Atheism 2.0 Alain de Botton

one of the most common ways of dividing

the world is into those who believe and

those who don’t

into the religious and the atheists and

for the last decade or so it’s been

quite clear what being an atheist means

they’ve been some very vocal atheist

you’ve pointed out not just that

religion is wrong but that it’s

ridiculous

these people many of whom have lived in

North Oxford have argued they’ve they’ve

argued that believing in God is akin to

believing in fairies and essentially

that the whole thing is a childish game

now I think it’s too easy I think it’s

too easy to dismiss the whole of

religion that way and it’s as easy as

shooting fish in a barrel and what I’d

like to inaugurate today is a new way of

being an atheist if you like a new

version of atheism we could call atheism

2.0 now what is atheism 2.0 well it

starts from a very basic premise of

course there’s no God of course there

are no deities or supernatural spirits

or angels etc now let’s move on that’s

not the end of the story that’s the very

very beginning I’m interested in a kind

of constituency that thinks something

along these lines that thinks I can’t

believe in any of this stuff I can’t

believe in the doctrines I don’t think

these doctrines are right but very

important but I love Christmas carols I

really like the art of Mantinea I really

like looking at old churches I really

like turning the pages of the Old

Testament whatever it may be you know

the kind of thing I’m talking about

people who are attracted to the

ritualistic side the moralistic communal

side of religion but can’t bear the

doctrine now until now these people have

faced rather an unpleasant choice it’s

almost as though either you accept the

doctrine and then you can have all the

nice stuff or you reject the doctrine

and you’re living in a sort of spiritual

wasteland under the guidance of CNN and

Walmart

so that’s the sort of tough choice I

don’t think we have to make that choice

I think there is an alternative I think

there are ways and I’m being both very

respectful and completely impious of

stealing from religions if you don’t

believe in a religion there’s nothing

wrong with picking a mixing with taking

out the best sides of religion and for

me 80 ISM 2.0 is about in both as I say

a respectful and an impious way going

through religions and saying what here

could we use the secular world is full

of holes

we have secularized badly I would argue

and a thorough study of religion can

give us all sorts of insights into areas

of life that are not going too well and

I’d like to run through a few of these

today I’d like to kick off by looking at

education now education is a field that

the secular world really believes in you

know when we think about how we’re going

to make the world a better place we

think education that’s what we put a lot

of money education is going to give us

not only commercial skills industrial

skills it’s also going to make us better

people you know the kind of thing of

commencement addresses and graduation

ceremonies those lyrical claims that

education the process of education

particularly higher education will make

us into nobler and better human beings

that’s a lovely idea the interesting

where it came from

you know in the early 19th century

church attendance in Western Europe

started sliding down very very sharply

and people panicked they asked

themselves the following question they

said where are people gonna find

morality where are they going to find

guidance and where are they gonna find

sources of consolation an influential

voices came up with one answer they said

culture it’s the culture that we should

look for guidance for consolation for

morality let’s look to the plays of

Shakespeare the dialogues of Plato the

novels of Jane Austen in there we’ll

find a lot of the truths that we might

previously have found in the Gospel of

st. John now I think that’s a very

beautiful idea in a very true idea they

wanted to replace Scripture with culture

and that’s a very plausible idea it’s

also an idea that we have forgotten you

know if you went to a top university

let’s say you went to Harvard or Oxford

or Cambridge and you said you know I’ve

come here because I’m in search of

morality guidance and consulate

I want to know how to live they would

show you the way to the insane asylum

this is simply not what our grandest and

best Institutes of higher learning are

in the business of why they don’t think

we need it they don’t think we are in

urgent need of assistance they see us as

adults rational adults what we need is

information we need data we don’t need

help now

religions start from a very different

place indeed all religions all major

religions at various points call us

children and like children they believe

that we are in severe need of assistance

we’re only just holding it together and

perhaps it’s just me

maybe you but anyway we’re only just

holding it together and we need help of

course we need help

and so we need guidance and really

didactic learning you know in the 18th

century in the UK the greatest preacher

greatest religious preacher was a man

called John Wesley who went up and down

this country delivering sermons advising

people how they could live he delivered

sermons on the duties of parents of

their children and children to their

parents the duties of the rich the poor

and the poor to the rich he was trying

to tell people how they should live

through the medium of sermons the

classic medium of delivery of religions

now we’ve given up with the idea of

sermons if you said to a modern liberal

individualist

hey how about a sermon they go no no I

don’t need one of those I’m an

independent individual person what’s the

difference between a sermon and our

modern secular mode of delivery the

lecture well a sermon wants to change

your life and a lecture wants to give

you a bit of information and I think we

need to get back to that sermon

tradition the tradition of sermonizing

is hugely valuable because we are in

need of guidance morality and

consolation and religions know that

another point about education we tend to

believe in the modern secular world but

if you tell someone something once

they’ll remember it sit them in a

classroom tell them about Plato at the

age of 20 send them out into a career in

management consultancy for 40 years and

that lessons will stick with them

religions go nonsense you need to keep

repeating the lessons 10 times a day so

get on your knees and repeat it that’s

what all religions tell us get on your

knees and repeat at 10 or 20 or 15 times

a day otherwise our minds are like

serious so religions are cultures of

repetition they circle the great true

again and again and again we associate

repetition with boredom giveness the new

were always saying that new is better

than the old if I said to you okay we’re

not going to have new Ted we’re just

going to go run through all the old ones

and watch them five times because

they’re so true we’re gonna watch

Elizabeth Gilbert five times because

what she says it’s so clever

you’d feel cheated not so if you’re

adopting a religious mindset the other

thing that religions do is to arrange

time all the major religions give us

calendars what is a calendar a calendar

is a way of making sure that across the

year you will bump into certain very

important ideas in the Catholic a

chronology Catholic calendar you know at

the end of March you will think about

st. Jerome and his qualities of humility

and goodness and his generosity to the

poor you won’t do that by accident you

will do that because you are guided to

do that now we don’t think that way in

the secular world we think if an idea is

important I’ll bump into it I’ll just

come across it nonsense says the

religious worldview rigid her view says

we need calendars we need to structure

time we need to synchronize encounters

this comes across also in the way in

which religions set up rituals around

important feelings take the moon it’s

really important to look at the moon you

know when you look at the moon you think

I’m really small what are my problems

sets things in perspective

etc etc we should all look at the moon a

bit more often we don’t why don’t we

well there’s nothing to tell us look at

the moon but if you’re a Zen Buddhist in

the middle of September

you will be ordered out of your home

made to stand on a canonical platform

and made to celebrate the festival of

tsukimi where you will be given poems to

read in honor of the moon in the passage

of time and the frailty of life that it

should remind us of you’ll be handed

rice cakes and the moon and the

reflection on the moon will have a

secure place in your heart that’s very

good the other thing that religions are

really aware of is speak well not doing

a very good job of this here but oratory

oratory is absolutely key to religions

you know in the secular world you can

come through the university system and

be a lousy speaker and still of a great

career but the religious world doesn’t

think that way what you’re saying needs

to be backed up by a really convincing

way of saying it so if you go to an

african-american Pentecostal church in

the American South and you listen to how

they talk my goodness they talk well you

know after every convincing point people

will go oh man nah man nah men

at the end of a really rousing paragraph

they’ll all stand up and they’ll go

thank you Jesus thank you Christ thank

you Savior you know if we were doing it

like they do it let’s not do it but if

we were today you know I would tell you

something like culture should replace

Scripture and you would go our men our

men are men and at the end of my talk

you would all stand up and you go thank

you Plato thank you Shakespeare thank

you Jane Austen the other thing that

religions know is we’re not just brains

we are also bodies and when they teach

us a lesson they do it via the body so

for example take the Jewish idea of

forgiveness Jews are very interested in

forgiveness and how we should start anew

and start afresh

they don’t just deliver us sermons on

this they don’t just give us books or

words about they they tell us to have a

bath so in Orthodox Jewish communities

every Friday you go to a mikvah you

immerse yourself in the water and a

physical action backs up a philosophical

idea we don’t tend to do that our ideas

are in one area and our behavior with

our bodies or another religions are

fascinating in the way they try and

combine the two let’s look at art now

now art is something that in the secular

world we think very highly off we think

art is really really important a lot of

our surplus wealth goes towards museums

etc we sometimes hear it said that

museums are our new cathedrals or our

new churches you’ve heard that saying

now I think that the potential is there

but we’ve completely let ourselves down

and the reason we’ve let ourselves down

is that we’re not properly studying how

religions handle art you know the two

really bad ideas that are hovering in

the modern world that inhibit our

capacity to draw strength from art the

first idea is that art should be for

art’s sake a ridiculous idea an idea

that art should live in a hermetic

bubble and should not try and do

anything with this troubled world I

couldn’t disagree more the other thing

that we believe is that art shouldn’t

explain itself that artists shouldn’t

say what they’re up to because if they

said it they might destroy the spell and

we might be you know we might find it

too easy that’s why a very common

feeling when you’re in a museum let’s

admit it is I don’t know what this is

about but if we’re serious people we

don’t admit to that but that feeling of

puzzlement is struck

sheral to contemporary art now religions

have a much saner attitude to art they

have no trouble telling us what art is

about art is about two things in all the

major faiths firstly it’s trying to

remind you of what there is to love and

secondly it’s trying to remind you of

what there is to fear and to hate and

that’s what art is art is a visceral

encounter with the most important ideas

of your faith so as you walk around a

church what your or a mosque or a

cathedral what you’re trying to imbibe

what you’re imbibing is through your

eyes through your senses truths that

have otherwise come to you through your

minds essentially it’s propaganda

Rembrandt is a propagandist in the in

the Christian view now the word

propaganda sets off alarm bells we think

of Hitler we think of Stalin don’t

necessarily propaganda is a manner of

being didactic in honor of something and

if that thing is good there’s no problem

with it at all my view is that museums

should take a leaf out of a book of

religions and they should make sure that

when you walk into a museum if I was a

museum curator I would make a room for

love a room for generosity a room you

know all works of art are talking to us

about things and if we were able to

arrange spaces where we could come

across works where we’ll be told

use these works of art to cement these

ideas in your mind we would get a lot

more out of art art would pick up the

duty that it used to have and that we’ve

neglected because of certain Mis founded

ideas art should be one of the tools by

which we improve our society art should

be didactic let’s think of something

else the people in the modern world in a

secular world who are interested in

matters of the Spirit in matters of the

mind in higher soul like concerns tend

to be isolated individuals their poets

their philosophers their photographers

their filmmakers and they tend to be on

their own they are cottage industries

they are vulnerable single people and

they get depressed and they get sad on

their own and they don’t really change

much now think about religions think

about organized religions what to

organize religions do they group

together they form institutions and that

has all sorts of advantages

first of all scale might the Catholic

Church pulled in ninety seven billion

dollars last year according to The Wall

Street Journal these are massive

machines they’re collaborative they’re

branded they’re multinational

and they’re highly disciplined these are

all very good qualities we recognize

them in relation to corporations and

corporations are very like religions in

many ways except they’re right down at

the bottom of the pyramid of leads

they’re selling as shoes and cars

whereas the people who are selling us

the higher stuff the therapists the

poets are on their own and they have no

power they have no mind

so religions are the foremost example of

an institution that is fighting for the

things of the mind now we may not agree

with what religions are trying to teach

us but we can admire the institutional

way in which they’re doing it books

alone

books written by lone individuals are

not going to change anything we need to

group together if you want to change the

world you have to group together you

have to be collaborative and that’s what

religions do they are multinational as I

say they are branded they have a clear

identity so they don’t get lost

in a busy world that’s something we can

learn from I want to conclude really

what I want to say is for many of you

who are operating in a range of

different fields there is something to

learn from the example of religion even

if you don’t believe any of it

if you’re involved in anything that’s

communal that involves lots of people

getting together there are things for

you in religion if you’re involved say

in the travel industry in any way look

at pilgrimage look very closely at

pilgrimage we haven’t begun to scratch

the surface of what travel could be

because we haven’t looked at what

religions do with travel if you’re in

the art world look at the example of

what religions are doing with art and if

you’re an educator in any way again look

at how religions are spreading ideas you

may not agree with the ideas but my

goodness they’re highly effective

mechanisms for doing so so really my

concluding point is you may not agree

with religion but at the end of the day

religions are so subtle so complicated

so intelligent in many ways that they’re

not fit to be abandoned to the religious

alone therefore all of us thank you very

much

let’s get through the Kuwaitis talk

because you’re kind of setting up

yourself in some ways to be really cured

in some quarters you can get shot by

both sides you can get shot by the

hard-headed atheists and you can get

shot by those who fully believe incoming

missiles from North Oxford at any moment

I’m sure this but you left out one

aspect of religion that a lot of people

might say your agenda could borrow from

which is this the sense that’s actually

probably the most important thing to any

of his religious of spiritual experience

of some kind of connection with

something that’s bigger than you are

is there any room for that experience

and atheism 2.0 absolutely you know I

like many of you meet people who say

things like but isn’t there something

bigger than us something something else

and I say of course and they say so

aren’t you sort of religious and I go no

why does that sense of mystery that

sense of the dizzying scale of the

universe need to be accompanied by a

mystical feeling science and just

observation gives us that feeling

without it so I don’t feel the need you

know at the universe is large and we are

tiny without the need for a further

religious superstructure so I I mean one

can have so-called spiritual moments

without belief in the spirit actually

let me just ask the question how many

people here would say that religion is

important to them is there an equivalent

process by which there’s a sort of

bridge between what you’re talking about

and what you would you would say to them

I would say that there are many many

gaps in secular life and these can be

plugged that it’s not as though as I try

to suggest it’s not as though either you

have religion and then you have to

accept all sorts of things or you don’t

have religion and then you’re cut off

from all these very good things you know

it’s so sad that we constantly say I

don’t believe so I can’t have community

so I’m cut off from morality so I can’t

do on a pilgrimage one wants to say

nonsense why not and that’s really the

spirit of my talk there’s so much we can

absorb atheism shouldn’t cut itself off

from the rich sources of religion I mean

it seems to me that there’s plenty of

people in the tech community who are

atheists but probably most people in the

community certainly don’t think that

religion is going away anytime soon

and want to find the language to have a

constructive dialogue and to feel like

we can actually talk to each other and

at least share some things in common

we foolish to be optimistic about the

possibility of a world where instead of

religion being the great rallying cry of

divide and war that that there could be

bridging no we need to be polite about

differences a politeness is a much

overlooked virtue it’s seen as hypocrisy

but we need to get to a stage when you

were an atheist and someone says well

you know I did pray the other day you

politely ignore it you move on not

because you’ve agreed on 90% of things

because you have a shared view on so

many things and you politely differ and

I think that’s what the religious wars

of late have ignored they’ve ignored the

possibility of harmonious disagreement

and finally does this new thing that

you’re proposing that’s not a religion

but something else does it need a leader

and are you volunteering to be the Pope

well one one thing one thing that we’re

all very suspicious of is individual

leaders it doesn’t need it what I try to

lay out as a framework and I’m hoping

that people can just fill it in fill in

I’ve sketched a sort of broad framework

but wherever you guys are say if you’re

in the travel industry do that travel

bit if you’re in the communal industry

look at religion and do the communal bit

so it’s a it’s a wiki project hello

thank you for sparking