The Atheist's Way: Living Well Without Gods

by Eric Maisel

Book Overview

In The Atheist's Way, Eric Maisel teaches you how to make rich personal meaning despite the absence of beneficent gods and the indifference of the universe to human concerns. Exploding the myth that there is any meaning to find or to seek, Dr. Maisel explains why the paradigm shift from seeking meaning to making meaning is this century's most pressing intellectual goal.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1577316428
• ISBN13: 9781577316428
• Release Date: February 2009
• Publisher: New World Library
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Address the concerns of how non-believers can live meaningful lives

THE ATHEIST'S WAY: LIVING WELL WITHOUT GODS teaches how to make personal meaning out of life in the absence of beneficent gods overseeing human concerns. Chapters explore the spiritual and intellectual shift from such a paradigm and address the concerns of how non-believers can live meaningful lives free of the need for a divine benefactor. A powerful survey for any general lending library.

A lifesaver

First, imagine that you are on a boat out in the ocean. You live on this boat; it is a boat your family gave you. It's not very big, but it's big enough, and you are content to live there. Next, through no fault of your own, you grow discontented with your boat. And over time, it becomes more and more impossible that you can stay on that boat and remain happy. Finally you can't take it for one more second and you jump into the water with the hopes that you can find something better. You are relieved that you're not in your old boat anymore, but you are getting tired of treading water, and hungry, and bored, and after a long time of this, you begin to lose hope that you will ever get back in a boat. Finally, someone shows up in a boat, throws you a life-preserver, and pulls you into his boat and dries you off. He puts you on land and cheers you up with a stirring little speech about how to make a new boat that you can be happy with. "MAKE a new boat?" you ask. "Shouldn't I be trying to find a new one?" "No," your rescuer answers. "There are no boats out there except the ones you make. So make one! Make it however you like it and go wherever you want in it." "I can make it however I want?" you ask in disbelief. The man smiles and nods, and so you run off and start planning your new boat. The book "The atheist's way" is the answer to the question of how to live and what to do with your life and how you can have a meaningful life. It is that stirring little speech you need after you've left your religion and find yourself depressed and lonely and bored and tired because without your old god-- the one you can't believe in anymore-- you are struggling to make a new life for yourself. That was my problem, and if it's yours, "The atheist's way" will put you on dry land and encourage you to build your own life, in your own way, with no gods.

A True Inspiration

This is an amazing book that is sure to reach the top of the charts. If there was ever a book that's a cross between "atheist" and "inspirational" it would be this book. I highly recommend it for everybody -- Christians who don't believe atheists can live fulfilling, happy lives; Atheists who are looking for more in life; and especially former Christians such as myself who have taken the frightening step of jumping out of their faith and into the new world of atheism. I especially recommend it for my own readers who have read my book and are looking for some inspiration on moving forward. Five stars for this book. Jeffrey Mark Author, Christian No More Christian No More: On Leaving Christianity, Debunking Christianity, and Embracing Atheism and Freethinking

Terrific, challenging book and needed addition to atheist canon.

Ever since Sam Harris first got our attention with "The End of Faith," a parade of atheist-themed books has come out. Thanks to people like Richard Dawkins, Victor Stenger, Taner Edis and others the scientific case for the implausability of religious dogmas has been largely made. Christopher Hitchens has made the politico-sociological case against the desirability of religion, and Daniel Dennett has gotten us to question religion and religious psychology. Many other authors have added distinct voices with unique views and areas of expertise (even a mathematician, John Allen Paulos, weighs in!), comprising quite a Devil's Breviary. But until recently, a few topics have been missing from our canon. Enter Eric Maisel and his "Atheist's Way." "Way" presupposes atheism. Maisel wastes no time making a case for godlessness, a position he sees as too evident (perhaps because the case has been made elsewhere) to address in this slim volume. He has other, bigger fish to fry, anyway, rather than rehashing the same old arguments against cogent evidence for theism. Maisel sets out to answer the question, "How then should we live?" in a godless universe, and he largely succeeds in providing challenging answers that provide philosophical courage and direction without succumbing to unrealistic, wishy-washy, banal "inspiration." This is the path of existentialism that looks reality in the eye unflinchingly and determines to create in our meaningless universe a source of boundless meaning from within. We nominate ourselves, we invest meaning, and we take off on a hero's quest. Some statements within the book reminded me of my favorite line from Joss Whedon's TV series, "Angel," in which the title character says, "In the greater scheme or the big picture, nothing we do matters. There's no grand plan, no big win....If there is no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do. 'cause that's all there is....All I wanna do is help. I wanna help because I don't think people should suffer as they do. Because, if there is no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world." Dr. Maisel might take exception to some parts of what Angel said. It is perhaps a little facile. But as a statement of principle for the character, it rather nicely reflects the attitude of "The Atheist's Way." In one sitting, I read it cover to cover. It took a couple of chapters to get into the book, but once I was hooked, I was hooked like a hungry trout. Too few atheist writers, even the best ones, seem to know how to address the problem of meaning--not for themselves, but for others. It is fine for the relatively well-off and well-known to make brash proclamations about a godless universe without ultimate purpose, but where does that leave the overweight stock boy in Kansas who wants to be part of an epic struggle between opposing forces to give his life some meaning? I found "Way" has the ans

Powerful and thoughtful

This is absolutely my favorite book about living life the atheist way and offers much that's worth reading for just about everybody else too. I'm not an antheist but there is so much in Eric's book that surpasses that; it encourages us to be brave thinkers as individuals, find our deepest values, learn about meaning-making in our own sense of it, seek an authentic life as circumstances allow, nurture what is good and just. This new release by Eric Maisel continues his stream of consciousness about learning to live life responsibly, fully and creatively from a deep sense of connection to our sacred humanity. As a spiritual person I found a lot in Eric's book that rings as true to me as it does to my atheist friends.