The Varieties of Nonreligious Experience is emblematic of the second of three main streams of atheist books published in the West over the past two decades. On the one hand, Jerome Baggett’s nuanced sentiments resemble the countercultural work of others—such as Alain de Botton’s study of atheist reclamation(s) of religiosity in Religion for Atheists (2012)—that confronts reductionist conceptions of atheists and theists by showcasing the symmetry between their respective worldviews. On the other hand, Baggett differs from the militant first wave tenor of atheist apologists such as Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion (2006) and Christopher Hitchens’ God Is Not Great (2007). In contrast to the New Atheist defenders of atheist orthodoxy who dominate the media landscape, Baggett illuminates the humanity and humility of ordinary atheists in his survey of more than 500 American nonbelievers. Most atheists, he concludes, are not antireligious as they are so often characterized, but rather freethinkers...

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