11.05.09
Booknotes: Epstein’s Good Without God
November 5, 2009
When good people do not believe in God
By Jonathan Kirsch
Among the more surprising things that I discovered in “Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe” by Greg M. Epstein (William Morrow: $25.99, 250 pps.) is the fact that Harvard University offers its students the services of a humanist chaplain, a job held by the author himself. “Humanism,” which the author spells with a capital “h,” has been elevated into the equivalent of a religious affiliation at one of the world’s greatest universities.
On reflection, however, perhaps I should not have been so surprised. After all, the recent best-sellers by self-proclaimed atheists like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris make it clear that there is a constituency for a moral credo that owes nothing to a divine creator. Indeed, the subtitle of Epstein’s book puts the total number of non-believers of various kinds at one billion.
Although he frequently refers to “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins, Epstein does not really bother much with the question of whether or not God exists, a subject that has been recently taken up in such compelling books as Karen Armstrong’s “The Case for God” or Rabbi David Wolpe’s “Why Faith Matters.” Rather, he offers a critique of the classic rationale for organized religion among believers of all kinds — the notion that a moral code imposed on us by a higher power is essential to good conduct. And he declares the rationale to be wholly wrong.
“It is not easy to live a good life or be a good person – with or without a god,” writes Epstein. “Tolerant, fair-minded people of all religions or none do not dwell on the question of whether we can be good without God. The answer is yes.”