Temple for Atheists or Tower of Babel?

Onesimus

This is just laughable. :pac:

Author Alain de Botton suggests that atheists start building their own temples.


Alain de Botton, author of the forthcoming book Religion for Atheists, proposes that atheists should learn to copy the major religions and put up temples. He suggests that atheists band together and build a network of new temples in cities across the land.


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.


Even the most convinced atheists tend to speak nicely about religious buildings. They may even feel sad that nothing like them gets built nowadays. But there’s no need to feel nostalgic. Why not just learn from religions and build similarly beautiful and interesting things?


De Botton suggests that atheists like Richard Dawkins won’t ever convince people that atheism is an attractive way of looking at life until they provide them with the sort of rituals, buildings, communities and works of art that religions have always used.




De Botton has taken the first steps to making the Temple project a reality. He has come together with Tom Greenall Architects (www.tomgreenall.co.uk) and Jordan Hodgson (www.houseofjonn.com) to design the first of what will ideally be a chain of temples designed by different architects.


This first structure is called a Temple to Perspective and is designed to get people to recover a sense of perspective on their lives, in the midst of the multiple stimulii and clutter of the modern world.


The Temple to Perspective, which has been designed to be put up in the City of London, will be a black tower, whose structure represents the age of the earth, each centimetre equating to 1 million years. Measuring 46 meters in all, the tower will feature, at its base, a tiny band of gold a mere millimetre thick, standing for mankind’s time on earth.
http://www.religionforatheists.com/1-temples.html

StanMcConnell

What's your point?

Also, shouldn't this be on the Atheist board?

Aenaes

They should also start guilting people into donating money.

28064212

It was posted on A&A about 8 months ago.

I think "it's stupid" covers the general feeling of the posters there

donegal.

maybe we could just "repurpose" some of the empty churchs out there.

Fanny Cradock

de Bottan appeared on Unbelievable? defending his idea. I've a lot more time for the considered atheism of de Bottan then the aggressive anti-theism that the likes of Dawkins encourage.

PDN

Chucking this over the fence ......

Dades

Thanks PDN, but as 28064212 says - been there, done that.