Patria Senza Dio. Cosa Possono Insegnarci Sulla Contentezza Le Nazioni Meno Religiose (2008) - Plot & Excerpts
At the outset, I admire Phil Zuckerman for squeezing this additional project on top of his original assignment in Denmark and Sweden.I benefited enormously from this book as it provided affirmation of my own views of the direction in which societies should evolve. The author interviews people from various walks of life in Sweden and Denmark and the questions in the interview get straight to the point. It is amazing to find out that most of the Danes and Swedes agree that a personal god does not exist, yet they go through the confirmation ritual and get married in a church. I was very impressed by the practice adopted by some of the Danish citizens. They have opted to not pay the church tax and instead donate the money to organizations such as Amnesty International or Doctors without borders. I think that these are truly noble souls. After reading through the interviews, I got the impression that Danes and Swedes are more honest in paying taxes than people of many other societies. Because of the honesty in tax payment and in the redistribution of tax by Government in these societies, the difference in economic and social status between a garbage collector (sanitation guy/gal) and a 9 to 5 white collared employee is vastly diminished. On the contrary, you will find that the difference between the haves and the have-not's is gigantic in all the countries where morality is measured by whether or not a person follows traditions or whether or not a person believes in supernatural. The above point does make me wonder whether societies that believe less in supernatural / God, behave more honestly on an average when it comes to dealing with fellow human beings.I am absolutely convinced that all human beings in all societies are born honest, but it is our cultures that turn us into relatively more or less honest. In general, societies that think less of god, are the the ones that think high of humanity. These societies realize that humans and the nature around us are the only real entities. This realization will automatically result in people paying more attention to rules that directly impact the human beings. For instance, these societies understand that obedience to traffic rules is much more important than following daily prayer rituals. Regarding the book, I do see a not so positive side as well. Some of the interviews can feel repetitious and similar to earlier interviews in the book. But, on the whole, I enjoyed the book thoroughly. Paddy. I have never been in either Denmark or Sweden and I am not sure on how the societies are there, but from my perception I wish all societies were like that. Religion is an parasite that goes around parasitizing all aspects of society, and I am not talking about just one religion in particular, I am talking about the whole concept of religion from all religions perspective, where it controls many aspects of government all the way down to individual levels influencing your eating diet, you intimacy, you working on saturdays, and many people leaving their work, homework, exams, sick relatives and all other aspect of life in the hands of God without actually trying to find a solution to everything in a rational way. Religion is just bad and I really wish the rest of societies were just like Denmark and Sweden societies are.
What do You think about Patria Senza Dio. Cosa Possono Insegnarci Sulla Contentezza Le Nazioni Meno Religiose (2008)?
Shows how the people of Sweden, Denmark and other countries get along quite well without God.
—Merlin
A very interesting, engaging, and respectful read.
—Jozy
