Atheist Spirituality

Geoff Crocker

Following an economics degree in the UK, Geoff worked on the development of industrial strategy for corporate clients worldwide including IBM, Yamaha, ABB and many smaller businesses, covering industries in Europe, Asia, USA, Africa and Australia. Over the last 20 years he focused on the rapid transition of the Russian economy where he advised many leading businesses on global development.

Alongside this, his conference work included presentation and publication of Bible themes, some of which were co published with Bible Society. Geoff worked on this in the UK, Europe and USA, but also with societies in transition, speaking for small township groups in apartheid South Africa, to large outdoor conventions in the Philippines, or to churches hosting political reform in the former German Democratic Republic.

From this synthesis of the secular and sacred, Geoff developed a core concern for how faith could be interpreted for the increasingly dominant atheist interpretation. He himself went through a major re-evaluation of faith leading to an atheist conclusion. However he retains a strong conviction of the value of religion if interpreted as myth, rather than as literal truth or as doctrine. He explores and develops this new creative synthesis in his book ‘An Enlightened Philosophy – Can An Atheist Believe Anything?’ which blends a fresh emphasis on the metaphysical from philosophy with myth from religion. The book is inspiring and breaks new ground, moving on from the barren confrontation between atheism and religion.

Geoff has recently completed an MA in philosophy at Bristol University UK, and his book ‘A Managerial Philosophy of Technology : Technology and Humanity in Symbiosis’ is published by Palgrave Macmillan (2012). He also enjoys dinghy sailing, cycling, classical music and literature.

 

André Comte-Sponville

André Comte-Sponville was born in Paris in 1952. A former pupil of the ‘l’École Normale Supérieure de la rue d’Ulm’, holder of the prestigious French ‘agrégation’ and a doctorate in philosophy, he was for many years senior lecturer at the l’Université Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne), from which he resigned in order to be able to dedicate more time to writing and to conferences which he gives outside the university. He is a member of the National Consultative Committee on Ethics.

He has published some twenty books, including Traité du désespoir et de la béatitude (PUF, 1984, rééd. Coll. « Quadrige ») ; A Short Treatise on the Great Virtues (Vintage, 2003); Dictionnaire philosophique (PUF, 2001) ; Le capitalisme est-il moral ? (Albin Michel, 2004, rééd. Le Livre de Poche) ; The Book of Atheist Spirituality, Bantam (2009). His most recent book is Le sexe ni la mort (Trois essais sur l’amour et la sexualité), Albin Michel, 2012.