![]() Had it been written as a direct response, Mr Scruton's book, “The Face of God” could hardly be a stronger refutation of Mr de Botton's project. Daily bouts of meditation on the immensity of the galaxies, he argues, will offer “solutions to our megalomania, self-pity and anxiety”. ![]() “I say do you hear me?” An analysis of religious imagery leads him to recommend advertising “forgiveness” on billboards. University lecturers anxious to persuade should copy the didactic tricks of a Pentecostal preacher. Religions are “the most successful educational and intellectual movements the planet has ever witnessed,” he states, because they tell people what to think and hammer it home. ![]() In practice, this means emptying out such rituals of their meaning and using them for secular ends, a kind of spiritual pick ‘n' mix.Īlthough Mr de Botton is a clever man, he often stretches a good idea beyond its elastic limit. It must be possible to balance “a rejection of religious faith with a selective reverence for religious rituals,” he says. The premise of his new book, “Religion for Atheists”, which seeks to steer a course between religious fundamentalists and atheist fundamentalists, is that there is too much of value in religion to leave it to the religious alone. ![]() He is an aggregator of ideas rather than an original thinker, but his skill is to write simply about complex ideas and he gives his fans the sensation of reading something profound with little effort. Mr de Botton has published bestselling books on a wide range of subjects. ![]()
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