Name: Religion for Atheists
ISBN: 9780307379108

Religion for Atheists

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.

What Hacker News says

r_c_a_dMay 2022

And for atheists like me, you can still learn a lot from religions. I got a lot out of Alain de Botton's "Religion for Atheists" https://www.librarything.com/work/11370617/book/89008159

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statquontrarianOct 2020

I've never created a reading list, so this was a fun exercise.

Programming:

* Analyzing Computer System Performance with Perl::PDQ - Gunther

* The Mythical Man Month - Brooks

Philosophy:

* A Journey Around my Room - de Maistre

* Anger, Mercy, and Revenge - Seneca

* Schrödinger - What is Life?

* Man's Search for Meaning - Frankl

* Essays - Montaigne

* Ethical Intuitionism - Huemer

* The Consolations of Philosophy - de Botton

* A Manual for Living - Epictetus

* Meditations - Aurelius

Psychology / Meaning / Purpose / Science:

* Purpose and Meaning in the Workplace - Dik, Byrne & Steger

* The Case Against Education - Caplan

* Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids - Caplan

* Dawkins - The Selfish Gene

* A Confession - Tolstoy

* Enlightenment Now - Pinker

* The Better Angels of our Nature - Pinker

* The Improving State of the World - Goklany

* The Skeptical Environmentalist - Lomborg

* Religion for Atheists - de Botton

* Ending Aging - de Grey

* Gut Feelings - Gigirenzer

Fiction:

* Heart of Darkness - Conrad

* Candide - Voltaire

* Brave New World - Huxley

* Selected Works - Goethe

* 1984 & Animal Farm - Orwell

Politics:

* Obedience to Authority - Milgram

* The Problem of Political Authority - Huemer

* The Communist Manifesto - Marx

* Socialism - von Mises

* Just One Child - Greenhalgh

* The God That Failed - Crossman

* Death by Government - Rummel

Thought-provoking:

* Free to Learn - Gray

* The Beautiful Tree - Tooley

* Education and the State - West

* The Machinery of Freedom - Friedman

* Against Intellectual Monopoly - Boldrine & Levine

* From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State - Beito

* The Not So Wild, Wild West - Hill

* More Guns, Less Crime - Lott

* Race & Economics - Williams

* Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men - Hummel

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squidiMar 2018

Have you read Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton? You don’t have to be an atheist to enjoy it but it does have an interesting view on the void that you mentioned.

In some places there are even “church”/gatherings for non-religious people called Sunday Assembly

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auxbussJul 2014

Alain de Botton writes more generally about taking the goods bits from religion in 'Religion for Atheists: A non-believer's guide to the uses of religion'.

It's an interesting thought experiment, and de Botton writes engagingly. Well worth a read for his lateral thinking and, if nothing else, a starting point for your own thoughts.

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vkk8Dec 2021

Alain de Botton has a book called "Religion for Atheists". His central point is that religions have gone through hundreds or thousands of years of cultural evolution and likely contain rituals and rules that benefit us even if the religion literally isn't true. Discarding religions because we don't literally think there's a bearded guy in the clouds watching over us is throwing away the baby with the bathwater.

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keithnzSep 2021

I quite like Alain de Bottons attempt at trying to mine religion for "good ideas". He wrote a book "Religion for Atheists" on this idea https://www.amazon.com/Religion-Atheists-Non-believers-Guide...

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