Religion for Atheists

Very informative. This is one of the most eloquent, pointless arguments i've heard in a while. Alain needs to study Christopher Hitchens a little more*

very enjoyable.

Interesting !!!

I listened to this talk and to the one delivered at Ted and I think Alain is missing the point. The evil of religion does not come from the fact that they believe in things that don't exist but from the fact that they institutionalized their beliefs. It is not their holy books or gods that told them to do the horrible things that they have done (and still do) to other people, but people claiming to have a better understanding of that belief, people in a position of authority. I look at what Alain de Botton is saying and I feel he could very well be a dangerous man, even though he has the best intentions in mind, because he wants to institutionalize atheism. A community acts very much like a living organism and when a community is based on something untouchable as belief it then rejects and shuns those with different beliefs. A belief based community promotes discrimination as we have seen with religions and I don't like the idea that some day the same things will be done in the name of atheism. I agree with what was said about the need for community, I especially agree with Alain concerning art and museums but I believe that what needs to be done is to improve on education, improve on how museums and libraries work, build artistic and scientific communities around these institutions rather than build a new institution. I think Alain de Botton should join Sir Ken Robinson in changing how education works for starters- it would be a far more useful way of improving society and a lot less dangerous than institutionalizing a belief.