Star Map

Star Map is a touching and deeply personal philosophical memoir about a young man's wrenching struggle with fanatical faith and his frantic search for truth and meaning. Lewis Vaughn's journey transforms him from a young Christian fundamentalist to a disillusioned agnostic to an atheist seeker of meaning in a godless world. Along the way he stumbles on the strongest empirical argument against the reliability of faith as a source of knowledge, and sees that life does indeed have meaning without religion. In the end, he never regains the faith he lost, but finds something better.


"Vaughn captures the anguish of teens growing up under strict fundamentalism ... well-written ... the author has an impressive ability to make the reader feel the deep discomfort of losing certainty" -Publishers Weekly

"This is a superb narrative for anyone who wonders if there can be meaning after faith." -Bart Ehrman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"Vaughn demonstrates the connection between what we believe and how we live." -Steven M. Cahn, City University of New York Graduate Center

"Vaughn writes beautifully, using novelistic techniques to keep us turning pages." -Susan K. Perry, Creativity Blogger, PsychologyToday.com

"This warm but powerful memoir reveals that real meaning comes from this world, not from above." -Dan Barker, Freedom From Religion Foundation

"Vaughn is both a master storyteller and a master teacher, with an account that will grip believers and skeptics alike." -Gerald J. Erion, professor of philosophy, Medaille College

"A compelling memoir of Vaughn's courageous journey from darkness into light." -Michael Shermer, author of The Moral Arc

"Star Map has riveting dialogue that makes philosophy come to life, and will be of interest to freethinkers everywhere." -Tim Madigan, president of the Bertrand Russell Society

"Vaughn's memoir is highly readable ... Few of the deconverted would rise to the level of Lewis Vaughn's eloquence and erudite productivity. If he wished, Vaughn could end his writing career with this luminous offering. Let's wish he doesn't. Let's wish he keeps writing." -J. H. McKenna, University of California, Irvine