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Books

Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton

Scott F. Parker meditates on Alain de Botton’s idea of religion without God.

Take Alain de Botton’s title literally. This is not a book for readers who are curious about the nature of metaphysics or the merits of faith: this is a book for atheists. De Botton himself doesn’t bother to debunk the ontological, teleological or other arguments for the existence of a deity. Rather, he brackets such familiar philosophical debates off to the side. Religion for Atheists opens with “The most boring and unproductive question one can ask of any religion is whether or not it is true.

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