Living the Secular Life, Phil Zuckerman
Living the Secular Life, Phil Zuckerman
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Living the Secular Life
New Answers to Old Questions

Author: Phil Zuckerman

Narrator: Andy Paris

Unabridged: 8 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 12/04/2014


Synopsis

A guidebook for living a life without religion, combining sociological insight and personal inspiration Over the last twenty-five years, "no religion" has become the fastest growing religion in the United States. Around the world, hundreds of millions of people have turned away from the traditional faiths of the past and embraced a secular-or nonreligious-life, generating societies vastly less religious than at any other time in human history. Revealing the inspiring beliefs that empower secular culture-alongside real stories of nonreligious men and women, based on extensive in-depth interviews from across the country-Living the Secular Life is an indispensable handbook for millions of secular Americans. Drawing on innovative sociological research, Living the Secular Life illuminates this demographic shift with the moral convictions that govern secular individuals, offering crucial information for religious and nonreligious alike. Living the Secular Life reveals that, despite opinions to the contrary, nonreligious Americans possess a unique moral code that allows them to effectively navigate the complexities of modern life. Spiritual self-reliance, clear-eyed pragmatism, and an abiding faith in the Golden Rule to adjudicate moral decisions, such common principles-among others-are shared across secular society. Living the Secular Life demonstrates these principles in action and points to their usage throughout daily life. Phil Zuckerman is a sociology professor at Pitzer College, where he studied the lives of the nonreligious for years before founding a Department of Secular Studies-the first such academic program in the nation dedicated to exclusively studying secular culture and the sociological phenomena of America's fastest growing "faith." Zuckerman discovered that despite the entrenched negative beliefs about nonreligious people, American secular culture is grounded in deep morality and proactive citizenship-indeed, some of the very best that the country has to offer. Published in the heart of the holiday season when millions of Americans seem willfully excluded from the public sphere, Living the Secular Life will be a cherished guide for the season and for years to come. A manifesto for a booming social movement-and a revelatory survey of this overlooked community-"Living the Secular Life" offers essential and long-awaited information for anyone building a life based on their own principles.

About Phil Zuckerman

Phil Zuckerman is the author of several books, including The Nonreligious, Living the Secular Life, and Society Without God. He is a professor of sociology at Pitzer College and the founding chair of the nation's first Secular Studies program. He lives in Claremont, California, with his wife and three children.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Clif on September 09, 2015

This book provides a humane and sensible guide for Americans leading secular lives. Thus this book is addressed to the fastest growing segment of the American population when classified by religion (or non-religion). A book such as this is needed because the United States remains one of the most rel......more

Goodreads review by Rachel on December 21, 2014

This is one of the more enjoyable atheist books that I've recently read. It covers all of the major aspects of life people experience from a secular viewpoint. It's nice to read something that's empowering and adds a zest to living, something that makes me glad to be a secular citizen, instead of fo......more

Goodreads review by Nicholas on October 26, 2014

Goodreads win. Will read and review once received. This was really interesting to read and very easy to follow. It was also pretty easy to understand what the author was talking about in this book. It was a short and quick read. It was a very informative read and I did enjoy it quite a bit. A good re......more

Goodreads review by Brett on May 12, 2018

Mostly common sense apologetics for the secular As a secular reader I found most of what this book offers as common sense: secular people have morals, values, family, seek to do good, have no traditions, and no comfort in a promise of supernatural salvation (big problem). And, that religious believer......more

Goodreads review by Donald on January 07, 2015

For the most part, I found the book confirmed what I suspected. The world is getting more and more secular and, I am glad for that. The author convinced me that the United States is at about 35% secular with more and more people checking the "none" box on religion. Given statistics that show the mor......more