Can we be religious without God? Alain de Botton on "atheism 2.0."

[rug]

Why "is God real?" is the most boring question you can ask.

Updated by Sean Illing
Oct 6, 2016, 8:50a

Alain de Botton is an author, philosopher, and founder of the School of Life, a London-based institute “devoted to developing emotional intelligence through the help of culture.”

De Botton, the author of several best-sellers, including How Proust Can Change your Life and Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believers Guide to the Uses of Religion, has made a career of concretizing big ideas for general audiences. His books and lectures are broad in scope but always return to the original question of philosophy: “How do we live well?”

His views on religion are especially compelling. As an atheist, de Botton isn’t interested in defending religion so much as understanding it. He acknowledges that there are things religions do uniquely well, and his goal is to discover ways to replicate those benefits in a secular context.

I spoke with de Botton on Tuesday about his work at the School of Life and his criticisms of fellow atheists who he says fail to ask the right questions about the religions they’re refuting.

http://www.vox.com/conversations/2016/10/6/13172608/alain-de-botton-science-religion-god-atheism-richard-dawkins-christianity

[SusanCalvin]

1. Dunno. Define "religious." nt

[rug]

2. He did.

Religions are not just a set of claims about the supernatural; they are also machines for living. They aim to guide you from birth to death and to teach you a whole range of things: to create a community, to create codes of behavior, to generate aesthetic experiences. And all of this seems to me incredibly important and, frankly, much more interesting than the question of whether Jesus was or wasn’t the son of God.

[SusanCalvin]

3. Then I nominate music and theatre as religions. nt

[rug]

4. I don't think he disagrees.

But it does raise a question: How much of human life is ineffable?