I especially like Carrier's advocation of the well-examined life, which he touches on frequently in this book.
Carrier wrote:In Part I (“How I Got Here”) I described my own spiritual experiences with the Tao, which I later came to realize were entirely natural. Though most people assume being “spiritual” entails being “religious,” this isn’t a necessary connection. When people talk about a spiritual life, they point to someone who has his mind on higher things, who is not obsessed with property or gain, and who is passionately devoted to a belief about the meaning of life and the path to happiness. But this describes any devoted philosopher. When people talk about a spiritual “experience” they point to the combined sensation of awe, inner peace, and enlightenment, which culminates in a reverence for life and nature, and a sincere self-reflection about these things and oneself. And yet that, too, is the experience of any true philosopher. I live a spiritual life, because I live a self-examined life of the mind, I care deeply about my beliefs, I care more about my ideals and human happiness than about material things, and I experience awe, inner peace, and enlightenment when I fathom human minds and the natural world. Spiritual experience leads to and reinforces the spiritual lifestyle, and in that respect my path to Metaphysical Naturalism through Taoism was fortuitous. For Metaphysical Naturalism does not have a developed spiritual tradition, even though there have been many spiritual atheists, from Robert Ingersoll to Carl Sagan and Corliss Lamont.