The Kochhar Humanist Education Center will distribute pre-designed course materials, electronic books and other resources about humanism to its 119 chapters across the United States. The classes are broken into four age groups: preschoolers, teens, college students and adults.

The courses focus on social justice, "God-free ethics," church-state separation and humanity's relationship to nature.

"Religious organizations have long had educational programs and institutions for passing their values to each new generation," said Bob Bhaerman, education coordinator of the center. Now is the time, he said, for a broad group - humanists, atheists, agnostics or even religion groups like Buddhists or pagans - to join and create their own viable institution.

Humanism is an ethical movement that believes that people can connect to one another through their common humanity and universal, nontheistic moral values.

The center is named after Pritpal Singh Kochhar, the owner of a New York real-estate agency. Kochhar said he had experienced religious discrimination as a Sikh after the 9/11 attacks and "saw a need to defend minority faiths."