Who is the Secular Humanist Society of New York?
About SHSNY
The Secular Humanist Society of New York(SHSNY) is the leading freethought organization in the New York City area, promoting the principles of reason and science, and an ethical life stance centered upon the supreme value of the individual human.
SHSNY was founded on February 10, 1988, when fourteen persons, solicited from the Free Inquiry magazine mailing list, met at Variety Recording Studios on 42nd Street in Manhattan. While SHSNY's steadily growing membership is concentrated in the greater New York metropolitan area, we are pleased to have members (and subscribers to our newsletter, PIQUE) from as far away as Florida, California, Liechtenstein, and Australia.
What SHSNY offers:
SHSNY holds social and educational meetings – to which all are invited – every week of the month. They are the perfect way to get to know more about our people and our ideas.
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Our Humanist Book Club meets the first Thursday of the month (in person if possible, online if not). Our Fiction Book Club gathers (or Zooms) every second Tuesday.
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Every other Monday we Zoom to discuss movies we’ve recently screened.
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Social distancing permitting, we gather in person for a casual Brunch & Conversation every third Sunday. We gather online for 5 o’clock Humanist Happy Hour every Sunday.
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Each year we celebrate Darwin Day – and our own SHSNY anniversary – with a gala dinner in February as well as the National Day of Reason in May and Freethought Day in October, both at historic Pete’s Tavern, with such distinguished speakers as poet/historian Jennifer Michael Hecht, and Columbia University’s John Dewey Professor of Philosophy Philip Kitcher.
Meet the Board
John Wagner
Jonathan Engel
Brian Lemaire
Dorothy Kahn
Carl Marxer
Claire Miller
Laurence Mailaender
Kevon Cameron
Spiro Condos
Nancy Adelman
Honorary Members
Matthew Chapman, Michael De Dora, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Susan Jacoby, Philip Kitcher, Richard Milner, Massimo Pigliucci, Isaac Asimov, Paul Kurtz, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Arthur C. Clarke, Leon Jaroff
One of the proofs of the immortality of the soul is that a myriad have believed in it. They have also believed the world was flat.
The gods offer no rewards for intellect. There was never one yet that showed any interest in it.