Harvard Radio

April 16, 2007

Harvard University’s radio station did a nice story on the upcoming New Humanism conference. The reporter, Alyce de Carteret, spoke to Greg Epstein, the Harvard Humanist Chaplain; Amanda Shapiro, president of the Harvard Secular Society; and myself.

You can download the piece here (MP3).

(Guess which one of us did the interview by phone?)

[tags]atheist, atheism, New Humanism, Harvard University, Alyce de Carteret, Greg Epstein, Humanist Chaplain, Amanda Shapiro, Harvard Secular Society, Hemant Mehta[/tags]

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Mriana

I would dearly love to go to the conference, but for various reasons I can’t. 🙁 I’ve heard Greg Epstein speak on Humanist News Network and I can’t find anything I disagree with him about and I’m not sure why Paul Kurtz commented on Epstein being a religious Humanist. I see nothing wrong with that. I’m not saying Paul put it in a negative way, but I can tell he highly supports Secular Humanism. Nothing wrong with that either, BUT Epstein is right, there are some things that humans need that only religion seems to currently provide- like the Rites of passages: birth, marriage, and death for example-, but it is Humanist Celebrants who are working on this to help fill the non-religious with the emotional needs of humans.

I truly feel that the New Humanist is more encompassing in Human emotional needs as well as a broader definition of Humanism. One can be spiritual without religion or a belief in the supernatural and one can be accepting of others without accepting their beliefs, which I believe will make Humanism more appealing for others and contribute to less emphisis on religion. Without some alternative to religion, people will not let go of such supernatural ideas. There has to be something to replace human needs and I believe Humanism, with it’s focus on the Human, is working on these needs.

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