Religion for Atheists

Title: Religion for Atheists
Author: Alain de Botton
Genre: religious? idk, to be honest. Philosophical, maybe
Rating: 4/5

This is very different from the stuff I usually read, but it was nice to branch off a bit, though it did take me some time to get into it. I think I'll stick with fiction for now ;)

So much discussion goes on daily about the world, and the sad state it's in. Of course, we all know this, but reading Alain Botton's Religion for Atheists was quite an eye-opener.

Religion for Atheists is a thought-provoking book that uses the three most famous religions (which includes the two most infamous ones - Judaism and Christianity) to try and explain why we sometimes feel alone in a crowded room, why we might love next to a family for years on end, and sometimes never even know their names - and most importantly, how to fix that.

As an atheist myself, de Botton's ideas were certainly intriguing, and there sure seems to a lot to be said about his suggestion of a restaurant that would join only the best traits of all the religions, like the feeling of caring and interest towards those around us created in Mass, or the idea of total liberation of rules and impositions for a certain period of time (in old times, it used to be 3 days). There is a certain alluring quality to his suggestions, and there is much to be said about meshing different aspects of different religions, taking only the best from each. I'll probably get stoned by any religious person for saying this, but I've been to countless Masses, quite a few Mormon services and even a  few protestant services, and while I didn't agree with all the dogmas from any of them, what de Botton says about every religion having its merit wasn't lost on me. Their ideas aren't altogether bad, it's just the way they go about it that can be scary, and reading Religion for Atheists was a great way to see that maybe one day even those of us without any religious inclining can find the comfort of singing together with a room.