Review

Rating: 8

In what reads like a combination of research paper and super-lengthy blog post, Zuckerman presents a very convincing case that religion is unnecessary for a society to prosper.

It’s important to note that the book’s hypothesis is not “secularism makes societies BETTER” but rather “lack of religion does NOT make societies fail.” To this end, Zuckerman interviews 149 semi-randomly selected people from Denmark & Sweden, while living there for 14 months. The general consensus is that religion is mostly a non-issue for people. Some believe, most don’t, but nearly all really just *don’t care*.

As for the support for his research hypothesis, one need look no further than the UN statistics on where Scandinavian countries place in terms of happiness, health, crime, poverty, etc. (hint: they do very well in all categories, significantly better than the US in most) The author does a good job of illustrating his personal experience while living there, as how it compares to living in northern California.

If I could, I would give it 4.5 stars. The only reason I don’t give it 5 is because at times, it feels a little bit too much like a research paper. At a mere 183 pages, it is a quick read; but there were a couple moments when it felt like the pacing was lacking. In spite of that, it is definitely worth reading; I highly recommend for anyone interested in socio-religious issues (whether a believer or a non-believer or a fence-walker).