Religion for Atheists: Book Review

The thinker and philosopher Alain de Botton wants to “steal” (that’s his word) from religions their rituals  and ceremonies and incorporate them into communal restaurants, museums, atheist temples, and secular universities. He says there are “good bits” we can get from religions without considering their mystical aspects.

In his new book “Religion for Atheists” (Pantheon Books, 2012) de Botton thinks atheists are missing out on Rembrandt‘s Christ in the Storm (p 234), Bach’s St Matthew Passion (p 167), and Michelangelo’s Pieta (p 228).

He doesn’t have to steal. You can attend any church sponsored concert without  showing a membership card or pledging your commitment at the door. You can visit the Metropolitan Museum showing the works of Renaissance artists by just giving a small donation at the gate. You can enroll in any university course on humanities and learn how philosophers and theologians arrived at their conclusion on how to live. And you can  go to Starbucks, and if you are in a friendly mood, engage in conversation with strangers.

I like his idea of Agape Restaurant,  where patrons can seat in long tables and celebrate (my suggestion) national holidays like Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day or Presidents’ Day.

We Compartmentalize

De Botton may complain that the establishments I mentioned do not in themselves promote neighborliness because they thrive in an environment of commercialism. But that is exactly the point. In our society, in the 21st century, we compartmentalize our activities into work-leisure, professional-personal, and ecclesiastical-secular.

People of like-minded beliefs gather together in a communal setting. Their rituals and ceremonies are a  reflection of their common faith. It is this faith that bind them together and make them recipients of life-wisdom derived from their scriptures.

Mimicking these observances without internalizing the mystical aspects, is shallow and without meaning. The nonbelievers may be uplifted by the solemnity of the occasion but will soon “come back to reality” after the ceremony.

Atheism as a Formal Religion

If de  Botton wants atheists, agnostics and secularists to have a sense of community without feeling left out of the  grandeur and sanctity of religious rituals, then they can organize themselves as a formal religion. Modifying the terms “god“, “prayer” and “divine” to humanist context. Among mainstream  religions, in this day and age, there are sects which define god as a metaphor, as nature, or as an experience in their lives. That god is the divine within us, and when we pray we are praying to the god in us.

Auguste Comte (p 306) had tried forming this “new religion” but failed because he did not pattern it after the symbolic, metaphorical aspect of the Church.

Borrowing from Comte, de Botton acknowledges Comte’s “recognition that secular society requires its own institutions, ones that could take the place of religions by addressing human needs which fall outside the existing remits of politics, the family, culture and the workplace.”

This “atheist religion,” from all appearances, will look like any other church but without the supernatural aspect. For example, Thomas Jefferson spent a couple of nights in the White House cutting and pasting the New Testament, removing the parts referring to miracles and the supernatural. This cut and paste job is now called the Jefferson Bible. And later in life Jefferson said, “I am a church unto myself.”

This “religion” will have its own rituals on the passages of life like birth, marriage and death. It will ordain its own ministers. It will be registered as a religion  which believes in a nonsupernatural god. It is a religion in ethical, humanist terms. But a religion like any other faith.

This way we shall see the emergence of a truly relevant religion in our time.

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