Godless at Princeton

Joy Li ’11 was one of several student readers at Opening Exercises in 2008.

But while most of the participants read religious excerpts — including Psalm 104, a passage from the Vedic texts and writings from other faiths — Li read from “The Catcher in the Rye.” Li, who is not religious but serves as a fellow on the Religious Life Council (RLC), described her reading as being “from the secular humanist tradition” and explained that her intention was to incorporate non-believers into the long-standing tradition of Opening Exercises.

Atheists on campus have no formal support network comparable to those provided by many religious groups, several students noted in interviews with The Daily Princetonian, but Dean of Religious Life Alison Boden said that to her knowledge there has been no interest expressed in forming such a group or instituting a position similar to Harvard’s humanist chaplain to specifically address the needs of atheist students.

RLC fellow and atheist Benjamin Farkas ’10 said he was surprised as a freshman to see religious readings incorporated in Opening Exercises, but he added that he does think there is a place for these texts in University-sponsored events.

“All religious traditions have wisdom to offer, so including some of them in Opening Exercises is fine,” he said. “The point is not to hear something you already know, but to hear something that might make you think about something in a new way.”

Echoing his sentiments, Li said in an e-mail that she did not perceive Princeton to be an overwhelmingly religious campus, adding that she thought the University accommodates many different religious groups to promote intellectually open discourse.

“Of course, this also means that atheism should be included in this discourse,” she added.

Boden wrote in an e-mail that though she has heard no student interest in creating a society for non-believers, religious preferences are collected from freshmen so that students can be directed to others with similar beliefs if such an interest were to arise.

“My colleagues and I at the Office of Religious Life do counseling continually with students ... who are questioning their beliefs or who are decidedly without religious belief,” she explained.

The University currently has 15 chaplains, affiliated with religions ranging from Roman Catholicism to Hinduism to Islam.

Some students said they did not think there was any need for an atheist group on campus.

“People who are atheists are by their nature not connected to religion, so there is less of a need,” atheist student Arun Nanduri ’13 explained.

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Li, who is currently studying abroad at Oxford, said there are two student groups devoted to the advocacy and exploration of atheism on that campus, but she added that she didn’t believe it was the University’s job to actively support atheism.

“There [is] ... no formal forum for atheists on campus to engage in conversation or give and receive support,” she said. “I think if atheist students really want a voice on campus, they will have to construct one for themselves.”

Some peer institutions, including Harvard, Columbia and Rutgers, have a humanist chaplain devoted to addressing the needs of students who do not believe in a god. Harvard’s humanist chaplain, Greg Epstein, whose position has existed at that university since the 1970s, said he has an office in Harvard’s Memorial Chapel and an independently funded position, just like Harvard’s other chaplains.

“The humanist chaplaincy supports humanist and secular student groups at Harvard,” he explained. “I meet with the students. I advise them in putting together activities ... My emphasis is on empowering them, not preaching to them.”

Epstein said that instituting humanist chaplaincies is a growing trend at universities nationwide, and a 2007 Pew Research Center survey found that 20 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds in the United States identify as atheist, agnostic or non-religious.

Non-religious students at Harvard value having the support of like-minded people, Epstein added.

“Humanism is a positive life stance and a positive way of life for a non-religious person,” he continued. “We are free, but we have a responsibility to other people. I would love to help further the conversation at Princeton about the non-religious role of humanists and atheists.”

Though he does not personally believe in God, Farkas said he was strongly in favor of the University’s extensive support network for religious students.

“I think that having students with a wide range of beliefs on campus is valuable, and every accommodation should be made to keep students from having to sacrifice what they believe in order to come to Princeton,” he said.

Reasons not to believe

Creative writing professor Edmund White, who described himself as an “aggressive atheist,” explained that he became an atheist “partly out of common sense” and partly because the three main monotheistic religions are so hostile to homosexuality.

“I think members of the LGBT community are wildly misguided if they try to reconcile themselves to these three hopeless religions and their narrow-mindedness,” he said in an e-mail.

Students gave several different reasons for not believing in God. Farkas explained that his family influenced his beliefs, adding that though he was interested in religions, he has never really felt any religious feelings.

For Nanduri, scientific thinking was influential in his decision to move away from the beliefs of his family.

“I’m just a logical and scientific person,” he said. “It has less to do with what science says and more to do with how science makes thinks you think. Its not an emotional thing, it’s a logical thing.”

Epstein’s personal beliefs have also changed over time. He grew up in a religiously diverse community in New York and studied religion at the University of Michigan and in China. Though he came from a family of secular Jews and said he respected Judaism as his culture, he eventually sought to celebrate his heritage in a way that allowed him to be honest about his beliefs.

“I realized that people are people, and if I was going to be a part of any religious movement, I wanted to be honest about it,” he said. “People created religion, not the other way around.”