The New Humanism

The New Humanism began as the official website for one of the best attended and most provocative Humanist conferences in memory. But this site will soon become much more. Check back in fall 2009 for an all new thenewhumanism.org– an online magazine produced by the Humanist community at Harvard, putting flesh on the bones of our vision for a renewed Humanism that is diverse, inclusive, inspiring, and ready to become a major force in contemporary culture and society.

You may have found this site after reading Humanist Chaplain of Harvard Greg Epstein’s new column on the Newsweek/Washington Post site, On Faith.

This is the website for a landmark international conference held at Harvard University in April 2007 to mark the 30th Anniversary of the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard. But if you like the ideas you find here, the conference may be over but the New Humanism is just beginning. Check back soon for conference footage, future events, and ways you can get involved. We need your support!

It is with great sadness that we inform you of the death of one of the greatest Humanist leaders of the 20th Century: Sherwin T. Wine, the 2003 American Humanist of the Year. Rabbi Wine and his longtime partner, Richard McMains, were vactioning in Morocco. Returning from dinner Saturday evening in Essaouira, their taxicab was hit by another driver. Both Rabbi Wine and the taxi driver were killed instantly. Richard survived the collision and currently is hospitalized in stable condition.

For a press release with more detailed information, including regarding the memorial service currently being planned, click here: press-rel-7-22-07-rabbi-wine-killed.doc or visit the Society for Humanistic Judaism. To hear Rabbi Wine speak on Humanistic Judaism, click here for an interview recorded at Harvard in April 2007. A video of Rabbi Wine’s stirring speech at The New Humanism conference at Harvard in April 2007 will be available later this week at harvardhumanist.org.

If you’re a new visitor, this is a site dedicated to a major international conference on Humanism, held at Harvard University on April 20-22 2007, sponsored by the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University. The conference was a huge, extremely well attended success, and the organizers are just now beginning to put together follow-up plans that could eventually overshadow even the conference itself.

You may be joining us because of a feature on lead conference organizer and Humanist Chaplain of Harvard Greg M. Epstein in Newsweek Magazine this week.

You may also have read about the conference recently in the Washington Post. For a wonderful recap, see a story in the Harvard University Gazette, Harvard’s official news publication, and for another conference recap, see this article by the Institute for Humanist Studies.

We expect plenty more media coverage over the coming weeks, so be on the lookout. And meanwhile, check back to this site over the coming days: numerous updates are on the way including photos, links to conference and related audio and video, highlights of blogs about the conference, and important announcements about how you can get involved in conference follow-up.

A huge thank you to anyone who took even the smallest amount of time and energy to help with our conference, “The New Humanism.” Just a few words of follow up today as I need a few hours of vacation; more to come in the next few days.

*All events were totally sold out, and in the end 3 venues had to be changed due to lack of space. Dozens of people were turned away. Given that we spent almost no money on advertising, we are so incredibly grateful for your help spreading word of mouth.

*Many journalists were present but primarily were from periodicals or other publications that won’t be writing things up right away, so keep an eye out in the coming days/weeks for more.

Photos of our opening event with Salman Rushdie, that drew a capacity crowd of almost 1100 attendees (we had to turn dozens away). Thanks to photographer Julie Melton!

Audio of 2 of our panels on Humanism, video of Woody Kaplan and Ned Lamont, and a blog reviewing parts of the conference:
http://www.spazeboy.net/2007/04/new-humanism-2007 (Thanks to blogger spazeboy!)

Today’s article in the Harvard Crimson:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=518437

*We conference organizers were, to a person, totally new at running a major international conference with nearly 600 registrants. We’re thrilled with the way the weekend turned out, and also committed to learning a great deal from it and improving on it for the future. Our greatest hope is that this weekend will result in a stronger, richer, more diverse Humanist community at Harvard and beyond. We welcome all feedback at humanist@hcs.harvard.edu.
–
Greg M. Epstein
Humanist Chaplain of Harvard University

This Wednesday April 18 is the last day to register…we can’t wait to see you. To tide you over, here is a nice story on the conference to listen to, by Alyce de Carteret at Harvard’s WHRB Radio.

Kurt Vonnegut, who died Wednesday night in New York, was honorary president of the American Humanist Association. “I am a humanist,” he wrote in a letter to the organization’s members, “which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without expectations of rewards or punishments after I am dead.” For a statement in honor of Vonnegut by the American Humanist Association, click here.

Also see this extended excerpt from a Harvard Crimson interview with Vonnegut on Humanism and other topics, Published May 12, 2000.

The New Humanism Conference has been fortunate enough to secure many world-class Humanist speakers, and so of course we approached Vonnegut as well, through his friend and colleague Fred Edwords, Communications Director of the American Humanist Association. Kurt was funny and to the point as ever in rebuffing us:

So I asked him if he would like to introduce Rushdie. Kurt laughed and said,

“Fred, I’m 84 and don’t make public appearances anymore.”

We are deeply grateful for the contributions of this Humanist hero and look forward to celebrating his life together as part of our gathering April 20-22!

BREAKING STORY: Our conference, The New Humanism is now receiving fantastic coverage in the New York Times, Washington Post, and beyond! Please register for the conference today, and tell all your friends to do so as well! Also, PLEASE HELP US by going to the New York Times site, then emailing the article to several friends from there, both helping the story to circulate and potentially be listed as a “most emailed” story.

(UPDATE: the links for the story have since changed. It can now be found, among other places, here.)

A small quibble with the article in the Times– Greg Epstein, Humanist Chaplain of Harvard, did not actually call bestselling authors Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris “atheist fundamentalists.” That part of the story was taken from the press release about our conference, (many thanks to the very talented Duncan Crary of the wonderful NY-based think tank, The Institute for Humanist Studies, for once again helping to place a Humanism-related story in the international media) in which Dawkins and Harris are referred to not as “atheist fundamentalists” but as atheist “fundamentalists,” scare quotes intending to denote that we know there is a major difference between Harris and Dawkins– whom we respect but also respectfully disagree on some issues about how to advance Humanism– and actual religious fundamentalists, who can be incalculably worse. The Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard proudly hosted Richard Dawkins for a fruitful, intimate discussion this past October, and we were gratified by his kind response to the experience. We would be happy to host Dr. Dawkins again.

But we have decided now is the time to show the world that Humanism is the diverse, inclusive, inspiring movement that best represents the 1.1 billion people around the world, 30-40 million Americans, and 1 in 5 Americans age 18-25 who identify with no religion. The mere fact that publications such as the Times now report substantively even on relatively small internal disagreements such as this one is evidence that Humanism is becoming a movement to be reckoned with in public life. For more on “The New Humanism,” click here. And again, to register, click here.

(NOTE: TO REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE, CLICK HERE and then continue on to the relevant link for regular, student/young adult, and/or organizational registration.)

Attached here: harvards-the-new-humanism-conference-v-11.pdf

is a PDF file of the beautiful two-sided 8.5″ x 14″ poster/brochure for “The New Humanism” conference in honor of the 30th Anniversary of the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University, featuring Salman Rushdie, Amartya Sen, E.O. Wilson, Steven Pinker, Dar Williams, Ned Lamont, Lori Lipman Brown, Paul Kurtz, Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr., Rabbi Sherwin Wine, the Rev. William Murry, Rebecca Goldstein, Fred Edwords, Hemant Mehta, the leaders of all the major Humanist and related organizations from around the world, and more.

These posters tell the story of our conference and why we hope it will be truly unique; they also provide all necessary details re: prices, locations, transportation, lodging, student scholarships, schedule, parking, etc.

Please, help us by forwarding this document as widely as possible. This is not simply a request for you to help us, in fact it is not merely for “publicity.” Please consider showing this document to ALL your email contacts, whether they are Humanists or not, because of a simple fact:

If one were to take all the non-religious people in the world and put them together into one country, that country would be the most diverse, wealthiest, best-educated, most peaceful, and nearly the largest country on earth; yet most people would know nothing about it! Who are its citizens, and how did they come to be there? What do they believe, and what don’t they? And why might they, if they (we) can better organize and come together as a community, have the best chance of making a positive impact on creating a more stable, sustainable world in the 21st century?

Friends, my father loved the study of world religion all his life, spending years in search of a more meaningful connection to those around him. But he was not a traditional believer, and so he died lonely, without a community, because he had never so much as heard the word “Humanism.” I know many of you have similar stories. If we can take advantage of a large event at a well-known university to help spread the word about the philosophy of life that may well best represent the 1.1 billion non-religious people on earth, it may be only fair to try to do so. In less than a month, that event will take place, so time is now very short. Please share this information today.

If you would like to request glossy copies of these posters, conveniently folded into brochure format, please send an email with the subject header “Poster Request” to humanist@hcs.harvard.edu, and include: your name, mailing address, number of posters you will realistically be able to distribute to your community/workplace/campus/etc., and if relevant the date you would need them by in order to distribute them at a certain gathering of potentially interested individuals. We can’t guarantee we will accommodate you, but we’ll certainly do our very best.

Thank you so much for your time and consideration.
–
Greg M. Epstein
Humanist Chaplain of Harvard University