Atheist Spirituality?

On this, the day most people celebrate as the day their god-man rose using pagan fertility symbols, I finished reading an excellent book: The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality by André Comte-Sponville. It was one that I happened across at Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago, picked up...and didn't want to put down. Comte-Sponville has a decidedly mystic outlook on things despite choosing the label "atheist" for himself, and this book is just a joy to read.

There are three sections. The first one deals with the question of whether religion is necessary to humanity. Comte-Sponville concludes that some find it necessary, but not all, and pretty much leaves it at that. The second section deals with the reasons that he does not believe in "God." I put it in quotes, because he is specifically addressing the traditional Judeo-Christian God. He goes through 6 arguments for why he does not believe in that particular god. (Somewhere, and I wish I could remember where, I ran across a quote that said 'Describe for me the god you do not believe in; I do not believe in him either.') Specifically, he goes through the classic existence "proofs": ontological, cosmological, physico-theological. Then he explains why he doesn't find them convincing. The weakness in these arguments is only the first of his 6 reasons for not believing in this particular notion of God.

The third section was the most enjoyable, and illuminating, for me. It deals with his attempts to define an atheist spirituality, rooted in the reality of his own mystical experiences. It contains probably the most lucid and well-thought-out descriptions of such experiences that I've ever encountered. A few quotes from this section to give the flavor:

Mystics are defined by a certain type of experience ... They see. Why would they need dogma? Everything is present. Why would they need hope? They live in eternity. Why would they need to wait for it? They are already saved. Why would they need a religion?

When you feel 'at one with the All,' you need nothing more. Why would you need a God? The universe suffices. Why would you need a church? The world suffices. Why would you need faith? Experience suffices.

Also, he shares this quote from Henri-Marie cardinal de Lubac:

The prophet recieves and transmits the word of God to which he adheres through faith; the mystic is sensitive to an innter light that exempts him from believing.

I would recommend this book to anyone with a sincere interest in spirituality. It expresses thoughts that I had thought unique to me (much more eloquently, I might add). The first two sections took me the longest to get through, mainly because I was only reading a single section every night. Once I got to the third section, I didn't want to stop. I made it almost all the way through it today. Seems like an appropriate celebration of Easter to me. `/^