Sherwin T. Wine
From Philosopedia
Wine, Sherwin T. [Rabbi] (25 January 1928– 21 July 2007 )
Rabbi Wine, an atheist, founded the Society for Humanistic Judaism. He celebrated traditional Jewish holidays, founded temples, and conducted “religious” services although they were non-theistic and naturalistic. He was generally regarded as a religious rather than a secular humanist, but he signed Humanist Manifesto II and, in 1980, the Secular Humanist Declaration.
Wine wrote Judaism Beyond God (1985) and Staying Sane in a Crazy World, the latter a reference to Alcoholics Anonymous: “One of the signs of personal strength is that we take blame for what we do wrong. The other sign is that we take credit for what we do right. We do not alienate our power by assigning it to someone else. . . . Strong people are comfortable in recognizing their own power . . . nor do they call their power ‘a higher power.’ ”
Rabbi Wine wrote articles in numerous magazines, inclding Free Inquiry, and was one of the principal founders of Americans for Religious Liberty. He also was the Founding Chairman of The Humanist Institute. Since 1977 until his death, he edited the quarterly Humanistic Judaism.
Wine’s take on God was one that he described as ignosticism, by which he meant that he regarded the question of God’s existence to be meaningless - it has no verifiable consequences. From this, he concluded that people can and should live without reference to such a supernatural being.
While on vacation in Morocco in northern Africa, Wine died in a car crash that killed the driver and injured Richard McMains, his longtime partner. At the time of his death, he was writing a book about living a meaningful and moral life without depending on faith for guidance.
(See comments by Greg M. Epstein, Harvard's Humanist Chaplain, about Rabbi Wine's death.)
