In this book, Columbia University philosophy professor Philip Kitcher is “refreshing,” journeywithjesus.net affirms, “because he repudiates the contempt for religion” that the so-called “new atheists” posit. “He does not view religion as necessarily harmful, ‘noxious rubbish’ to be buried…, even though in his view it is intellectually false.” His aim is to show how “an atheistic life can fulfill those same valuable roles that the falsehoods of faith have for almost all people of all time, and in every place.”
In a decade-old interview in The New York Times, he explains, “I think religion at its best—the religion that prompts my admiration and sympathy—detaches itself from dubious metaphysics…. It focuses on human problems, attempting to relieve want and misery, to provide opportunities for worthwhile life, and to deepen and extend important values.” In short, “Kitcher’s book outlines a form of secular humanism that claims to capture all that is captured by refined religion,” secularbuddhism.org observes, “but without any notion of transcendence.”
Britain’s prospectmagazine.co.uk describes Life After Faith as a “subtile, careful, and intellectually honest little book.” It’s a “positive assessment of secularism, and the possibilities it offers for a genuinely meaningful life without religion,” the book’s publisher posits.
Life After Faith: The Case for Secular Humanism
By Philip Kitcher
Yale University Press, 2014
