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Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment
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“Silver” Winner of the 2008 Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Prize, Religion Category

Before he began his recent travels, it seemed to Phil Zuckerman as if humans all over the globe were “getting religion”—praising deities, performing holy rites, and soberly defending the world from sin. But much residents of Denmark and Sweden, he found, don't worship any god at all, don't pray, and don't provide much credence to religious dogma of any kind. Instead of being bastions of sin and corruption, however, as the Christian Right has suggested a godless society would be, these countries are filled together with residents who score at the very top of the "happiness index" and enjoy their healthy societies, which boast some of the lowest rates of violent crime in the world (along together with some of the lowest levels of corruption), outstanding educational systems, strong economies, well-supported arts, free health care, egalitarian social policies, excellent bike paths, and excellent beer.

Zuckerman formally interviewed nearly 150 Danes and Swedes of all ages and educational backgrounds over the course of fourteen months. He was particularly interested in the worldviews of people who exist their lives not including religious orientation. How do they believe concerning and cope together with death? Are they worried concerning an afterlife? What he found is this nearly all of his interviewees exist their lives not including much fear of the Grim Reaper or fears concerning the hereafter. This led him to wonder how and why it is this certain societies are non-religious in a world this seems to be marked by increasing religiosity. Drawing on prominent sociological theories and his own widespread research, Zuckerman ventures some interesting answers.

This fascinating approach directly counters the claims of outspoken, conservative American Christians who argue this a society not including God would be hell on earth. It is crucial, Zuckerman believes, for Americans to recognize this “society not including God is not only possible, but it can be quite civil and pleasant.”

Customer Reviews
Customer rating is 5 of 5  Secular society as success story   2010-01-12
By M. Bailey (New Jersey, USA)
Reading this book reminded me of a conversation I once had with a psychotherapist acquaintance. I had asked her somewhat distractedly what she was planning to do for the holidays, meaning Christmastime. She looked at me rather strangely, and said, "Well, I'm Jewish. Christmas has no meaning for me at all. Christmas Day is like any other day for me. I'll read the paper, have breakfast with my family, and enjoy a day off." There was something so bland about the way she said it, that it really struck home how little one of the seemingly routine annual parts of community life can mean to someone who lives in the same society. I mean, I knew Jews didn't celebrate Christmas, but I figured that in a Christmas-crazy country such as the U.S., everyone was touched in some way. Apparently not.

I had the same aha! moment reading this analysis of the secular societies of Denmark and Sweden. In our own rich and self-touted "Christian" nation, we talk incessantly of faith, and of solving homelessness, poverty, hunger, joblessness, lack of healthcare, and illiteracy. Somehow, though, we don't do those things. We talk the talk and then go off and pretend we've done our duty because solving such problems isn't really possible (right?), even in a country where faith would seem to be an overwhelming impetus to succeed.

Denmark and Sweden, on the other hand, have almost entirely secular societies in which thoughts of religion, faith, God, and the meaning of life have little or no place in everyday life. Shockingly little, the author thought, and so did I as I read the book. And yet these two countries rank at the top or close to the top in all areas of social welfare, and certainly above the U.S. They have solved, for all intents, all the social ills listed above. With no religious nudging, at least of the type touted in the United States, they have transformed their society into what I've always thought should be a "Christian" approach to society: sharing resources so that no one suffers who need not.

In interview after interview with Danish and Swedish citizens, the author found a repeated disinterest in religion. Not rejection, but simple disinterest. Animated and opinionated in all other areas of life, subjects often fell silent or grew bored with the topic. The supernatural, it seems, is not a topic of normal thought there. Nor is the existence of the soul, the meaning of life, or existence after death. People who do have opinions on such matters consider them private, and discussing them is considered rude. One interviewee recounted a drunken evening during which a longtime friend asked if he could share a secret about himself. He was, he said, a believer in God. He was rather embarrassed talking of such a personal issue and hoped his friend wouldn't think him a bad person for his belief.

The author proposes various reasons for the secular versus religious natures of different societies. He discusses church monopolies and the need (or lack thereof) for marketing churches, the greater or lesser degrees of personal and national security, the percentage of working women (historically the family members with the most time and interest to devote to church activities and to getting their families involved), and the history of how religion came to be adopted in a particular society (i.e., from the top down or the bottom up). He then goes on to discuss secular religion, that is, people who define themselves by religion, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, etc., but who are not involved in religious activities.

The book closes with interviews with a fellow professor, first in his native Denmark, and then after a year spent in California. This fellow came to the U.S. believing himself to be a Christian and left having decided that if what he saw here is Christianity, then he wasn't a Christian after all. The author asks him, "So when you go back to Denmark, if someone were to ask you, what would you say to them about the religion here?.... I mean how would you explain it to other Danes?" Here's the reply: "I think I would say to them, maybe you don't believe me, but the American society is -- all politics and media discussions -- is based on that everybody is very devoted Christians. Meaning that you cannot hold an office, you cannot be a president, you cannot be whatever, if you don't publicly say that you believe in God and all of your sentences end with God bless America or whatever. That we, as Danes, have to be very, very careful with joining the United States when they want us to go to war or they want us to join them in whatever endeavors they want us to join with them, because the religious fanatics in the United States have a very, very high influence on what's going to happen in the United States, and I don't think Danes know that. I think that if Danes knew that, they would be very -- I don't think they would be afraid -- but I think they would say, 'no, no, we don't want to be a part of that'."

Apart from the eye-opening information on how secular a society can be, how successful a secular society can be at achieving social well-being, and how unnecessary religion is as the basis for civilization, this book offers important reading for Americans, who sometimes need to look outside our borders to see how the rest of the world operates and how we are perceived "out there".


Customer rating is 3 of 5  Somepeople would not want to live in this paradise   2009-10-28
By The Professor (SoCal)
The author failed to mention some items about Scandinavia. For instance, the prevalence of anti-Semitism. Both Norway's politicians and cultural elites project virulent anti-Zionism. Norwegian unions remain the world's most relentless Israeli trade and academic boycott obsessives.
Although ranked amongst the leading countries for press freedom, the Nordic
media are notable for their bias against Israel. Norwegian journalists
deliberately dumb down Middle East complexity to a fairy tale of Evil Powerful
Israel vs. Innocent Helpless Palestine. Worse are cartoons in the Norwegian press that rival pre-war Nazi propaganda.
I would rather live in America with all of our economic problems than anti-Semite Scandinavia.
I do recommend the book and it contributes to the discussion.
Customer rating is 5 of 5  An Inspiring Read for Those Who've Never Found Religion Necessary   2009-10-09
By Emily S. Sanford (Berlin, Germany)
An excellent book dedicated to unveiling the genuine irreligious nature of life in Scandinavia. Far less passionate and anti-religious than Hitchens, Dawkins, or Harris, Zuckerman's tone is one of sheer elation at the proof he stumbles across of contented (in fact, EXCEPTIONALLY contented) societies that get aong just fine without god.
Customer rating is 5 of 5  Myth Buster   2009-07-24
By Oliver (Los Angeles)
Many conservatives, especially in the United States, claim that it is impossible to have a moral society without God. They are wrong, according to Phil Zuckerman, an American social scientist who lived in Denmark for 14 months. Zuckerman reports that the Danish, and their neighbors, the Swedes, live happy, health and moral lives without worrying too much about religion. These Scandinavians give more to charity, and take better care of their sick and poor than almost any other group of people. Their rates of violent crime are amongst the lowest on earth.

It is not that the Danes are anti-religious. Quite to the contrary, many of them self-identify as being "Christians." But, they almost never go to church, they do not believe that Jesus was anything more than a good man, and they do not believe in God. They just do not concern themselves with religion, and instead focus on the here and now.

Zuckerman's book is well worth a read. It is straightfoward and factual, based on the author's personal experiences, as well as many formal interviews. I think you'll find it informative.
Customer rating is 5 of 5  Clear, calm, and engaging dismembering of religious claims about human spiritual innateness   2009-06-29
By Kevin Ireland (CA, USA)
An excellent qualitative study via interviews supported by others' quantitative work regarding two Scandinavian countries that score as lowest globally for belief in God: Denmark and Sweden.

The author, a sociologist, lived for about a year in Denmark with forays to Sweden where he interviewed people about their beliefs. Given it was a sample of opportunity, it nets out, in terms of research as only strongly heuristic. Yet, buttressed by other evidence, he captures two societies who rarely consider religion, God, or the meaning of life to be either necessary or even important concerns. Instead, the shared philosophy is: Life ends; take care of each other while you are here.

I can live with that!

Interestingly, in these two countries, many people call themselves Christians and the state religion is Lutheran. Yet, they are simply using traditional words the way you and I might say Bless you after a sneeze. In D&S, many people opt out of the church tax while some stay in for life's basic rituals like a wedding or funeral in a church but they cite tradition.

One salient interview is a Danish associate who the author first interviews in Denmark. Six months after the subject has lived in the US, the author interviews him again. He was a believer in Denmark, an anomaly. Now, after six months of US-style faith, he realizes that the definition of Christian is much more intense and describes himself as a reluctant atheist. The author contrasts Danish and US histories of religion and social choice. It is clear that the US is a marketplace of religions faiths and so they adopt all the tools of marketing that are used in capitalism--and then some given the leverage of fear and eternal afterlife.

Zuckerman also observes that in US society, an atheist is almost compelled to study and form a structure of knowledge and argument for public debate about their beliefs whereas in Denmark, being able to say about faith, God and the meaning of life, "I haven't given it much thought" is well within the norm. Now, that idea and permission is really refreshing. It means all the bother about stuff that doesnt exist is cleaned out. People focus on here and each other. And it works. Zuckerman also takes issue with the claims made--and often accepted at face value in the US--that spiritual faith and the need for meaning are innate and have been the rule throughout history. This, of course, is fatuous as there have always been atheists. Perhaps there is a predilection toward existential concreteness in a portion of the human race and less so in others (though the idea this has to be satisfied by religion is suspect. Check out this for perspective on how religion hijacks our innate cognitive abilities and then calls itself innate): http://richarddawkins.net/article,3779,Why-We-Believe-in-Gods---Dr-Andy-Thomson---American-Atheists-09,Andy-Thomson

Overall, Society Without God, is a well-written engaging book with personal anecdotes, a relaxed tone and an easy professional approach to a series of unfounded claims made by spiritualists. Bravo!


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