and Michigan for five years. He holds a BA (Religion and Chinese) and an MA (Judaic Studies) from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Masters of Theological Studies from the Harvard Divinity School. Greg’s work has been featured by the New York Times; CBS News; ABC World News with Diane Sawyer; ABC News Network; Al Jazeera; Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and numerous other programs on National Public Radio; BBC Radio; USA Today; Newsweek; US News and World Report; The Boston Globe, and many more.
Description
One of the great successes of religion has been its ability to form and sustain effective human communities. At their best, these communities provide identity, connection, and compassionate support. Humanism asserts that such community can be built on shared humanity rather than the collective worship of a deity, yet most attempts at creating explicitly humanist community have failed to achieve stability, much less sustained growth. This chapter examines the challenges of creating non-theistic communities that serve the real human needs of individuals.