The Atheist's Guide to Reality: Enjoying Life without Illusions
Sep 2011 · W. W. Norton & Company
star
7 reviews
Ebook
368
Pages
About this ebook
A book for nonbelievers who embrace the reality-driven life. We can't avoid the persistent questions about the meaning of life-and the nature of reality. Philosopher Alex Rosenberg maintains that science is the only thing that can really answer them—all of them. His bracing and ultimately upbeat book takes physics seriously as the complete description of reality and accepts all its consequences. He shows how physics makes Darwinian natural selection the only way life can emerge, and how that deprives nature of purpose, and human action of meaning, while it exposes conscious illusions such as free will and the self. The science that makes us nonbelievers provides the insight into the real difference between right and wrong, the nature of the mind, even the direction of human history. The Atheist's Guide to Reality draws powerful implications for the ethical and political issues that roil contemporary life. The result is nice nihilism, a surprisingly sanguine perspective atheists can happily embrace.
A book for nonbelievers who embrace the reality-driven life. We can't avoid the persistent questions about the meaning of life-and the nature of reality. Philosopher Alex Rosenberg maintains that science is the only thing that can really answer them—all of them. His bracing and ultimately upbeat ...
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Ratings and reviews
7 reviews
A Google user
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February 7, 2012
This book is to be commended for its tough-minded approach to all non-scientific explanations of reality. Science can explain everything or, if it can't, then nothing else can. Science is the only trustworthy road to real knowledge. The author is well aware that most people will find this view bleak. As he says, most people want stories that reflect meaning and purpose. But there is no purpose, no plan and no meaning to the universe, and therefore, to human life. Life is indeed a "tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing". But though this be nihilism, the author makes a convincing case that morality, for good evolutionary reasons, is inborn in most people. We are "nice" nihilists. We can therefore enjoy life and be good people without it "meaning" anything. Enjoy the trip while it lasts and don't worry about death because we will never be around to experience it. I like his attitude.
A Google user
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January 28, 2012
I have not purchased this book but I'm not even done with the sample and I am loving it. It is a little brutal with the evidence but its great neways!
About the author
Alex Rosenberg is the R. Taylor Cole Professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy at Duke University and the codirector of the Duke Center for Philosophy of Biology. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.
Alex Rosenberg is the R. Taylor Cole Professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy at Duke University and the codirector of the Duke Center for Philosophy of Biology. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.
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