A Chaplain for Atheists

Stanford gets a chaplain for atheists. Jonathan Figdor, holder of a Harvard Divinity degree, "is one of a growing number of faith-free chaplains at universities, in the military and in the community who believe that nonbelievers can benefit from just about everything religion offers except God."

Interestingly, it was Stanford's religious community that insisted that atheists have their own ministry. Mainstream American Protestantism and Catholicism have come a long way from the holier-than-thou preachiness and the relentless proselytization that are grist for the media and entertainment mills. (When looking for a story the latter invariably find individual religious examples of intolerance and unconventional viewpoints to publicize, then ridicule.)

Jonathan Figdor: "But atheist, agnostic and humanist students suffer the same problems as religious students - deaths or illnesses in the family, questions about the meaning of life, etc. - and would like a sympathetic nontheist to talk to."

I'm old enough to remember when atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair was the "most hated woman in America." Times have changed. © 2012 Stephen Yuen