Harvard University has raised eyebrows around the world by announcing their new chief chaplain, who is an atheist.
Greg Epstein, 44, a humanist, was elected by the 30-plus members of the university's organization of chaplains, who predominantly represent theistic faiths and denominations, Independent reports.
He has worked at Harvard since 2005 as a humanist chaplain, and in that time, he has helped humanism become a well-funded and visible element among the many religions practiced at the university.
A profile in the New York Times was published when his presidency was announced, and it revealed that he has worked as a chaplain at Harvard and MIT, with a particular fondness for "religious refugees", who are "people raised in observant households who arrive at college seeking spiritual meaning in a less rigid form."
Pictured below is the Memorial Church at Harvard.
Epstein took to Twitter to thank his colleagues at Harvard for electing him as the new chaplain.
"Thank you especially to my amazing @HarvardChaplain colleagues," he wrote alongside his New York Times profile. "This story is really about them and about the importance of our common work, which is more important than ever in these times…"
"Thank you to humanist institutions who inspired me down this now 20+ year path. I wouldn't be here but for you; you mean so much to so many of us."
However, not everyone reacted well to the news of Epstein's election on Twitter.
One wrote: "Same kind of thinking as those in the ancient middle east, just another ivory tower trying to reach for the sky. No wonder that school has to give scholarships away [sic]."
A second added: "The blind leading the blind..."
Meanwhile, a third questioned how Epstein could have the role without being a clergyman.
They wrote: "So how are you a chaplain again if you dont follow a religion and your not a clergyman which is the definition of chaplain [sic]."
But the majority of people reacting to Epstein's tweet offered their congratulations.
One wrote: "Congrats! It's great to have a leader who has no ties to organized religion. It really takes that so things are equal."
A second added: "Congratulations, Greg! This is richly deserved, and I'm excited to see what you do with it."
Epstein is the author of Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe - a book that's been described as a humanist response to "new atheists" including Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.
"Tolerant, fair-minded people of all religions or none do not dwell on the question of whether we can be good without God," he wrote in the introduction to his book, per Humanist.com.
"However, the question [of] why we can be good without God is much more relevant and interesting. And the question of how we can be good without God is absolutely crucial."
