Once, a lifetime ago, I was sitting on the beach in Cyprus having a long conversation with a very wise man. It covered all those things I love to have long conversations about with wise men (or more so with wise women, of given dimensions, obviously): theology, religion (for they aren’t the same thing), physics, philosophy, literature, history and whose round it was next. At several points he stopped me, and said ‘I can’t believe a person as clever as you clutches to a faith in the supernatural’. Aside from the obvious in that, we continued our back and forth.
Unlock my love
And set me free.
Come fill me up
With ecstasy.
That man and I have had the same, but different, conversation over and over since then, in different ways, in different bars, on different continents. He left for sandier shores not so long ago, but I’ll email him, and recommend he read Alain de Botton’s latest book, Religion for Atheists. That isn’t to say this is a tome to convert atheists, but rather a look at the crutches, supports, institutions and rituals have helped the faiths survive many different onslaughts. From the industrial revolution, to the Englightenment, to the Soviet empire.
Surround my heartbeat
with your fingertips.
Unbound my feet.
Untie my wrists.
I am not an atheist. Of all the positions to take, that one seems the most insane. It is easy for the science-knows-all brigade to froth at the mouth, point and laugh at the more degenerate of the fundies, but then again, I would take issues with them as well. I do feel quite sorry for those who refuse transcendance, those who try to deny anything above and beyond themselves. I have seen the shadows the mountains of the moon leave on her surface, I have watched solar flares uncoil from the life-giving sun, I have shown my wife the heart of Andromeda. And the universe is vast place. And we are at its centre. Why do scientists shy away from the anthropic principle, and find it distasteful?
Come into my world
Of loneliness,
And wickedness,
And bitterness.
But the faith of the fundies, the religion of the crazies, doesn’t interest me in the way it does them. It interests me in different ways, but that is for a different post, I was trying to make this a review of a book. And there is much to commend it, to atheists, agnostics and the faithful alike. Unlike much of the arguments I have heard Dawkins come out with (he could talk endless truth, and I would still dislike him, irrationally due to his overtly smug demeanour, that cloying middleclass English superiority), Dr de Botton at least notionally, if somewhat implicitly, realises a lot of it is culturally contextual, and doesn’t couch the argument is simplistic post-Enlightenment Western European Christian terms.
Unlock my love.
And in my trying to explain some of my wonder to my erstwhile verbal sparring partner, de Botton comes closest in what I try to get across. Not quite there yet (and given it is a book from an atheist’s point of view, I wouldn’t expect it to), but it does get close. And makes me think I should try to write the book I mean here, a sweep of theology from East to West (but mostly East shakes fist at Humbert), the philosophy that came before and after, the geography that shaped both and the science that never replaced them. Man will always look to beyond himself, and that is a good thing. Me writing a book, probably not so much a good thing.
Unsuffer me.
Take away the pain.
Unbruise,unbloody.
Wash away the stain.
I have always like de Botton’s writing style, ever since I first read ‘Status Anxiety’ many years ago. (Which, incidently, I bought for Κασάνδρα but she never read it, so I did.) I don’t know if it is his age, my age, his background, my context, but he has always resonated. Making me realise the whirl of thoughts that should never get vocalised aren’t unique to me. And ‘Religion for Atheists’ vocalises a train of thought, albeit on different tracks, from mine. Telling perhaps that this isn’t called ‘The Consolation of Religion’, or ‘The Sorrows of the Faithful’ or somesuch. I guess that wouldn’t get noticed by the congregation of the Dawkins Disciples.
Anoint my head
With your sweet kiss.
My joy is dead.
I long for bliss.
Even at that, there isn’t much I would disagree with. The concept of secular ‘temples’, places for people to connect (with art, each other, the world) seems sensible. Ignoring all that religion has done for the world, rejecting and ejecting it, isn’t just stupid, it it blinkered, crass and shows a disregard and misunderstanding of great swathes of history. And that is what de Botton does, he does’t jettison it, he takes what religions know, the reinforcement of ideas, the bonding (though I am hesitant to agree with his rendering of ἀγάπη, but that is me just being interested in how words transform, and how people say the same thing, but talk cross purposes, which most of the religion/science debate seems to do) the overall good and distills that for everyone.
I long for knowledge
Whispered in my ear.
Undo my logic.
Undo my fear.
Of course, my training is as a physicist, and this rankles with some whenever I have the religion/science debate. As I tend not to play that card at all, it is funny watching people make their assumptions, and worse, presuming from the off that I am stupid. de Botton never makes that mistake, he doesn’t talk down or around. There is no ambiguity to his position as an atheist, but this book isn’t exclusive. I didn’t feel the need to hurl it across the train at my fellow commuters (apart from that one guy, THAT ONE GUY, but he deserves to be smacked in the face for his poor taste in both literature and newspapers) and indeed, it was an annoyance to get to Liverpool Street and have to stop. Which isn’t quite the same as saying it was un-put-down-able, but reading it was like having a good discussion with a clever friend, you might not agree with everything he is saying, but it is great to hear, respond and build upon.
Unsuffer me.
It is a light read, but not fluff. I can’t imagine all those atheists I know will enjoy it, as it is more philosophical that polemical. It isn’t a knockout blow against religion, but it isn’t meant to be. It starts from a later point than that, presupposing religion is false, and doesn’t feel the need, thank goodness, to try to defend its viewpoint. And it is all the better for that. I can also imagine even me stating I am not an atheist will have meant quite a few will look at me a bit odder than normal. But don’t worry, I am still working through what everything means myself.
Unlock my love
And set me free.
Come fill me up
With ecstasy.
I think that is the underlying, and understated genius of it. It isn’t trying to promote some agenda, it isn’t trying to understand religion. It is trying to make our lives better, using tried and tested techniques pioneered by religions. It isn’t trying to make atheists religious. And I can see why there is vitriol against him for this book, because those vitriolic people are closed-minds, and refuse anything to do with faith at all. There is a universality about wanting to help others, to see beyond what we are, whether it is through art, in a temple, via instructions and rules. People need what religions offers, and de Botton makes his case for what people need from religion without religion well.
Unsuffer me.
Take away the pain.
Unbruise,unbloody.
Wash away the stain.
Could I pick holes in some of his arguments? I am not sure I would want to. To do so seems to me to deny being human. And, coincidently, I endorse his ‘what is education for?’ sections too, given as they somewhat overlap, ish, with what I was saying not so long ago. Which I wrote before I read his book, and which thought I haven’t quite finished with, which again straddles some of de Botton’s points in previous works. Sort of. It is also interesting looking at it within the sequence of books I read around it. Books on the history of debt, the history of the city, several shorter Runciman works, the hermitic influences on science and a lightweight theological digression of dubious baseness. All of those strands feed in to what de Botton says, and I do think there is more to be taken from religion to make secular life better. I wasn’t expecting him to cross continents, but he did, albeit briefly. Mostly as culture context, and the hows and whys of peoples’ thinking interests me.
Surround my heartbeat
with your fingertips.
Unbound my feet.
Untie my wrists.
As per usual, none of this has come out the way I wanted it to, but I always just let it go. It is fodder for pub debates, for sitting around in our front room fencing with ideas, for sitting around in others’ front rooms circling each other while I learn. As it all just helps me learn, and that is what I want. The Socratic method, dude. Dust. Wind. Princesses. I had wanted this to be a review, not another insight into the scrambled workings of my head. Just buy the book, and see what you think. If you are an atheist, run with it, get past your scoffing mockery and realise that the concepts he is talking about bring comfort to millions, if not billions. If you are one of the faithful, run with it, get past your dogma to realise that the concepts he is talking about can be abstracted and bring comfort to millions more.
Come into my world
Of loneliness,
And wickedness,
And bitterness.
Dawkins is missing a trick if he ignores the thrust of de Botton’s book. (I know some of his followers have decried it already, in shrill and irritating ways, but again, they miss the point, and there is a good point in there.) People need more than to be told there is nothing more than this. And if there is nothing more than this, they need support through it all, and de Botton’s blueprint, copying the tried-and-tested ways from religions, is a better bet than an atomised lifestyle.
Anoint my head
With your sweet kiss.
My joy is dead.
I long for bliss.
I would love to meet him in the Ἁγία Σοφία to discuss the philosophy of Proust and the Moomins, to have a beer with him and chatter about the nature of physics and our place in the world in some Andalucian chapel . And if he wants me to take photographs during his travels for his next book, I am available, though not cheap. As really, he needs better pictures, he always has.
I long for knowledge
Whispered in my ear.
Undo my logic.
Undo my fear.
Not a book to convert, but to listen to. Not a book to steamroller you, but to point out to others that which some take for granted. I am not an atheist, and I enjoyed it.
Unsuffer me.
