Faith No More

Why People Reject Religion
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-0-19-974001-7
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 240 Seiten, Format (B × H): 162 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 452 g

During his 2009 inaugural speech, President Obama described the United States as a nation of "Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus—and nonbelievers." It was the first time an American president had acknowledged the existence of this rapidly growing segment of the population in such a public forum. And yet the reasons why more and more people are turning away from religion are still poorly understood.

In Faith No More, Phil Zuckerman draws on in-depth interviews with people who have left religion to find out what's really behind the process of losing one's faith. According to a 2008 study, so many Americans claim no religion (15%, up from 8% in 1990) that this category now outranks every other religious group except Catholics and Baptists. Exploring the deeper stories within such survey data, Zuckerman shows that leaving one's faith is a highly personal, complex, and drawn-out
process. And he finds that, rather than the cliché of the angry, nihilistic atheist, apostates are life-affirming, courageous, highly intelligent and inquisitive, and deeply moral. Zuckerman predicts that this trend toward nonbelief will likely continue and argues that the sooner we recognize that religion is
frequently and freely rejected by all sorts of men and women, the sooner our understanding of the human condition will improve.

The first book of its kind, Faith No More will appeal to anyone interested in the "New Atheism" and indeed to anyone wishing to more fully understand our changing relationship to religious faith.

Zielgruppe

Students and scholars interested in apostasy, atheism, agnosticism, secularity, secularization, American religion, religion and deviance, psychology of religion, sociology of religion, anthropology of religion. Readers who purchase books by authors such as Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Dan Barker.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Zuckerman, Phil

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Alternative Glaubensformen Agnostizismus, Atheismus, Säkularer Humanismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
Chapter One: Mother was an Exorcist
Chapter Two: Stopped Making Sense
Chapter Three: Misfortune
Chapter Four: To be Mormon, or Not to Be
Chapter Five: Sex and Secularity
Chapter Six: Others
Chapter Seven: Jail, Food Stamps, and Atheism
Chapter Eight: The Apostate Worldview
Chapter Nine: All in the Family?
Chapter Ten: How and Why People Reject Religion
Conclusion
Appendix: Research Methods and Sample Characteristics
Notes
References
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Zuckerman, Phil
Phil Zuckerman is Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College. He is the author of Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us about Contentment, Atheism and Secularity, and Invitation to the Sociology of Religion.

Phil Zuckerman is Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College. He is the author of Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us about Contentment, Atheism and Secularity, and Invitation to the Sociology of Religion.