Phil Zuckerman, “Society Without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment” (New York University Press, 2010)

It is not uncommon for many Americans to believe that morality and order comes from God and religion. A society without these elements would consequently be immoral and chaotic. When Phil Zuckerman traveled to Scandinavia, however, where he would spend the next fourteen months, he found a stable and content nonbelieving population, who often have high scores on the “happiness index”, low crime and corruption rates, and efficient educational systems. His book Society Without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment (New York University Press, 2010)summarizes his qualitative research – mainly in the form of interviews – on the people of Scandinavia, and on their relationship to religion and society. He found that many people he interviewed for example, consider themselves Christian in a cultural historic sense, but do not at all believe in the notion of God – a position that would baffle many Americans. In addition, though many reject the notion of God, atheists in Scandinavia seem to be marked by indifference to religion overall – an indifference that would be unheard of in America, where religion is still significantly powerful enough to have protesters. In this fascinating book, Zuckerman explores possible historical and cultural reasons why Scandinavia came to be the irreligious niche that it is today, and why it so differs from other countries who seem to be becoming more and more religious. Most of all,  he uses his research to dispel the belief that a society needs to believe in God to thrive and prosper. The secular nonbelievers in Scandinavia, it seems, are doing just fine.

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