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A review by emiged
Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious by Chris Stedman
4.0
In all my recent interfaith activities and efforts and self-education, I'm embarrassed to admit that I overlooked one important group: atheists.
Now, it may seem somewhat contradictory to include those who have no religious faith when contemplating an interfaith group, but in Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious, Mr. Stedman defends his perspective, and his interfaith activism, well. As an atheist himself, he says, "we want to be taken seriously, to be seen as equally ethical individuals" in the midst of a "nation full of believers of all stripes." Mr. Stedman identifies as a humanist who believes in "a progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity."
My first exposure to an atheistic existentialist perspective came during my theatre class in high school when we read Jean-Paul Sartre's play No Exit. The basic outline, for those of you who missed it in your high school or college literature classes, is fairly simple. Three people, Garcin, Ines, and Estelle, have been assigned to share a room for all eternity as punishment for their deeds during life. As is fitting for a hotel room in hell, they make each other miserable. And they made me miserable, too.
Read the rest of this review on my blog at Build Enough Bookshelves.
Now, it may seem somewhat contradictory to include those who have no religious faith when contemplating an interfaith group, but in Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious, Mr. Stedman defends his perspective, and his interfaith activism, well. As an atheist himself, he says, "we want to be taken seriously, to be seen as equally ethical individuals" in the midst of a "nation full of believers of all stripes." Mr. Stedman identifies as a humanist who believes in "a progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity."
My first exposure to an atheistic existentialist perspective came during my theatre class in high school when we read Jean-Paul Sartre's play No Exit. The basic outline, for those of you who missed it in your high school or college literature classes, is fairly simple. Three people, Garcin, Ines, and Estelle, have been assigned to share a room for all eternity as punishment for their deeds during life. As is fitting for a hotel room in hell, they make each other miserable. And they made me miserable, too.
Read the rest of this review on my blog at Build Enough Bookshelves.