Many people think that a religion is a deity-centered belief system. We don't promote or require dogma or doctrine, and we don't require agreement about theism.

Most members hold Ethical Culture to be their religion in another sense, one more commonly accepted today than in years past in legal, philsophical, and academic circles. Paul Tillich called religion "ultimate concern." In the Ethical Society we are ultimately concerned about ethical development, ethical behavior and the ethical fate of humankind. In the United States,

Ethical Culture has been legally recognized as religious in the United States.