Updating my religion

The secular world is full of holes. We have secularized badly.

These words come near the beginning of Alain de Botton’s recent TED Talk called Atheism 2.0,
and preface what could, I suppose, be categorized as an atheist’s best
attempt to affirm the positives of religion and attempt to incorporate
these positives into a more well-rounded and satisfying secular
worldview.  For de Botton, while it is transparently obvious that
supernatural beliefs are false, it is equally obvious that religion
confers many benefits upon its adherents—benefits which are
inaccessible, or at least less easily attainable, to those who reject
religion.

When a friend sent this lecture to me
yesterday, I was expecting to find the usual “religion is useful because
it gives people a sense of meaning and purpose,” or ” it provides some
measure of social control,” etc.  I had come across a few reviews of de
Botton’s book, Religion for Atheists,
and based on what I had read, I didn’t think his talk would have much
that was interesting to offer.  Yet, while these familiar, more general
ideas may have been whirring around in the background of de Botton’s
talk, they did not constitute the bulk of what de Botton found
praiseworthy about religion.