Religion for Atheists?

Review from
"A banal and impudent argument for the uses of religion"
by Terry Eagleton.

What is religion? Where did it come from? What is it useful for? Why some people do not have a religion and others need it so badly?

To me, as a future sociologist, religion and the social means to organize are very interesting subjects. That's why I couldn't help to write about Terry Eagleton's review of Alain de Botton's book.

In this review, Eagleton explains what some authors and philosophers had said though history. Some, like Voltaire, agreed that religion has been necessary to control masses, but that atheism has been allowed among the elite; this way it had an indispensable social role. Auguste Comte, for example, “designed an ideal society complete with secular versions of God, priests, sacraments, prayer and feast days”, and Friedrich Nietzsche indicated that if God is dead, so is the conception of humanity.

"Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion", the book written by Alain de Botton, maintains Voltaire’s tradition when considers that religious beliefs and rituals are irrational, but at the same time are important in order to maintain a civilised society with a sense of community. In Eagleton’s words, this book takes other people’s beliefs and reorganizes them for moral sake, “social consensus and aesthetic pleasure. It is an (unoriginal) astonishingly impudent enterprise, (where) religious faith is reduced to a set of banal moral tags”.

But, honestly, despite all these comments and descriptions of religion uses, doesn’t humanity need to reaffirm empathy and its sense of society? Maybe “Religion for Atheists” is more than just an insult for religious believes, and it will allow us to discover a practical use for all those things dogmas tell us not to question... Well, we’ll have to find that out.

If you feel any interest in the subject, here you have another opinion about this book you can contrast with Eagleton's view. Just that this time is Richard Cole's review “Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton: Alain de Botton's attempt to encourage secular society to steal religion's most fruitful ideas is admirable but ultimately hollow.” Now, if you are feeling the same way I am, and you want to know what Alain de Botton has to say, here you have him in the TED Talk "Alain de Botton: atheism 2.0"

"Not Today"

“There is only one god, and his name is Death.
And there is only one thing we say to Death: Not today.”

(Syrio Forell)

S

ince I first heard about the new HBO series “Game of Thrones”, based on George R. R. Martin’s epic fantasy novels "A Song of Ice and Fire", I felt curious about it; after all I had the feeling it was going to be awesome. And it certainly was. Once the 1^st season concluded, all I wanted to do was reading the book, so I searched for it on the Internet right away. It didn’t take me more than three months to read the whole book, even with all the texts I had to read for my university classes. And I loved it. The way George R. R. Martin describes the kingdom of Westeros; the political, family and romantic relationships; and how he combines the peaceful times with the war, and all the simultaneous plots from the many characters’ points of view, is just admirable. Not to mention he takes the reader into the deeps of human nature, its fears, its romance, its joy and desires, woes and sorrows.

Right now, I’m about to finish the second book "A Clash of Kings" and I can’t wait for watching the 2^nd season on TV and reading the next books.

Other books I love are The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. The first ones are also a series from HBO, called “True Blood” . And the second one was, I believe, the first book I ever really, really enjoyed. Here you can find more about my love for Dorian.