Religion For Atheists

Alain de Botton, “Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion”  Pantheon Books 2012, 312 pps  

This book is mostly about the secularization of the industrial West.  Europeans probably have more use for this book than Americans as Europeans tend to be much more secular.  Author de Botton worries that those turning away from structured religions are discarding, without replacement, many useful human structures and institutions.  He maintains that replacements are needed in the form of inspiring buildings to replace churches and temples.  Art and philosophy will need to take over from similar items previously covered by catechisms and bibles…and on and on—you get the idea.

I took few notes from this book and am not sure why I read it to the end; I suspect I’m getting a little OCD once I start a book—any book, apparently.