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| The Book of Atheist Spirituality | 
 enlarge | Author: Andre Comte-sponville
Publisher: Bantam Press
Category: Book
List Price: £12.99
Buy Used: £5.13
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Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 8808
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 059306139X
EAN: 9780593061398
ASIN: 059306139X
Publication Date: September 11, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Intelligible and intelligent November 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It is a great shame that the one and only review of this book is so negative. I found it intelligible, intelligent and illuminating so wanted to balance things up a little. I am sure that it would be enjoyed even by those who haven't studied philosophy because the concepts the author discusses are well explained and elucidated. He has a far gentler approach than your Hitchens or Dawkins, whilst still managing to get his point across. And whilst there can be no doubt in the author's own committed atheism, he can nevertheless appreciate that there are positives in believing religion and even goes as far as to say that he might wish he believed in a God. If you want to read longer, more erudite and even more positive reviews look the book up on Amazon.com.
 A Humanist's view October 31, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Andre Comte-Sponville describes his book as `brief and accessible'. Brief, yes. Accessible? Well, it depends whether you are comfortable with sub-headings like this: `Nihilism and Sophistry: The Two Temptations of Postmodernity' and new words like `immanensity'. Nevertheless, allowing for the fact that Comte-Sponville is a French philosopher, his claim of accessibility is mostly justified.
The book contains three chapters: 1. Can We Do Without Religion? 2. Does God Exist? and 3. Can there be an Atheist Spirituality? The gist of Chapter 1 is that we can do without religion as long as we hold fast to the `Greco-Judeo-Christian values of the Western world'. The author calls himself a `Christian atheist'. On the whole I would prefer to delete the Judeo-Christian values and hold fast to the Greco ones, but the advantage of Humanism is that we can pick and choose from any tradition.
Chapter 2 is an elegant argument for atheism. I particularly liked his rebuttal of Christians who argue that `atheists can't prove the non-existence of God'. Comte-Sponville's answer is that it would be very hard prove the non-existence of Santa Claus, vampires, fairies and werewolves, but this is no reason to believe in them.
Chapter 3 is more problematic. Comte-Sponville has had a number of `spiritual' or `mystical' experiences involving a sense of `infinite happiness', an `eternal sense of peace', and the `dazzling presence of the All'. These experiences apparently lasted for only a few seconds but they were the `most beautiful moments of his life'. I would imagine that all human beings experience moments of ecstasy and euphoria, but it seems fanciful to describe such experiences as `spiritual' or `mystical.' Comte-Sponville seems to be on firmer ground when he writes about being so absorbed in an activity that we lose all sense of self or ego, and that this is a kind of ecstasy. I agree. The Christian gospel is to `die to self'. But this gets it the wrong way round. `Dying to self' makes Christians morbid and bitter. The Humanist way is to live life to the full and to be so absorbed in life that our egos melt away.
In conclusion, The Book of Atheist Spirituality will not become a Humanist classic, but it is a stimulating read.
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