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Religion For Atheists: A Non-Believer's Guide To The Uses Of Religion (2012)

by Alain de Botton(Favorite Author)

3.58 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0241144779 (ISBN13: 9780241144770)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Hamish Hamilton

review 1: What if religions are neither all true or all nonsense? The boring debate between fundamentalist believers and non-believers is finally moved on by Alain's inspiring new book, which boldly argues that the supernatural claims of religion are of course entirely false – and yet that religions still have some very important things to teach the secular world.Religion for Atheists suggests that rather than mocking religions, agnostics and atheists should instead steal from them – because they're packed with good ideas on how we might live and arrange our societies. Blending deep respect with total impiety, Alain (a non-believer himself) proposes that we should look to religions for insights into, among other concerns, how to:- build a sense of community- make our relationshi... moreps last- overcome feelings of envy and inadequacy- escape the twenty-four hour media- go travelling- get more out of art, architecture and music- and create new businesses designed to address our emotional needs.For too long non-believers have faced a stark choice between either swallowing lots of peculiar doctrines or doing away with a range of consoling and beautiful rituals and ideas. At last, in Religion for Atheists, Alain has fashioned a far more interesting and truly helpful alternative.(less)
review 2: The central argument in this work is that we possess emotional, psychological and social needs that our nihilistic, consumer orientated society fails to provide us with any proper mechanisms of fulfilling. De Botton argues that we need to invent secular methods for fulfilling these essentials that our political and economic systems have come to ignore and that new methodologies for learning how to make the world a better place can be found through the disciplines practiced by most religions.The thesis is a valid one: we can be more moral and spiritual without having to submit to the absurd doctrines and superstitions of religions and beliefs in God's word, but we cannot be more moral and spiritual without discipline. De Botton points to some valuable lessons that could be retrieved from religions. He himself lists these as: "how to generate feelings of community, how to promote kindness, how to cancel out the current bias towards commercial values in advertising, how to select and make use of secular saints, how to rethink the strategies of universities and our approach to cultural education, how to redesign hotels and spas, how better to acknowledge our own childlike needs, how to surrender some of our counterproductive optimism, how to achieve perspective through the sublime and the transcendent, how to reorganize museums, how to use architecture to enshrine values – and, finally, how to coalesce the scattered efforts of individuals interested in the care of souls and organize them under the aegis of institutions.”But once he has expounded his thesis, the big question becomes "how?". How can this change take place? Alain points to the need for getting institutional backing, or creating new institutions, whilst telling us that August Comte's attempts to create this kind of secular religion in the 19th century failed miserably. According to De Botton, Comte's big mistake was to call his institution a "religion". Perhaps that is true, but what Alain de Botton's analysis misses is the fundamental ingredient of religion: metaphysics. If a secular concept of the religious institution is to function it needs to have a metaphysical anchor and pointer. A scientific reason that determines where humanity is headed. If we look to cosmology we can now see scientists talking about these kind of pointers. The Cosmological Constant indicates a determined universe, and if the will of the universe is to create conditions in which life forms can emerge and evolve into intelligent life capable of analysing the same universe that created it, we come to see humanity (homo sapiens) as a creature imbued with deep purpose. From this physical/metaphysical idea a positive, human religion could be constructed. De Booton however largely ignores the notion of metaphysics, and does not encourage positive thinking about humanity. Of course here lies another problem in De Botton's reasoning: he is too pessimistic and cynical about humanity to properly envisage human fulfillment. In any case, Religion for Atheists is a well expounded thesis, discussing in a very clear way a very necessary idea. And it is one of those books that could change one's perspective on life, perhaps even change, not just the perspective, but one's life itself. less

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Reviews (see all)

steph

Raised a catholic but subsequently given up my belief in god for a more rational adherence to science, I always struggled with the fact that I find comfort in going to church. This book helped me to resolve this contradiction. The first 2 chapters are particularly good. The middle bit gets a bit squishy and less interesting. Then I thought it doesn't matter. This book has served its purpose in helping understand why I felt and behaved the way I did. It is now up to me to do something about it. Highly recommend.

Chuck

Although the voice was a bit dry, there is a lot that I really appreciated about this book. What most strongly resonated with me was the idea that we need to be reminded of our best selves and need to have space and time set aside to do so in the community of others. Also, I value the acknowledgement that choosing to live w/out religion does not mean living w/out ethics and that humanists benefit from moral and ethical guidance outside of a religious structure.

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