Paul Fidalgo is communications manager at the Secular Coalition for America, a policy advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. He has a master’s degree in political management from George Washington University and wrote his thesis on atheists’ precarious place in U.S. politics.

Margaret Downey is founder and president of The Freethought Society, based in Pocopson, Pa. She is also a secular celebrant, performing life-cycle ceremonies for nonbelievers.

Robert Boston is senior policy analyst for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and assistant editor of its monthly magazine, Church & State.

Derek E. Broomes is president and chief executive officer of Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement, which has developed more than 2,000 units of affordable housing. It is a diverse, interfaith coalition of more than 90 congregations.

Joseph Levine is a philosophy professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His essay “From Yeshiva Bochur to Secular Humanist” is included in Philosophers Without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life (2007).

Greg Epstein serves as the humanist chaplain at Harvard University and is the author of Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe (2009). He holds master’s degrees in Judaic studies and theological studies and has been ordained as a humanist rabbi. The Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard is “dedicated to building, educating, and nurturing a diverse community of […]

The Rev. Floyd Flake is a former Democratic congressman from New York and pastor of the 15,000-member Greater Allen AME Cathedral of New York in Jamaica, Queens. In the summer of 2007 the church completed the Greater Allen Cathedral Affordable Housing Residence, which has 54 apartments for low-income tenants.

Catherine Caldwell-Harris is an associate professor of psychology at Boston University. She conducted a small study in 2008 comparing the spiritual beliefs of atheists, Christians and Buddhists; it included questions about meaning and purpose in life, as well. She also presented a paper, titled “The puzzle of nonbelief,” at the 2009 annual meeting of the Society for the […]

Louise M. Antony is a philosophy professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has written various essays about atheism and is editor of the book Philosophers Without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life (2007), to which she also contributed one of the chapters, titled “For the Love of Reason.” She once debated Christian apologist/philosopher William […]