I Am Not God by David J. LaGuardia

I am Not God contends that a world of seven billion people cannot become a place of peace, justice, and shared prosperity unless we, as individuals and societies, learn to consider the interests of those with whom we share our world. Both our theistic and nontheistic wisdom traditions remind us that we are not the center of the universe and call us to live for something beyond our own self-interest. Religious or not, it’s useful to consider what comes first in our lives. Unquestioning loyalty to a religion, nation, system, or ideology can be used to validate unjust realities when they are in our interests and can lead us to demonize and marginalize those we identify as different from us. Only when we recognize that righteous living is not a destination but a continuous struggle, can we become our best selves and claim the freedom to choose who we are becoming personally and socially. This book is a challenge to grow in self-awareness recognizing the ways that a self-centered lens, which demands our way and believes that we are above others, hurts us as individuals and as a global family.