Embracing Spirituality as an Atheist

Join us to hear from Daniel Lev Shkolnik about embracing the intersection of spirituality and naturalistic atheism! 

Atheism and rationalism aspire to a life-affirming way of life that rejects supernatural claims. But in rejecting religious and spiritual systems, atheists often discard millennia of psychological insights and tools developed to promote that same flourishing they seek. Rather than reinventing the wheel, we can look to religious and spiritual traditions to find what Michel Foucault called "technologies of the self"—techniques like meditation, contemplation, introspection, prayer, and ceremony. Removed from their metaphysical assumptions, these techniques become powerful psychological tools that can enrich and deepen the inner life of anyone who chooses to use them, including atheists.

Daniel Lev Shkolnik is a humanist speaker and community organizer. He graduated from Yale University with a degree in sociology and promotes Humanistic and naturalistic interpretations of spirituality. He's worked under Greg Epstein, the Humanist chaplain at Harvard, and managed a column in the nonreligious section of Patheos.com. He’s given talks at the MIT Secular Society, the Harvard Humanist Hub, Seacoast Sunday Assembly, Nashville Nones Convention, New Orleans Secular Humanist Association, and elsewhere on topics such as the interplay of science and morality, the celebration of life, demystifying the mystical, and more.

Closed captioning for this virtual event is available through Otter.ai. Otter should become visible on your Zoom screen at the start of the event, and the host will also link to the transcription feed in the chat box.