Religion for Atheists
and over 900,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
The boring debate between fundamentalist believers and non-believers is finally moved on by Alain de Botton's inspiring new book, which boldly argues that the supernatural claims of religion are of course entirely false - and yet that religions still have important things to teach the secular world.
Rather than mocking religions, agnostics and atheists should instead steal from them - because they're packed with good ideas on how we live and arrange our societies. Blending deep respect with total impiety, de Botton (a non-believer) proposes that we should look to religions for insights into how to build a sense of community, make our relationships last, get more out of art, overcome feelings of envy and inadequacy, and much more.
For too long non-believers have faced a stark choice between either swallowing peculiar doctrines or doing away with consoling and beautiful rituals and ideas. At last Alain de Botton has fashioned a far more interesting and truly helpful alternative.
About the Author
Alain de Botton was born in 1969 and is the author of non-fiction essays on themes ranging from love and travel to architecture and philosophy. His bestselling books include How Proust Can Change Your Life, The Art of Travel, and The Architecture of Happiness. He lives in London and founded The School of Life (www.theschooloflife.com) and Living Architecture (www.living-architecture.co.uk). For more information, consult www.alaindebotton.com.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliantly Witty.,
By
This review is from: Religion for Atheists: A non-believer's guide to the uses of religion (Hardcover)
Alain de Botton provides a tremendous, intellectual insight into religion, and what draws people towards it. He recognises the importance of some religious practises and teachings, and the effects they have on today's society. He also describes the impact that the decline in religion is having on society. I bought it having read the god delusion and god is not great, expecting it to be of similar ilk, but I find it to be much softer. It's a very good read and proposes some good ideas.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A missed opportunity and an evidence free zone,
By
This review is from: Religion for Atheists: A non-believer's guide to the uses of religion (Hardcover)
I'm an atheist, and come to this having read God is Not Great and the God Delusion. I also wanted to like this book, I was looking for something would assess what it was that religion offered to people and what we would sensibly keep in a secular society.Sadly this really didn't do it. Oh there's lots of nice ideas: the Jewish day of atonement is a useful ritual which gives everyone an excuse to say sorry for things; religious meals bring people together who otherwise wouldn't speak to each other - but the analysis really doesn't get any more deep than that. Sadly this is a Alain de Botton polemic, the argument full of anecdote, assertion, and straw man assessments of what non-religious societies value. This book doesn't attempt to make any assessment of what makes religious ritual work (eg is the belief in God bit critical??), any real critical assessment of whether they can be carried over to a secular world, or even whether the secular world has already absorbed some of these approaches - after all atheists already do do Christmas, and faith in football teams looks pretty religious to me. To give a couple of examples he cites Pentecostal churches and their 'Yes Lord!' enthusiasm as something academics should aspire to in teaching people. I can already see this 'religious' enthusiasm in the secular world at political rallies and at Glastonbury in front of the biggest bands (de Botton seems to have missed this). But I'd want to keep it as far away as possible from universities and learning which I'd hope would be about questioning based on evidence and rather than repetition and chanting. As another example he cites the Catholic Mass as something that brings everyone together and makes them equal, breaking down existing hierarchies. Though I appreciate the sentiment churches in Europe often had reserved seating for the upper classes, and can easily reflect back a very class bound society (note the verse of All Things Bright and Beautiful which sings of "the rich man at his castle the poor man at his gate"). There's little real acknowledgement that there's some things we must learn to do from religions and some things we should keenly learn not to do - and how we distinguish them, or the conditions which generate the good or the bad. I can't help thinking that an this book would have benefitted from talking to - say an anthropologist or a psychologist along the way - or anyone who new how to engage with evidence gathering. Richard Leyard and his work on happiness do some of this work on what builds community, morality and happiness in a much more evidence based way (and without banging on about either God or a lack of God). There was a good idea in this book, sadly not a strong execution. (And finally some people obviously find de Botton's style witty and engaging. Really can't see it myself, but each to his or her own on that issue.)
45 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loved it,
This review is from: Religion for Atheists: A non-believer's guide to the uses of religion (Hardcover)
I don't usually write reviews but felt compelled to now as I absolutely loved this book. It's erudite, witty, imaginative and packed with great ideas. I'm an atheist who has often been drawn to aspects of religion, but couldn't really articulate why. In clear, illuminating prose, this wonderful book has explained what the attractions of religion might be for the likes of me and also given me loads of food for thought. It's also a very human book and ultimately very consoling.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > History > Religious History > Other Religions
- Books > Religion & Spirituality > Other Religions > Agnosticism & Atheism
- Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Philosophy
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Philosophy
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
