Reading this book was an exercise in confirmation bias. Long ago, I had reached similar conclusions Comte-Sponville, after a similarly devout upbringing while also leaving the faith in early adulthood.
While losing a personal diety may be difficult for some folks, it was quite liberating for me. Not to become a wanton libertine. Rather I was freed from carrying an unnecessary construct in my brain. It allowed me to enjoy life more fully.
That said, I don’t begrudge those who are religious, and Comte-Sponville’s first essay is a discussion about tolerance in the face of the unknown. You be you.
However, we’ll still believe in the absence of a god (more certain than a mere agnostic). His second essay plainly addresses why he does not believe in the existence of a deity.
Finally, he tackles the title of the book in the third essay, exploring how an atheist can explore spirituality.
I’m an architect, not a philosopher. So even though I had naturally come to similar conclusions as Comte-Sponville, I enjoyed reading a professional exposition on this matter. The book is well structured with the three essays that build upon each other, and then it ends with a rousing epilogue, on Truth and Love.
Here is where all our different themes converge without conflating.
Fidelity to truth: rationalism – the rejection of Sophism.
Fidelity to love: humanism – the rejection of nihilism.
Fidelity to a separation between the two: atheism.
…
Love, not hope, is what helps us live. Truth, not faith, is what sets us free.
We are already in the kingdom. Eternity is now.
In all a great read. He hit his mark in writing a book for a popular but serious audience. There are plenty of allusions to other authors whose names I recognize but have never read, but the book is plenty readable, and each essay is properly dense, as appropriate for this weight subject. This is not your usual quick burn self-help fare. It may be “little”, but took a surprising amount of time to work through.
Even though I don’t feel the urge to purchase my own copy, I’ve already recommended it to several friends and I suspect this will become my standard book recommendation for anyone interested in such matters.
By the way, if you are into such fare on a lighter subject (though equally universal), I’d recommend The Philosopher’s Cookbook, by Martin Versfeld, 2005.