Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion by Alain de Botton Page B
Authors: Alain de Botton
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Philip would handle the hazards of a family reunion or the crash of a computerâs hard drive.
An opportunity to remember friends: the months of November and December, from a sixteenth-century Englishpsalter, tabling the deathdays of, among others, Sts Hugh, Katherine, Theodore, Edmund, Clement, Barbara, Lucy and Osmund. ( illustration credit 3.6 )
To further enhance our imaginative connections with the saints, Catholicism provides us with calendars that list their deathdays, so that we may have regular occasion to withdraw from our social circle and contemplate the lives of people who gave away all their money and wandered the earth doing good works while wearing a rough tunic to mortify the flesh (St Francis) or who used their faith in God to magically reattach a severed ear to its distressed ownerâs head (St Cuthbert).
3.
In addition, Catholicism perceives that there is a benefit to being able to see our ideal friends around the house in miniaturized three-dimensional representations. After all, most of us began our lives by having nurturing relationships with bears and other animals, to whom we would talk and be tacitly addressed by in turn. Though immobile, these animals were nevertheless skilful at conveying their consoling and inspiring personalities to us. We would talk to them when we were sad and were comforted when we looked across the bedroom and saw them stoically enduring the night on our behalf. Catholicism sees no reason to abandon the mechanics of such relationships and so invites us to buy wood, stone, resin or plastic versions of the saints and place them on shelves or alcoves in our rooms and hallways. At times of domestic chaos, we can look across at a plastic statuette and inwardly ask whatSt Francis of Assisi would recommend that we say to our furious wife and hysterical children now. The answer may be inside us all along, but it doesnât usually emerge or become effective until we go through the exercise of formally asking the question of a saintly figurine.
What would he do next?St Francis of Assisi for sale in a variety of formats. ( illustration credit 3.7 )
4.
A well-functioning secular society would think with similar care about its role models. It would not only provide us with film stars and singers. An absence of religious belief in no way invalidates a continuing need for âpatron saintsâ of qualities like Courage, Friendship, Fidelity, Patience, Confidence or Scepticism. We can still profit from moments when we give internal space to the voices of people who are more balanced, brave and generous-spirited than we are â Lincoln or Whitman, Churchill orStendhal,Warren Buffett orPaul Smith â and through whom we may reconnect with our most dignified and serious possibilities.
5.
The religious perspective on morality suggests that it is in the end a sign of immaturity to object too strenuously to being treated like a child. The libertarian obsession with freedom ignores how much of our original childhood need for constraint and guidanceendures within us, and therefore how much we stand to learn from paternalistic strategies. It is not very kind, nor ultimately even very freeing, to be deemed so grown up that one is left alone to do entirely as one pleases.
Even the greatest atheists may benefit from role models.
Above
:Sigmund Freudâs desk in London, covered in Assyrian, Egyptian, Chinese and Roman figurines.
Top
: Or one might preferVirginia Woolf. ( illustration credit 3.8 )
IV
Education
âThe object ofuniversities is not to make skilful lawyers, physicians or engineers. It is to make capable and cultivated
human beings
ââJohn Stuart Mill. ( illustration credit 4.1 )
i. What We Get Taught
1.
A busy high street in north London. In a neighbourhood studded with Cypriot bakeries, Jamaican hairdressers and Bengali takeaways, stands the campus of one of Britainâs newest universities. It is dominated by a twelve-storey asymmetrical steel
An opportunity to remember friends: the months of November and December, from a sixteenth-century Englishpsalter, tabling the deathdays of, among others, Sts Hugh, Katherine, Theodore, Edmund, Clement, Barbara, Lucy and Osmund. ( illustration credit 3.6 )
To further enhance our imaginative connections with the saints, Catholicism provides us with calendars that list their deathdays, so that we may have regular occasion to withdraw from our social circle and contemplate the lives of people who gave away all their money and wandered the earth doing good works while wearing a rough tunic to mortify the flesh (St Francis) or who used their faith in God to magically reattach a severed ear to its distressed ownerâs head (St Cuthbert).
3.
In addition, Catholicism perceives that there is a benefit to being able to see our ideal friends around the house in miniaturized three-dimensional representations. After all, most of us began our lives by having nurturing relationships with bears and other animals, to whom we would talk and be tacitly addressed by in turn. Though immobile, these animals were nevertheless skilful at conveying their consoling and inspiring personalities to us. We would talk to them when we were sad and were comforted when we looked across the bedroom and saw them stoically enduring the night on our behalf. Catholicism sees no reason to abandon the mechanics of such relationships and so invites us to buy wood, stone, resin or plastic versions of the saints and place them on shelves or alcoves in our rooms and hallways. At times of domestic chaos, we can look across at a plastic statuette and inwardly ask whatSt Francis of Assisi would recommend that we say to our furious wife and hysterical children now. The answer may be inside us all along, but it doesnât usually emerge or become effective until we go through the exercise of formally asking the question of a saintly figurine.
What would he do next?St Francis of Assisi for sale in a variety of formats. ( illustration credit 3.7 )
4.
A well-functioning secular society would think with similar care about its role models. It would not only provide us with film stars and singers. An absence of religious belief in no way invalidates a continuing need for âpatron saintsâ of qualities like Courage, Friendship, Fidelity, Patience, Confidence or Scepticism. We can still profit from moments when we give internal space to the voices of people who are more balanced, brave and generous-spirited than we are â Lincoln or Whitman, Churchill orStendhal,Warren Buffett orPaul Smith â and through whom we may reconnect with our most dignified and serious possibilities.
5.
The religious perspective on morality suggests that it is in the end a sign of immaturity to object too strenuously to being treated like a child. The libertarian obsession with freedom ignores how much of our original childhood need for constraint and guidanceendures within us, and therefore how much we stand to learn from paternalistic strategies. It is not very kind, nor ultimately even very freeing, to be deemed so grown up that one is left alone to do entirely as one pleases.
Even the greatest atheists may benefit from role models.
Above
:Sigmund Freudâs desk in London, covered in Assyrian, Egyptian, Chinese and Roman figurines.
Top
: Or one might preferVirginia Woolf. ( illustration credit 3.8 )
IV
Education
âThe object ofuniversities is not to make skilful lawyers, physicians or engineers. It is to make capable and cultivated
human beings
ââJohn Stuart Mill. ( illustration credit 4.1 )
i. What We Get Taught
1.
A busy high street in north London. In a neighbourhood studded with Cypriot bakeries, Jamaican hairdressers and Bengali takeaways, stands the campus of one of Britainâs newest universities. It is dominated by a twelve-storey asymmetrical steel
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