Summary
Title: Nothing: Something to Believe In
Author: Nica Lalli
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 159102529X
Pro:
• Provides insight into how religion and theism appear to an outsider
• Might be easier than other popular atheist books for some religious theists to read
• Engaging, entertaining, and enjoyable to read
Con:
• None
Description:
• Personal account of one woman's journey through life as an atheist
• Discusses how author dealt with religion when being pushed by others, including family
• Argues that if atheists believe in "nothing," then there's nothing wrong with that
Book Review
Currently an art educator in New York City, Nica Lalli is an atheist whose memoir Nothing: Something to Believe In explores the ways in which her skeptical, freethinking atheism has intersected with the religious beliefs of the people who have moved in and out of her life. Lalli remembers that even as a child she and her family were different: everyone else she knew was "something" — Catholic, Jewish, or Presbyterian — but according to her father, her family was "nothing."
For her parents, this was simply the way things were — with one originally Jewish and the other an Italian Catholic, it probably seemed easiest to be "nothing" if neither had any strong attachments to their ancestral religious faiths. Young Nica was devastated, though. How could she be "nothing" if all her friends were "something"? Where's the fun in that? Nica eventually grew out of this disappointment — in large part because as she had more and more encounters with people who were "something," she found that that something could get pretty ugly. In far too many cases, being something also meant not being a very good and friendly person.
On the one hand, Lalli's memoir demonstrates how "nothings" like her are much like everyone else: they have many of the same concerns, fears, hopes, problems, joys, etc. On the other hand, her memoir also reveals how different they are — or perhaps I should say how differently they are treated by "somethings." In many ways, religious theists didn't treat Lalli so much as a real human being but rather as an object for conversion or a lesser person to be pitied and prayed for. Religious theists rarely treat each other with such contempt, even when coming from different religions; but when they encounter atheists, freethinkers, skeptics, and other nonbelievers, so much changes.
Books on atheism by atheists have been getting more attention, but most of those are polemics against religion, theism, and various forms of irrational thinking. Those books tend to be more philosophical and/or argumentative, which can make it difficult for theists to relate to what the authors are driving at. Some of those theists might have an easier time with Lalli's books precisely because it is so personal — Lalli's perspective on religion doesn't appear to be strikingly different from that of someone like Dawkins', but her style and approach make for a very different sort of book.
Nica Lalli's Nothing: Something to Believe In is relatively short and very engaging, making it fairly easy to get through in a single sitting if you're so inclined — and most people will probably have trouble putting it down. There aren't any arguments here for atheism or against theism; instead, it's an attempt to open a window on what life can be like for atheists dealing with religious theism among colleagues and family members.
She makes it clear just how much she has grown and developed over the years. As a child she didn't understand what being a secular nonbeliever meant and didn't have much guidance on the matter from her parents; now an adult and a parent herself, she is faced with some of the same questions she used to ask — and she's trying to make the passage easier for her own kids. Contrary to the title of the book, though, I'm not so sure she's a "nothing." She may be nothing from the dominant perspective of religious theists, but why should their perspective be accepted as the natural default? I think that Nica Lalli believes in a number of things, like other people and the importance of human values — that's definitely something.
Point of Inquiry Podcast: Nica Lalli - Nothing: Something to Believe In
