Greg Epstein, the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University, offers a look into the nonreligious community with his new release Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe. The book is the latest in a long line of secular pieces that have fueled the atheist youth movement.

As chair of the Advisory Board of the Secular Student Alliance, the largest campus atheist organization in the United States, Epstein provides guidance to a growing movement of young Americans who live fun-filled and charitable lives without a belief in God or the supernatural. His book hits the shelves at a time when SSA’s operations are expanding, with affiliate groups increasing by 250% in three years. Over 170 student groups in ten countries, with the assistance of SSA, are engaging in open dialogue about the promotion of scientific rationality, secularism, democracy, and human-based ethics.

Epstein’s humanist message reveals a greater sense of community among atheists, as they come together to address the challenges of our society. In recent years, the nonreligious have proven themselves to be as dedicated to community service as their religious counterparts.

The Foundation Beyond Belief was launched this year with a mission to “demonstrate humanism at its best by supporting efforts to improve this world and this life.” On Kiva.org, a grassroots micro-lending site to empower individuals to alleviate poverty, the non-religious group is the largest in both membership and loan amounts.

The first ever National Secular Service Day was held on Oct. 18, with atheists all across the country performing community service for the sake of humanity, and not for God. Many affiliates of the Secular Student Alliance, including student groups at Indiana University, Purdue, Ohio State, and many others, went out into their communities to pick up trash, participate at food drives, donate blood, send literature to prisoners, and deliver care packages to the troops.

The increase in atheist community service is the marriage of two modern trends: an increase in volunteerism among all Americans, and an increase in the number of nonreligious citizens. According to the Corporation for National & Community Service, the number of young adults that volunteered in 2008 increased by 441,000 from 2007. According to the American Religious Identification Survey, the percentage of Americans that identified themselves as nonreligious was 15%, compared to 14.1 in 2001, and 8.2 in 1990.  

Secular Student Alliance has played a significant role in organizing this latest wave of young atheists, and Greg Epstein, and other humanists, is doing his part to apply secular values to community problem solving. Groups that are interested in performing community projects can find information at www.secularstudents.org/node/2704.