The secular world often gets offended by this. The starting point of religion is that we are children, and we need guidance. Why? Can existential lessons be taught at school? You propose to reform schools and universities to teach humans how to deal with the most important existential problems loneliness, pain and death for example. Religions are also keen to see us as more than just rational minds, we are emotional and physical creatures, and therefore, we need to be seduced via our bodies and our senses too. That is what rituals are: they are attempts to make vivid to us things we already know, but are likely to have forgotten. They are all about structure they want to build calendars for us, that will make sure that we regularly encounter reminders of significant concepts. The secular world believes that if we have good ideas, we will be reminded of them just when it matters. What is it you’re most interested in in religion? So my position is perhaps unusual: I am at once very respectful and completely impious. I am deeply respectful of religion, but I believe in none of its supernatural aspects. I really disagree with the hard tone of some atheists who approach religion like a silly fairy tale. I don’t feel the need to mock anyone who believes. What do you think of the aggressive atheism we have seen in the past few years? As a companion to today’s TEDTalk from Alain de Botton, he sent us this FAQ, a brief introduction to the thinking behind Atheism 2.0:
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