The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality
ISBN13: 9780143114437Condition: NEWNotes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. Product DescriptionThe perfect antidote to the fiery rhetori...
ISBN13: 9780143114437Condition: NEWNotes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. Product DescriptionThe perfect antidote to the fiery rhetori...
This book did not deliver anything new to me. I kept hoping it would get better, but it didn’t. It was so dull I fell asleep a couple times. The author drones on and on and doesn’t say anything new and what he does say is usually a quote by someone else. He didn’t seem to have many original thoughts about anything. Name dropping gets dull after a while. I reckon he’s still trying to figure out if he’s an atheist or not. I can’t recommend this book when there are so many better ones out there.
Rating: 1 / 5
This book was really disappointing. The *thesis* that atheists can have a spiritual life is not one I was ever inclined to doubt. Nor did I need to be argued out of a belief that without God values are dead. I was hoping for a convincing, clear-headed evocation of the richly spiritual possibilities of an atheist’s life.
Of course, this is primarily a work of philosophy, not autobiography, but even as philosophy it is sadly lacking. The early ponderous elucidations of “religion” based around alternative etymologies really did nothing to illuminate actual “flesh and blood” religion we are confronted with. His frequent recitation of the expression “nobody knows” is irksome. He describes a friend who is “certain there is no God” and finds this conviction completely consistent with acknowledging that “nobody knows”. (This is a self defeating utterance, like saying “it is raining outside, but I don’t know whether it is raining outside.”)
The “humorous” and more serious anecdotes were awkwardly told. Are we really supposed to be shocked and went by the fact that an ordained priest agreed with the Atheist on vital matters?
As I forced myself onwards through dull page after page I realized that the book is not about atheism and religion per se, but a lengthy self-justification under the guise of Philosophy. The author bends over backwards to characterize himself as “nearly Christian”. It is as if he were an adolescent explaining to his religious parents why they should not be affronted by what is after all a “mere” difference of belief, without practical consequences.
IMHO, a far better way to learn about atheist spirituality would be to read the works written by the acknowledged teachers of established atheistic religions. If you want an analytical critique of the pretenses of God centered religious doctrine and practice then you should read Dawkins instead.
I cannot recommend this wooly, navel-staring drivel too small.
Rating: 1 / 5
I bought this work as a challenge to my own faith. I have never believed that faith stands as the opposite of intellect, and therefore believe that genuine faith must stand up to, be enhanced by, and challenged by inquiry. Holding a Ph.D. in biblical studies, I was looking for any significant challenge to my personal understanding of faith whether scientific, philosophical, or theological. This work, instead, was a strong recommendation to faith. Indeed the first chapters detail the philosophical and practical tragedy of a ‘faithless’ life. The arguments for an atheistic morality were void and unconvincing. One may find it hard to believe in God, or specifically in Christianity, but this book illuminates for me the unsurpassed difficulty of not believing.
Rating: 4 / 5
I wanted to like this book as much as Comte-Sponville wants God to exist but, as with him, there just wasn’t enough of an argument to convince me. Perhaps that’s why this whole books sounds like the author trying to place together an atheist “religion” using off-the-shelf components, especially the last third of the book which is as convoluted an argument for atheist spirituality as any ancient-time religious philosopher wrestling with complex theological (and thus really imaginary) problem. This last section reminds me of the last section of Sam Harris’s The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason in that’s its basically Eastern religion in disguise (and not a very excellent one). Comte-Sponville and Harris are worshippers in search of a religion and reckon they have found one in the mysterious East. Unfortunately this not only negates their atheism, it smacks of Orientalism in the way Edward Said used the word in his book of the same name. Too terrible; we atheists could have really used something the title of this book promises.
Rating: 2 / 5
Concerning God, Atheism, etc. — this is my favorite book that I have ever read. I honestly reckon it is quite possibly the “last word” on these issues. This book is so gorgeous, so wonderful — I feel like it is a dear friend. I haven’t had the urge to hug a book in a long time. I’m hugging now.
Thank you Professor C.S., for articulating what I have often thought and believed but didn’t have the words to express. And thank you for articulating things I hadn’t even considered, but now smile as I do.
For anyone interested in the “huge questions” about religion and atheism, this is a pure emerald.
Rating: 5 / 5