John Figdor is a former Humanist Chaplain at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

where he organizes events and programs for both students and community members of the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the first Humanist Chaplain on the West Coast serving a university community. As a

Humanist officiant A humanist celebrant or humanist officiant is a person who performs humanist celebrancy services, such as non-religious weddings, funerals, child namings, coming of age ceremonies and other rituals. Some humanist celebrants are accredited by humani ...

he also oversees non-theistic weddings, funerals, and baby-naming ceremonies.

Early life and education

Figdor received his B.A. with honors in Philosophy from

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

and he holds a master's degree (M.Div.) in Humanism and Interfaith Dialogue from

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...

Career

Humanism at Stanford University

The Humanist Community at Stanford includes humanists, atheists, and agnostics, who believe in values such as reason, science, pluralism, compassion, empathy, and altruism. The organization holds a variety of different events, from dinners, to public lectures, to art gallery tours, to pub nights, to discussions and debates, and game nights. Previous notable speakers have included

Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ath ...

. The Stanford Humanist Community played an essential role in the creation of

Darwin Day Darwin Day is a celebration to commemorate the birthday of Charles Darwin on 12 February 1809. The day is used to highlight Darwin's contributions to science and to promote science in general. Darwin Day is celebrated around the world. Histo ...

. The first celebration of the event took place on April 22, 1995, and included a lecture given by famed anthropologist Dr.

Donald Johanson Donald Carl Johanson (born June 28, 1943) is an American paleoanthropologist. He is known for discovering, with Yves Coppens and Maurice Taieb, the fossil of a female hominin australopithecine known as "Lucy" in the Afar Triangle region of Hada ...

to over 600 attendees.

Humanism at Harvard

Figdor was an Organizing Fellow of the Humanist Chaplaincy at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and former Assistant Humanist Chaplain at Harvard, working with

Greg Epstein Greg M. Epstein (born 1977) is the president of the Harvard Chaplains Organization and Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is an ordained Humanist Rabbi, and has been influential in American ...

. In 2014, Figdor coauthored, together with Lex Bayer, the boo
Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart: Rewriting the Ten Commandments for the Twenty-First Century
(

Rowman & Littlefield Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns the book distributing compa ...

, 2014) and organized the Rethink Prize: a crowdsourcing competition to rethink the Ten Commandments. The contest drew more than 2,800 submissions from 18 countries and 27 U.S. states. Winners were selected by a panel of judges. Figdor is a former Board Member of the

Secular Student Alliance The Secular Student Alliance (SSA) is an American educational nonprofit organization whose purpose is to educate high school and college students about the value of scientific reason and the intellectual basis of secularism in its atheistic and ...

. Figdor and his work have been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Huffington Post, the Washington Post., Salon, CNN, and TIME.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Figdor, John Year of birth missing (living people) Living people University and college chaplains in America Harvard Divinity School alumni American humanists American atheists American skeptics Vassar College alumni Secular humanists