Secular Wholeness: A Skeptic's Paths to a Richer Life

by David Cortesi

Can a skeptic the benefits of a religious practice? When you can't abide ideas of the supernatural, when no religious account of the world satisfies, how can you satisfy the need for depth, engagement, serenity in life? Davd Cortesi, well-known as a writer on technical subjects, brings a programmer's bent for logic and scholar's research skills to the search for secular ways * Gain existential validity, the sense we have a right to exist. * Weave a richly connected, suppportive community. * Gain the psychological benefits of meditation and prayer. * Enjoy the stability and comfort of meaningful ritual. * Formulate and justify a personal ethical code. * Prepare for our own, and those of people we love. The book also includes wide-ranging essays * The pursuit of the mysic How common is it? What is it like? What does it signify? How hard is it to reach? * How do we identify heroes and role models? Whata does that imply for us and our children? * What does science know about happiness? What are practical strategies for becoming happier? The book draws as freely from recent papers in refereed journals as it does from the teachings of the Buddha, Solon, and Epicurus. Optimistic, sometimes lyrical, but always grounded firmly in reason, Secular Wholeness is for anyone trying to live a deeper, more intentional life.

Genres: Religion

270 pages, Paperback

First published February 26, 2002

Reviews

[Aurora · Rating 5 out of 5]

When questioning the religion that surrounds me, my mother's eventual arguments for following it condense into assertions about the health benefits: that it allows me to remain in the community of Muslims, and that there is a meditative effect to praying. She is stumped by my other probing, and I've been doing research into the practicality of following the religion I was raised in, but never connected to. And the practicality of following any religion. David Cortesi's 'Secular Wholeness' is part of my research.

This book dissects the health benefits of a religious life and discusses secular substitutes with the same result. And the pragmatism and flexibility of the guidelines this book suggests - not to mention the vast reference list at the end of it - has me convinced a secular lifestyle is for me. Each of Cortesi's ideas resonated with me, putting into words some questions I've had for a long, long time -- and the answers I'd come up with but couldn't express, or maybe couldn't fully understand.

This is a goldmine of practical wisdom on piecing together a wholesome and mindful existence for yourself, identifying role models in the grounded world around you, finding significance in and celebrating the idea that your existence is a happy accident rather than an intentional creation, establishing an ethical framework to guide your actions, dealing with grief and death, accepting the universe - good and bad - as it is, and ultimately achieving a general state of contentment.

Religious or not, everyone can have something to gain from reading this. Simple, well-written and effective. I'm eager to buy a hard-copy to refer to often, 'holy book' style.

Full text here: http://tassos-oak.com/readbook.html