Greg Epstein on Humanism

I've been listening to the podcast of a fascinating show called Speaking of Faith. You could think of it as the religion-focused version of Fresh Air. It's a neat show. In any case, I find I'm interested in about a third of the episodes that get produced. Recently, Krista Tippett conducted an interview with Greg Epstein (podcast MP3 episode) that I found pretty thought provoking. Epstein is Harvard's humanist chaplain. He's one of those rare professional religious humanists who conducts his ministry outside of Unitarian Universalism (where I'd say about the one-third to one-half the ministers are religious humanists, if you pinned them down). He has a Jewish background and has a special interest in Jewish humanism (which is a very strong strand of the religious humanist spectrum, particularly outside of UUism). His describes how he's committed himself to an ethical life outside of religious faith within a community that shares his beliefs and does not profess the beliefs he doesn't share. Give it a listen if you have time.