Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment
Phil Zuckerman
Language: English
Pages: 240
ISBN: 0814797237
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
“Silver” Winner of the 2008 Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award, Religion Category
Before he began his recent travels, it seemed to Phil Zuckerman as if humans all over the globe were “getting religion”—praising deities, performing holy rites, and soberly defending the world from sin. But most residents of Denmark and Sweden, he found, don’t worship any god at all, don’t pray, and don’t give much credence to religious dogma of any kind. Instead of being bastions of sin and corruption, however, as the Christian Right has suggested a godless society would be, these countries are filled with residents who score at the very top of the “happiness index” and enjoy their healthy societies, which boast some of the lowest rates of violent crime in the world (along with some of the lowest levels of corruption), excellent educational systems, strong economies, well-supported arts, free health care, egalitarian social policies, outstanding bike paths, and great beer.
Zuckerman formally interviewed nearly 150 Danes and Swedes of all ages and educational backgrounds over the course of fourteen months. He was particularly interested in the worldviews of people who live their lives without religious orientation. How do they think about and cope with death? Are they worried about an afterlife? What he found is that nearly all of his interviewees live their lives without much fear of the Grim Reaper or worries about the hereafter. This led him to wonder how and why it is that certain societies are non-religious in a world that seems to be marked by increasing religiosity. Drawing on prominent sociological theories and his own extensive research, Zuckerman ventures some interesting answers.
This fascinating approach directly counters the claims of outspoken, conservative American Christians who argue that a society without God would be hell on earth. It is crucial, Zuckerman believes, for Americans to know that “society without God is not only possible, but it can be quite civil and pleasant.”
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you . . . ? It was when my father died and I saw all the pains he was going through, then I thought there is no God. And all the evil in the world, I didn’t understand. So you don’t believe in God and—what do you think happens when you die? I think we die and . . . perhaps our soul will return. . . . I don’t know exactly, but I think there is something about our soul. I think I‘ve seen in hospice. Can you tell me some of those stories? Yes, one night we had a man who was very sick and we
under-examined by social scientists, it is the secular chunk. And contrary to what many Americans may think, “chunk” is an appropriate term to use when denoting the number of humans alive today that can be considered secular, or at least, nonbelievers. A few years ago, in an attempt to determine just how many atheists and agnostics there are in the world, I carefully looked through as many international surveys as I could find concerning people’s religious beliefs—or lack thereof. After
central Jutland, and was raised by parents who did not believe in God and did not go to church. None of Lise’s friends growing up believed in God—indeed, God was simply something that was never talked about in her social world. Like her family and friends, Lise does not believe in God, nor does she believe in Jesus, nor in the devil or heaven or hell—although like many Danes, she has no problem off-handedly admitting that “there is more between heaven and earth.” Lise is currently engaged, and I
as well. I saw people falling over and being healed and I was just—“Jesus Christ, could you stop this? You’re fooling yourselves.” Of course, I didn’t say this out loud. But that’s what I was thinking. I just saw—I‘d never gone to church and I never believed, so I was on the outside looking in, sort of. And I saw the things they used—to do this—they have a band playing the same noise all the time, and the preacher is, of course, very, very good at articulation, and his voice just takes people
miracles, you know, like walking on water, turning water into wine—could have maybe helped some people curing them, but not by making miracles. Just maybe giving them the sense of faith in God and that could maybe help them to some extent. And then I kind of said to myself I can’t really be a Christian anymore because I don’t—because if I just believe in 10 percent of the stuff I need to, then I won’t consider myself a Christian any more. Because I could see that here people were more devoted to