The Good Atheist: Living a Purpose-Filled Life Without God [Paperback]

Dan Barker (Author), Julia Sweeney (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 25, 2011

How Does an Atheist Respond to the Question, What Is the Purpose of Life?

For a Christian, it is faith that gives their life purpose. In his best-selling book The Purpose Driven™ Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?, Rick Warren says, “You must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose.”

But as a non-believer, your purpose resides in yourself; it is yours alone to discover and develop. It’s about choosing to live your own life for your own reasons. No one can dictate your purpose. You decide.

This book will help you understand and appreciate why freely choosing to help and cooperate with others is the true path to finding purpose. Life does not need purpose: Purpose needs life. To punctuate this point, The Good Atheist includes inspiring biographies of humanity’s true heroes—men and women who did not waste their lives as slaves to a God, but rather found purpose in enhancing life on this Earth for all of us.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dan Barker received a degree in religion from Azusa Pacific Univer-sity and was ordained to the ministry by the Standard Community Church. He is co-president of the Freedom From Religion Found-ation and host of Freethought Radio. He has appeared on numerous talk shows, including Oprah Winfrey, Hannity & Colmes and Good Morning America.
Julia Sweeney is an actress, comedian and author, best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for her autobiographical solo shows.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Ulysses Press; Original edition (January 25, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569758468
• ISBN-13: 978-1569758465
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #572,135 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dan Barker (1949-) is co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and co-host of Freethought Radio. After 19 years as an evangelical minister, Dan "saw the light" and announced his atheism in 1984. His first public appearance as an atheist was on Oprah Winfrey's "AM Chicago." Since that time he has traveled extensively, lecturing and performing on college campuses, and participating in more than 90 public debates defending atheism. A former composer of Christian songs and musicals (for which he still receives royalties), Dan is now a jazz pianist and writer of freethought music, including the albums Beware of Dogma and Friendly, Neighborhood Atheist (FFRF, Inc.) Dan has 5 children, 7 grandchildren, and lives with his wife (and co-president) Annie Laurie Gaylor in Madison, Wisconsin. (Photo at window by Tim Buchanan. Photo at piano by Brent Nicastro. Photos at microphone by Bruce Press.)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars I'm not ashamed it is on my shelf but I probably won't pull it out again. April 26, 2011

By LaRae Meadows

Format:Paperback

I bent the binding of The Good Atheist, Living a Purpose-Filled Life Without God, by Dan Barker, in hopes that I would either come out of it in some way affirmed or finally have a resource for a person struggling with the decision to let go of their faith. When I closed the book, I felt like a sore eared member of the choir. The majority of Barker's book is an appeal to authority and celebrity, a mishap of astonishing proportion when speaking about, to, or for, a community that prides itself on its rational thought.

The Good Atheist is an attempt to address and refute the assertion of bestselling book The Purpose Driven Life by Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren that God gives people their purpose. In earnest, Barker only gives himself twenty-five pages to make his argument about the dangers of Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life and to examine how atheists can live good, purposeful lives. The rest of The Good Atheist is a series of topically or categorically collected quotes from atheists, agnostics, or free thinking famous people.

Barker does make an interesting and insightful point about the consequences of a life given to us preplanned by God, as Christians contend. He contends that if our lives come to us with a chosen outcome and path, we are not in control of ourselves. If we were created to worship God and spend our days serving him, we have no autonomy. The Christian contention that we must live within the parameters of the plan set out by God to worship and praise him is not a contention of freedom. It makes us slaves.

A new atheist, or a person who is going through the de-theist-ing process, may find his slavery argument a precious bit of emotional nourishment that facilitates their metamorphosis for a short while.... It may be especially true for the people who are leaving a more fundamental version of their faith. If the book was only twenty five pages long, this one nugget may be enough to make it worth reading, but it followed by one hundred sixty two pages and is prefaced with ten more.

I slogged through the first few pages of tedious semantic arguments about the difference between having a "purpose driven life" and a "purpose-filled life". I understood Barkers argument, and even though it was reasonably well argued, it was without resonance or a meaning beyond flipping off Warren. Instead of outlaying a convincing argument of how, or why atheists can and do live lives with meaning, Barker spent his pages pushing back against a theistic world view.

After his ho-hum shoving of Warren, Barker then starts his "Profiles in Disbelief" section of the book, which is nearly ten times as long. I believe he hopes that if someone realizes they like an atheist, they may like atheists in general more. The quotes are interesting but are nothing more than a published celebrity endorsement of the idea of atheism.

There is little literary embellishment in The Good Atheist. It is a pretty easy read, appropriate for an airport or on a beach. I am not ashamed that it is on my bookshelf, but I probably will not be pulling it out again. It offers little to me emotionally, literally, intellectually, or theologically.

Disclosure: I have been closely acquainted with Dan Barker's brother for many years. Read more ›

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing - could have been better January 21, 2011

By J Green

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Dan's book "Godless" was an excellent combination of personal story and reasoned argument.
In contrast, "The Good Atheist" feels like it was slapped together and rushed to press to meet a publishing obligation.
Basically it consists of an essay on why it is demeaning to find purpose in life by being a slave to a god. Dan delivers a good analogy using the Robinson Crusoe story, but his explication of finding purpose apart from God is very lacking. I was expecting the book to be an exploration of what it means to live a well-rounded meaningful life without believing in an imaginary deity. Instead, the rest of the book consists of short bios of atheists, and their contributions to society. The book isn't bad, but if I had been able to look through it, I probably wouldn't have spent the money on it.

13 of 18 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Darrell Barker (Barkers Biased Brother) February 6, 2011

By D. Ld Barker

Format:Paperback

I appreciate Dans ambitious writing in his latest book, The Good Atheist.(TGA) It being welcomed by me mostly for his keen and unfavorable critique of Rick Warrens "Purpose Driven" best seller book about how to cultivate a religiously submissive slave mentality.

Warren says to "die to self," to be acquiescent to an imaginary God and Barker says to proudly live your life abundantly for yourself. Warren thinks you are unworthy, stating "it's not about you," and Barker says "not so fast" it IS about you. TGA clearly defines humanist secular values to be recognized, embraced and practiced, with those liberating freethought values being starkly contrasted with the "lowly worm" Christian worldview.

Additionally, if you are needing a quick anthology of well known good atheists / secular humanists that think and live like Barker, you'll now have such a profession referenced collection at your finger tips with TGA.

It might also be noted that even good atheists like me can occasionally experience disillusionment too, for I gave TGA a less than favorable 4 star rating. I don't know if it is fair to judge a book by what was NOT included, but if I may be slightly disappointed in the good publisher, because, for some well thought out reason I'm sure, they left out several really good chapters I was privileged to have proofread in editing prior to printing. I don't mean to disparage Ulysess Press and I don't pretend to know what's best in publishing like they do. I can only hope those good chapters will be included in Barkers next book....

This addendum below is written by me on behalf of a friend, Dave Merner, who doesn't have a computer and asked me to type his review:

Dave Merner (aka Equa Sapa)

If the authors goal was to give encouragement to those struggling with non-belief, he then did a good job.

I read books with two purposes in mind; 1. To learn, and 2. To be entertained, and this book failed in those regards. Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars read "godless first" February 26, 2012

By nels

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

basically a quick summary of "godless," with the rest of the book just quotes from well-known atheists throughout history. the quotes are definitely interesting, but i read this before "godless," and i'd recommend doing it the other way around.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Short on new May 6, 2011

By Drenn Workman

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Although I enjoyed reading another book from one of my favorite authors, I was disappointed to discover it a little bit of a rehash of former information from his and other authors' books.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars I wish I had read the reviews beforehand January 28, 2011

By RAH

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I write this with a heavy heart because I am a member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the author is a co-President of FFRF. Other reviews here sum up the major problem of this book - it all-too-briefly glosses over what most readers will assume to be the main point of the book (since it's the subtitle on the front cover): "Living a Purpose-Filled Life Without God". Instead, the vast majority of the book is basically just a Bartlett's Quotations From Famous Atheists, with the author's argument being "Look at all these famous accomplished atheists with great lives!"

I guess the book isn't totally useless - if I have an atheist dinner party any time soon, I'll have a book full of witty bon mots from which I can borrow at will. If you want an intellectual treatise, though, this ain't it.

(PS: As a gay man, I was rather appalled to see that for some reason, the author likes the term "homosexuals" when most of the rest of thinking society has moved on to "gays and lesbians". "Homosexuals" is so Masters & Johnson.