Overview

An updated edition showcasing the social health of the least religious nations in the world Religious conservatives around the world often claim that a society without a strong foundation of faith would necessarily be an immoral one, bereft of ethics, values, and meaning. Indeed, the Christian Right in the United States has argued that a society without God would be hell on earth. In Society without God, Second Edition sociologist Phil Zuckerman challenges these claims. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews with more than 150 citizens of Denmark and Sweden, among the least religious countries in the world, he shows that, far from being inhumane, crime-infested, and dysfunctional, highly secular societies are healthier, safer, greener, less violent, and more democratic and egalitarian than highly religious ones. Society without God provides a rich portrait of life in a secular society, exploring how a culture without faith copes with death, grapples with the meaning of life, and remains content through everyday ups and downs. This updated edition incorporates new data from recent studies, updated statistics, and a revised Introduction, as well as framing around the now more highly developed field of secular studies. It addresses the dramatic surge of irreligion in the United States and the rise of the “nones,” and adds data on societal health in specific US states, along with fascinating context regarding which are the most religious and which the most secular.

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In an anecdotal and eminently readable manner, Zuckerman offers a novel idea within the study of religious sociology. --Library Journal Society without God is both a sociological analysis of irreligion and Zuckermans apologia pro vita sua. He wants us to know that, contrary to the deeply held beliefs of some Americans, a society without god can be a good society and an irreligious person can be a moral person, too. To his credit, Zuckerman provides enough nuance and detail to allow a skeptic like me to see what Peter Berger called & signals of transcendence in the society without god he portrays. Along with the volumes engaging writing style, this makes it ideal for classroom use. I know my students will enjoy reading and discussing Society without God. --David Yamane, author of The Catholic Church in State Politics Despite this books weighty topic, with its conversational writing style, Society Without God is amazingly readable, even fun. It presents rigorous arguments that are deceptively simple to understand, but that are, when you think about them more deeply, quite transformative. --PopMatters Puts to rest the belief that you need God in order to be a moral person, that irreligious societies are wracked by social problems, and that godless people are unhappy and unmoored. . . . In the case of Scandinavia: God may be dead, but Swedes and Danes lead rich, full lives. Society Without God is a colorful, provocative book that makes an original contribution to debates about atheism and religiosity. Ideal for classroom use, it will get students thinking about their own lives and choices. --Arlene Stein, author of Shameless: Sexual Dissidence in American Culture [Zuckerman] tells of a magical land where life expectancy is high and infant mortality low, where wealth is spread and genders live in equity, where happy, fish-fed citizens score high in every quality-of-life index: economic competitiveness, healthcare, environmental protection, lack of corruption, educational investment, technological literacy . . . well, you get the idea. Zuckerman (who has explored the sociology of religion in two previous books) has managed to show what nonbelief looks like when its & normal, regular, mainstream, common. And hes gone at least partway to proving the central thesis of his book: & Religious faithwhile admittedly widespreadis not natural or innate to the human condition. Nor is religion a necessary ingredient for a healthy, peaceful, prosperous, and . . . deeply good society. --Louis Bayard Salon.com While never presuming to offer a strictly generalizable snapshot, by focusing his attention on what are probably the least religious countries in the world (2), his provocative and engagingly written book is very effective in helping readers to examine numerous assumptions concerning the place of religion in the modern world... The real strength of this book is that, by challenging widespread analytical assumptions, it presents us with more complexity and with more nuanced questions regarding the nexus of the religious and the secular in contemporary life. To quote a famous Dane on this very point, There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. If, as Horatio should have done, we are to heed these words in terms of expanding the frameworks of our accordingly, it will be due in good measure to paying attention to thoughtful and creative books like this one. In my estimation, not to do so would be, well, a tragedy. --Sociology of Religion The book succeeds in documenting how the conditions of a liberal social welfare state promote contentment. --Choice For those interested in the burgeoning field of secular studies or for those curious about a world much different from the devout U.S.this book will offer some compelling reading. --Publishers Weekly Society Without God offers a unique perspective on the active debate regarding the necessity of religion . . . By turning to one of the most secular societies in the world, Scandanavia, Phil Zuckerman offers an empirically grounded account of a successful society where people are happy and content and help their neighbors without believing in God. The book is fluently written and highly illuminating. It offers an accessible entry to important questions in the study of religion and secularism. --Michael Pagis Journal of the American Academy of Religion Most Americans are convinced that faith in God is the foundation of civil society. Society Without God reveals this to be nothing more than a well-subscribed, and strangely American, delusion. Even atheists living in the United States will be astonished to discover how unencumbered by religion most Danes and Swedes currently are. This glimpse of an alternate, secular reality is at once humbling and profoundly inspiring and it comes not a moment too soon. Zuckermans research is truly indispensable. --Sam Harris New York Times His reporting of previously published material is invaluable to persons not previously familiar with such information. --Humanism Ireland Much that he found will surprise many people, as it did him. --The New York Times

Zuckerman has been at the forefront of the growing field of Secular Studies for the best part of two decades. From Society Without God, it's easy to see why: beautifully written and engaging, drawing on both deep scholarship and an insightful mind. This is classic Zuckerman. -- Stephen Bullivant, Professor of Theology and the Sociology of Religion, St Mary's University, UK

"""Zuckerman has been at the forefront of the growing field of Secular Studies for the best part of two decades. From Society Without God, it's easy to see why: beautifully written and engaging, drawing on both deep scholarship and an insightful mind. This is classic Zuckerman."" -- Stephen Bullivant, Professor of Theology and the Sociology of Religion, St Mary's University, UK"

Author Information

Phil Zuckerman is Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College, and the founding chair of the nation’s first Secular Studies Program. He is the author of several books, including What It Means to be Moral, The Nonreligious, Living the Secular Life, Faith No More, and Society Without God, and the editor of several volumes, including The Oxford Handbook of Secularism and The Social Theory of W.E.B. Du Bois.

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