The varieties of nonreligious experience : atheism in American culture / Jerome P. Baggett.
A fascinating exploration of the breadth of social, emotional, and spiritual experiences of atheists in America. Self-identified atheists make up roughly 5 percent of the American religious landscape, comprising a larger population than Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, Orthodox Christians, Muslim...
Uniform Title: | Secular studies.
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Main Author: | |
Language: | English |
Published: |
New York :
New York University Press,
[2019]
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Series: | Secular studies.
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Subjects: | |
Physical Description: | xvi, 273 pages ; 24 cm. |
Format: | Book |
Summary: |
A fascinating exploration of the breadth of social, emotional, and spiritual experiences of atheists in America. Self-identified atheists make up roughly 5 percent of the American religious landscape, comprising a larger population than Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews, Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus combined. In spite of their relatively significant presence in society, atheists are one of the most stigmatized groups in the United States, frequently portrayed as immoral, unhappy, or even outright angry. Yet we know very little about what their lives are actually like as they live among their largely religious, and sometimes hostile, fellow citizens. In this book, Jerome P. Baggett listens to what atheists have to say about their own lives and viewpoints. Drawing on questionnaires and interviews with more than five hundred American atheists scattered across the country, 'The Varieties of Nonreligious Experience' uncovers what they think about morality, what gives meaning to their lives, how they feel about religious people, and what they think and know about religion itself. Though the wider public routinely understands atheists in negative terms, as people who do not believe in God, Baggett pushes readers to view them in a different light. Rather than simply rejecting God and religion, atheists actually embrace something much more substantive-lives marked by greater integrity, open-mindedness, and progress. |
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Call Number: | BL2747.3 .B243 2019 |
Bibliography Note: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-261) and index. |
ISBN: | 9781479874200 1479874205 9781479884520 1479884529 |