Even if religion isn't true, asserted writer and philosopher
Alain
de Botton, why can't we enjoy the best bits? To that end (and to circumvent
the "boring debate between fundamentalist believers and non-believers"
about religion and God), de Botton proposed in his new book "Religion
for Atheists" that what atheism needs are ... temples!
As religions have always known, a beautiful building is an indispensable
part of getting your message across. Books alone won’t do it.
De Botton argues that you definitely don’t need a god or gods
to justify a temple.
You can build a temple to anything that’s positive and good.
That could mean: a temple to love, friendship, perspective, calm, generosity…
This proposal is part of a wider argument de Botton makes that atheists
should stop being merely negative about religion and engage with what
people actually enjoy about religion. They should then copy it –
simply without the God-bit.
With architect
Tom Greenall
and artist
Jordan Jon Hodgson,
de Botton proposed a Temple to Perspective, a 150-foot (46 m) tall black
tower in the heart of the City of London. Each centimeter of the tower's
height equates to one million years of life. At the bottom, there's a
single line of gold - no more than a millimeter thick - that represents
the entire existence of humankind.
No comments:
Post a Comment