What is it about?
The paper describes how the world is experienced by atheists. Reframing atheism as more than a negative belief, atheists experience the awe and wonder of both the natural and cultural world. They accept, appreciate, and, celebrate “what is” and the limits of our understanding of it without invoking God. With awe and wonder and courage, atheists stand before a world that will never completely show itself.
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Why is it important?
The paper is important for introducing traditionally religious people to a respectful view of atheists. For atheists, it is important as it makes explicit what most atheists have only implicitly understood as the richness of an atheistic worldview.
Perspectives
For me personally, writing this paper helped me to articulate how the way I experience the world is founded in my acceptance that there is no transcendent being. I have always been in awe at the existence of the world and our access to it and to others experience of it -- while accepting that such access is limited. This has allowed me to have respect for the beauty and complexity of both the natural and cultural world.
Dr. Kenneth Joel Shapiro
Animals and Society Institute
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A Faith Built on Awe, Worldviews Global Religions Culture and Ecology, January 2018, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/15685357-02203103.
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