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Good Atheist: Living A Purpose-Filled Life Without God (2010)

by Dan Barker(Favorite Author)

3.47 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1283007614 (ISBN13: 9781283007610)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Ulysses Press

review 1: This is mostly a series of short biographical sketches illustrating that many of the people who have made some of the most meaningful contributions to civilized arts and sciences have done so without the need of being driven by a god to do so. People do good without the threat of hell, and act ethically without being told to do so by an omnipresent god.Some of the bios are surprising: the composers who have written some of the great Masses and Requiems had rejected at least organized religion, often any religion, and sometimes specifically had rejected God? Brahms left any mention of Jesus out of his Requiem, and there's barely any mention of God; when asked to revise it so that it would more reflect Good Friday, he refused. Mozart got kicked out of one job for neglecting ... morereligion. Elgar rejected his religion toward the end of his life and stated that he regretted having wasted so much of his time writing religious music.Of course among authors and scientists we have lots of examples; it was the plethora of them in the arts that I found more surprising.
review 2: First, I had a slight bias going into this book – I hear Dan Barker weekly on Freethought Radio, enjoyed his book Godless, and got to speak to him when he addressed the Secular Student Alliance at Farleigh Dickinson University. Very nice guy, and his story of becoming an atheist after almost two decades of being an evangelical preacher is a good one. I looked forward to reading his latest work, and he had me at the title, which is a dig at Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life. For the first 30 or so pages, Dan rejects Warren’s view that life without God has no purpose or meaning. I enjoyed what Dan had to say, even though I didn’t need convincing that you could find purpose in life without a belief in god or gods. The thing that surprised me about the book (not negative or positive, just surprised), was that Dan’s words filled just the first 30 pages or so. The remaining 160-170 pages are profiles in freethought – famous atheists, agnostics and freethinkers throughout history in every field from music to philosophy to art to science. Now, having been immersed in the freethought world for a few years, many of them were familiar to me already – only one or two names were a surprise to me, the rest I knew of their philosophy or thoughts on religion. So as a new read for me, I would give it one less star than if I had come into it not knowing many of the people in there. But, as a reference book for my “freethought” shelf – a quick go-to guide for great quotes or ammunition for anyone who doubts non-theists can contribute to the world - I would add that star back on. less

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