Christopher Beha's path to atheism began in college. Close encounters with death'a brother's car accident, his own cancer diagnosis'led to a period of disenchantment. He picked up Bertrand Russell's anti-religious diatribes and started skipping Mass, which he'd attended since childhood. In the years that followed, he immersed himself in the work of atheists such as Albert Camus and Arthur Schopenhauer. As he grew older, something shifted. In his new book, Why I Am Not an Atheist, Beha'a novelist and a former editor of Harper's Magazine'describes why he ultimately rejected the conclusions of these thinkers and others. The choice was, in part, due to philosophical objections. But he describes another motive for his return to faith'a refreshing counter to how religious conversions, and religion more broadly, are frequently talked about today. Comparisons between faith and romantic love crop up throughout the centuries, appearing in the Bible'the 'Song of Songs' is one long love...
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