TED - Alain de Botton - atheism 2.0

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TED - Alain de Botton - atheism 2.0

Post by amused » Sun Jan 22, 2012 5:14 pm

I did do a search, but didn't find a thread on this TED talk, even though it's from last year. If there is a pre-existing thread, mods may merge. I do see that Alain de Botton has detractors here, but I'm not familiar with his background, so this isn't about him.

http://blog.ted.com/2012/01/17/faq-with ... TEDBlog%29

The core idea:
The starting point of religion is that we are children, and we need guidance. The secular world often gets offended by this. It assumes that all adults are mature – and therefore, it hates didacticism, it hates the idea of moral instruction. But of course we are children, big children who need guidance and reminders of how to live. And yet the modern education system denies this. It treats us all as far too rational, reasonable, in control. We are far more desperate than secular modernity recognises. All of us are on the edge of panic and terror pretty much all the time – and religions recognise this. We need to build a similar awareness into secular structures.
His comments about modern art in his talk are pretty accurate, IMO.

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Re: TED - Alain de Botton - atheism 2.0

Post by PsychoSerenity » Sun Jan 22, 2012 5:48 pm

I'm not sure about this. From my point of view he seems to be trying to make points that don't need to be made. Perhaps the things he's talking about would be useful to some people, but to me it all seems a bit strawmany. "The secular world ... gets offended ... assumes ... hates" - does it?
[Disclaimer - if this is comes across like I think I know what I'm talking about, I want to make it clear that I don't. I'm just trying to get my thoughts down]

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