I just finished reading Andre Comte-Sponville's The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality. I have to say this, "Save your money." unless, you really want to find out how a famous atheist decides that the way to get to be spiritual is to be a Buddhist and a Hindu and a Taoist all wrapped up into one. Nietszche would be disappointed: this is not hard-core atheism; this is atheism light.
To his credit, Comte-Sponville does help us understand that atheists do believe something; an understanding not grasped by most theists. I found the first chapter the most interesting and useful in the book. The second, very long chapter discusses the historic proofs for God as offered by western thinking. I did find this summary of the usual refutations of theism to be quite interesting, however, if you are already well-versed in these arguments, you don't need the sixty-seven pages given to the topic.
As I noted earlier, Comte-Sponville lands on the side of Eastern religions to find a spirituality to satisfy his inner spirit. This is most interesting because the author continually tries to make a case for spirituality over religion which he views as a human construct to make sense of the world. In the end, the author's embrace of Eastern spirituality has landed him in embracing religions which he wants to flee from.
(c) Ronald Friesen
I want to flee many things I am running to.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I would point out that "atheists" can be as diverse as "theists." There is no one way to not believe in a god or God.
ReplyDeleteSecond, to us westerners (at least to this one), eastern religion doesn't seem like "religion." To me it seems more like a branch of philosophy (and here I go, lumping them all together); just a way of looking at the world and life.
So I guess maybe it's just "western" religion that he's fleeing from?
YF, I resemble that observation many days
ReplyDeleteNota, Buddhism is sometimes called the "non-religion religion". Buddhism doesn't believe in a god; however, it does believe in a path or a way of living. C-S ends up being a pantheist and talking about being in the All which rings of Brahman is Atman, the belief of Hinduism. In the end, you have to formalize your belief system and that moment you do that you have created a creed which is one definition of religion.
ReplyDeleteI guess when people "don't like religion" they don't like being told what to believe. If you tell someone that whatever he believes, that's his religion, he's likely to have a different feeling about religion.
ReplyDeleteinteresting post - but once again it seems like a lot talk about nothing. I still believe what the old philosopher said - 'that the only true religion is agnosticism.'
ReplyDeleteIce, who said that - I would like to quote it :)
ReplyDelete