ARTICLE

Harvard's New Atheist Chaplain - We Can Be Good Without God

News Image By Jonathon Van Maren/Bridgehead.ca September 04, 2021
Share this article:

It's 2021, and anything is possible. A man can be a woman. A woman can be a man. A man can get pregnant. There are so many genders you can identify as pretty much anything you'd like to -- the trans-racial trend is just around the corner. 

In fact, definitions are now so fluid that Harvard's new chief chaplain, Greg Epstein, is an atheist and the author of a book titled Good Without God. 

It's worth noting that Harvard was founded in 1636 by John Harvard, a Puritan clergyman. Like other elite institutions, it was rooted solidly in the Christian faith. 

Now, it is rooted in nothing at all. Greg Epstein, in fact, was elected unanimously to his new position as chief chaplain, which heads up the organization of chaplains for the entire university. 


Epstein, understandably, was thrilled. "Thank you to the humanist institutions who inspired me down this now 20+ year path," he said on Twitter. "I wouldn't be here but for you; you mean so much to so many of us. Thank you humanist allies in US politics, my true religion. Thank you interfaith groups who bravely set a precedent of warm partnership w/humanists like me." 

You read that right -- Harvard's new chief chaplain says that U.S. politics is his "true religion" -- that, or the Yankees. Everyone has to worship something. Epstein's choices are common, but render him particularly unqualified for the role that he's taken on.  

Epstein's tasks will include leading over 40 chaplains from a wide range of religious backgrounds, including Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian. Epstein, believing in none of these traditions and rejecting the existence of God entirely, also says that he is a rabbi "through the Society for Humanistic Judaism," whatever that is.  

Unfortunately, Greg Epstein does represent a growing portion of the American public: those who do not believe in God and reject Judeo-Christian values, but hold to a vague, consumer-style spirituality that allows them to cling to some semblance of transcendence while living like pagans. 

Sociologist Christian Smith called it "moralistic therapeutic deism," and it is rapidly becoming the defining worldview of the upcoming generation. 


It is interesting to note that as Americans increasingly identify as "nones"--that is, do not fall into any traditional religious category--they do not identify as less religious. 

Instead, like Epstein, they attempt to cobble together some incoherent collection of views that allows them to delude themselves into believing that "their truth" is "the Truth" in all of the ways that count. 

In the world of American "nones," God does not make demands of them -- they make demands of God, whom they have attempted to reconstruct in their own image. 

An atheist chaplain is a farce, but then again, so is much of modern American life. Pregnant men. Muscular, bearded women. Butchered babies as "reproductive health care." 

Delusion is mainstream, and so a godless chaplain bleating to the goats is perhaps uniquely fitting for our historical moment. We lie to ourselves about everything, and so it makes sense that we'd want chaplains who lie to us, too. 

Originally published at The Bridgehead - reposted with permission.




Other News

March 26, 2024US End Game Approaching - Govt Spending More Than Twice What It Is Collecting

In a world where the US is spending more than twice what it is collecting, the endgame is clear: debt collapse, and while it won’t be tomo...

March 26, 2024Hezbollah Offensive Would Be Oct. 7 On Steroids

Thousands of rockets, thousands of casualties and devastating strikes to major infrastructure, cutting off water and electricity to Israel...

March 2, 2024U.S. Falls on the Global Happiness Scale - Why Are So Many People Unhappy?

"Finland is the world's happiest country, U.S. drops to all-time low," the New York Post reported earlier this week. This was in response ...

March 26, 2024Senate Dems Call Protecting Unborn Babies 'Dangerous' and 'Extreme'

A.C. tells the justices, that no one knows the "horror of abortion," like she did. And yet, on Capitol Hill, these nightmares are what Dem...

March 25, 2024Why Is The National Guard Being Deployed During The Great American Eclipse?

The National Guard is only supposed to be deployed in emergency situations. Now we have learned that National Guard troops will be deploye...

March 25, 2024Recognize The Times - Mankind's Exponential Increase In Knowledge

The angel Gabriel reveled to Daniel that there would be three major signs that would mark the "time of the end" and only those living in t...

March 25, 2024Dangerous Delusions: Palestinian and US Muslim Views On Hamas

Ninety-three percent of Palestinians believe that Hamas did not commit atrocities during its mass invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, a...

Get Breaking News