Mere Morality, Dan Barker
Mere Morality, Dan Barker
List: $8.99 | Sale: $6.30
Club: $4.49

Mere Morality

Author: Dan Barker

Narrator: Dan Barker

Unabridged: 4 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/26/2019

Categories: Nonfiction, Religion, Atheism


Synopsis

What drives us to be good? How do we even know how to be good? Philosophers and theologians have dealt with such questions for millennia, but Dan Barker thinks the answers are not so complicated. In Mere Morality, he argues there's no need to appeal to supernatural commandments or the fear of some higher power when considering morality. Stripping “good" and "evil” down to the basics, he offers a simple compass for navigating life's most difficult moral and ethical dilemmas.
"Former pastor Dan Barker's eloquent and subtle antidote to Mere Christianity shows us by example how a very good person can get along fine without religion, inspiring others, accomplishing great works, and having a lot of fun in the bargain.” —Daniel C. Dennett, University Professor and Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University
"Dan Barker’s Mere Morality is a potent riposte to C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, a book much beloved by Christian apologists. Barker exposes the myriad of biblical practices that could be deemed immoral today, especially because so much of the Bible was written within a master-slave view of the world. Mere Morality offers a real-world view of morality grounded in behavioral biology, reason, and law." —Hector Avalos, author of Fighting Words: The Origins of Religious Violence

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ryan on January 10, 2019

This short book is a great reminder that morality is less complex, and more dependent on our cooperative instincts and on reason, than most people suppose. It’s also a reminder that reason is not a thing, but rather a function of the brain, and to be a fully aware and functioning moral agent require......more

Goodreads review by Jakub on December 25, 2018

Barker's three maxims for discerning moral truths are what he calls the three moral minds of "instinct, law, & reason". It seems quite superficial as he does not raise any objections to his proposition. It is actually quite simple to raise objections to this view, that neither instinct, law, nor reas......more

Goodreads review by John on February 03, 2021

This book wraps up everything that Dan Barker has to say about morality. Almost all of it can be found in his other books, but this one does a nice job of summarizing and expanding on the topic more. Get the print or e-book. The audiobook is nice enough, but Dan reads slowly and the mouth noises are......more

Goodreads review by David O'Reilly on February 07, 2019

An excellent book that goes to show that a belief in god is unnecessary to be a good person.......more

Goodreads review by Colton on September 01, 2020

I love Barker's perspective of a once evangelical pastor who's now an atheist. It adds something different to the other New Atheist writers and is something that resonates strongly with me. An excerpt: Your life shall hang in doubt before you; night and day you shall be in dread, with no assurance of......more