Religion for Atheists
A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From the author of The Architecture of Happiness, a deeply moving meditation on how we can still benefit, without believing, from the wisdom, the beauty, and the consolatory power that religion has to offer.
Alain de Botton was brought up in a committedly atheistic household, and though he was powerfully swayed by his parents' views, he underwent, in his mid-twenties, a crisis of faithlessness. His feelings of doubt about atheism had their origins in listening to Bach's cantatas, were further developed in the presence of certain Bellini Madonnas, and became overwhelming with an introduction to Zen architecture. However, it was not until his father's death -- buried under a Hebrew headstone in a Jewish cemetery because he had intriguingly omitted to make more secular arrangements -- that Alain began to face the full degree of his ambivalence regarding the views of religion that he had dutifully accepted. Why are we presented with the curious choice between either committing to peculiar concepts about immaterial deities or letting go entirely of a host of consoling, subtle and effective rituals and practices for which there is no equivalent in secular society? Why do we bristle at the mention of the word "morality"? Flee from the idea that art should be uplifting, or have an ethical purpose? Why don't we build temples? What mechanisms do we have for expressing gratitude? The challenge that de Botton addresses in his book: how to separate ideas and practices from the religious institutions that have laid claim to them. In Religion for Atheists is an argument to free our soul-related needs from the particular influence of religions, even if it is, paradoxically, the study of religion that will allow us to rediscover and rearticulate those needs.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this highly original and thought-provoking book, philosopher and atheist de Botton (How Proust Can Change Your Life) turns his critical eye to what religion does well and how nonbelievers might borrow from it to improve their own lives, institutions, and practices without believing in God. For example, de Botton praises religion for satisfying the universal needs for community, comfort, and kindness and for its recognition that all people are imperfect and in need of help and healing. Some of what he suggests seems unattainable: de Botton calls for colleges and universities to shift from preparing students for careers to training them in "the art of living," something he says religion does well. But other suggestions are more exciting for their plausibility would not a Day of Atonement, drawn from Judaism, benefit all relationships? De Botton will no doubt annoy militant atheists who believe religion not only has no use but is essentially evil, but his well-reasoned arguments should appeal to the more open-minded nonbeliever. And de Botton is a lively, engaging writer.
Customer Reviews
Total waste
Should be called "How to sucker people who are new atheists or not very knowledgable back to religion" or, "What you can do to call yourself an atheist without having to go the scary step of actually learning anything related."
Utter tripe, Mr. De Botton may have grown up in an unreligious home, but that doesn't make him an atheist. Understanding who the world and the universe work eliminate the need to cling on to some vestiges of religion.
I'd humbly recommend "The Magic of Reality" instead. You'll actually learn something useful, and also learn to see these kinds of charlatans for what they are.
What a complete LOAD
A desperate attempt to sway those attempting to embrace the inhierent strength of athethism back toward the "sheeple" mindset of religion. Do not waste your money on this book. Adults don't have invisible friends, Believe in Yourself.
Read for yourself. Decide for yourself.
This book presents a very interesting viewpoint. Will it change your mind? Not so sure about that but certainly worth the read, contrary to the obviously political "reviews" you see here.