Life's Too Short to Pretend You're Not Religious

“Effectively skewering a central fallacy of the age, David Dark argues that at the deepest level no one is more or less religious than anyone else. With his premise granted, new avenues for ownership, responsibility, and a renewed attentiveness to all we say, do and think arise. Life’s Too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious is a call to consciousness and the compassion that accompanies the sacred insight that the whole world is kin and everything belongs.” –Richard Rohr, author of Everything Belongs

“For those of us who claim to be religious and those of us who religiously deny such labels, Dark grants us the gift and burden to think deeply about the imagination, scaffolding, and consequences of our religiosity. In reading his journey and cautions, my sense of personal accountability and religious?identity?were expanded. Such is a book that reads the reader and if we stick with it we gain insight into self and neighbor.”? –Christina Edmondson, scholar activist and host of Truth’s?Table

“David Dark is one of our most astute and necessary cultural critics. His work gracefully opens new doors of understanding and breaks down barriers between secular and non-, and it puts a lot of old mythology out to pasture with a daring affirmation at the heart of his radical critique. Life’s Too Short refreshingly ropes everyone in, insisting that we’re all in it together. We forget that.” –Jessica Hopper, author of The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic

“David Dark’s commitment to embracing the world whole makes him the sort of writer who can say in all seriousness but with a twinkle in his eye, ‘I believe Radiohead.’ It’s a style that might not please readers who think fast food should never share a table with haute cuisine, but such readers are not the ones Dark seems to have in mind.” –Maria Browning, editor of Chapter 16

“Dark’s book asks us to slow down, and really consider how we label each other, how we look at ourselves, and how the religious impulse runs through all we do. If you’re feeling a little worn down, and all the negative feelings that come with the word ‘religious’ rub you the wrong way, this book provides the fresh perspective you need.” –Jen Rose Yokel, The Rabbit Room

“Don’t let an aversion toward that radioactive word dissuade you. Life’s Too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious is a bracing manifesto for modern people and an optimism-infused love song to humanity. David Dark calls us to pay better, more generous attention to our own lives and the lives of others.” –Sara Zarr, National Book Award finalist and author of The Lucy Variations

“David Dark renders futile the cherished modern ambition to opt out of human religiosity; religion, rather, is a road we can make by walking with open eyes and informed minds. No marvels of progress can save us from being heretics and holy fools, or prophets, seers, and miracle workers. Dark helps us recognize these characters (and more) on the radio, in a dreary parking lot and within ourselves.” –Nathan Schneider, journalist, professor of Media Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, and author of Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition That Is Shaping the Next Economy

“David Dark reimagines being religious as a collective action open to all and demonstrates that in a time skeptical of religion, it can be a source of meaningful work and life-giving pleasure and joy—and even of change.” –Kaya Oakes, author of The Defiant Middle and faculty member in the College Writing Programs at University of California, Berkeley

David Dark is an American writer and public intellectual. A frequent speaker and podcast guest, he is the author of several books, including The Sacredness of Questioning Everything; Everyday Apocalypse: The Sacred Revealed in Radiohead, The Simpsons, and Other Pop Culture Icons; and The Possibility of America. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Pitchfork, Paste, America magazine, The Christian Century, and Religion News Service. Dark teaches in incarcerated communities and at Belmont University. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, singer-songwriter Sarah Masen.