Living the Secular Life

October 20, 2014
While America’s mainstream churches have declined, smaller denominations seem to be attracting more believers. The fastest-growing group isn’t a church at all, but rather those distancing from traditional religious affiliations, a group known as the “nones.” In this fascinating work, Zuckerman (Faith No More: Why People Reject Religion), professor of sociology and secular studies at Pitzer College, explores the moral and ethical foundations of secularism, addressing the question of whether you can live a good life without God or religion. Anecdotal evidence abounds; interviews with former religious adherents who have moved into secularism, both within and outside their religious communities, offer a compelling argument for the non-necessity of God in the pursuit of a moral life. Despite the amazing growth of “nones” in America, and even considering the growing trend toward secularism within many churches, Zuckerman concludes, “It still isn’t easy being secular in America.” Perhaps the accounts in this fine work will help ameliorate that.

October 15, 2014
Zuckerman (Sociology and Secular Studies/Pitzer Coll.; Faith No More: Why People Reject Religion, 2011, etc.) seeks to sever the association of secularity with nothingness.The author understands the human impulse for religious guidance and has experienced "the intangible benefit of such a communal act"-e.g., when a congregation gathered in a serene gesture of solace for a couple whose baby had just died. Zuckerman also doesn't come from a place of pure rationalism, though that has its place: "It's simply a matter of a lack of evidence." Living an ethical and generous life emerges from the creation of a framework out of experience, a comprehensible base from which to find meaning, without any moral outsourcing, and paying attention to one of those little truisms (and one of Zuckerman's go-to beacons), the golden rule, empathetic reciprocity. His writing is both sturdy and inviting as he explains the traits he has observed in secular America: "self-reliance, freedom of thought, intellectual inquiry, cultivating autonomy in children, pursuing truth...and still enjoying a sense of deep transcendence now and then amid the inexplicable, inscrutable profundity of being." Look to your conscience, he writes, which is both complicated and cultivated, without "a simple, observable, obvious origin." It is a construct whose components are comprised of experiences that meld the civil with the rational and meaningful. Throughout the book, the author chronicles his interviews with secular and nonsecular people, trying to ferret out the sources of their worldviews. He is a hungry interviewer, but he also steps back and scrutinizes his findings to demonstrate how "[w]hat it means to be secular-and the cardinal virtues of secular living-are...deeply important matters to recognize and understand." As Zuckerman makes clear, without resorting to smugness, secularity is not nothing but rather a way of living that enhances moral virtues and promotes human decency.

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November 15, 2014
With recent polls reporting 30 percent of Americans are nonreligious, while other studies find atheists the least-trusted people in the country, isn't it high time to blow away the myths about the nonreligious? Answering affirmatively, the sociologist founder of the first secular-studies program at Pitzer College presents real secular people as peaceable, productive, and living happily. Secular parents reveal that God isn't necessary for raising moral children, that the lack of an afterlife needn't inspire terror or prayer, and that coping with grave injury doesn't entail surrendering to higher powers (nor, for that matter, does kicking addiction). Zuckerman also profiles secular people creating institutions for themselves that stand in lieu of churches (while others are contented loners). He also shows that secularism isn't bipolarbeliever or nonbelieverbut includes many with some supernatural beliefs but who aren't religiously observant. And there's not a proselytizer or zealot among this groupthe point being that secular people are not all, indeed, hardly ever, Christopher Hitchens or Madalyn Murray O'Hair. May one more prejudice fall.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014

Zuckerman, a sociology professor at Pitzer College and founder of the country's first Department of Secular Studies, considers the demographic shift toward those declaring no religious affiliation and shows that, contrary to certain assumptions, nonbelievers have their own strict moral code. What results is a guidebook, grounded in empirical research, for living a moral life without God.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2014

Founder of the first department of secular studies in the United States, Zuckerman (sociology, Pitzer Coll.; Society Without God) here draws on extensive in-depth interviews to explore and illuminate the lives and beliefs of ordinary secular Americans. Representing approximately 30 percent of the population, nonreligious Americans are the fastest growing religious orientation in the country. This book aims to show that these men and women are more than "nothing"; they live good, meaningful, and inspired lives without religion. Writing in a positive and upbeat style remarkably free of both smugness and academic jargon, Zuckerman gently addresses and dismantles numerous common misperceptions about secular people. The book admirably manages to be thoroughly saturated in research and scholarship without reading like a stuffy academic text. The author brilliantly weaves stories and reflections together with empirical sociological research to create a rich portrait of secular America. Some of the topics covered include morality, raising children, creating community, coping with difficulties, and death. The chapter on "Aweism" is a high point as Zuckerman waxes poetic on mystery, wonder, and humility without religion. VERDICT Highly recommended for all readers, both religious and nonreligious, seeking a more accurate understanding of this ever-growing segment of the American population. [See Prepub Alert, 6/8/14.]--Brian Sullivan, Alfred Univ. Lib., NY

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.