Greg M. Epstein serves as the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University, and is author of the New York Times Bestselling book, Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe. He sits on the executive committee of the 36-member corps Harvard Chaplains. In 2005 Greg received ordination as a Humanist Rabbi from the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, where he studied in Jerusalem and Michigan for five years. He holds a BA (Religion and Chinese) and an MA (Judaic Studies) from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Masters of Theological Studies from the Harvard Divinity School.

Greg began serving as Humanist Chaplain at Harvard in fall 2005, when the Humanist Chaplaincy’s total annual budget was $28,000. In the five and a half years since then, he has raised over $1 million in gifts and pledges to the organization, while organizing and launching a range of new programs and initiatives that have helped turn the concept of Humanist chaplaincy into a topic of national discussion. He now directs our latest initiative, the Humanist Community Project: a laboratory for the development of multicultural, multigenerational Humanist communities locally and nationwide.

While at Harvard, Greg has blogged for CNN, Newsweek and The Washington Post; and his work as a Humanist rabbi and Chaplain has been featured by ABC World News with Diane Sawyer; ABC News Network; Al Jazeera; Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and numerous other programs on National Public Radio; BBC Radio; NYTimes.com; USA Today; Newsweek; US News and World Report; The Boston Globe; The Jewish Daily Forward, The Christian Century; The Guardian, and many more. He is an adviser to two student groups at Harvard College, the Secular Society and the Interfaith Council, and to the Harvard Humanist Graduate Community. From 2007-2010 he chaired the Advisory Board of the national umbrella organization the Secular Student Alliance, joining such renowned nonbelievers as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.

Greg grew up in Flushing, Queens, New York as an assimilated and disinterested Reform Jew. He studied Buddhism and Taoism while at Stuyvesant High School in New York City and in college went to Taiwan for a semester aiming to study Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism in its original language and context. Finding that Eastern religions do not necessarily have greater access to truth than Western ones, he returned to the US and shifted his focus to rock music, recording and singing professionally for a year after college. Soon thereafter, he learned of the movement of Humanism and the possibility of a career as a Humanist rabbi and chaplain.

Subscribe to Greg’s updates on Facebook at facebook.com/gepstein and on twitter at twitter.com/goodwithoutgod.

Here’s Greg talking to ABC News’ Dan Harris. This interview was featured on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer and Good Morning America.

There are several opportunities for students to meet with Greg Epstein.

Students and Harvard affiliates, please contact schandonnet@harvardhumanist.org to schedule a meeting.

The Chaplaincy will try to accommodate the request of others for a meeting. Please send an email, briefly stating the reason for the meeting, to schandonnet@harvardhumanist.org.