Religion for Atheists. : A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion

What if religions are neither all true nor all nonsense? The boring debate between fundamentalist believers and non-believers is finally moved on by Alain De Botton’s book Religion For Atheists, which 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 De Botton (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 relationships 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. **From the author of __The Consolations of Philosophy__, a deeply provocative and useful argument about how we can benefit from the wisdom and power of religion--without having to "believe" in any of it.**Debates about religion have been hugely and in some ways boringly polarized in recent years: On the one side are those who argue that religion should be our sole source of truth and insight. And on the other side are those who propose (with equal intransigence) that religion is childish nonsense and should be discarded by all right-thinking people.Into this increasingly sterile debate Alain de Botton now launches a revolutionary argument. He starts with a bold proposal: let's imagine that God doesn't exist, and yet that religion nevertheless has a lot to teach us. Why do we feel the need to choose between committing to belief in immaterial deities or letting go entirely of the consoling rituals and practices that belief carries with it and for which there... From the author of The Consolations of Philosophy , a deeply provocative and useful argument about how we can benefit from the wisdom and power of religion--without having to "believe" in any of it. Debates about religion have been hugely and in some ways boringly polarized in recent years: On the one side are those who argue that religion should be our sole source of truth and insight. And on the other side are those who propose (with equal intransigence) that religion is childish nonsense and should be discarded by all right-thinking people. Into this increasingly sterile debate Alain de Botton now launches a revolutionary argument. He starts with a bold proposal: let's imagine that God doesn't exist, and yet that religion nevertheless has a lot to teach us. Why do we feel the need to choose between committing to belief in immaterial deities or letting go entirely of the consoling rituals and practices that belief carries with it and for which there... What if religions are neither all true nor all nonsense? The long-running and often boring debate between believers and non-believers is finally moved forward by Alain de Botton's inspiring book, which boldly argues that the supernatural claims of religion are entirely false--but that it still has some very important things to teach the secular world. Religion for Atheists suggests that rather than mocking religion, agnostics and atheists should instead steal from it--because the world's religions are packed with good ideas on how we might live and arrange our societies. Blending deep respect with total impiety, de Botton (a non-believer himself) proposes that we look to religion for insights into how to, among other concerns, build a sense of community, make our relationships last, overcome feelings of envy and inadequacy, inspire travel and reconnect with the natural world.--From publisher description. I. Widsom without doctrine II. Community III. Kindness IV. Education V. Tenderness VI. Pessimism VII. Perspective VIII. Art IX. Architecture X. Institutions.