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Irreligion may be defined as the absence of religion, an indifference towards religion, a rejection of religion, or hostility towards religion.^[1] When characterized as the rejection of religious belief, it includes atheism and secular humanism. When characterized as hostility towards religion, it includes antitheism, anticlericalism and antireligion. When characterized as indifference to religion, it includes apatheism. When characterized as the absence of religious belief, it may also include agnosticism, ignosticism, nontheism, religious skepticism, and freethought. Irreligion may even include forms of theism depending on the religious context it is defined against, as in 18th century Europe where the epitome of irreligion was deism.^[2]

Sixteen percent of the world population (1.1 billion people) are considered non-religious.^[3] Some evidence suggests that the fastest growing religious status in the United States is "no religion".^[4]

Demographics[link]

Gallup Religiosity Index 2009 (light colour indicates religious, dark non-religious^[5]

Irreligion in the world[link]

Country Percentage of population that is non-religious Source  Estonia 75.7 [6]  Azerbaijan 74 [7]  Sweden 46-85 (average of 65.5) [8]  Czech Republic 64.3 [6]  Vietnam 46.1-81 (average of 63.55) [6][8]  Denmark 43-80 (average of 61.5) [8]  Albania 60 [9][10][11]  United Kingdom 39-65 (average of 52) [12]  Japan 51.8 [6]  China 8-93 (average of 50.5) [6][8][13]  France 43-54 (average of 48.5) [8]  Russia 48.1 [6]  Belarus 47.8 [6]  Hungary 42.6 [6]  Ukraine 42.4 [6]  Netherlands 39-44 (average of 41.5) [8]  Latvia 40.6 [6]  South Korea 36.4 [6]  Belgium 35.4 [6]  New Zealand 34.7 (from 87.3% who answered the optional question) [14]  Germany 34.6 [15]  Chile 33.8 [6]  Luxembourg 29.9 [6]  Slovenia 29.9 [6]  Venezuela 27.0 [6]  Spain 23.3 [16]  Slovakia 23.1 [6]  Mexico 20.5 [6]  Lithuania 19.4 [6]

Country Percentage of population that is non-religious Source  Australia 18.7 (from 88.8% who answered the optional question) [17]  Italy 17.8 [6]  Canada 16.2 [18]  United States 16.1 [19]  Argentina 16.0 [20]  South Africa 15.1 [21]  Croatia 13.2 [6]  Austria 12.2 [6]  Finland 11.7 [6]  Portugal 11.4 [6]  Puerto Rico 11.1 [6]  Bulgaria 11.1 [6]  Philippines 10.9 [6]  India 6.6 [6]  Serbia 5.8 [6]  Peru 4.7 [6]  Poland 4.6 [6]  Ireland 6.0 [22]  Iceland 4.3 [6]  Greece 4.0 [6]  Turkey 2.5 [6]  Romania 2.4 [6]  Tanzania 1.7 [6]  Malta 1.3 [6]  Iran 1.1 [6]  Uganda 1.1 [6]  Nigeria 0.7 [6]  Bangladesh 0.1 [6]

See also[link]

	Atheism portal
	Religion portal

• Humanism
• Importance of religion by country
• Irreligion by country
• Nontheistic religions
• Pantheism
• Post-theism
• Skepticism
• Spiritual But Not Religious
• Transtheistic

References[link]

Further reading[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Irreligion

• John Allen Paulos (9 June 2009). Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-8090-5918-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=1piKjiQR9ZAC&pg=PP1. 
• Richard Henry Popkin; Arie Johan Vanderjagt (1993). Scepticism and irreligion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-09596-0. http://books.google.com/books?id=D0XL3vwPX0kC&pg=PP1. 
• Eric Wright (November 2010). Irreligion: Thought, Rationale, History. BiblioBazaar. ISBN 978-1-171-06863-1. 

Greg Epstein

Greg M. Epstein is the current secular humanist chaplain at Harvard University, and is a published author on the subject of secular humanism.

Early life and education[link]

Epstein was born February 4, 1977 and grew up in the ethnically-diverse neighborhood of Flushing, Queens, New York.^[1] His parents, though Jewish, were not very religious, and he attended services with them only occasionally, usually during Jewish holidays or festivals. He describes this experience as one of the foundations for his later interest in Humanistic Judaism.^[2]

While attending the Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, Epstein studied Buddhism and Taoism. After graduating from high school, he enrolled in the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. As part of his undergraduate studies in the University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, he spent a year in Taiwan in an effort to further his knowledge of Zen Buddhism through readings in Chinese and direct contact with Zen practitioners. Becoming disenchanted with Eastern religions during this experience, Epstein returned to the U.S. and completed his Bachelor of Arts in Religion and Chinese from the University of Michigan. He then went on to complete a Master of Arts in Judaic Studies, also from the University of Michigan.^[1]

New Humanism[link]

Upon matriculation, Epstein spent about a year singing and recording as a professional Rock musician. It was during this time that he became interested in the philosophy of Humanism. Deciding to return to school, he entered the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, studying at the Institute's Jerusalem and Farmington Hills, Michigan campuses. In 2005 he was ordained through this organization as a Humanist Rabbi, whereupon he entered the Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[1] In 2007, Greg Epstein received his Master of Theological Studies from the Harvard Divinity School, and accepted the position as the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University.^[3]

Epstein became one of the major supporters for the movement that is known as New Humanism. Although this label had been around since 1900, it had gone into disuse until Epstein and others repopularized it.^{[citation needed]} In April 2007, Epstein organized an international conference entitled "The New Humanism", which commemorated the 30th anniversary of the creation of the Humanist Chaplaincy of Harvard.^[3][4]

Epstein expressed concern on overemphasis of inflammatory anti-clericism by some prominent proponents of New Atheism, which he says is what drove him to revitalize the "New Humanism" label in response.

The New Humanism is produced by the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University and is named after the 30th anniversary conference our organization held in April 2007. At that event, the title was chosen to contrast with "The New Atheism," as the media have dubbed the work of writers such as Oxford scientist Richard Dawkins, Stanford doctoral student Sam Harris, and journalist Christopher Hitchens, each of whom had recently published a bestselling book promoting atheism. The intention was to use our conference to draw attention to the idea that Humanism, like atheism, is nontheistic and not traditionally religious, but unlike some popular atheism, Humanism is not necessarily an antireligious ideology. We also hoped our conference could serve as an exploration of the best ways in which Humanism can be more positive and constructive than what the general public had been seeing in the New Atheism. Our speakers, topics, and other conference events were chosen in order to highlight these distinctions.^[5]

Recently, Epstein has been featured as a guest on radio and television interviews and lectures, and maintains an online journal titled "The New Humanism"^[6]

Authored works and appearances[link]

• Epstein is a contributing panelist for The Washington Post's online blog entitled On Faith.^[3]

• He is the author of the popular book Good Without God: what a billion nonreligious people do believe.

• Epstein was the featured guest on the 27 January 2009 broadcast of the National Public Radio broadcast of Speaking of Faith, hosted by Krista Tippett.

• On 23 December 2009, Epstein was a featured guest on the National Public Radio broadcast of Fresh Air, hosted by Terry Gross.

• On 24 January 2010, ABC World News ran a profile on Greg Epstein.

• On 18 February 2010, the award-winning Minnesota Public Radio Midmorning with Kerri Miller show featured host Kerri Miller's interview with Greg Epstein, entitled Ethics and morality, without religion.

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Mr. Greg Epstein, Humanist Chaplaincy". Harvard Chaplains. The President and Fellows of Harvard College. 2009. http://chaplains.harvard.edu/chaplains/profile.php?id=45. Retrieved 23 December 2009. 
2. ^ Krista Tippett (January 27, 2009). "Repossessing virtue: Greg Epstein on human solutions and not divine ones". [of Faith]. St. Paul, Minnesota: American Public Media. 11:47 minutes in. National Public Radio. http://blog.speakingoffaith.org/post/73565275/repossessing-virtue-greg-epstein-on-human. Retrieved 23 December 2009. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Class Notes". Harvard Divinity Today (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Divinity School) 3 (3): 14. Fall 2007. OCLC 154952368. http://www.hds.harvard.edu/news/HDT/2007v3n3.pdf. Retrieved 24 December 2009. 
4. ^ [|Brunsman IV, August E.] (28 June 2007). "The New Humanism: Humanist Leadership Education". Secular Student eMpirical (Columbus, Ohio: Secular Student Alliance) 20. http://www.secularstudents.org/node/1437. Retrieved 24 December 2009. 
5. ^ [|Epstein, Greg]. "Why The New Humanism". The New Humanism (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard). http://www.thenewhumanism.org/authors/greg-epstein/articles/why-the-new-humanism. Retrieved 24 December 2009. 
6. ^ "The New Humanism: About". http://www.thenewhumanism.org/about. Retrieved December 19, 2010. 

External links[link]

• Mr. Greg Epstein, Humanist Chaplaincy Harvard University's Chaplains at Harvard profile page for Greg Epstein.
• Good without God: ABC World News profile on Greg Epstein, broadcast on 24 January 2010.