Does goodness require God? Do we need eternity for meaningful lives? Should we believe in God without evidence? Peter Cave’s new book, Humanism, is a welcome guide, with very human answers, to these questions and many more. With historical adherents as various as Mark Twain, Einstein, Freud, Philip Pullman, and Frank Zappa, Humanism’s central quest is to live with meaning with no need for the supernatural. Cave explores the humanist approach to religious belief, ethics, and politics, together with moral dilemmas and those ‘meaning of life’ questions that can keep us awake at night. Showing how humanists make sense of the world using reason, experience, and sensitivity, Cave emphasizes that we can, and should, flourish without God. Lively, provocative, and refreshingly rant-free, this book is essential reading for all – whether atheist, agnostic, believer, or of no view – who wish better to understand what it means to be human.

"An admirable guide for all those non-religious (surely the true ‘silent majority’?) who may wake up to the fact that they are humanists … What we have in common is, indeed, not faith but our humanity."