Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

Atheism with a religious face
https://www.ted.com/talks/alain_de_botton_atheism_2_0

Post 16.  February 14, 2018

Atheism 2.0 & Deism 2.0

   Religious Revivals for the 21st century

In a TED talk a few years ago, philosophical writer Alain de Botton, proposed that the New Atheists were wrong to reject religion altogether. He agreed with them that many religious doctrines are no longer plausible, but some of their tools & techniques may still be useful in modern societies, which seem to be coming apart at the seams. So he says that their long experience with binding people into stable communities may offer models for re-uniting our fragmented individualistic cynical modern cultures. Unlike the contemptuous New Atheists though, he says he "would love for religion to be true".

 Referring to the title of his talk, he asks «What is atheism 2.0? Well, it starts from a very basic premise - of course there's no God. Of course there are no deities or supernatural spirits or angels etc. Now let's move on. So far this sounds like the mindset of Secular Humanism or Ethical Culture, but he adds a novel twist. It may even sound like Deism, except for the not-quite-atheist concept of a remote nature god. Notably, the religions he proposes that Atheists can learn from are not the hyper-critical independent-minded sectarian Protestant spin-offs, but the original universal collectivist imperial churches that ruled from the center, and from the top down.

To begin with, he suggests that we emulate the "ritualistic side, the moralistic, the communal side of religion". In addition to their impressive massive processions, repetitive sermons for the illiterate, frequent doctrine-supporting holy-days, didactic art, and snazzy authoritative uniforms, the medieval Catholics built towering cathedrals to inspire awe in simple peasants. "Why are cathedrals impressive?" he asks; «Is it God? No. It's architecture.» Moreover, "The core of the religious sense is feeling small within the vastness"1.

The speaker was not recommending that Atheists literally copy the trappings of traditional religions. Perhaps, he was merely saying that we could learn a thing or two about how to relate to the masses of emotion-driven humans, who are not independent thinkers, and who are more interested in comfortable than true beliefs. De Botton next asks rhetorically, "Where are they going to find guidance? And where are they going to find sources of consolation?" I would ask one more question, does he really want to make freethinking Atheists of such needy people? Or does Alain only want to gain control over the herd-like masses, so more realistic rulers can guide the world toward a godless Utopia? Ironically, he speaks of this Atheism for the masses as a "new religion".

In fact, he dryly observes that most religions rule their flocks by treating them like credulous kids. "Indeed all major religions at various points call us children". As a source of wisdom to nourish his immature Atheist brood, he proposes to replace sacred writings with secular texts. Instead of ancient scriptures, "it's to culture that we should look for guidance, for consolation, for morality. Let's look to the plays of Shakespeare, the dialogues of Plato, the novels of Jane Austen. In there, we'll find a lot of the truths that we might previously have found in the Gospel of St. John." He acknowledges that all or us, at some time or other, "need guidance, and we need didactic learning".

Post 16 continued . . . click Next

Note 1 :
By comparison, our modern skyscrapers may inspire financial humility in the presence of those monuments to mundane capitalist power, but little reverence for their moral authority.