McGowan & Pinn/Everyday Humanism, 4. Forming Godless Community

One of the great successes of religion has been its ability to form and sustain effective human communities. At their best, these communities provide identity, connection, and compassionate support. Humanism asserts that such community can be built on shared humanity rather than the collective worship of a deity, yet most attempts at creating explicitly humanist community have failed to achieve stability, much less sustained growth. This chapter examines the challenges of creating non-theistic communities that serve the real human needs of individuals.