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A review by andipants
Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious by Chris Stedman
3.0
There was a lot to like here, and I honestly agree with most of Stedman's premise and outlook — I do think the world needs more good faith (pun absolutely intended) efforts at humanizing people with whom we disagree and working together to find common ground and work toward the benefit of humanity. Broadly, then, we are on the same page. I also appreciated him sharing his own story and experiences, which tracked surprisingly close to my own in some ways. We're nearly the same age, and while I was raised in a religious household, it was pretty perfunctory mainline Protestantism. I went through a phase starting in middle school where I got super religious, then in high school came out as bi and fairly quickly fell out of belief altogether. A brief, angry New Atheist phase followed, supplanted as I matured by a growing realization that fundamentalists do not define religion and that brand of atheism is mostly reactionary bullshit. His philosophical progress tracked so closely with mine, in fact, that had I read this book when it came out in 2012, I fully expect that I would have given it a glowing five stars and raved about it to anyone who would listen.
But, as he himself mentions, there are pitfalls that come with writing a memoir before you've even hit a quarter century. I'm not 24 anymore, and while I'm not sure 31 is a whole lot more worldly wise, some of his ideas, particularly in the final chapter, smack of naivete. Interfaith dialogue is wonderful and important, yes, but some of his prescriptions come off as straight-up respectability politics, more or less arguing that we should be nice to religious people because if enough of us do then they'll finally like us and finally give us our rights. This is a shortsighted and ahistorical view at best, and other struggles have demonstrated that respectability politics are ultimately of limited use in effecting meaningful societal change. I'd actually be really interested to see if he has any further thoughts on this topic now, especially in light of the current political situation.
Still, a potentially worthwhile read, especially for someone still in or just coming off a New Atheist mindset. As I said, I do think Stedman's heart is in the right place, and if he hasn't got the details down here, he definitely seems to at least be on the right track.
But, as he himself mentions, there are pitfalls that come with writing a memoir before you've even hit a quarter century. I'm not 24 anymore, and while I'm not sure 31 is a whole lot more worldly wise, some of his ideas, particularly in the final chapter, smack of naivete. Interfaith dialogue is wonderful and important, yes, but some of his prescriptions come off as straight-up respectability politics, more or less arguing that we should be nice to religious people because if enough of us do then they'll finally like us and finally give us our rights. This is a shortsighted and ahistorical view at best, and other struggles have demonstrated that respectability politics are ultimately of limited use in effecting meaningful societal change. I'd actually be really interested to see if he has any further thoughts on this topic now, especially in light of the current political situation.
Still, a potentially worthwhile read, especially for someone still in or just coming off a New Atheist mindset. As I said, I do think Stedman's heart is in the right place, and if he hasn't got the details down here, he definitely seems to at least be on the right track.