What is Reddit's opinion of Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe?

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Religion gives you your morality. Without religion, you must determine what constitutes moral behavior for yourself. The study of ethics is a rich field that has been ongoing for centuries. A simple starting place could be something like trying to do things that optimize your own chance to succeed and thrive and to not hinder anyone else’s ability to do so. It gets more complicated from there, including one’s obligation or duty to others.

One outlook that I personally relate to and that resonates with me is secular humanism. Greg Epstein is a humanist who wrote a New York Times bestseller called Good Without God that I highly recommend.

This time of your life of figuring things out for yourself without the burden or baggage of religious systems is exciting. Allow yourself to explore different ideas and systems and see which ones make sense and resonate with you. Good luck!

In my country, the United States, many religious people seem to support the death penalty. Non-believers are, at least as likely or more likely, to oppose the death penalty. At least, that is my impression.

People will be mean under certain conditions. And when conditions make people mean, they will use their beliefs, whether religious or non-religious, to rationalize and excuse their desire/need to be mean. Religious Christians, for example, can find Bible verses, or reinterpret Bible verses, to support the death penalty, being greedy, etc. Atheists can do something similar to justify being mean.

The good news is that religious and non-religious beliefs can also promote kindness. The Bible is full of verses promoting kindness and generosity. Contrary to what you appear to think, atheist thinking can promote moral behavior. Atheists have written books about morality without God.

If you live in a country with a majority of non-believers who believe in the death penalty, your shortest route to changing their mind about the death penalty is not converting them into believing in God, but instead exposing them to non-religious thought promoting kindness and charity.

Atheists, for example, believe humans have only one life. They do not believe humans have afterlives to correct mistakes in this life. If the state kills an innocent person that injustice will not be corrected in a wonderful next life. Atheists I know are very sensitive to injustice. (Listen to what atheists say about the Old Testament God or the doctrine of hell.) Potentially committing injustice is one reason atheists should be against the death penalty.

Good luck,

My brother, I feel your pain and struggle. You are losing the only foundation you’ve known and are in free fall regarding your faith, or lack thereof. This struggle is actually good, but painful to go through.

I’m not qualified to tell you what to become, or to believe. That depends on your research and desire. I found solace through Humanism (as an agnostic atheist) and it’s not a sad grumpy existence at all. Others have channeled their faith into other religions. Sadly, others have transitioned to other cults, but that’s a different story by itself.

I highly recommend a book called Good Without God by Greg Epstein. I think it may clarify some things for you.

Maybe others can recommend resources for those inclined to remain faithful to the concept of a deity but in a healthier way.

Good Without God on Amazon

When you're ready to start to peel those layers back, I highly recommend Good Without God by Greg Epstein

Fantastic, non-sensationalized read that's really fixed on finding positivity, community and value sans religion. It helped me immensely early on in my deradicalization process.

Good without god by Greg Epstein

It was my first non Mormon book on morality / spirituality and it is phenominal

Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe https://www.amazon.com/dp/006167012X/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_GCB37MY48SE0444148TE

The Epikuros paradox.

and for good without god try https://www.amazon.com/Good-Without-God-Billion-Nonreligious/dp/006167012X

If the fear of hell is what is holding you back, something like this might help you bridge the gap.

"Good Without God"
https://www.amazon.com/Good-Without-God-Billion-Nonreligious/dp/006167012X/

I know for someone who has been indoctrinated into that way of thinking their entire lives, it can be difficult to let go of those concepts. Sometimes as they say with addiction, replacement therapy can work better than going cold turkey. If you feel that you have something else to transition to, like science and reason based thinking, and realizing you can very much still be and should be a good person without religion...maybe this is a path for you.

Soovitan lugeda värske Harvardi peakaplani raamatut "Good without God". See on väga hästi kirjutatud ning annab suurepärase ülevaate sellest, miks "hea olemisel" pole mitte mingisugust seost religiooniga, ei tänapäeval ega ka ajaloolises perspektiivis.

BTW, I highly recommend his book Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe. It is one of the best books that I have read on the topic of humanism.

Looks like his book could inject some needed insight/compassion into the atheist community, it's just really tough right now with the extreme political and ideological divisions and much of "the right" driving the current Covid crisis (see also, the COVID nurse who's had a few...) and other social problems. Tolerance of religion is definitely against the grain with all the frustration.

Greg Epstein isn't necessarily wrong with his take, it's just a bitter pill right now. The description from Amazon:

>A provocative and positive response to Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and other New Atheists, Good Without God makes a bold claim for what nonbelievers do share and believe. Author Greg Epstein, the Humanist chaplain at Harvard, offers a world view for nonbelievers that dispenses with the hostility and intolerance of religion prevalent in national bestsellers like God is Not Great and The God Delusion. Epstein’s Good Without God provides a constructive, challenging response to these manifestos by getting to the heart of Humanism and its positive belief in tolerance, community, morality, and good without having to rely on the guidance of a higher being.

Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe by Greg Epstein https://www.amazon.com/dp/006167012X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_6DybBb0ZVMVM3

The strongest thing that keeps people going is a strong sense of purpose that they give themselves.

My motivation is doing good for good's sake. I try to make every day a day where I did something meaningful and to try and experience empathy for someone or something and attempt to show some decency and dignity towards them/it. This can come in many ways but that is the gist of it. Living in a big city leaves a multitude of possible things for me to do. Sometimes I'm dropping off some food+soda to a small group of homeless folks. Other times it's just being able to sit down and listen to someone's troubles. Your life is your responsibility (too adult sounding sorry!) and it's important to find purpose and meaning in it. Human beings are unique and no two are alike and even with the same dna they can become different people. Each human life therefor is priceless and we must find it in ourselves to do justice and dignity to each other because once someone is gone we will never see that person ever again. I don't like thinking about shoulda woulda coulda guilt trips when I see I had failed to do something in hind sight. But I always feel at peace when I do the right thing for someone.

A good book to read sometime is Good Without God. It is a book about secular humanism and really helped me when I was looking for some answers and insight into the way I felt but didn't have all the words to explain it more clearly.

Another thing that keeps me rolling is learning new things about the world around me. When I was a kid I wanted to learn everything I could about everything. Even though kids in school were always mean to me I always had a friend in learning. After I graduated high school there was a time I felt comfortable with all that I knew and didn't feel it was important to learn. I lost something along the way. Ever since I became an atheist I have that strong urge to learn again, like a rekindled fire. i have been rebuilding my math skills using khan academy and have been reading science and technology websites every day so I can learn new things and feel that small sense of accomplishment from learning.

TL:DR I have a sense of purpose that I assigned myself as a means to self motivate and my life is better for it.

Yes, there are humanist churches all over the world.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_humanism

I also highly recommend the book Good Without God, What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe by Greg M. Epstein.