Religion for Atheists by Alain De Botton
Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton
“The most boring and unproductive question one can ask of any religion is whether or not it is true.”
This book is written by an atheist for atheists. The author, Alain de Botton , bases his comments on the premise that supernatural claims of religion are false, yet, we can discover religions as repositories of a myriad ingenious concepts which we can try to assuage a few of the most persistent and unattended ills of secular life. The author believed that the error of modern atheism has been to disregard the multiple aspects of the faiths remain relevant even after their central tenets have been dismissed. It is when people cease to feel that they must either prostrate themselves before religion or denigrate them, we can import religious ideas into the secular realm.
Growing up as an agnostic atheist raised by…religious parents, I tend to lean toward the idea that God does not exist. Yet, from my perspective, to claim that God definitely exists or definitely does not exist are equally illogical, since the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Thus, I label myself as an agnostic atheist. I’ve encountered militant atheists attempting to prove the non-existence of God or find contradicting terms in the Bible. They find much pleasure in laying bare the idiocy of believers in remorseless detail. Though this exercise may have its satisfactions, I don’t find them benefiting us atheists. So, can atheists benefit from the teachings of religion? I haven’t really considered this until I came across the book—The Religion for Atheist.
The Religion for Atheist is broken down into 10 chapters: 1. Wisdom without Doctrine, 2. Community, 3. Kindness, 4. Education, 5. Tenderness, 6. Pessimism, 7. Perspective, 8. Art, 9. Architecture, and 10. Institutions. The book comes across much as an extended essay and examines what secular society is lacking, illustrate what religion can provide, then proposes a secular solution. Personally, I don’t agree with a lot of the things he mentioned or find the solutions he proposed to be useful, however, the book did shed some light on the positive aspects of religion that I did not know about.
De Botton mourns the state of the secular community. His main concern is around the themes of alienation and loneliness. He describes that we used to feel more connected to our neighbors, charity was an integral part of premodern life, we used to have places to seek comfort when dealing with troubled relationships. De Botton then goes ahead and describes how religion creates necessary social bonds, gives comfort to those in pain, makes sense of an otherwise confusing and chaotic existence, and changes people for the better. I have to admit that loneliness is a prevailing theme in modern society, and when we strip away belief from religion, what atheists can do is to recognize the importance of fostering social connection and ….create a secular way of doing it? Again…as previously mentioned, I really don’t find his proposed solutions to be useful.
I believe the main takeaway I have from this book is that, if religion is made up, the group of people who invented them would be atheists, and the underlying ambition of that is impressive to me. They are trying to locate the tenets of a good life and interrogating the greatest themes. Life is difficult and some people need assistance and guidance. And what religious life is trying to do is provide people with tools be the best version of self…through imposing the idea of inherent morality and some rigid rules… which I disagree. Although I disagree with the idea of inherent morality and almost every vision of what the best self is, I admire the intention and structure that religions place upon this ambition. Through the understanding of religion, atheists can be reminded of our need for connections, community, compassion, and man-made moral compass and find secular ways of fulfilling them. ie. Meetup sessions, confession websites, mutual interest groups….
Some critics mentioned that the book did not have a hint of acknowledgement of how religion has gone wrong and did catastrophic damages during the past few thousand years. They claimed that the book ignores the pernicious role religion have played in stirring up fear or excessive guilt, pleading fatalism and unconditional obedience to rulers, and foster the fanatical exclusivism that has fuelled endless bloody conflicts and wars. Yet, I don’t have an issue with this. This book is about the positive aspects of religion that atheists can learn from, no one did deny the negative aspects of religion, they are simply out of the scope of this book. Plus, if anything, atheist will already be well acquainted with the negative aspects of religion….
All in all, I learned quite a few things about Christianity. For some reason Judaism and Buddhism are only occasionally mentioned, and Islam remains completely unmentioned…anyways, this book is still an interesting read. To be honest, I’d read anything Alain de Botton wrote, this just shows how much I appreciate his writing style and sense of humor.
