Positive psychology is a product of the academy, written for the extremely educated, even though, based on Chris Peterson, Seligman’s closest colleague for a few years, the optimistic bias is looked down upon by intellectual elites. Positive psychology is a secular philosophy, in distinction to self-help books that depend on assistance from a higher power, corresponding to Joel Osteen’s Become a Better You and Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life. Seligman criticizes a fearful God of the Old Testament and its nullification of human company.