Be a hero of meaning: Review of The Atheist’s Way by Eric Maisel

Eric Maisel is special to the numerous struggling creators, successful or not, who have used his many creativity books to motivate them and improve their art. I am one of them. My favourite Maisel books, to which I return often, are The Van Gogh Blues and Coaching the Artist Within.

Anyone who has read Maisel’s last few books will have observed the emergence and sharpening of a consistent philosophy. The Atheist’s Way: Living Well Without Gods is the culmination of that thinking. Infused with palpable joy, but also with hardheaded practicality, The Atheist’s Way offers a manifesto and operational paradigm for unbelievers. He refuses to pull any punches, as this early paragraph makes clear:

Let me remind you why I am framing these ideas around the term atheism and not around some less charge word such as secularism, humanism, rationalism, skepticism, naturalism, existentialism, or freethinking. First, it would be a shame to miss what may be an opportunity, since we are perhaps finally ready to face an indifferent universe with new views and to live purposefully and well without gods. Second, rallying around atheism underscores the heightened threat that religious belief poses to the survival of the species.

The bedrock of The Atheist’s Way is a very existential perspective (and here I’m expressing matters far less eloquently that Eric Maisel): the world intrinsically holds no purpose, so we cannot find life’s meaning. Instead we boldly make meaning. We decide what is meaningful to us and then take action, minute by minute, month by month, to make meaning. When the nihilistic nature of the universe threatens our mind, as it must often do, we employ courage (Maisel calls this, in one of his many wonderful turns of phrase, ‘nominating yourself as the hero of your own story’). We decide what values matter and we make ourselves moral beings. Life is not seeking but personal making.

Maisel’s clear, sparkling exposition brings The Atheist’s Way to life, and his logic from beginning to end is highly persuasive. Unlike most of his books, this one does not offer ‘exercises’ to put the book’s ideas into practice, but he points to parts of two other books (not coincidentally the two I mentioned above) for more concrete assistance. Above all, The Atheist’s Way makes one proud of being an atheist. This book is highly recommended for those of similar persuasion, or those wavering in their belief in the supernatural.