The New Chief Chaplain at Harvard? An Atheist.

The elevation of Greg Epstein, author of “Good Without God,” reflects a broader trend of young people who increasingly identify as spiritual but religiously nonaffiliated.

The Puritan colonists who settled in New England in the 1630s had a nagging concern about the churches they were building: How would they ensure that the clergymen would be literate? Their answer was Harvard University, a school that was established to educate the ministry and adopted the motto “Truth for Christ and the Church.” It was named after a pastor, John Harvard, and it would be more than 70 years before the school had a president who was not a clergyman.

Nearly four centuries later, Harvard’s organization of chaplains has elected as its next president an atheist named Greg Epstein, who takes on the job this week...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/26/us/harvard-chaplain-greg-epstein.html?smid=em-share

Sacred matter

It makes no difference what the principle of life maybe, material or immaterial, matter at any rate co-operates, lends itself to all life’s purposes. That beloved incarnation was among matter’s possibilities.”

— Phil Oliver (@OSOPHER) August 15, 2021

“reality is probably not as materialism describes it"-Materialism is not as ⁦@DouthatNYT⁩ describes it. https://t.co/L5ZRXJRGi2

— Phil Oliver (@OSOPHER) August 15, 2021

"the God hypothesis is constantly vindicated by the comprehensibility of the universe, and the capacity of our reason to unlock its many secrets”-Spinoza’s & Einstein’s god, you mean, ⁦@DouthatNYT⁩? https://t.co/L5ZRXJRGi2

— Phil Oliver (@OSOPHER) August 15, 2021

“Thus the self that we identify as ⁦@danieldennett⁩ doesn’t actually exist, even though that same illusory self has somehow figured out the true nature of reality.” No, ⁦@DouthatNYT⁩, that’s the self you’ve misidentified as an eternal soul. https://t.co/lZcLCdv3Al

— Phil Oliver (@OSOPHER) August 15, 2021

Humanists near me

Are you looking to connect with like-minded humanists near you or starting an AHA local chapter or affiliate in your community?

If so, use our interactive virtual tool (at https://t.co/lJwrFXswYF) to find a humanist group in your community or resources for starting your own!
(https://twitter.com/americnhumanist/status/1426572826224611329?s=02)

Family Atheist

	Hemant Mehta ⁦‪@hemantmehta‬⁩ Oh boy. Billy from Family Circus just became an atheist. pic.twitter.com/SLEunmt4NX   8/14/21, 8:22 AM

Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu

👣Solvitur ambulando

💭Sapere aude

The Brights

 They're a species of Humanist. Their latest bulletin just arrived in my email.

Who are The Brights?

• We are participants in an international internet constituency of individuals. All of us have a naturalistic worldview, free of supernatural or mystical elements.
• A Bright's ethics and actions are based on a naturalistic worldview.
• The Brights aspire to an egalitarian civic vision. We want citizens who have a naturalistic worldview to be accepted as full participants in civil society

Definitions:
A "super" (noun) is a person whose worldview includes supernatural and/or mystical elements.
A "bright" (n.) is a person whose worldview is naturalistic (no supernatural and mystical elements).
A "Bright" is a bright who has registered at this website in support of the egalitarian civic vision of the Brights movement.

What is the Challenge?

Currently, the naturalistic worldview is insufficiently expressed within most cultures - even politically and socially repressed. To be a Bright is to participate in a movement to address the situation.

There is a great diversity of persons who have a naturalistic worldview. Some are members of existing organizations that foster a supernatural-free perspective, but far more are not associated with any formal group or label. Under the broad umbrella of the naturalistic worldview, participants in the constituency of Brights can undertake social and civic actions designed to influence a society otherwise permeated with supernaturalism.

This website registers brights into the constituency (of Brights) and serves as a communications hub for actions that align with the aims and principles of the Brights movement.

(continues)

"radically in favor of knowing"

NASA’s New Telescope Will Show Us the Infancy of the Universe

...The seventeenth-century astronomer Johannes Kepler studied the physical world for the messages he felt that God had written into the Book of Nature. Galileo, in fact, had supporters inside and outside the Church. Sometimes people in power have been reluctant to acknowledge the truths that science uncovers. Each time we look farther, our universe gets larger. Or, depending on your perspective, we get smaller. Astronomers take the position—an incidentally ethical one—of being radically in favor of knowing.

Bob Williams, the former head of the Space Telescope Science Institute, grew up in a Baptist family in Southern California, one of five children. He’d wanted to be an astronomer since the seventh grade, when he received a pamphlet on astronomy in science class; he then saved his paper-route money to buy a telescope. He earned a scholarship to U.C. Berkeley and studied astronomy there. “My father didn’t want me to go to college,” he said. “He told me that if I went to get an education I would lose my faith. And he was right about that. We were raised to take every word in the Bible as literally true. But then I was learning about continental drift. About evolution.” Williams said that he is often asked about faith. Many traditions use the term “God” to mean, basically, everything that is. In that view, the universe itself is the Book, and astronomers are reading it as it is.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/16/nasas-new-telescope-will-show-us-the-infancy-of-the-universe?utm_source=onsite-share&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=onsite-share&utm_brand=the-new-yorker