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Alain de Botton has a new book out titled 'Religion for Atheists'. Recently he gave a wonderfully controversial TED talk called 'Atheism 2.0' and last week he was here in Melbourne to talk as a guest of The Wheeler Centre. Of course I went along, expecting some sort of explanation and must admit that I walked away with both more questions and more answers.


In a nutshell Alain de Botton wants us to:

• Engage more of our senses in education. Consider how we can use touch, smell and taste to demonstrate knowledge making the classroom experience more dynamic and engaging.
• Make better buildings. He dislikes modern architecture and longs for the craftsmanship of yesteryear. He talked for a while on how a building can affect your mood and mental space and has already penned a book 'The Architecture of Happiness' that deals with this in detail.
• Take more time to reflect on various apects of life and what it is to be human. Wants more public events and rituals to this effect.
• Change the way we think about art. Instead of displaying art catergorised by the artist, medium or era he wishes to see exhibitions sectioned by emotions. A room of art dedicated to 'love', the next to 'jealousy' and so on.
• Have more public spaces to gather that are also asthetically pleasing and themed in a way that inspires some inward reflection in ther viewer.
• Teach more university courses that focus on how to live your life e.g. ethics, philosophy

Okay so I agree with these ideas. I don't think they should be the only way we deal with these topics but I think there are some interesting and creative notions here that I would love to see put into practice. Then de Botton says that the reason for doing these things is because the religious are already doing it and the atheists are not.

Whoa. Now we are a world apart. To begin with, how are any of these aspects to do with religion or atheism? If we took on these ideas it would be for the benefit and enjoyment of all people not exclusively theists or atheists and herein lies the problem. Alain de Botton has simply rehashed a lot of his old ideas and tried to inject atheism in there just to sell a book.

Nothing he has said in the Wheeler Centre talk, or the TED talk have been atheist specific.

I also think many of his points have more to do with his life in London than a global view. At least, much of what he said just does not translate to Melbournian. The Wheeler Centre talk was classic because there he stood in the Melbourne town hall, ornately decorated with a beautiful wooden organ making the backdrop of the stage and he is saying there are no beautiful secular buildings. Ahem. He speaks of no secular public holidays for reflection just a few days after the memorial of the Darwin bombings and a few weeks after Valentines Day when we celebrate love.

Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance is another secular beauty and a place where, every year, thousands gather to contemplate the price of war. This and Federation Square are two public spaces that are peaceful, inspiring and thoughtfully designed as such. In Melbourne and in Australia we are surrounded by examples of what Botton is promoting as his own revolutionary ideas. Well unfortunately, most of them already exist in this country and they aren't just for atheists either. They're for everybody equally.

His ideas for an art exhibition categorised by emotion is an interesting one, but it presupposes that all art is currently displayed in a uniform format, which it is not. Just look to Melbourne's ACMI for interactive pieces, NGV for the classical and around our streets for renegade art such as yarn-bombing. To change from this supposed constricting uniform format, Botton suggests we display art in a uniform format: by the emotion it is intended to evoke. He states that art categorised by artist, era or medium stops us from emotionally engaging with the piece. Instead, it should be sorted in a way that tells you exactly how to feel about what you are seeing. This idea contains exactly the restrictions of engagement which he claims to be arguing against. While I'm sure this idea may be adopted by an exhibition or two I doubt we are about to overhaul the way art is shown to this simplistic suggestion.

Lets face it, he's grasping at straws with this one. While Botton himself is an atheist he evidently does not identify with the atheist movement or understand its existence. His attempt to capture this market has instead revealed his ignorance. While Religion for Atheists does contain good advice for living and a reminder to keep an open mind, it has basically nothing to do with atheism and nothing to do with theism. That is just a publishing stunt.


You can find Alain de Botton's Wheeler Centre talk at: http://wheelercentre.com/videos/video/an-evening-with-alain-de-botton/

And the TED talk at: http://www.ted.com/talks/alain_de_botton_atheism_2_0.html