How to Live in a Post-Religious Age: Terrorism, Philosophy, and the Meaning of Life

This is the translation of a 1996 Japanese bestseller that addresses terrorism from the viewpoints of philosophy and the meaning of life. I do not believe in a religion, but I cannot acquire the meaning of life through science. How can I live in a post-religious age? In the spring of 1995, the Aum cult released a chemical weapon in the Tokyo subway system, killing and injuring many people. The incident shocked society because there were many young scientists from elite universities among the cult’s high-ranking followers. Why did an activity that began as a search for the meaning of life end in unprecedented terrorism with poison gas? As someone who was once an aspiring scientist and turned into a philosopher, I tried hard to find out where and why they went wrong. This is a book in which a philosopher sincerely asks young readers to think about what it really means to live in a society where no one clearly knows what to believe in. [Contents] Foreword to the English Edition Preface Chapter One Between Science and Religion 1. An Uncomfortable Feeling about Faith 2. A New Way of Thinking about Life and Death 3. Why Did Budding Scientists Turn to Aum? 4. Disappointment with Science 5. Things Natural Science Cannot Address 6. New Religions’ Pattern of Recruiting Scientists 7. Why I Cannot Believe in Religion 8. The Problem of Spirituality 9. My Message to You Chapter Two What Are Mystical Experiences? 1. The Meaning of Mystical Experiences 2. The “If I Change, the World Will Change” Way of Thinking 3. Aspiring to Enlightenment 4. A Desire for Power 5. In the Narrow Space Between Mystical Experiences and Faith 6. My Mystical Experiences 7. My Experiences in a Qigong Community 8. The Mentality That Operates within a Closed World 9. The Sweet Nectar of “Only We Are Right” 10. The Enemy Is Inside You 11. A Philosophy of Worldly Desires Chapter Three The Trap of Healing and Salvation 1. Aum and Yutaka Ozaki 2. The Turn towards Religion in Ozaki’s Music 3. Seeking His True Self 4. Rock and Roll as Healing 5. Who Killed Ozaki? 6. A Community of Shifted Responsibility Chapter Four The Courage to Be Myself 1. Ineffective Prescriptions 2. Approaches Outside of Religion 3. The Gap Between Religion and Reality 4. Our Side’s “Blindfolding Structures” 5. What Feminism Brought to the Fore 6. The True Significance of the Aum Incident 7. Opening Yourself Up to “Mystery” Afterword Afterword ― 2019